Pregnant with Eggy

 Who knew a long-winded person like me would be so lazy to update my blogs haha.

I thought it's because of my dull and boring life, but then there were several occasions that were quite interesting to write about, so no excuse for that. 

I blame it on my translation and editor job lah. Because the job is to translate/edit novels and stories, so I had enough quota and burnt enough brain cells for the assignments that I don't have the time and effort left to update my own stuff. Plus, I don't earn much money through blogging anyway, why waste the time here lol.

Anyway, I do miss blogging a lot, because, as the first sentence stated, I'm damn long-winded lah, so here's my first post after, let's see, Sept 2020!

I predict it's gonna be such a long-winded post so I spare you the pain by doing another post for the labor and delivery experience. (Does anyone care? lol)

Well, 2020 was quite eventful in general with Covid, lockdown (Malaysia calls it MCO Movement Control Order) and all, and in private too because I got married, got a pair of guinea pigs (again), and got pregnant!

Honestly speaking, we didn't expect to be pregnant so quickly (but the baby is a wanted child lah hehe). Here's why.

Our ROM was on Valentine's Day. Before we got married, I already told aka warned mom that I might not want to have a child. Mom was cool at first so I thought she was okay with it.

Fast forward to the beginning of MCO 1.0 in March 2020 and in May, mom suddenly messaged me and asked, "So how's your belly? Any news yet?"

Eh, I thought we already agreed that I don't want a child?!

Anyway, Sing and I talked and we decided to give it a try, thinking that I wouldn't get pregnant so easily because of my irregular period and all, but what do you know? I was pregnant by just trying for a month!

At 20 weeks

Our wedding was scheduled for June (my side) and July (groom's side). We were worried that we couldn't go on with it due to the lockdown, so when it was lifted in early June, We quickly made all the arrangements necessary and rushed back to Kelantan. That was also when I started to feel very nauseated, lack appetite, and exhausted. I thought it was because of the hectic wedding but Chen suggested otherwise.

So, after we came back from Kelantan, I did the pregnancy test, and yay, we're pregnant!

Honeymoon at Hard Rock Hotel in Aug 2020 (Er Jie sponsored)

However, I didn't really feel the 'joy' of being pregnant because the first trimester sucks. It was 1000 times worst than my usual PMS yikes! I couldn't eat, I vomited almost everything, I found some food very smelly, including Sing! It was only getting a little better after the first trimester.

After we found out that we were pregnant, we went to the local Klinik Kesihatan (KK) aka maternity public clinic to 'open a book'. In Malaysia, expectant moms can go to the KK near their residency area to register for antenatal check-ups and KK will give you a pink book during your first registration, hence the 'open a book' statement. I must say that Malaysia's medical benefits for pregnant women are very wholesome! So far, I received free checkups, free blood and urine tests, free injections, free dental (inspection, scaling and filling), free medicine, free everything! I never spent a single cent in KK, but I did pay for RM5 per visit at the government hospital because of the low-lying placenta.

We thought that we could simply walk in for first-time registration but thanks-but-no-thanks to the pandemic, you can only enter the clinic IF you have an appointment, so we were kicked out (in a kind way) and the nurse asked us to make an appointment via call or WhatsApp. I was given a date a few days later, and our appointment was when I was around 10 weeks pregnant.

The first-time registration took quite a long time. We were there for almost 4 hours! Husbands need to be there too as they have to do a blood test and whatnot. Funny thing was, towards the end of the visit after all the interviews, blood and urine tests etc, I was called to the nurse room, and when the nurse looked through my details, she suddenly looked up at me and asked, "Where is your pregnancy test result? How do you know you're pregnant? Did you do a scan or something? How do you know you're pregnant?" I was quite shocked and said that I missed my period, I did the test at home and it was two lines loh. Then she hurriedly asked me to do another urine test for verification because it was only valid if it was done at the clinic lol. I think she thought that all Chinese would go to the private clinic to get a scan haha.

It was quite an eventful journey too throughout my pregnancy. I would feel nauseated mostly during the evening shower so I didn't dare to eat heavy lunch or Nasi Kandar. I was very busy with my work (mostly because I procrastinate hehe) so sometimes I forgot to talk to my boy. There were few times when my urine tests were flagged so I had to go back for the BP checkups, and I had to do the MGTT test three freaking times! Every time I went for checkups, I always wondered how did the working moms manage their time. My job was home-based with flexible schedule so I could come and go as I like as long as my work was completed by the deadline, but what about those working moms? The typical duration for a checkup is usually 2-3 hours long, most of the time is just waiting and waiting. 1 hour is considered fast! 

Oh yes, regarding the gender. During the early pregnancy, Sing would always call the baby Mini Nee, insisting that it was a girl haha. Then, we decided to give birth at Pantai Hospital Sungai Petani and made an appointment to see Dr. Tan Chiang Hooi when I was 22 weeks pregnant. That was when the sad thunder struck him. 

It was a BOY! Haha! Sing was so sad for a few days. Kesian. Because of this, the baby's nickname was changed from Mini Nee to Eggy. Eggy comes from the Chinese nick 坏蛋 aka 蛋蛋.

Another big event was when I sprained my toe when I was 30 weeks pregnant. It happened because of the freaking mice!

at 30 weeks with the bandaged toe

One day, I found out that the packagings of the food (dry food, luckily) in one of our cabinets were torn, such as the instant noodles, salt, and sugar. At first, I thought there was something inside the cabinet that was poking at the packaging until I smelled something funny and found the urine and poo traces in the cabinet! So, on one afternoon, before I went out for lunch, for some reason, I decided to clean up the cabinet a little bit, and that was when I bumped into that freaking mice!! I needed to squat down to the cabinet. It was only so tiny btw. It jumped out of fright and ran out of the cabinet! While I was squatting down, I think mother instinct strikes because instead of sitting down (which was safer but might be dangerous for the baby), I instinctively stood up, but I couldn't find the balance so I kinda studded my big toe. It was so painful, I think it was even more painful than when I sprained my ankle.

The toe looked normal but it was actually very damn painful!

Started to swell at night

The pain intensified more and more throughout the day, started swelling at night, and at one point I couldn't take it anymore and asked Sing to drive me to the emergency department at the hospital. The doctors couldn't do X-ray on me due to my pregnancy. They concluded that I might either sprain my toe or the toe was broken, so they sent me home with a painkiller prescription and asked me to go back a week later. 

On that very weekend, the KK nurse came to do a home visit. When she called, she was already in front of my gate! What if I wasn't home? Haha! Initially, I thought KK found out about my case and sent a nurse to see me, but it was a regular home visit. Nonetheless, the sprained toe incident still gave the nurse a surprise though.

A week later, the pain subsided so much that I didn't really feel anything anymore, but the doctor decided to splint the toe though, which made my life more miserable because I have to keep the splint dry! Can you imagine how I shower? I had to move a chair for me to sit and a stool for me to rest the injured foot. Even the nurses and doctors were so worried when I went for checkups lol. 

It was quite smooth sailing towards the end of the pregnancy. Going to bed became a huge project because I needed bolsters and pillows all over me for my back and legs. 

Next, it was time for the bun to come out of the oven!