Surviving the 1st Trimester as a Not-So-Supermom

Motherhood is perhaps the most wonderful and cherished stage of a woman's life. However, being a mother isn't always the easiest thing in the world..... especially if you are pregnant with your second child.

Second pregnancy is still special, but not as special as your first pregnancy. This time around, you are no longer a princess (boleh memanjakan diri or dimanja). You are a wife, a mother to your first born (it is more tiresome if you are still breastfeeding and your child is going thru the tantrum stage) and an oven to the bun that is growing healthily inside you.

You have a duty to make sure your household doesn't fall apart, a responsibility in mothering your child, an obligation to ensure your body is healthy for the growing foetus and most of all, ensuring that your darling husband doesn't feel neglected.

I guess Allah sahaja tahu betapa beratnya responsibility kita ni kan? Nak kena buat semua benda ni while being so tired, mabuk, cramping here and there, mood swings, no appetite and macam-macam lagi lah. Ni semua kerja durjana hormones la ni. We are not like our usual self. As for me, there are times I feel so frustrated with myself because I know I can do better or I know I can do it well if I am not pregnant, but nothing is happening.

So how are we going to perform our duty as a supermom while our hormones are shooting up to millions and being cruel to us. Here are some tips:

1) Have a strong mentality and always blame it on the hormones if things doesn't go well. I know playing blaming game is not good, but atleast it gives you a certain comfort after knowing your weakness.

2) Try not to be a control freak, as there are things we can and can't do.....and there are things beyond the control of a pregnant woman. Maybe dulu we can do a million things in 1 hour, but now it may take it a whole day or 2 to complete it. Or maybe dulu we do things in certain perfect way in the best manner, but now due to morning sickness or sakit-sakit badan, we do things less perfect. Don't sweat it, just syukur that atleast your get the job done. Work with the flow & not against them.

3) Ask (or beg) your hubby for help in completing certain chores that might be too "heavy" for you. As for me, usually I mintak hubby tolong buat laundry (no more heavy lifting for me after the spotting dulu), get groceries on the way home from work and at times bila I mabuk, I will ask him to do the cooking. Since I can't smell bahan tumis-tumis, usually I will prepare the stuff for cooking. Then I duduk jauh sikit (with tutup mulut & hidung dengan towel) while he cooks under my instruction. Tapi jangan lupa to appreciate and thank them ok? However, kalau suami tak dapat nak bantu apa-apa, mintak sajalah moral support, urut-urut skit and babysit anak while kita rest pun jadilah kan. Janji ada kita rasa that, "Yes we are functioning well as a team and in this together". Sometimes all we need is just a positive support to make the world a better place while we are having self-doubt.

4) Be comfortable. To be comfortable is to dress comfortable, to have a comfortable daily routine (plan & organize to make things easier to do) that works for a 1st trimester preggo, to do your daily chores comfortably at a comfortable pace, to have food that you are comfortable with, and many many more comfortable stuff that can help a tired/nauseated/moody pregnant mom go thru her day, without having a breakdown. It may sound mengada-ngada, but this is what works for us and the last thing we need is something stressful to add to the existing 1st trimester pressure.

These are a few stuff that works for me. How about you?

1st Trimester Screening

Had my 1st screening today, Alhamdulillah everything is ok, cukup sifat & organs developing well. InsyaAllah baby low risk for Down Syndrome & Spina Bifida.

Adik Miya ni pun macam Miya jugak, bila scan being found that the development is advance by a week. So I suspect, awal jugak la kot deliver nnt, InsyaAllah....

As for me, Alhamdulillah masih berjaya berpuasa penuh sambil pregnant & breastfeeding. So far so good. Ada hari tu melepek jugak la, especially bila morning sickness datang.

As for Miya, makin petah berkata-kata tentang baby & kakak. Kekadang tu tiba-tiba aje dia kata "baby nangis..wek wek". Mana dia dengar? Entah. Tapi yang pastinya now dia dengan megahnya berkata "Ameeya Kakak Ok?"

Ni dia muka serius kakak tu.

Halal Meat?

Pregnancy & Weird Dreams.

Lately ni tidur dah mula tak lena. Bukan sebab fizikal or gangguan luaran, tapi gangguan mimpi.

During my 1st pregnancy, I did have some series of weird dream. Some buat I kerap terjaga. Some buat tak boleh lena terus after that. Most of them happen at 3rd trimester.

Tapi this time around it comes early. Almost every night and even during day nap, I will have mimpi yang karut sangat. Some are funny, some are horror, some mencabar iman/hati isteri/mother and some are totally 18sx. Hihihihi...Mimpi makan soup ular, mimpi anak hilang, mimpi ada darurat & terpisah dgn suami, mimpi kita bunuh orang, mimpi boleh terbang sambil jd super mom, mimpi jadi well respected leader, mimpi boleh maki mat motor harley sukasuki dan macam-macam lagi. tak boleh ku cerita detailnye. Biarlah rahsia. :P

So kenapa this is happening?

Tak silap, from my reading time 1st pregnancy dulu, weird dreams are common sebab our subconscious are flooded with worry thought for the unborn child plus the usual stuff we moms slalu worry (dah mmg semulajadi, we ladies think a lot). So luahan perasaan ni hanya can come through thru dreams. Jangan di interpret sebab its just a purge of our worrisome emotions. Bukanlah mimpi worth interpreting by Nabi Yusuf. Hik hik hik..

Moreover, our body tengah flooded by hormones. So hormones ni amplified pulak kuasa subconscious kita ni. As a result, slalu lah kita mimpi entah apa-apa.

Dreams can become very troublesome when they cause you to lose sleep. Worse case kalau kena insomnia. Dulu when it happened to me, I was up at 3am baking stuff and serve kat office. However, I takde la rasa letih or tak sihat. Tapi, there are a few women who will need to seek professional help due to the disturbing nature of the dreams that pregnancy brings on. If you feel like your dreams are causing a problem, you should seek the advice of your practitioner.

Last Week Yang Mencabar Iman

Alhamdulillah last week berjaya jugak I ganti the remaining 3 days of puasa. Syukur sangat-sangat mabuk tak teruk sangat. However it was still a challenging week for me.

Puasa and low sugar level tu dah buat rasa giddy sikit-sikit, sekali Miya mula demam starting on Wednesday. She kept on touching her left ear, saying sakit. So I tot its an ear infection and buatlah apa-apa patut. Nak tak nak, layan aje lah kerenah dia. Tapi, demamnya makin teruk when Friday comes. During sleep she kept on twitching, you know macam kita tengah tidur and mimpi jatuh gaung tu.

I know the body twitching when the body heat & cold clashing. I guess demam Miya mmg makin teruk. So tengah-tengah winter yg sejuk gedi ni, I let Miya pakai baju nipis aje and every so often I will wipe badan dia dengan kain lembab.

Memang la mencabar iman melayan ragam dia while I tengah puasa and mabuk. Since Miya kuat menyusu, I bet my sugar level memang makin jatuh (semua benda tak larat, until chinta hati ku kena tolong buat laundry for the whole week).

Miya doesn't want to eat much, so I feed her icecream aje. Itupun, tak habis 1 cup. Imagine tu, budak makan icecream tak habis. So mesti memamg la tengah sakit giler kan?

Ended almost daily you will see this mother & daughter, baring cuddling depan tv melayan perasaan. Whatever susu yang mama boleh produce tu, Miya minum lah.

Finally its only yesterday I realized that rupanye one of her 2nd premolar cut out. Ya Allah, patut la anak aku demam panas. Kesian aje. Dah la ear infection, lepas tu naik pulak gigi garham. Sakit sakit sakit.

Ni belum lagi mula puasa. Jadinya doa-doa lah Ramadhan ni Allah permudahkan ibadah kita mommies ye. Amin...

--psst..i dah fall into cliché preggy moms yg tak larat/malas nak update blog. tunggu la hormones ni stabil sikit ye kawan-kawan, nnt kita cerita best-best lagi.