I've heard some people say that motherhood is a journey, rather than a destination. Such wisdom - I totally agree, having just embarked on this journey. And my journey has been more of a transformation process...
Firstly, during pregnancy, my body slowly but surely grew into that of a
whale-like proportions. Anyone who's ever been pregnant will attest to the fact that once your belly starts growing, you start to feel like a beached whale. Well, what did you expect with the extra 12-15kgs? And that is just the healthy weight gain that is recommended for a normal pregnancy. What about those who end up putting on more than than the recommended weight gain? You end up needing help getting out of bed, getting up from sitting on the floor (for whatever reason, you have decided to plonk your big whale-sized arse on the floor), having trouble putting on a pair sneakers on your own and even have issues with soaping your feet properly in the shower. Just to make sure you have no problems visualising what I am trying to say:
▲ beached humpback whale
The next stage of my transformation took the form of a lactating cow. In the first month, I was either feeding or pumping milk. That took precedence over washing my face, eating my meals, washing myself and making myself look decent. True story!
Baby was feeding once every 2 hours. And 2 hourly intervals were counted from the start of the feed before. So with baby on the breast for 30-45 mins, that leaves very little time in between feeds to do all those things I said in the paragraph above. At nights, we decided to give her feeds via bottle, since it was faster than feeding direct. And I woke up every 3 hours to express milk instead. During each pumping session, I was basically trying to squeeze every last drop of precious milk out to feed bub. And I mean, literally, squeeze. Coz after being on the pump (think if I remember correctly, it was about 20 minutes each side), I would express by hand just to get those last few drops out that usually escaped the pump. And when you're only getting 1-2oz of milk after 20 minutes on the pump, you start to have a new appreciation for the term "liquid gold".
It definitely wasn't what is depicted in the picture below:
Well, for starters, I didn't have a double pump. Secondly, my pump doesn't do handsfree. Thirdly, I also held a mirror so I could see the milk coming out. So definitely did not have any free hands to hold a liptstick to the face.
Then came the 2nd month of baby's life. Freedom! Confinement was over and it was time for me to rejoin life outside the house. With a body that was still carrying a lot of pregnancy weight and water, hair that was constantly tied up because I felt sweaty all the time and feet that were still too big to fit any of my pre-pregnancy shoes, I ended up looking like the maid everytime we went out as a family. My husband was dressed nicely. The baby was dressed as cute as button. And I felt like the maid in my ill-fitting, in between sized clothes while I flip flopped around the mall with them. :(
And so the motherhood transformation journey continues....
