This is my 36th week of pregnancy. Technically I can deliver anytime starting from next week. Time flies... Carrying Megan so far has been smooth sailing and relatively easy when I compare to many of my friends' pregnancy. No morning sickness, no cravings, no mishaps etc.
At 5th month's scan, our gyne confirmed that Megan has cleft lips. I had to undergo scans and tests to assertify that there are no further abnormalities or else I would have to abort the child. Cleft being a facial defect is the least of a mother's concern. It is the inside that matters to me. On the outside, some may think I show few emotions. No. It is just that I do not think cleft makes any difference. Megan is the same as any child outside, no need to make a big fuss over it.
The past 2 weeks sees me going downhill fast. I am exhausted yet cannot sleep. Fully alert at 3am every day is certainly nature's way of preparing me for Megan's 12am, 3am, 6am's feeding pattern in the near future... Ha! If I do sleep, it is plagued with dreams of labour, laundry, cooking etc... Tsk tsk.. At this late stage, Megan is still in beech position and that worries me (I am hardly a worry wart)...
My backaches get intensely painful, especially when Megan suddenly moves. If only I have an inhouse massage lady at beck and call!!! But Limin's orange massage ball (wee my birthday present!!!) came to the rescue... what a fantastic self help product! Thank you babe... 100 points! Highly recommended.
Shower, bending down, cooking, ok everything... everything starts getting difficult now that I suddenly ballonned. But at 9 months, I have only gained a modest 11.5kg. So if I am already dying, how did those mothers who gained 20plus kg survive??? I salute them.
Carrying a baby for 10 months is a very enriching experience. Something only the mother can truly understand. Not to discredit the guys' contribution to childbearing but this blog is not about the man anyway. And I haven't even experience the delivery part yet. No wonder all songs sing praises of mothers's greatness.
It is quite obvious why nature selects woman as the child bearer. Woman has an inner strength man do not have. Woman may appear weak and cry easily but that is because we always embrace and deal with problems in life, we break down to release tension by crying and seek comfort from friends when we thought we cannot take no more, then go back to facing our everyday life with renewed energy.
Woman may be the fairer sex bur certainly not the weaker sex. If anything, pregnancy has gained me a whole new respect for mothers and woman in general.
The world is becoming a better place for woman. But lets not decieve ourselves that we hold equal social or professional standing as man. Before my pregnancy, I see very clearly a fairly male dominated work environment... (mine is a construction industry in general). Woman need to put in extra to prove their worth and usually get half the respect as compared to man. Discrimination is commonplace in some countries and no matter how good we are, it is getting nowhere. But when we arrived, we arrived in a big way. Victory is sweet for a woman.
At home, we have the roles of wives, daughters, daughter in laws, now, mothers to play... And we are still "we" when we do find time to look within ourselves to rediscover who we are and what we want... These few weeks I thought of all the working mothers I know with infants or toddlers. Architects, lawyers etc... many of whom recently promoted to higher positions while still in breastfeeding and expressing milk stages... wow... did anyone tell you gals what a fantastic job you gals are doing? Can I join your rank?
To my mother, my mother in law, kei, andrea, belinda, song, limin, stacey, whyee's sister, karen, claudia, connie, moon, fion, kj, shufei, this blog is specially delicated to you for simply being who you are.
Cheers!!!
