A day in life of an expecting mom

Dear MooMoo,

I started taking maternity leave about two weeks ago, which I believe was a responsible decision both professionally and personally. So far I’ve put on additional 40 pounds — this has exceeded the recommended weight gain and I needed to roll myself out of the car (or anything) starting months ago. I liked my job as it gave me pride and the check, but really it would have exhausted me if I had chosen to work until the last minute (perhaps I’ll do that for the next one).

While you are at work, both your mindset and physical being are adjusted to catch up with the daily industrial world, and prior to taking my maternity leave, I have set up some goals for myself to maintain a constant state of learning. I hoped that I could take some online courses on data science (or anything) that while I was at work I would not have the energy to take. I also hoped that I would be constantly reading books (especially on parenting) to better prepare myself for you.

The first week of maternity leave was filled with a lot of naps, snacks, and guilt and anxiety. Besides spending hours on phones dealing with the telephone company on the billing mistake (which has not been totally resolved), I spent most of the time feeling empty about not doing anything productive, and tried to fill in the emptiness with a lot of food that according to the internet would be good for my unborn. At some point I realized that I had set up some goals while I was working and that the my not-in-a-working-mode self should be listening to the then my in-a-working-mode self if I ever want to go back to work, which I do and need to. Therefore by the second week, I started to get into some routine that would keep me moving.

Here’s a list of things that I did yesterday (Sunday).

6:30 am — woke up and have my morning snack

6:50 am — counted the fetas’ movement while checking on emails and social media

7:50 am — done counting the fetas’ movement and did some light housework

8:50 am — had breakfast (took a photo of the breakfast and sent it to my mom before that)

9:00 am — Read a few pages of Ali Wong’s Dear Girls

Daddy woke up and helped to do the dishes, during which he asked if I would like to go somewhere as I have mentioned multiple times how much I wanted to have some beautiful artistic pregnancy photos taken. I was like Yay of course so I spent the next two hours searching on Internet for places to go and ideas of pregnancy photos. In between I got hungry again and had the second (or third?) snack and changed several times trying be both comfortable and decent.

11:10 am — headed out to the White Rock Pier

We had a good time in the beautiful small town. We found an ice cream shop that featured local organic milk (I hoped it’s also food safe) with a lot of cow decorations, and on one the tank decoration we saw the name “MooMoo” on it — we took a photo of mommy’s belly and the tank :) If only there could be less people on that day or if more people there could be simultaneously wearing masks that would have been even greater.

2 pm — grocery and bubble tea shopping. Daddy and I negotiated how many cups of bubble tea I could have and we settled (me unwillingly) on two (and one of them was actually fruit tea but daddy argued it’s still a sugary drink).

4 pm — went back home and took a bath.

5 pm — made my daily red-date drink. I have been making this drink every day since my mat leave, in the hope that this would actually help with your development.

6 pm — started the movie Inception. I have this habit of checking on my cell phone while watching movies at home so I gave daddy warnings that I might do the same. But I didn’t. It was a good movie with a good and clean story line and Tom Hardy is so hot. During the movie I felt this pain that kept coming back and forth that at a point we thought was contraction. It was not and after the movie the pain was also gone.

9 pm — we finished the movie and I started making my green bean desert. I’m so proud of having been able to figure out how to make it that I might share the recipe one day.

9:30 pm — called my parents. Talking to my parents these days is a constant back and forth between how they wanted me to prepare the traditional cantonese food for myself after the delivery. After getting my big fat no they would turn to daddy and requested the same. Daddy would then say of course in a happy tone without realizing the steps involved in making those delicious and complicated food. And at the end everyone was pleased except for me.

10 pm — started a new novel from my favourite author.

11:30 pm — checked your heartbeat.

The time indicated above was approximate and in between instilled my constant anxiety about the labour scenario, whether or not we’ve got what’s needed for the newborn, and my past regrets.

I’m glad that we got to do all of these with you, in a way.

Much love,

Mom