Bittersweet Memories

Talking about being pregnant with my ex-schoolmate (who just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl) and ex-colleague (who is in her third trimester now) brought back some bittersweet memories when I was pregnant myself. Lots of memories, but these stood out the most.

On my 3rd month, my sister found my 4 year old nephew unconscious in the pool. He was on life support for 3 days, and the doctors couldn't give us any certainty that he would make it. Tears, grief and dark clouds surrounded our family. On the fourth day, God Almighty, my nephew woke up. For the first time ever, I believed in miracle.

On my 4th month, I got hospitalized for 4 days due to food poisoning after having satay at R&R Dengkil. That was my first time getting admitted into a hospital.

On my 5th month, due to the crazy pregnant women's hormones, a small misunderstanding with my mother lead to a huge, huge fight. Lots of shouts and tears, it was ugly. But we patch things up the next day. I'd have to say, that fight made our relationship better now.

On my 6th month, I was stopped by a man as I was about to go up to my office. He asked me whether I work there, passed me a projector and requested for me to hand it to my boss. The projector was heavy. I thought to myself,

"WTF is he thinking asking a pregnant woman carry this heavy thing?!"

But I kept my mouth shut and carried the darn thing up to the office. Later in the day, my boss came up to me and said that the man (who was his friend as it turned out) texted him saying:

"I passed the projector to the hot chick who works at your office."

That left me speechless for a minute there. So I guess he didn't notice me from the neck down. Either that, or he has a thing for pregnant women (which is a bit creepy if he does!).

On my 7th month, I stopped by Petronas on my way back home from work. It was 7pm. After filling the fuel, my car wouldn't start. The battery died. Oh, the joy it was. The alarm went off like mad, and all I got was looks and glances from other customers and workers who were mostly men. I tried calling my husband (who was still at the office) but there was no answer. I figured he must be praying as it was Maghrib time. After a good 5 minutes of me struggling, a man came up to me and said,

"Your car battery is dead"

and went off, not offering any help. Well, thank you for stating the obvious, mister. In the end, I called up my husband's friend who lives nearby the petrol pump. He showed up 5 minutes later and jump start my car. My lifesaver. God bless him.

And throughout the whole 9 months of being pregnant, there were only two times that someone let me jump the queue. Once was a man at the kedai makan, and the other one was a woman in a pharmacy. So much for getting special treatment for being pregnant, huh? Also, not to mention countless of dirty/weird looks from strangers (mostly Malays), as if saying,

"She's pregnant?? She looks young! Is she already married? Or is it a love child??"

Or maybe it was just me being perasan.