After a long hiatus, I'm back to share a new journey of my life!
As you may have noticed from my Instagram pictures, I've recently given birth to the most beautiful creature on earth (to me and Labub) - Julius.
Would like to take this opportunity to share my experience and lessons that I've learnt through the little one, which hopefully will give new moms and moms-to-be insights of a new mother-in-training.
So the first post of The Journey of Bibma, I'd like to share things that I had learnt about pregnancy myself but wished that others would have shared with me.
1. Every pregnancy is different.
Not everyone experiences morning sickness through vomiting and loses appetite. For me and in fact several other mothers I read online, rejected food from the other side of the body through diarrhoea.
I was still rather lucky that my diarrhoea only comes when I consume super 'potent' foods like durian and tom yum.
As a result, unlike most preggers who lost weight during the first trimester, I was gaining weight instead.
2. You can't eat everything you want
It's quite commonly advised that you should still eat one portion (for one person) instead of two even though you have another life inside you.
But sadly, no one ever shared that you should not eat anything you feel like having. On the other hand, everyone was telling me: this is the only time you can gain weight so just eat heartily.
And so I did (with one portion). I had roasted meat rice once a week or two, char kway teow/ economic fried bee hoon/ carrot cake every week and ice cream twice a week for my first 2 trimesters. And I was gaining weight rather consistently as a result - 1kg per month for the first trimester, followed by 2kg per month for the 2nd trimester. By the end of the second trimester, the gynae told me my baby was on the upper percentile, and I would likely h have a big baby,and would have to start considering c-sect due to the risks of delivering big babies especially with my petite frame. He also didn't advise me to watch my diet but still continue to eat what I want.
I was rather upset then as I've also wanted to do natural birth (which I managed to in the end). I watched what I ate and cut down a lot on sugar and carbohydrates, but it was too late. The baby still had to grow and I was gaining 1kg per month in my last trimester.
Overall I've gained 15kg - the upper limit for my bmi, and boy was it difficult to give birth to a big baby (3.6kg) naturally. Besides having a vacuum machine to assist with the delivery and the many stitches for episiotomy, my pubic muscles were quite badly strained. I couldn't walk normally or turn in bed for almost 2 weeks!
3. You can never be prepared enough for your labour (especially if it's your first one)
For this case, I'm not even referring to the pain or the apprehension on what to expect during labour.
As a 'planner' always planning for an idealistic perfect outcome, I wanted to be as prepared for my perfect natural birth as possible.
I wrote a birth plan, that was never used in the end - I wanted to walk around, do more yoga poses in the labour ward during the second stage of labour to help speed up delivery and cope with the pain, but my water bag burst when I was only 2cm dilated so I was bed bound and planted to all the recording devices to ensure the safety of Julius.
I read about the side effects about epidural and wanted a drugs-free labour like my mom and sister. So I did my pelvic tilts and rotations daily, took red raspberry leaf tea and pills regularly as they are said to help uterine contractions and speed up the process of labour. I also took coconut juice twice a week since week 37.
But in the end I still gave in after a 2-hour struggle. (I'm glad I did though as I wouldn't have possibly survive my 16-hour labour through the night).
Murphy's Law often happens to me and Labub. Guess it's fate/God's way to moulding us into stronger folks and to cherish what we were given.
But yes, if someone would have told me these 3 advice, I probably would have been more mentally prepared for anomalies.
As you may have noticed from my Instagram pictures, I've recently given birth to the most beautiful creature on earth (to me and Labub) - Julius.
Would like to take this opportunity to share my experience and lessons that I've learnt through the little one, which hopefully will give new moms and moms-to-be insights of a new mother-in-training.
So the first post of The Journey of Bibma, I'd like to share things that I had learnt about pregnancy myself but wished that others would have shared with me.
1. Every pregnancy is different.
Not everyone experiences morning sickness through vomiting and loses appetite. For me and in fact several other mothers I read online, rejected food from the other side of the body through diarrhoea.
I was still rather lucky that my diarrhoea only comes when I consume super 'potent' foods like durian and tom yum.
As a result, unlike most preggers who lost weight during the first trimester, I was gaining weight instead.
2. You can't eat everything you want
It's quite commonly advised that you should still eat one portion (for one person) instead of two even though you have another life inside you.
But sadly, no one ever shared that you should not eat anything you feel like having. On the other hand, everyone was telling me: this is the only time you can gain weight so just eat heartily.
And so I did (with one portion). I had roasted meat rice once a week or two, char kway teow/ economic fried bee hoon/ carrot cake every week and ice cream twice a week for my first 2 trimesters. And I was gaining weight rather consistently as a result - 1kg per month for the first trimester, followed by 2kg per month for the 2nd trimester. By the end of the second trimester, the gynae told me my baby was on the upper percentile, and I would likely h have a big baby,and would have to start considering c-sect due to the risks of delivering big babies especially with my petite frame. He also didn't advise me to watch my diet but still continue to eat what I want.
I was rather upset then as I've also wanted to do natural birth (which I managed to in the end). I watched what I ate and cut down a lot on sugar and carbohydrates, but it was too late. The baby still had to grow and I was gaining 1kg per month in my last trimester.
Overall I've gained 15kg - the upper limit for my bmi, and boy was it difficult to give birth to a big baby (3.6kg) naturally. Besides having a vacuum machine to assist with the delivery and the many stitches for episiotomy, my pubic muscles were quite badly strained. I couldn't walk normally or turn in bed for almost 2 weeks!
For this case, I'm not even referring to the pain or the apprehension on what to expect during labour.
As a 'planner' always planning for an idealistic perfect outcome, I wanted to be as prepared for my perfect natural birth as possible.
I wrote a birth plan, that was never used in the end - I wanted to walk around, do more yoga poses in the labour ward during the second stage of labour to help speed up delivery and cope with the pain, but my water bag burst when I was only 2cm dilated so I was bed bound and planted to all the recording devices to ensure the safety of Julius.
I read about the side effects about epidural and wanted a drugs-free labour like my mom and sister. So I did my pelvic tilts and rotations daily, took red raspberry leaf tea and pills regularly as they are said to help uterine contractions and speed up the process of labour. I also took coconut juice twice a week since week 37.
But in the end I still gave in after a 2-hour struggle. (I'm glad I did though as I wouldn't have possibly survive my 16-hour labour through the night).
Murphy's Law often happens to me and Labub. Guess it's fate/God's way to moulding us into stronger folks and to cherish what we were given.
But yes, if someone would have told me these 3 advice, I probably would have been more mentally prepared for anomalies.
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