Honestly, throughout my pregnancy I was scared! I never could wrap my head around the fact that someone can have something growing inside of them and be absolutely merry about it. I was freaked out with videos that showed being able to see a baby move around the womb from the surface of the abdomen. I was absolutely horrified!
I would say the first trimester was hell. I don’t eat fruit at all, so when I first found out I was pregnant and told my boyfriend, he had just stepped out of the shower after gym. Now after all his workout sessions he eats an orange, and because of me and my dislike of fruit, he brushes his teeth and rinses out with Listerine right after. I can never tell that he’s had fruit with our routine, but this time, I was like an airport security dog. The minute he embraced me, I shoved him off and ran to the barf in the toilet. So from my first trimester to the end of my second, my sense of smell was definitely dialed up a few notches. Morning sickness was the worst. Imagine telling your boyfriend you’re pregnant and all he wants to do is make you an amazing breakfast only for you to barf it up from the first bite!
Thanks to genes, my bump was relatively small throughout my pregnancy, people didn’t even believe I was pregnant! The end of my second trimester is only when my tummy decided to pop. I started to feel a little envious of other pregnant women cause I wanted to have the belly out too but it was like my own little bundle of joy that my boyfriend and I could enjoy alone.
Now, at the beginning of my third trimester, I had an addiction to fried chicken and chips. Salty fast food was really my safe haven; my boyfriend decided to throw caution to the wind and binge with me from time to time, till he saw how he gained weight on the scale after two weeks! Around 5:00AM I would be wide awake, snacking on my favorite combination of cheese Doritos, original Pringles, jelly babies, and apricot yogurt all while watching YouTube videos about different street foods in Korea. I went to sleep exhausted from a full meal around 11:00 PM and woke up at 4:30 AM starving!
Nearing the end of my thirst trimester I started feeling the baby kick more than usual; my boyfriend actually noticed it when I was fast asleep. He woke me up asking if “I could feel that” only to say, “Yes, I’m hungry too!”. I always mistook the feeling as either hunger or heartburn until that night when he had me look down at my belly and see the tiny movements on the surface. It was cool to see, but it freaked me out even more that I just decided to not give it any attention.
The most I ever did was tell him to calm down. We didn’t want to know the sex of the baby but after the tiny kicks that night, I started assuming it was a boy. Very aggressive and constant kicks. Definitely a boy!
The more my bump grew, the happier I got. Not being a fan of having a tiny little bump that is barely seen I started wearing tight tops just to emphasize the fact that I’m pregnant. It was silly but it was probably the best part of the pregnancy next to the affection and food I received!
At the end of my final trimester, I was very relaxed and happy. I started having friends over, went shopping for the baby, and just danced around the house with my boyfriend. That was the first time at the end of my pregnancy where I can say I had the most fun. That Saturday morning, I woke up to go look for something to eat and began to blast out Lucy Pearl throughout the house. My boyfriend was playing PlayStation at the time with two of his friends. Not surprised to see me up he just smiled and told me he already ordered me a pizza, to which I accepted but I was more in the mood to eat then and there. Now with the music loud and him and his friends having fun with me laughing with them, I felt what started as a trickling end in a very minimal sploosh. Now I immediately drop my fork after cutting my sandwich in half and begin screaming. My boyfriend saw the puddle and began jumping off the walls with excitement. Now, I’m scared, I don’t want to look down, I barely ever touched the bump so I was really losing my mind! One of his two friends continuously kept asking what he should do while the other insisted on calling an ambulance. My boyfriend handed me the phone with my mother on the other line. I told her to meet me at the hospital with my elder brother quickly, at the same time, my boyfriend is talking to his family saying the same thing.
I find it crazy how females always say they went through an 8-hour plus delivery whereas for me, the second I was put into my hospital gown, the doctor had actually been with another patient so the nurse told me not to push and to just wait. Now I don’t remember pushing, not once did I push but the pain was intense. My boyfriend is coaching me from the side, my mother is coaching me from the other side, my brother is by the door looking out for the doctor since the room was at a maximum capacity and his mom and dad are there making calls to other relatives while also coaching me. I would say I was overwhelmed cause I heard my blood rushing in my ears and it was just a lot, but when the nurse came to have a look, she looked at me confused and was like “I told you not to push”. Right then, the doctor walks into the room, has a look, and smiles at me saying “I don’t think you nor your baby like to take direction”.
After one small push, baby Ciah came out with a head full of hair and very light brown eyes which she got from her father. Very tiny too which was not an issue when the doctor examined her thank goodness as I had a full-term pregnancy. I named her Ciah after falling in love with the name when I was 16. It meant “problematic”, which I knew that if I had a daughter she would be just like me and it would definitely be a problem, plus it was a very unique name – pronounced Kiah but spelled with a “C”. Elizabeth – named after my mother and grandmother. I don’t think I have ever seen a grown man cry like I did the day my boyfriend was handed baby Ciah. My brother even had to step in and take the baby from him cause he just couldn’t pull himself together! We all laughed at him, even the doctor who I found out actually delivered me the day my mother gave birth.