MY PREGNANCY STORY...IT WAS LIKE A TLC STORY PART. 1

 Hey Mamas !

I was thinking of the best way to begin our blossoming relationship on this Mommy So Cool blog and I figured we should take it back to how it all started. I am going to tell you my pregnancy story, trust me it is a good one so I suggest you grab some popcorn and some milk for the baby and read on.

I am going to start from the very beginning before the time I conceived, this background information is vital in highlighting the unusual events before the pregnancy.

Disclaimer: a whole lot of vomit talk 

 This is simply to give you a glimpse of where my mindset was, at the time. It was the year 2020, just kidding however my year started very differently from my other years. Firstly; at the end of 2019, I felt I had finally finished the longest journey of my life. I was finally done with school, after a rocky 7 years of studying. I just wanted my 2019 to end on a peaceful note. Fortunately, out of the clear blue my parents and younger brother decided to spend New Year’s Eve in Johannesburg with my dad's side of the family, which was odd in itself because we prefer spending the December Holidays at home, but this time things turned out differently for some divine reason.

Everything worked out perfectly in my favor because my New Year's Eve plans were going to work out just right. My ultimate plan was that I was going to stay indoors; watch tv/listen to music until midnight and then at midnight I would listen to the song of the year and watch the fireworks for a couple of moments and then I was going to pray, some of you may think well that is very boring of me, but it was exactly the type of evening I needed for the year ahead. I had just finished the most confusing and toughest journey thus far in my life and I was about to start a new one, not that I knew at the time how new this next chapter would be. So at midnight that is exactly what I did, I prayed to God for guidance in 2020 because I was not sure where to from here, I needed realignment.

When January started it was chilled and I think I was still setting goals and aspirations for the year ahead, the biggest event that was awaiting me and that I was excited for, was my graduation which was supposed to be in April but then Corona happened. I know I know get to the point lady! Patience, these details are crucial in the story. So as January ends things turn for the worst, my partner, who is also the father of Baby Zim, breaks his ankle at a work-related sports event which led me to spend the first few weeks of February in the hospital with him. After his operation in mid-February, he was back home recovering I was still spending most of my time with him.

Somewhere around that time, I conceived. March comes around and things are slowly going back to normal, as he went back to work and I had just gotten a new show to produce on our local youth radio station so I was about to spend my days at the station more than usual and on the 8th of March I had turned 25, so things were looking up for me and I was still unaware that I was pregnant because nothing was out of the ordinary at the time.

 I conceived in mid-February, and the COVID-19 pandemic had slowly hit South Africa early in March though several cases had been only announced in parts of the country it had not hit Bloemfontein yet. I figured it was the best time to go for my annual check-up before the virus goes any further. I made my appointment and went for my check-up, on the way to the doctor I had called my partner to let him know that I was headed to the doctor and that I was thinking of getting the depo shot based on the fact I had been inconsistent with my pill and I did not want to fall pregnant again so soon after my miscarriage which happened the year before that’s a story for another blog post stay tuned.

 One thing to keep in mind is that I was deciding this on my way to the doctor's office, I had not done any proper research on what it entailed when taking the depo shot. This was a very odd and impulsive decision on my part which is unlike me because I always do my research, I am the type of person that reads the entire pill leaflet before drinking it, so impulsiveness; not my style. When I told my partner, he was totally against me getting the shot however, in my mind I felt he was trying to get me pregnant again because we were both mentally and emotionally ready to plan a child, we just needed to get our finances to be able to take of a child. 

I also had a fear that if I were to get pregnant again so soon it would feel like I was filling a void of the passed baby with the new baby and it is not something I would want my child to feel and I wanted to know that I had grieved properly for my baby that passed, all these reasons are what motivated me to proceed to go ahead with getting the shot. 

When I got to the doctor's office I was still contemplating whether I go ahead with getting the shot, I remember I was having a should I, shouldn't I moment while the doctor was doing her routine check-up and I decide to get it at the very last minute of my appointment. I did a urine pregnancy test and she warned me of all the side effects I might experience while on the depo shot, even explained that I might gain plenty of weight and get breakouts, that did not seem to bother me for some odd reason, and honestly these are the kind of things I would be worried about in a normal situation. I was determined therefore I ignored all the red flags, that determination, and the false-negative pregnancy test is the reason I just decided to go all the way in, Chile little did I know there was a tiny human being just baking in there. 

The first few weeks after getting the shot, I was expecting to experience some sort of side effects like nausea or something of the sort, because I am usually someone who gets an instant reaction to medication that is not right for me. I got the injection in early March so when nothing happened in the first two weeks I naively took that as a sign that I was in the clear, Boy was I wrong! On the 26th of March, when the President announced that the country is on an official lockdown due to the high rising COVID-19 cases, I was not fazed by the lockdown so much because I am a homebody and I did not think that it would last so long at the time.

 When the lockdown was announced, in my mind it was the perfect time to start up my blog again and taking it seriously. All of that flew right out the window as a couple of days later I got sick. I just remember this one-morning being waken up by the sudden urge to vomit and I remember trying to think what I ate the previous day that would bring this on. Little did I know that it would become a recurring event for the next few months, at first I was not suspecting the depo I had forgotten about it, but then I started getting these painful headaches and my body was super stiff, I had never been this sick in my life before so this was unusual. 

 My morning sickness was so bad, I would just open my eyes and immediately run to the bathroom, but for some reason, I did not suspect pregnancy at all. I remember my mother was worried she asked me if I was pregnant again and I looked at her like she had four heads and that is when I remember I took the depo and that is when I thought I found what was making me so sick, that was the only logical explanation.

I was so sick, I was heaving every single day after every single meal, I just could not keep my food down, and I could not stand the smell of food, it did not matter what my mother was cooking I just hated the smell so much. All of that, paired with the headaches and sudden heartburns led me to not wanting to leave my room, I was sleeping so much I got annoyed with myself but again sleeping was the only time I felt better. 

As mentioned heartburn was one of the symptoms I had, but it was so painful, it led me to believe I had ulcers, I had never had ulcers before so I did not know how it really feels like but I googled (bad idea) my symptoms and somehow concluded I had ulcers, that is when I decided to make a doctor's appointment, the same doctor I got the injection from.

 I told her everything that was happening to me but I was still not thinking about pregnancy, honestly, I automatically ruled it out and I think she did too because we took the test. She did so many check-ups she even pressed my stomach but I guess she did not get any indication of pregnancy which prompted her to inject me with some medicine that was supposed to help me with the ulcers that she confirmed. She also gave me a list of high fiber foods to eat to help stop the spewing and also referred me to her physical therapist colleague who was supposed to help me with the stiffness because my body was very tense especially my neck area. That one appointment covered everything I thought was making me sick but it was all in vain because nothing worked not even the pills she prescribed. 

Eventually, I stopped eating, I remember asking my mom to just buy me some Provitas and Bovril just so that I can eat something and not starve myself, and miraculously that combo was the only thing I could keep down so I stayed with it for the next two months. So April comes around and we were still on level 5 lockdown and I spend my days sleeping, I have never slept so much in my life and no matter how much I slept in a day I was always tired, like extremely tired.

The end of April rolled by and my mom and aunt were now really worried about me because I have not stopped vomiting and I was still sleeping like crazy but what concerned them the most was that I was starting to slowly lose weight because all I was eating was Bovril and Provitas. My aunt then decided to take me to this holistic/vegan doctor in hopes that he would have a different answer than the previous doctor. I went to the consultation and the doctor attached all kinds of wires on my stomach, head, arms, and fingers so that his computer could scan my entire body and see everything going on from the inside. Mind you, I am about 2 months pregnant going on 3, he scanned my body and he sees nothing, zilch! nada! he instead tells me I have gallstones, frustration!

So I have gallstones, he even showed me those gallstones on his computer screen, but I did not know what I was looking at, to be honest. He then prescribed me some kombucha and Iodin and something called bacteria to boost my immune system but before I could take the prescribed medication I had to do 3 days of Epsom salt, Lemon Juice, Grapefruit Juice, and Olive Oil cleanse. It was going to help flush out the gallstones. I did the cleanse for those 3 days and nothing gallstone-like comes out. After completing that cleanse I was supposed to start drinking the Kombucha, Iodin, and Bacteria go for the next 30 days but here’s the thing while I was doing the Epsom salt cleanse, my dad, started drinking the bacteria go mixture, why was my dad drinking it, the doctor said it was good for the whole family, especially during the pandemic. 

My dad is a Traffic Officer and he was still working during the level 5 lockdowns so he thought he should try it and see if it will boost his immune system and aid him in staying healthy, etc. He then decides to try it one morning and as he was about to drink it he noticed the metal teaspoon changing color immediately while he was busy pouring the drops on a teaspoon and that concerned him, I remember him coming into my room and told me about the incident.

 And in my mind, I was like if that happens to a teaspoon, what would happen to me? I was not willing to find out so I just never drank it and threw the whole thing away, thank God I did not because I think it was something toxic enough to harm my baby.

In May I was still throwing up every day and still could not keep my food down but I was more optimistic than I had one more month to go (I was supposed to get a depo refill on the 3rd of June) and then this depo will wear off and I will be okay so I just needed to stay strong until then. I was still not suspecting pregnancy I had written it off, I still had the headaches but the heartburns had eased and I had a little bit more energy and could finally leave my room and sit in the living room with my family again because, in the beginning, I had to stay in my room to avoid the smell of food. After all, that alone made me super sick. 

 I had a little bit of my energy back now but I am still eating Provitas and Bovril, one thing I could not stand during my pregnancy was chicken, I could not watch someone eat chicken I had to turn away from them, I remember this one night while watching soapies, a rainbow chicken spice advert came on and I instantly got sick from watching that and vomited from just seeing the chicken they were spicing in the advert, it was bad.

That was Part 1 of my pregnancy story,  Enjoy and Let's Engage in the comment section.

 

Stay Tuned to find out when I realized I was pregnant and telling the parents.

 

From Me to You with big love 

uMama khaZimkhitha 

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