Pregnancy Memories

In true Huixuan style, I did not realise that I was pregnant until I was nearly out of my first tri-mester of pregnancy.

 

In my defence, I did a pregnancy test in what must been my second month but as the results were negative (either that, or the urine fumes must have really blinded my eyes), I didn't think much of the missed periods as I was undergoing a very stressful time in work and wrote the missed periods off as stress-induced. Neither did I realise that those massive heaving of saliva after my morning cuppas and falling asleep anywhere at the drop of a hat (note: I am usually pretty picky about where I sleep and have been known to survive a 13-hour flight to Europe without sleep) were anything pregnancy-related.

 

Wrapped up in blissful ignorance, I jetted off on a company trip to Taiwan and frolicked about in hot springs (well, the pathetic excuse of a cubicle which passes off as a hot spring room anyway), inhaled sulphuric fumes of the hot spring spas and feasted on BBQ sotong, fat juicy oysters and pigs' blood in Taipei. The only difference was that I could only collapse onto the hotel bed in exhaustion every night after a full day's activity while my colleagues went on to drink and basically turned late nights into more rounds of shopping, body massages and more shopping.

 

The shoe finally dropped when I went to the doctor after my Taiwan trip for a bout of flu. Innocuously, I asked her about the strange bouts of saliva-spitting in the mornings that happen always after my cuppa as I was concerned if it was a gastric problem. She asked me if I wanted to do a pregnancy test and not thinking much about it, I took it with earth-flipping results. My mouth literally fell open and I could only look at her in bewilderment when she told me: 'You're pregnant!' To my credit, I mustered enough coherence to utter: " Are you joking??" and proceeded home in a daze.

 

I broke the news to my partner in crime Mr Y and the look of pure happiness on his face told me what I needed to know - no other words were necessary. For folks who know Mr Y personally, they will all tell you that under usual circumstances, his expression is usually expressionless (yeah, I get the irony of those words too) and one can hardly tell what he is thinking or not thinking at any given point in time. If I had a camera to capture his expression when I broke the news, it will be an expression of pure delight and if Instagram was invented then, there will also be a warm soft glow to it. So there was that.

 

At our first visit to the gynae, we caught an ultra-sound scan of this beautiful little being who was fully formed and appeared to be sucking his hand with the gusto of SMRT trains breaking down on Singaporeans at peak hours. There was no doubt about it: we have been blessed with a wondrous little life and he is for keeps =)