My pregnancy

just wanted to record few things about my pregnancy...main inspiration for this post being my mom. She hardly remembers anything about her pregnancy. So whenever I used tell her that I feel this or that all that she said in reply was "I dont remember anything about my pregnancy. During my first pregnancy I had to cook till the day of Seemandham that too in the good old aduppu. So I had no time to observe a thing". So I thought I should pen down some of the symptoms I had each month... I might not remember all of it now that my baby is two months old but what little I save here might come of help to my daughter/ daughter-in-law one day.
I month
Had spotting on the 38day.. Mistook it for normal periods.. So did not realize that I was pregnant.... I just continued with normal work. Getting up at 5:00 in the morning, cooking, running to work, work the whole day, come back, cook and sleep like a dog...

II month
Had severe cough and cold.Also nausea, tiredness and giddiness and occasional vomitting. Ignored these symptoms thinking that these were caused by cold. Go ahead and call me an idiot.
My mom was in Delhi at this time unfortunately. But whenever I used to call her, I used to yawn at least a dozen times. So my mom kept telling me that I could be pregnant. Call it intuition. It turned out to be true on September 29th when I visited my doc for the first time after my mom came back from Delhi. I wouldnt have gone to the doc had it not been for my mom. She came back on September 29th and I had come down from my in-laws' place to visit her. Had lunch and immediately puked everything. We were planning to visit a general physician for my cold and cough. Suddenly my mom changed plans and we ended up visiting the gynaec instead. She immediately asked me go for a scan.. Waited impatiently at the ultrasonalogist's office for good 2 hrs.. Finally he called us in and the moment he kept the probe on my stomach, he exclaimed "baby's is in there" and that I was 8.5 weeks pregnant. How is that? Came back to my gynaec with the scan results.. The first thing she asked me as "Are you educated?" I had no reply. I was too excited and ashamed at the same time. She put me on bed rest for a month after giving me a life saving injection. I was stationed at my mom's place for the next 1 1/2 months. Thus began my journey towards the d-day..

III month
Month of endless vomitting. I would happily eat anything and everything from 6:00 in the morning till 6:00 in the evening and after that vomit everything.. tried different things to stop this. One day i had tulsi leaves and one day i tried naarthangaai but nothing seemed to stop this vomitting. I also had to visit the doc once in 15 days. She would give tablets of all colors and sizes the worst being Anofer. I would puke at the sight of this. She prescribed a tablet called Nosic for vomitting. She asked me to take the tablet in the morning if I vomitted in the evening and vice versa.. My baby had different plans if I took the tablet in the morning I did not vomit in the evening but instead the next day morning. didnt know how to take this tablet. Finally stopped taking it as well..
Another thing that I noticed this month was that my temperature shot up. My palms were so hot and so was my tummy. Wearing clothes became such an irritation. My palms remained hot till the last day.. Also for some reason I got a burning sensation whenever I used green chillies..
Also I had severe dandruff problem till the day of the delivery.

IV month
Joined back work after a long hiatus. Pampering continued at home and work place.. My vomitting did not stop. Vomitted like crazy at work place. I also had severe pain in my ribs and also severe pain in the bones near the coccyx. Doctor suggested an analgesic ointment but it did not work. I did not lose weight and there was no weight gain either. Celebrated diwali at home with parents. We were not in India for our thalai diwali so tried compensating for that this time around. I could not enjoy any of the goodies my mom made though.
Went for 1/2 hour walks in the morning and evening as I was asked not to do any other form of exercise.
It was finally time to go my in-laws' place.

V Month
Amma got me a beautiful black saree and off I went thinking that I would be pampered at in-laws' place as well but it was not true. I had to leave at 7:00 in the morning to reach work at 8:00. I could not get up and cook everyday like I used to because of all that vomitting. My husband was not ready to drop me at work everyday because I worked out of Sholinganallur office. So dropping me at work was a strict no no. My mom-in-law didnt like that too. She was not willing to get up and cook in the morning as well. Constant fights were going on at home because of this...
I had my blood tested for sugar levels and other things like HIV , blah blah. Everything was normal and the doc suggested that I have rich diet because I was not gaining any weight...
Another thing that disturbed me during this month were my leg cramps. I used to get up with severe pain in the both the legs. But what irritated the most was whenever I complained of any pain my MIL used complain of something else. Her way of saying that you are not the only one in pain. But a first time pregnant woman would expect much more than this in the from of comforting words.
Started feeling butterfly movements during this month but I was in no mood to enjoy any of it..

VI month
One fine day father and son had a huge fight over why his wife should cook for me. I was sitting right in the living room and they were fighting in the kitchen. That day I was totally hurt and felt a like stranger in that place... Somehow managed to get to work that day. By noon I developed a very high temperature. Called my hubby and went to my place to visit the doc. It took me another week to recover. I stayed back at my place. I decided to take a break from work but everyone suggested that I take one more month of leave so I can avail the maternity benefits. That made sense and I decided another month off starting Jan 7th.
My MIL suggested that I stay at my place during the week and come over to their place the weekends.. I spent the rest of december in my place. My aunt suggested Maathulunga Rasayam for vomitting. That made wonders.. My vomitting stopped and I started gaining weight.
I went back to my in-laws' place and had my sixth month scan at Mediscan Centre in RadhaKrishnan Salai on Jan 8th. It was such a nice experience . I have no words to explain what and how I felt when I saw the little one inside me move. Everything was normal. My gynaec was very happy.

VII month
Spent this month at in-laws' place. It was very boring to sit at home when you are fit. Anyways didnt have much of a choice. Seemandham was to be held on Feb18th. Preparations were going on. Did not eat any healthy food during this period (actually no one made an effort to ensure that in in-laws' place..) My tummy was getting bigger and I started showing slightly. Felt stronger movements. One of the most peaceful months I should say..
One good thing which we did during this period was a 3-day trip to Pondy. I thoroughly enjoyed this trip though our parents were a little apprehensive about it.
After the trip we went to the doc and she was very disappointed. The baby did not have 3 weeks of growth... I was shattered and felt guilty for not having taken care of our baby. Could not increase my diet either because I was feeling very uneasy whenever I tried eating more than what i used to. My mom assured that everything would be fine and not to worry too much.

VIII month
Seemandham went off well. I moved to my place and went to work from there. I started feeling heavy and my walk slowed down. Finally I was walking like a pregnant woman. My blood tests were normal. I had gained 9kgs by now. We went for another scan and the baby was doing good. The doc said that the baby's birth weight would be around 3kgs.. I continued to go work. Planned to take a break from April 2nd. My expected date of delivery as per the doc was May7th. Becaue of long hours of travel and work I planned to take leave a little early. I did not have any swelling in my feet but travel was becoming more and more painful.Also my baby had decided to permanently station its feet right below my ribs which was very painful. She would not move from there. My husband is a six footer and I am pretty short. So we all concluded that the baby is a tall baby and is trying to squeeze in whatever space was available. Lesson: Short girls should not fall for tall guys.........

IX month
The most difficult month. I could not sleep during nights because of back pain. I tried hard to sleep on left side. Also I developed pain in between my legs which made my movements very painful. I continued my morning and evening walks. I was not gaining any more weight. Everyone I met started predicting my delivery date. But the doc did not give us any date because the head was yet to get fixed. Little did we know that it will not fix till the end... Finally my baby decided to put an end to all speculations. On April 23rd around noon, suddenly I started having very strong movements not any pain though. I had slight pinkish discharge on 24th. Rushed to the hospital. She did a physical exam to see the position and said I was normal and there is still time. Started to have bleeding after the exam was done and this continued till 25th. On 26th I started feeling very tired and lost my appetite. Could not eat or move and was feeling very uncomfortable. My sister had come down from U.S on that day. At about 8:00 pm I started having contractions. At about 9:00 we went to the hospital. The doc was not available. The head nurse checked the position. She confirmed that it was labor but I need to wait for another 8-9 hours for the delivery. Off she went without giving me any medicine. I got contractions every 2 mins. I vomitted 3 times. Also had severe bleeding. At 5:30 in the morning the next day the doc came. She said I had lost all water and the baby cannot stand the pain anymore and she prepared me for a c-section. At 6:30 I was taken to the theatre and my daughter was out at 6:42. All in all I had 10 hours of labor followed by an emergency c-section.. Had the best of both worlds. My baby had completed 39 weeks. She weighed 3.25kgs. Thus NEHA came into our world on April 27th.