I started morning sickness on Mother’s Day. How fitting, my daughter is still very good at making an entrance.
I woke up on that Sunday and felt like I was dying. We took the in-laws to breakfast and both hubby and his dad opted for the seafood breakfast – it was gut wrenching trying to hide my dry heaving 🤢. I could luckily leave the brekkie early as I needed to go fetch my mom, for her Mother’s Day treat.
I lamented about how terrible I felt and the first words from her mouth were “are you pregnant?”. I answered NO quickly, although I knew that it was possible.
Now let me just interject here. I always wanted kids, and at 34 I gave up on my 6 kids idea I had when I was 6. My hubby also wanted a child, but since he has a mindset of what is best for the world, he was wrestling with existential questions such as: should we add to over-population? How can we guarantee that in 18 years’ time our child will have a future? Will we be financially secure enough to manage to give our child the future they would want?
I on the other hand, being far less pragmatic than him, felt that 2 of my sisters struggled to conceive and had some assistance in that department. Me at 32 going onto 33 was ready to take a biological gamble and let the universe decide whether it is meant to be or not to be. If we just go about our life, stop trying NOT to have a child and see what happens. So, 1½ later here we were…
I however thought I had the worst gastro ever and wanted to vomit at every and any smell. I quit smoking 6-months before and nearly passed out the Monday morning walking past my colleagues smoking in the quad, oh the stink. Still, I was ever sure that this was just gastro and that this would pass. Soon I will have my normal olfactory powers back and all this will be just a blimp on the radar.
Now this makes me think of my own origin story which; I overheard my mother tell someone when I was somewhere in primary school. My youngest sister (7-years my senior) started her first day of school. She was feeling very excited as my father, years ago, promised that once all the kids are in school, my mom could go to work half-day.
My mom had this sweet gig lined up at the pharmacy and she could not wait to start her first steps of her new life. There was just one problem. She felt fluish. Now at this point I felt how could you NOT KNOW you were pregnant? She had 3 kids in 4-years; this woman is a PRO if you’ve ever met one. She felt that at the ripe age of 28, she could not be preggers as she was too OLD.
Yes, you read that right! So, it had to be flu.
She made an appointment to see the doctor as she was not feeling better, and he was as blunt as I was; you are pregnant woman! And just like that my mom’s sweet life of financial independence vanished into this air, with nothing left to do but wait my eminent arrival.
I however was 3-days in and still nauseous, so off to the doctor I went. Sitting there explaining to her how terrible I felt, she requested a urine sample.
It did give me flashbacks of Varsity days where all the females where tested as they arrived at the campus doctors; so, pregnancy could be ruled out (or in) before you even see anyone. I assume it was very productive as you were dealing with hormonal, horny, young adults who in many cases were unsupervised for the first time in their lives.
My doctor burst into tears looking at the test result. I wondered for a moment what was wrong with me, when she says: you are pregnant. These are tears of joy, as I had to give another patient terrible news this morning. I am just so happy that I can give you this happy news. Congratulations!
I sat there happy that we would have our miracle baby.
Origin story
An origin story is an account or backstory revealing how a character or group of people become a protagonist or antagonist.
Footnote
I have been asked if we planned to have our child. If you (y child) read this and are unsure of where the planning phase was in all this. Know that I was planning for you since I was little and although your dad has some interesting ideas, he always wanted you ♥
