My responses to a yummy mummy interview sent by a friend

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED?
My first pregnancy was lost. Izabelle is my second pregnancy and it was planned when it happened (if you know what I mean)

2. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS?
I was worried about loosing it and then when I was assured by God that all was well, I was amazed that a 'human being' was growing inside me.

3. HOW OLD WERE YOU?
27

4. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT?
I knew that there was a high possibility that I would be pregnant, and when the time came to confirm, I really was.

5. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST?
My husband, then my parents.

6. DID YOU FIND OUT THE SEX?
I tried to, but failed.

7. DUE DATE?
4 dates between 7th Nov and 12th Nov, 2008.

8. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS?
Oh yeah!!!!!!!! Funnily, I threw up after I ate my favorite oats cereal. :(

9. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE?
Native chicken pepper soup, boiled groundnut, nzu, ukwa, and then other times, it depended on the day

10. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST?
Hubby's perfume! I had to hide it after a while. Every other person's perfume, especially an IT guy in my office (phew) who used to be drenched with a horrible perfume. Smokers were high on my list and people who didnt give me their seat when the bus was full!

11. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX?
Pink

12. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING?
No, but i thought I was having a boy because hubby thought it was a girl. I like to differ.

13. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY?
hehe. I dont do pounds, but in Kilos, i gained around 15kg

14. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER?
yes, and i loved it

15. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW?
I knew

16. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY?
I had gestational diabetes and had to check my blood sugar 4 times a day, and give myself shots of insulin 4 times a day. YUCK

17. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH?
Mater Mother's Hospital, Brisbane

18. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOUR?
over 26 hours

19. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL?
Husband

20. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH?
Husband, midwives and one student.

21. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION?
natural

22. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN?
Yes I did

24. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH?
3.36kg

25. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN?
8.22am on the 24th of October 2008

26. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER?
Izabelle Chikwere

27. HOW DID YOU CHOOSE HIS/HER NAME? WHAT INSPIRED YOU?
After I had miscarried the first pregnancy, I did not get pregnant for 6 months because i was scared. After hubby started persuading me, I turned to God and started questioning him on why it happened and how to assure me that it wont' happen again. at the time, i didnt even know i was pregnant again.
one day while i was in this mood, a scripture floated into my heart and it said, "forget the things that happened in the past, and do not continue to consider them. Look I have started a new thing. do you not perceive it?". that was when I suspected that I was already pregnant without even knowing it.
Sure enough, I was and since I felt God had said to forget the tragedies of the past and trust that He's in charge of the new thing that has started happening, I decided to call my baby
Izabelle (God's promise) /Chikwere (God promised) if she was a girl or
Jaydon/Chianugo (God has heard).

28. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY?
6 months +

29. HOW HAS YOUR LIFE CHANGED (WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT SINCE THE ARRIVAL OF YOUR BABY?)
I have learnt that Children ARE a blessing from God.
My life has been enriched by Izabelle. Her smiles warm my heart and bring me soooooooo much indescribable joy. I loose sleep a lot now. I have to take her into consideration when thinking of going out to somewhere. sometimes, i cant go to places i used to because of the logistics of taking her.
I have someone who came from My husband and lover, and myself and I feel priviledged to be the mother of the child of the man I love so much.
i have learnt that dreams do come true and that God is always there for us every step of the way.
I have learnt how to overcome fear and trust God (fear of labour was a big one)
I have learnt to trust God. I have learnt to put my family first.

30. IN A SENTENCE, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MOTHERHOOD?
Motherhood is a blessed priviledge from God to care for an amazing creation who is close to his heart.

Mama no dey always fine but her pikin still love am

For my non-Nigerian readers, the literal translation of the topic above is "Mummy doesn't always look beautiful but her child still loves her".

The Nigerian "pidgin English" adage that I coined this from should be familiar to many, "Monkey no fine but him Mama like am" which means that though a monkey is not handsome its Mummy still loves him. It just means that Mothers love their children no matter how they look.

I don't feel ugly, but I don't feel as beautiful as a magazine cover girl everyday! I guess the same goes for most people. I am one of those girls that love to dress up. I know I'm wonderfully and beautifully made but I feel ever more beautiful when I've spent some hours deciding on and choosing an outfit, then spent about 45 minutes more making up in front of a few different mirrors (the more the mirrors, the more visual perspectives of yourself), sprayed at least 2 different perfumes ( its always good to hear, "hmmm...I love your perfume. It smells rare, what is it?") and spent a little bit more time turning this way and that in front of the mirror till I'm satisfied.

Since I'm on leave and I don't go out that often, if there's somewhere to go and we 're rushing out, I still feel satisfied to spend the entire trip making up in the car! (there are also a couple of mirrors there), though sometimes I won't feel as 'beautiful' as I feel when I've spent about 3 hours at home doing the 'beauty' routine.

Being at home for the most part of my 7-day week has meant that my 'beauty' routine has been relegated to the back bench until we're going somewhere. Well, when I first started staying at home, I was pumped about being a temporary housewife so I used to try to do myself up before Kachi got home from work...did u ever read those books about how to look great at home when your hubby gets home because he's been working with gorgeous ladies at work all day? I read them.
I got compliments the first couple of days, but the frequency died down and after he probably got more interested in other things like Obama and the Credit Crunch than complimenting my make-up and pair of jeans, I became less pumped about dressing up everyday.

What is funny to me though is that some mornings I catch a reflection of myself in the mirror and I'm like, "Jeez, was that me?" but when I get to Izabelle's room, I'm a bit taken aback at the enthusiasm with which she welcomes me!
I'm not sure why I started thinking, "hmmm, she loves me even though I don't look like Jennifer Aniston right now". I'm not saying Jennifer is the most beautiful woman in the world, but when they do her photo shoots, she does look pretty good. Anyway, so when I'm on that train of thought, I remember that there are a couple of other people that love me irrespective of how I look. - God, Kachi, Mom&Dad and hopefully, my siblings. Oh and my TRUE friends. lol

That said, there are few times that my looks have attracted a laugh from my little Izabelle. Would you believe that? I knew you would doubt me so I'll attach a picture below.

Can you see the cheeky little girl laughing at my hair style? I couldn't believe it myself, so I called Kachi and told him. lol
If you're wondering how I got that hideous hair style, here's what happened.
I took out my twisted braids, which I had on for about 3 months. The only care I gave the braids was a spray of pink oil now and then and a couple of washes I think (don't worry too much about that though). When the braids came out, my hair was in real dreadlocks. I was worried because I knew I had to comb the hair lock by lock!
Well......my fast brain remembered a Sunsilk advert, where a Jamaican boy who had dreadlocks came into a shop and bought a shampoo that was suggested by the shop girl only to come back the next day demanding for his money back because his hair was now straight and wavy (I am laughing at myself now). Anyway, I did believe that shampooing and conditioning the hair would untangle my dreadlocks just like the Jamaican boy's hair. Boy, was I WRONG! I should have known better, but I'd never tried this before, and then there was that advert, so...........u know the rest.
My hair became a twisted mess of the ugliest dreadlocks you have ever seen and I toyed with the idea of cutting the whole thing off. It took me about 4 days of hard work to comb the hair out and because the combed part kept getting in the way of the dread-locked part, I had to tie them up at the front as seen in the Pic. This cracked Izabelle up big time.

After I got my hair back to shape, I proceeded to get some fake dreadlocks which looked cool. Well, I've now taken them out and I was horribly shocked when I approached my mirror because some part of my hair has gone with the dread. I actually look like I'm balding from my temple. I know it will grow back but i wonder if I'll get some more laughs from my little cheeky girl.
No matter how bald I get ( and i pray I don't get balder than this), I know she still lurvessssssssssss mummy. Maybe because I am positively correlated with food and sweet escape from dirty nappies, or because I sing the Susan Boyle style of classical music to her ( i wonder what our neighbors think), or maybe its just because I'm her mummy and she doesn't know if I look good or not just yet. I know that things may change when she's a teenager, she'll still love me alright but she might say the kinds of things I said to my mom...stuff like, " Mom, that dress makes you look short and I'm not going out with you if you don't change it".
Till then, I'm happy to soak up all this unconditional love from her and from everyone that gives it.
woooooooooot wooooooooooot.

My Quest for the Silent Mode

Have you ever tried to be quiet? I mean really really quiet?
Lately, I have been required to lead a really quiet life from a particular time of the day. There are so many reasons why someone might have to be quiet. Here are a few ranging from fairly common to quite dramatic:

• Your family members or housemates are asleep and you dont want to wake them;
• You are in the library;
• Your housemates are studying for a difficult exam;
• You are stealing without a weapon;
• You are trying to hide from a predator or an attacker.
  
• You are having a late night chocolate fix that hubby doesn't approve of.
• etc

My life is fairly simple at the moment so all the above reasons don't apply. The only reason I have to be quiet is that I'm usually awake till 2am and everyone else (or more precisely, the other two members of my nuclear family) are asleep.
Being quiet is really of great importance because those of you who are mothers understand the weight of this sentence - You dont want to be waking your baby up after you've spent like 2 hours to get her to sleep in the first place....not at 2am! Another things is that since Im on maternity leave, I can afford to go to bed by 2am. However, Kachi will strangle me (well not really, but he won't be impressed with me) if I wake him up around this time because he wakes up at 5.30am to go to work...and he finds it difficult to go back to sleep after being disturbed.
Dear friends, these are the conditions that hang over my poor little head when i'm frollicking on the internet or watching a movie till 2am.

Well I have been trying my best to be as quiet as I possibly can, but I have not been successful. Let me walk (or tiptoe) you through the process-----
I usually put Izabelle to sleep around 9pm but then she usually has a feed around 12pm. cool. The problem begins when I try to tiptoe out of her room (after the woooooooooo moment, remember?)...when I tiptoe, my toe knuckles make cracking noises(am I right to call them toe knuckles?). I have been thinking of a solution to this and asides from going for an ancient Chinese body detox and traditional medical treatment, the only other solution that I figured out was eating salmon. Yes, because I heard that Salmon had good oil in it and I assumed that it will lubricate my joints. (don't burst this bubble if you're a medical professional though because the lie that I dont know might continue to work for me).
My noise problem continues because as I head back for my computer, I decide that its time for a night snack, since the last time I ate was around 8pm. At this time of night my fave snack is a cup of Milo. So I tiptoe noisily to the kitchen and open the fridge door. Oops, my fridge door makes a popping sound when I open it, however, its noisy sin pales in comparison to the next one that is about to be committed by the Microwave!
I really wish I didn't' need Mrs Microwave's services at this time of night, but I love to warm up some milk and then stir in my Milo. That's the way I love it. So even though I cringe when the microwave door opens noisily, the major sin of the night happens when the microwave beeps. OMG, in the dead of the night, my microwave's beeps sound like SIRENS!!!
I even try to reduce the duration by stopping the thing at 0.01 seconds but I still end up with 2 beeps - Stop and Clear.
I recover from this pretty quickly though because I've still got the milo and that gives me enough reason to forgive the multitude of sins committed by my inanimate electronics. However, the night is still young and more noise is yet to be committed.
One is by my computer when I switch it off, however the one that I dread the most (that is, second to the Microwave beeps) is the ceiling fan switch. I reckon it sounds like the cracks of a horse whip and there are usually T-W-O that need to be switched off. (please remind me why I bother to sleep late?)
As you can see, my quest for the silent mode is well placed. The only reliable inanimate friend I've got in my house is my little nokia phone because its got the SILENT MODE!! This means that even though i'm lying right beside Kachi, I can text myself to sleep without waking him up. Just out of curiousity, have you tried to text in the dead of the night? Try it...you wont realise how loud your keypads are until you do.
Having the silent mode option in my phone made me wonder,"why does my microwave not have a silent mode button?" I mean, its great that It likes me to know when my food is ready and all, but at 2am, I'm standing right in front of it and really can't afford that luxury.
Also, if my fans had a remote control, I could switch them off without having to wake everybody! Iwouldn't mind a fridge that I could open discreetly either.

I would like to believe that these techonological suggestions already exist (I have a standing fan that has a remote control), so I have made the decision to do some research into these solutions.
I'm optimistic that I will find positive results, and I will make sure that I save these results and pictures of the electronics with such features in a folder in my computer because I've got a plan.
My plan is that on the day that Kachi will tell me, "baby, I've been thinking 'long' and 'hard' on this and I think that it is time for us to buy or BUILD a house", I"ll respond with, " WOW, OMG, THAT IS SOOOO GREAT. Hang on, I've already compiled a list of NEW stuff that need to go in the NEW house!" and then I'll fish this list out!

I'm not sure how many years it'll take for the above scenario to play out so at the moment I'll just keep eating my salmon and dreaming about my brand new 'silent mode button' enhanced electronics!

My silent, triumphant WOOOOOOOOOOOOOS

Being at home on maternity leave for 6 months has meant that I have developed some new habits. Recently I noticed one particular habit that I think is worthy of note because its ...a bit stupid.
I call it 'My silent, triumphant woooooooos'. If you're wondering what a wooooooo is, its that shout of delight when something you like happens...like-" we're going to Hawaii next week, WOOOOOOOOOOOOO", or "we're getting married tomorrow, WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" (the length and frequency of the woooos also depends on how exciting the thing is, like going to Hawaii vs getting married tomorrow!)
Ok, so 'My silent, triumphant woooooooooos' are the same wooooooooooos, only that I have to jump, wave my hands in the air, and shout my wooos quietly.....thats right, the person in the next room wouldn't even be able to hear me!

I have noticed a couple of things that culminate in these silent woooooooooos.
The first one that comes to mind would be when I have gone through my obstacle course for the day. You see, when I wake up everyday, I have a list of things that I HAVE TO DO and things that I LOVE TO DO. Things that I HAVE TO DO are stuff like dishes, housecleaning, filling up water bottles for the fridge, going through the mummy-daughter ritual that gets Izabelle to sleep around 11.00 am (her morning bath, morning feed, some playtime, some time watching her favourite TV station which actually is my favourite TV station for her, some more feeding , then sleep), having my shower, making lunch/dinner or both, and making my bed.
Things that I LOVE TO DO in no order of priority include watching cartoons with a glass of juice, facebooking, blogging, just hanging out on the internet doing nothing necessarily innovative, reading a nice book ( i haven't done that in a while though), or going back to sleep.

Naturally, I have to do the things that I HAVE TO DO before I get to do the things that I LOVE TO DO. This is where the obstacle course theory stems from. The obstacles to doing the things that I LOVE TO Do are the things that I HAVE TO DO.
I dont necessarily hate the things that I have to do, but because my brain has classified them as chores because they are things that I cannot decide not to do, I find myself preferring the things on the I love to do list. That said, I can predict that when stuff like facebooking find their way into my list of things I HAVE TO DO... (i'm not sure how that can happen) it will become less preferred than things that remain on the other list.

My first woooooooooooooooo of the day comes when I have successfully put Izabelle to bed. WOOOOOOOOOOOO. that is usually a major feat because she is quite sociable and tries to stay awake for as long as possible. so after putting her down in her cot, I stand beside and watch her for about 20 seconds and if she's having a successful sleep, I ritualistically throw my hands in the air, and WHISPER WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
i must say that the quietness of these triumphant shouts in no way dampen the victory I feel at those moments!
My second woooooooooooo of the day comes when I've successfully finished the dishes and sterilising the bottles...WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...I have to be quiet though because we dont want to destroy the first woooooooo by waking baby! The burst of energy i get from this second wooooooooooooo is able to carry me through my morning shower and making the bed....and on to the final WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....because now, and only now can I do the things I like to do without any chores hanging over my head.
I usually dont mind if Izabelle wakes up now though, because she is rested and happy enough to be independent on her bouncer.
As i will be starting work in about 3 weeks (where did the months go?!), I wonder if these wooooooooooooos will find their way into my office....I'll let you know if they do and what the reaction of anyone who caught me was.
Till then, I am firmly committed to my daily silent, triumphant wooooooooooooos.