I feel like I'm finally qualified to write about my pregnancy now that I had safely delivered my baby. I didnt breeze thru it but it was all worth it.

Pregnancy sickness started as soon as I found out that I was pregnant. It started with a stretch of 2 weeks of which I couldnt get up from bed at all. I managed to 'hide' my pregnancy from my work colleagues for 3 months until my boss decided to announce it in a meeting since the other bosses were getting more n more curious about my absence.

My pregnancy sickness lasted until i was 8.5 months. I was vomitting 7-8 times a day until the 6th month, 3-4 times a day until the 7th month followed by 2-3 times until 8.5 months. I still puked occasionally until delivery, like 2-3 times a week but it wasnt really bad. I took dymenate every morning to help with the nausea (i tried a few but its the only thing that worked-for the nausea,not the vomitting). Dymenate however made me super sleepy in the morning and I had to take a nap in the office. If I didnt, I just couldnt do my work-I couldnt even think. I had to choose between unable to work because nausea or sleepiness..and the later was far more pleasant.

On top of the pregnancy sickness, I experienced back pain+pelvic pain as early as 4 months. The back pain was very bad that sitting on my office chair was a torture everytime. When the pain became unbearable I had to take time off to lie down on my back for immediate relief. But towards the end, I couldnt lie  on my back anymore as my tummy was getting heavier. I had two sessions of physiotherapy. It didnt help with the back pain but the sessions and the exercises that they taught me gave temporary relief to the pelvic pain. The pelvic pain however just miraculously disappear in the 7th month. And as for the back pain, I am happy to report that it was gone as soon as i gave birth.

The hardest time for me was actually during ramadhan last year. We just moved in to our new house in PJ and I had to commute to KL via bus-putra line-star line. I vomitted pretty much everywhere and all the time-but never in the bus+lrt, thank God. My tummy was slow to show so nobody offered me seats on the bus+lrt. I only managed to fast for 17 days. The journey was worse coming back. In the evening sometimes I had to wait for 1.5 hours for the bus. I remember I would come home crying. But things got much better when my workplace shifted to PJ. These days i just have to flag a cab and I'll get to the office in less than 10 minutes.

Because of the nausea, I didnt actually experienced any major cravings so i wouldnt know how far Khalis would go for me =p. I actually ate less during my pregnancy. My total weight gain was approx 7kg. 7kg means that I didnt gain extra fat and all of it was attributable to baby, amniotic fluid and blood. I actually stopped gaining weight at 6.5months. My gynae commented shortly after labour that my thighs didnt accumulate fat at all. So I guess being nauseous all time was a good thing for me? I had a total of 5 maternity blouses and thats enough because I could still fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes, including baju kurung. Its my first pregnancy too so my tummy was bound to be small.

I also didnt go out much during the pregnancy. One bcoz of the vomitting and walking+standing for more than 5 mints would give me dizzying spells and I would start seeing black. If that happened I'd just sit on the shopping mall floor. People staring at me didnt bother me anymore. When we went shopping, I'd sit on the floor in the baby section and khalis would bring baby stuff for me to choose.

To prepare myself for labour and motherhood, I bought 2 books - 1-Hypnobirthing and 2- The Illustrated Guide to Pregnancy, Babycare and Baby Food. I didnt do hypnobirthing during labour but the book does have lotsa interesting stuff. True to its title, The Illustrated Guide to Pregnancy, Babycare and Baby Food on the other hand was fun to read as it has lotsa pictures and and very helpful as it depicts whats gonna happen weekly during pregnancy and monthly baby development+what to do. I like it that the book assumes the readers are totally clueless abt the subject - it even has pictorial guide on how to dress up the baby. There are of course better, more detailed books out there but I found them too much for my brain. The small font, lack of photos and too many medical jargons just turned me off.

People said that when u're pregnant u'll like what you hate b4 and vice versa. I dont know about liking what I hated but I definitely couldnt tolerate a number of  things that I liked previously. Just giving a few instances, - Like I couldnt stand the shower gel that I was using and Khalis' too and ended up using the ones given by hotels as they tend to be lightly scented. I used to love chicken nugget but when I was pregnant I couldnt even stand the sight of it. And I totally stopped watching korean and japanese drama series because I couldnt stand the thought of having to sit in front of the tv/laptop for an hour - oh, I totally ditched tv when I was pregnant.

Pregnancy has definitely changed me. I am now more sensitive to others' pain n suffering. There was once I took the lrt and I gave up my seat to another pregnant lady whose tummy looked bigger.

In the first 6 months I kept telling khalis - cemane la nk survive the next 7, 6, 5, etc bulan. But I did. When things get really hard I'd remind myself of those who suffered more - those who were with underlying chronic diseases, those who couldnt even see the sunlight, those with placenta previa and had to be hospitalised for months, those who didnt have their husbands around and worse, those who miscarried and lost their babies.