Welcome to The Mommy Abroad, reloaded.
That is, this is not the first time I have created a “mommy blog.” It was late in November 2014, seemingly a lifetime ago, when I found out I was seven weeks pregnant. To celebrate the occasion in true webbie fashion, I bought a .com, created a separate cPanel account on my reseller for my WordPress CMS, and signed up for matching Pinterest, Tumblr and Twitter accounts. I even created a FaceBook Page that people could like. The title was The Mommy Abroad, to indicate my impending induction into motherhood and the fact that I am an expatriate.
This initial incarnation of my motherhood journal was officially launched on 28th November. Sadly, my online project barely lasted a month. Read on, from the very beginning.
It was on 26 November 2014 when I went to see my dentist for the surgical extraction of my bottom-left wisdom tooth. The tooth had been bothering me since earlier that month. As I age, the tooth sunk deeper into my gums, incomplete in terms of growth since it had no space to fully develop. Like my top-left wisdom tooth, which was removed in 2010, it started to hurt as time went by and removing it was the best solution to get rid of the recurring pain.
Earlier that same week, another health-related occurrence had been bothering me: my period was late. I never had a delayed period in my entire life, since I first started getting the monthlies when I was 11 years old. It was due middle of November, but almost two weeks on, there were no signs of my period. I mentioned this to my husband and we decided to wait until the end of the month before I took a pregnancy test, since climate changes often cause delayed periods.
When it was my turn at the dentist’s chair, she asked me if I was pregnant, which was standard procedure for all her female patients who would be administered anesthesia. I informed her about my delayed period and she asked me how often do I get delayed. I, of course, told her “never.” She advised me and my husband straightaway to get a pregnancy test kit from a nearby pharmacy. She would not proceed with the surgical tooth extraction until she was certain that I was not pregnant.
My husband got the kit and I used it right there at the dental clinic. Three minutes later, I saw two stripes. Positive.
Needless to say, the dentist did not proceed with the dental surgery. Instead, she put temporary filling on my problematic wisdom tooth and advised us to see an obstetrician as soon as possible, recommending a few in our part of the city.
That very evening, my husband and I went to see the specialist doctor at the medical centre close to our apartment building. She recommended that I go through some laboratory tests, including an ultrasound. I was prescribed some vitamin supplements for a healthy pregnancy. I was also advised to stop intense exercises and, generally, change my diet and fitness routine. It was figured out that I was six weeks into my pregnancy and, thus, well into the first half of the delicate, crucial first trimester.
This was my first pregnancy. The news was met with joy and excitement by my our family and friends. More so when they saw me in person, already showing, when we went home to the Philippines in the first week of December.
Midway through the month, at around 10 weeks of pregnancy, I had my first ultrasound that had a heartbreaking result: I was pregnant with twins. Neither twin had a heartbeat. I was advised to give it two more weeks and given medication that could potentially turn the situation around. We traveled back to Oman, with mixed emotions of anxiety, hope and sadness.
I had another ultrasound on the 1st of January 2015, following two days of increasingly heavier bleeding. The results were, tragically, the same. Given the fact that I was already bleeding significantly by then, the obstetrician/gynecologist at the hospital advised that I should get a D&C as soon as possible. Further delay could cost my own life.
My husband and I decided right then and there to have the procedure the following day. On January 2nd, I checked into the hospital at 7:30 AM, got prepped by the nurses and was put to sleep around noon with a general anesthetic. I woke up a few hours later, alive and safe, my belly emptied of my babies. I was home that evening, crying most of the time.
The road to physical recovery was fairly easy, due to my natural strength and athletic background. The emotional bit was much harder; even after more than a year, sometimes I still remember the twins, who never had their shot a life, and shed tears.
In August 2015, I found out I was pregnant again. The child was conceived in July. In an ultrasound the following month, the baby (not twins this time) was found to be healthy. More scans in the last quarter of 2015 informed us that our child was a girl. Her due date was 14 April 2016.
Our daughter Arya was born in Muscat a few days before she was due, at 39 weeks and two days of gestational age. I was in labor for 25 hours, but every minute of anticipation, pain and tension was well worth it.
I did not really think to go back to blogging and web design until after my first child was born. It took me a few more months to decide to return to writing my experiences as a first-time mother. I am an author and journalist, after all, and I will always go back to words to complete my life.
Thank you very much for visiting my site, and for reading this. You are in for a ride. And I have a feeling this is only the start of something amazing and beautiful.
Image credit: Pixabay