My mother-in-law asked me to not get pregnant until after our USA trip in November 2014.

“We’re going to Universal Studios (in Florida),” she advised, “It would be a pity not to get on many of the rides just because you’re pregnant.”

Needless to say, immediately after going on our last wild amusement ride, she said, “Now, you can get pregnant.”

Uhhhhh… okay…They’re very matter-of-fact, my family.

I got pregnant in January 2015 without a hitch. I bought a pregnancy test and when it came positive, I found a box, and placed the positive test onto it and placed a ribbon on top of the box.

My husband’s birthday was also in January so what better birthday gift was it than to announce the news that he’s going to be a father!

We had a luxurious dinner at Vask in BGC to celebrate his birthday. The decor was so simple, and the food was so-so and tasted like the sea. But husband was ecstatic about the news, so it all balanced out.

But to make the experience worse, I promptly experienced LBM afterwards in the evening.

Three days later, I started to bleed profusely.

I bled for four whole days.

Chunks of blood… I was using heavy-duty pads the whole time.

At first, I couldn’t believe it. “Maybe it’s just spotting,” I thought. But when it bled even more, I knew we lost the baby.

Till this day, I don’t know if it’s because of the semi-fresh food we ate at Vask.

“The baby was not supposed to live,” my husband consoled me. “I cannot cry over a baby who’s not physically viable. There’s no relationship yet.”

But women who experienced a miscarriage can understand — no matter how small the baby is in your womb, you still feel emptiness inside. It’s a hollow feeling.

A feeling of loss.

I was sad when I found out the baby was gone. Even if I wasn’t that maternal, I still felt bad we lost our baby.

I went to a famous OB and he declared that yes, we have indeed lost the baby. But given that the baby was so small, there was no need to scrape me out, and we could just produce another one without any issues.

“Come back to me after 3 or 4 months if you’re not pregnant,” he said. “Try doing it the natural way first.”

God was so good that after that bleeding caused by my miscarriage on January 2015, I didn’t bleed again.

That meant that after the bleeding, my uterus was clean and I got pregnant afterwards through normal means.

We couldn’t believe it — how could I get pregnant so quickly after a miscarriage?

That is why I cannot answer doctors when they asked me when the baby was conceived. After the baby was lost, another baby took its place, and we have little clue when it was conceived.

That’s Little Pea’s ultrasound at 10 weeks 3 days. Doesn’t she look like a little hamster in this photo? 🙂

Even with the good news, I was deathly afraid of losing this little one once again. If we lost a baby once, we could lose this one again.

But praise God, this baby was so strong. And ensured that my pregnancy was as smooth as can be.

When I was pregnant, I experienced ZERO nausea, morning sickness, or food cravings. Everything was as if I was NOT pregnant.

I carried on work as if I wasn’t pregnant and even went through rigorous mall visits. Sure, my appetite did increase a little — from half rice, my appetite can now cover 1 cup of rice — but aside from that, nothing really changed.

Everyone was afraid for me. They held me while I was going down the stairs, and held my arms as I walked briskly on water puddles.

But the baby, our Little Pea, was such a trooper.

For one, she was normal and healthy — I had to hold my breath while they did our prenatal congenital scan. Given that I’m in my mid-30s, there was always the risk of Down Syndrome, but literally praise God that she was okay.

Two, she was so strong and healthy that not only didn’t she bother me, but she kept on strong and held on even after subjecting her to many tests. For example, when I was 7 months pregnant on my birthday, I insisted on going to Corregidor Island on a boat.

I didn’t know that pregnant women should NOT ride on boats at the risk of miscarriage. It was very very ignorant of me. To top it off, there was a storm that weekend, and we were stuck in Corregidor Island for 5 days.

Hence, the water was choppy, and my mother was screaming at me for subjecting the baby to unnecessary danger and bringing her to an island where hundred of thousands of soldiers DIED.

Okay, so I forgot about that — as a Christian, I don’t believe in ghosts. Also, I believe that the Lord was watching over us all the time.

In the end, all my mother’s fears were for naught, and we got home safe with the baby still intact.

As I’ve said, with this baby, everything went smoothly.

The only thing that bothered me was that I had to eat an extra snack in the afternoon, and some days of sleepiness when I just had to take a nap in the middle of the afternoon.

At the 6th month, my hands experienced some tingling and I felt my arms and hands cramped, especially on my right side.

On my 7th to 8th month, my feet started getting swollen and pimply and irritating. My feet ballooned and became really ugly. I had to wear my loose Crocs just to get anywhere.

Here’s an ugly photo of my feet for posterity — sorry about that.

But overall, I was very lucky.

Aside from my cramped hands and ugly feet, everything was normal and I was still working hard up to the day of my delivery in December 2016.

So it’s true what they say, “When God opens the door, He opens a window.”

Our first baby left us to some sorry, but I think he/she prepared the way for our Little Pea. If our first baby lived, he/she may have some sort of birth defect. It was that our first baby was not strong enough to survive.

But our Little Pea was such a trooper from Day 1. She truly is a blessing from God. And as we look at her today, more advanced than her age and hitting all her milestones correctly, we cannot help but praise the Lord for His great plans for us.

So as I go back to sleep, I thank Him. Thank Him for giving me more than what I deserve. For giving me my lovely husband and our little girl.

Even in tragedy, the Lord reveals His great plans to us. And for this, I am very grateful.

What more can a mom ask for?