The main reason why I haven’t been posting for quite a while is that (1) I dealt with the grief from the ectopic pregnancy, (2) my husband and I focused on serving in various ministries in our church, and (3) I wanted to take my time off from any social media updates as we focus on truly enjoying everything offline. Well, I did not disappear completely; I just took a rest from blogging.
After almost a year of the ecotpic pregnancy, God has blessed our marriage immensely. We are currently at 26 weeks of pregnancy with a baby boy, and I praise Jesus’ name every time I feel the baby’s kicks and somersaults in my tummy. It is a surreal feeling, and I have never shared much about the journey we are having until today.
It was my husband who was feeling off and different in the first few weeks. I never suspected that I was pregnant until my husband kept on telling me that I might be pregnant. He was getting all sorts of dizzy, feeling nauseous, and even had a heightened sense of smell. He also noticed that I am way more sleepy than usual, which I thought was just normal for me. I, on the other hand, was feeling normal, not a worry in the world, because I knew my period would come as it regularly does — the period never came. Still, I wasn’t worrying because maybe there is just a tad bit of delay that sometimes happens. But a few more weeks and still no hint of the monthly visitor. I tried to backtrack my last period, and guess what? I don’t have any period monitoring for this year! I am used to tracking my period days on a monthly basis for the previous years, since we are planning to have a child. Funny how I used to say, “I depend on the Lord,” and yet monitor its progress each month. THAT IS NOT HOW YOU DO DEPENDENCY, LYZA. This year, I vowed to do things differently and truly depend on the Lord. And lo and behold, here I was, not entirely sure when my last period was, since it was the previous month! The Lord humors me in ways He only can.
Eventually, I had to take the smartest guess that I could provide, and we kept it to ourselves until we confirmed the heartbeat. We do not want to go through the same heartache as last year. When we had our very first ultrasound, we were already 5 weeks pregnant, and there was a strong heartbeat! My heart felt full, and I couldn’t believe the miracle that is starting to grow inside of me. That was also when we shared the good news with our family members. Our families, close friends, and DGroup family rejoiced, and yes, prayers overflowed. I couldn’t stress the importance of people praying for each other enough. There is no such thing as “prayed enough,” and we felt the love and comfort through everyone’s prayers over us.
The first trimester was a breeze for me, not for my husband, though. Lol. He was feeling all the morning sickness, and I have read that there is a thing called “sympathy pregnancy” wherein your non-pregnant spouse experiences all the pregnancy symptoms. In the Filipino culture, I was accused of “hinakbangan ang asawa para siya ang maglihi,” but that’s not the case for us. I have never skipped over my husband on the bed, simply because I sleep on the outer side. I only experienced more frequent need to pee, even in the middle of the night, and there’s a lot of food that I try to avoid because it does not sound good to me. I feel the hunger, but I don’t feel like eating. For my hypertension, since I already had it prior to my pregnancy, my OBGYN had to change my medication to a more fitting one to not harm the baby. Moreover, I started Gestational Diabetes management with a recommended Endocrinologist. Since then, I have been monitoring both my blood pressure and sugar levels. I have no complaints about these because I know I was not in perfect health prior to getting pregnant, and I am not good at staying healthy. Heartburns were present here and there, sometimes stronger than before, but manageable. The only weird thing that happened to me during the first trimester was that my body temperature was turned opposite. I was feeling cold and shivering every time! I do not like the air conditioning, and I feel chilly almost every day.
Have I mentioned that being pregnant means a lot of dry skin? Maybe because I need to hydrate twice or thrice as much! I experienced dry, itchy skin on different parts of my body, which a good lotion helped with. I was never a fan of lotion until I had to actually use it. I started lying on my side to get the hang of it and try to rest as much as I can. I sometimes fall asleep at work, and I have to manage my break times because of the increasing hunger pangs. Since I couldn’t feel much during the first trimester, I was just trusting God in the process and never bought a personal Doppler machine to check on our baby’s heartbeat every minute of every day. I waited patiently for our OBGYN check-ups and to hear the baby’s heartbeat. I look forward to our check-ups and ultrasounds. I see how God is beautifully forming our baby, truly a magnificent sight and wonder!
Now that we are in our second trimester, I noticed my growing hunger and the need for cold drinks almost every time. My body temperature is now that of a pregnant woman who feels boiling hot on the inside. I am now feeling the baby’s kicks, stretches, pokes, swims, and somersaults, some of which are stronger than others. But why couldn’t I capture this on video?! The sooner I try to shoot my tummy moving, the baby stops! It’s as if he knows what I am doing. Lol. I find it quite cute, like a little game between the baby and me. I swear I will capture it someday. We also had the Congenital Anomaly Scan (CAS) and had our baby’s 3D ultrasound. Thank you, Lord, for a normal scan and a cute 3D ultrasound experience. The baby showed off his gender almost instantly, and we enjoyed watching him hide his face while showing off his complete set of fingers and toes! It was also the first time I saw our baby yawn — I cannot stop thinking about it!
Sleeping is getting more difficult at this stage, but I know it will get even worse as we enter the third trimester soon. I also feel tired easily, and my tummy is getting heavier each week — again, no complaints on this. I love how the baby is growing inside. I praise God for not letting me stress over my body changes and for not minding people who say my tummy is huge. I am proud to waddle my way out, and I am proud of how my body is changing because of the pregnancy. Yes, I am proud to be pregnant! But really, do pregnant women get some weird and vivid dreams? I can share more about that soon. I believe I already started some nesting, but they are still in my online cart. I feel overwhelmed seeing all of these items, and I thank people for giving me advice not to overpurchase. I will also share more on this soon, on a separate blog. For now, I am indulging myself with the tummy support to ease my back pains and taking it easy as much as possible.
At this point in my life, I am grateful for any advice given — no matter how unsolicited. I’m grateful for the time and effort people spend on me, giving me that advice. I understand where they are coming from, and I know in the end, any decision will still be ours. There’s no manual on being a mother, and ANY advice is still better than getting none at all. So why not take it and be grateful?
Do you have any advice for me? Leave it in the comments section. I would love to read them!
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