BECOMING A MOTHER: MY LABOUR ROOM EXPERIENCE (PART1)

When I came out of the delivery room, on the 14^th of July 2015, I said to myself, “this is an experience every woman should have”. So before I begin, I would like to say a short prayer. For those of you seeking the fruit of the womb, God will surely bless you with as many kids as you want. For those of you waiting on God for a life partner, God will give you the man of your desire. Amen.

That said, meeehn! To born pikin no be today oh, anybody wey talk say na beans abeg help me slap the person. Wetin?  We have to give our mothers credit oh chei. Na for labor room i begin repent, “mummy please if there is anything I have done to you in this life, please forgive me. Don’t take it personal”. Hahaha, I honestly do not mean to scare ladies or mums to be reading this post. It is just my way of saying God is great. You know, the bible actually said that we would bring children into the world through pains. However we all know God is merciful, and though I went into the delivery room alone, His grace was with me.

This was how it happened.

On the 13^th of July, I went for my antenatal checkup and the doctor confirmed I was in good shape. He examined me and said I would deliver soon. He asked me of my EDD (expected date of delivery), and I told him it was 15^th of July, according to the last scan I did. The first scan result however, said I would see my baby on the 21^st of July. So I told the doctor that I had an open mind. I just wanted so much to see and hold my baby.

A brief Account of My 9Months Journey

You know guys, when you carry a baby for the 1^st 3 months, with the whole morning sickness (I honestly wonder why it is called morning sickness since it lasts for the whole day), you start to wonder, na like this we go dey dey?

My 1^st trimester (1^st 3months) was something else. O boy, I almost did not eat anything. I couldn’t stand the aroma of my favorite, worst or ‘just there’ dishes. I didn’t go close to the kitchen because I didn’t want to see the gas cooker, the pots, plates, cutleries, the kitchen sink, yuck! They just had a way of annoying me. My husband sha, e hear am o, I no go lie. A word of advice - guys, when you put your wife in the family way, prepare yourselves for the worst. I started hating myself because I did not understand anything again. It was almost like I had been deposited inside another human’s body. This wasn’t me now, haba! I love to eat boiled/fried eggs, indomie, banana n groundnut, and bread, ah don’t go there. I am a fan of oranges, sweet oranges of course, roast plantain and sauce, good biscuits, good snacks, but no be as e com be oh. I just hated everything. Eating was so difficult. I couldn’t even look at the food. My husband was just an angel. You know what it means when your wife sends you to the kitchen to cook and you come out with the best you could do, hoping to impress her and she just tells you to take the food away that she cannot stand it. I really felt for my man oh. I was always in my room, from morning to night. I didn’t want to go out because I was afraid I would see or perceive something that would irritate my stomach. Ah, I was running temperature. My man was so scared, though my doctor said I was ok. Then talk of the spitting. Lord have mercy! I never knew I would do that. In fact I had my spitting bottles. Yes o, it was that bad. I lost a lot of weight during the 1^st trimester. Each time I visited the hospital, I always quarreled with the nurses for giving me tons of drugs as if they were punishing me for getting pregnant. They said the drugs were supplements, hia!  I no fit chop food, na drugs I go chop?

The 2^nd trimester came and wow, the nauseating feelings had disappeared.I saw my tummy changing shape, in a serious manner. It was now bye bye to face-down sleeping position and welcome to face-up/side-side sleeping position. With my clothes on sha, one would hardly notice, but ‘being eve’, I could see it just well. Before I got pregnant I used to stuff wrappers under my clothes to see what I would look like when I got pregnant and there it was, not wrappers anymore but a life, growing inside of me. Do u know how wonderful that is? Soon, my body started selecting clothes and I had a few to wear. I had to go shopping for gowns, since skirts cannot be relied upon. I was very strong, as opposed to how I felt during the first trimester. I wanted to enjoy every new change that came up, each month and so I gathered information from the Internet, experienced mothers, and the hospital where I registered. When I was 5months pregnant, I started to get little kicks.

Now if you are not the observant type and if you were not well equipped with the right information, you would not know they are kicks as they felt like gas. When I was 6months gone, the kicks became kicks and I started feeling them stronger. My tummy wasn’t hiding again but no one was able to guess correctly, how many months I had gone, just by looking at my tummy.

The 3^rd trimester, hmm. I always woke up happy. Just yesterday I had silly nausea and today I am 7months gone. Whenever I went for my antenatal checkup and saw ladies/women with smaller tummies I was always like “hmm, una never start. I don pass una stage oh. It was God’s grace. When I got to the 8^th month, I started buying my baby things. Now there was this little confusion of what colors do I get? What type of clothes do I buy? These can only be accurately gotten if I knew the sex of the child and so I went for a scan and was told the sex of my baby. This helped me a lot, though along the line, I was told that some scans are not as accurate as they should be and so to be on the safer side, I was told to buy unisex and buy baby things for both a male and a female baby. I was very pregnant at this stage and my baby was very active. I kept getting serious kicks and moves (yes, you can actually feel the baby’s gymnastic moves inside you. Ever heard of how often a pregnant woman urinates? That was something even a good night sleep couldn’t ignore. Oh! Pregnancy is a wonderful experience.

Are you an expecting mother, or a Mother, probably newly married? Did you find this article informative and helpful? If you did don’t forget to share your thoughts and feelings by leaving a comment below.

Remember to check out the blog for the update of ‘BEING A MOTHER: INSIDE THE LABOUR ROOM (PART 2). The journey continues...

God bless us all.

Written by Jonah Sandra