With the end of my House Hunting Series (click here to read more), the next step should come naturally - family planning. Or rather, it has always been in the pipeline. Me being a systematic person, I needed the step-by-step of marriage, honeymoon, new home before baby(ies).
We started trying shortly after securing the new home. From friends' experiences and my own perception of our lifestyle + my body (stress resulting to irregular menses), I estimated at least 6 months before we might get any results. I prayed we didn't have to resort to Intro-vito (IVF) or TCM, etc.
So life went on a hectic pace - me studying for and taking the RES exams, us packing for moving house, us packing for a 2-week Australian trip, and my usual wine sessions with friends. The missed menses, slight weight gain and short tempers were all attributed to these hectic activities, of course.
I returned from Australia in mid-November. The trip itself was okay - I ate and drank whatever. Toward the end of the trip, I began to feel somewhat unwell. The unpleasant feeling got worse even when we returned to Singapore. I began to feel strongly adverse toward a lot of things such as Ramen, red wine (!!!), etc; and my sense of smell sharpened immensely. I even began to feel giddy or headache towards a lot of things - like smells I was adverse to, bright lights, small fonts, etc.
Hunger pangs also prevailed - in Australia I had attributed them to queasiness, but now I began to have my sneaking suspicions. Bought a couple of pregnancy test kits to satiate my own curiosity. Then went to see a doctor to ascertain that I was pregnant.
Researched for good gynaecologists and asked friends for recommendations. Settled on a seasoned doctor from Thomson Medical Centre, and made an appointment to see him.
Although we were prepared for this pregnancy, the news still took us by (pleasant) surprise. It felt surreal having a little life-form within me, its survival dependent on me wholly. I also began to worry for its health because I drank a fair bit of red wine and ate sashimi in Melbourne, when the tiny baby would have just begun to form.
Other than that, we began to wonder what to buy for the baby, what were the changes needed to be done around the house to welcome this additional member of the family, how we were going to break the happy news to our families, what kind of parents we would be, and what adjustments we needed to make to our lifestyles to accommodate this new member.
The next chapters in The Mommyhood Series will document the 9 months pregnancy journey, including gynae visits, tests to be done, changes, the delivery process itself, and the amount of shopping, etc. Stay tuned.
Backtracks
(i) The House-Hunting Series
(ii) The Honeymoon Series
(iii) The Nuptial Series