THE 2ND TIME AROUND

 This is  a short series on my pregnancy journey the 2nd time around. I will work on the first one soon. Thank you for all your support so far.

I am blessed to be a mother of two handsome boys. My recent pregnancy was so special. I was carrying a baby made from love. The father of my baby was the love of my life. However, my body sometimes put aside the mooshiness associated with this pregnancy and collaborated with hormones to make me feel miserable.

This pregnancy was different from the first in so many ways. We will just delve into the physical realities that I experienced during this pregnancy. Perhaps it's important to keep in mind that my first pregnancy had no complications at all. Except for the morning sickness associated with most pregnancies during the first trimester, it was a relatively smooth journey. I naively thought that this was because I had a "good" body for pregnancy.My son had other plans for me. 

A few weeks after my wedding, I began to feel very ill. A malaria test turned negative. By the special grace of God, I never fall ill. I get occasional headaches when I overwork my body but I generally do not fall ill. So the extreme fatigue and high fever I was experiencing threw me off. I became very concerned. Due to my history with illness, I was a little scared I am a full time stay at home mother. If I was seriously ill, I would be unable to take care of my family. 

My husband was working very hard at is job. He had to be away for many hours so I had to find the strength within me to make life work. After home remedies failed, I went to a doctor. No sooner had I finished describing my symptoms than he suggested a pregnancy test. I was cautiously optimistic about the outcome of this text. This is because many tests before had been negative. I did not want to take a test and be let down again. Still, I needed to get better so I took the test. After three minutes, the results were out. I was pregnant. The doctor then primitively inserted gloved fingers in me to ascertain how far along I was. I was around 8 weeks pregnant. 

I was too excited to plan a romantic reveal for my husband. The man was so busy and I was too sick. I called him and broke the news. He spoke English. More English than I had ever had him speak.Amidst many words, he said,"That's nice." For many people, those are just two words but for my husband, these are the words that simplify the highest form of joy. He normally wears a big smile when he says these words and you can literally touch the joy he feels. In a nutshell, he was happy. I was happy too.

The fatigue and fever was to be a constant companion through my pregnancy. I was often by myself in the house because my son had not yet joined me. I would go for upto 3 days without eating because anything that went it swiftly came out. I was not hungry. I would sleep on the cold tiles of my house because my body was so hot. My husband tried very hard to make my life comfortable. I had to take long periods of rest so that my body could function to do even the most mundane tasks like going to the shop or taking a shower. The long periods of rest helped a lot.

My second trimester had good and bad days. On one of the better times, I was able to travel home and bring mys on to be with me. We got him enrolled to school. I now had to learn to be a mother to my 6 year old son while nursing this different pregnancy. By this time, I had learned to take long rests. 

My husband gave me the easiest time. He went along with whatever I was feeling. There were many days when I was unable to even cook for him. He brought us supper instead. On my part, I always garnered strength to wake up and make my son's breakfast and get him ready for school. 

The constant pain in different parts of my body all the time had me taking panadol tablets even twice a day. I could not stop. My husband was out there fighting for us to have all we needed in life so I had to hold forte at home. It was our rhythm. I took one day at a time and we managed.

The long journey to the Kenyatta University hospitals for pre natal clinics were the toughest. I had to go to Kenyatta University because I was entitled to free medical care seeing as I was a student there. The nurses took great care of me. They would later advice me on where to deliver my baby. A piece of counsel that I am forever grateful for. 

At about 8months,I began to develop sharp pains in my lower stomach. By the second day, I was unable to walk straight. The pain was excruciating. When I could not talk eit anymore, I called my 'mama Safi "to help me get to a hospital. I must have been in so much pain because people who saw me walking would later tell me that they thought I was in labour. They felt sorry for me because I was walking toward the stage to board a matatu. I was not worried about the baby coming because I still recognized labour pains and what I was feeling was not labour. I was going to the hospital to get a safe strong painkiller to use because my faithful panadol was not cooperating anymore.

After being shunned by a few matatus because they thought I was in labour, a kind City Hoppa conductor helped me to a City Hopper bus. We finally made it to my doctor. He listened to my symptoms and diahonized it as a breech baby position. 

Let me explain. At around the eighth month, the baby begins to turn in readiness for birth position. Some babies stop turning halfway through and end up lying horizontally. This is what causes the excruciating pain I was feeling. My baby had decided to take a rest mid his journey. The doctor advised me to seek a midwife to help turn the baby.This did not sit well with my mother in law, my mum and me. My mother in law is a nurse. She vehemently discouraged the procedure. I vetoed against. 

I decided to get an ultrasound first and decide afterwards. They put me in an ambulance because the clinic I went to had the ultrasound machine in a different branch. No, it didn't have the sirens. I sat at the front with the driver while my mama Safi sat on a bench at the back. It was the most uncomfortable ride of my life. I don't know how critically ill patients survive in there. 

The ultrasound ended up revealing two things. 

1. It was in a breech position

2.It was a boy

The other news was that there was nothing that was medically safe at that point that they could do. They could attempt to turn the baby but it was a delicate medical procedure and was not necessary at the point. The other option was for me to tough it up and hope that my baby would decide to complete his journey.

Did he turn?

Find out in my next article.