I managed to be the unlucky one out of my girlfriends when it came to pregnancy symptoms. I had MASSIVE, I mean, MASSIVE morning sickness. I basically lived next to the toilet. It wasn’t just vomiting. I felt my stomach contract and convulse due to all the throwing up. What was this tiny little being doing to me? He/she was much stronger than I, and much smaller. I couldn’t believe that little embryo was causing such a disruption and unpleasantness in my life. I actually disliked being pregnant. Yes, I love my baby, through and through. But I began to feel I was losing my sense of self.
Add to the fact I had quit my job the year before, and was at the time taking journalism and photography classes. Just moving around made me feel sick. I’m a pretty independent gal, and when I got pregnant, the baby really kicked my butt. I relied on my husband A LOT to get through most days. My poor husband had the unfortunate task of pulling my hair from my face and rubbing my back, as I puked repeatedly. He did this so obligingly. In fact, my puking became so commonplace that he would bring books and read while we sat on the bathroom floor with my head halfway down the toilet bowl (grody!!). This went on for 16 weeks!!! I couldn’t share with anyone, even my family, that I was pregnant yet. We wanted to wait till the first trimester had passed to relay the good news.
The ensuing months became a wondrous journey of the unexpected. Once my morning sickness subsided, I got carpal tunnel due to being pregnant. Yes, it’s possible. After having worked with computers for over eight years, not once did I get it, but as soon as my fifth month of pregnancy started, I got it. It was awful. At night I would wake suddenly and cringe in pain because my hands hurt like hell. Eventually, I wore wrist braces at night while I slept. There was no longing for ice cream and pickles, and I didn’t care much for sweets. This baby was taking its toll on me. In the meantime, we had divulged our big news to family and friends by the end of the first trimester. I was anticipating an onslaught of “free advice” from my family about Filipino superstitions and such about how to handle my pregnancy. Like, what’s good for me, what’s good for the baby, what’s bad for the baby, and what’s bad for me? Surprisingly, I didn’t hear a peep from my mom or auntie’s.
What? I began to think they didn’t understand that I was creating life inside of me. Didn’t they want to dispense some advice like, scrub your underarms with a grey stone to prevent discoloration, or cutting your fingernails past 9p.m. will mean that your baby will have ugly fingers, or some whack advice that is nonsense. They just were too overjoyed at the thought of them having a “mestizo” in the family. More importantly, they wanted to make sure I was taking care of myself, being careful going up and down stairs, ate well, and got plenty of sleep.
My hubby and I decided very early on (before we got married) that when we do get pregnant, we didn’t want to find out the sex of the baby (this would go for all pregnancies unless we got dealt with the “twin” hand). This in turn, led to many interesting old wives tales from my family, relatives, and friends’ parents as to the sex of our baby. I know, I know, everyone will have a guess based on how you’re carrying, whether the mom looks pretty or not (*may I just say that any woman carrying child is beautiful, even if she feels like s**t), etc. But Filipinos, ever the superstitious bunch we are, have various theories. For instance, many guessed we’d have a boy because I had discoloration on my neck and underarms, or because the baby loved to lean to my left side. Whatever the case, I entertained them all with a grain of salt and enjoyed the attention.
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