Braxton Hicks With My Second Baby

by: Robelyn M. Yambao

Different Pregnancy Symptoms (Comparison)

​Being pregnant is such a joyous experience for mothers like me. It is such a blessing to have a such gift from God to carry a child in my womb. I have 2 beautiful daughters that I conceived with such a big difference in comparison of signs and symptoms. 

My First Baby

A.      Signs and Symptoms
In 2014, I gave birth to a beautiful daughter in the Philippines. That was my first time to have a baby so, anything about it was magical and exciting. When I conceived her, I thought I was just having cravings for food. I missed my period but I was not expecting that I was pregnant because I sometimes missed my period so, that thing was normal for me. Until, I couldn’t explain what was happening to me. I felt sickness like flu. I have a suspicion that I was pregnant because of the signs I was having for few days after I missed my menstruation. I tried the over- the-counter PT to make it sure that I was not mistaken in my gut feelings. I was right! It was positive. The early signs I’ve experienced were the following:
·         Missed period
·         Cravings for food (I craved for Pancit Canton)
·         Acidic tummy
·         Feeling sick like flu, fever or headache
So, I was pregnant. My tummy was not big, people can’t tell especially when I wore lose clothes. The bump showed up not until 6 months. The entire pregnancy was such a cool experience. I never complained about any pain, I even did not vomit. At the early stage, I gag but I never threw up my food and it disappeared quickly. My only complain was feeling tired, slow in moving and having an acidic tummy. I felt like I’m useless. When I reached the 8th-9th month, I had a beri-beri, swollen feet.
B.      Pre-Natal
I did not go to clinic for my pre-natal in the early stage of my pregnancy. I started to visit a doctor when I reached my 6th month. I went to a lying-in clinic in Las Pinas, Philippines, a walking distance from my apartment for pre-natal. My doctor gave me prescription of Multivitamins(pre-natal) for me and Folic Acid for my baby. These were the meds I need to take daily for the entire pregnancy period. The clinic gave me records of my check up with them and schedules of my future monthly visit. They advised me to get lab tests such as blood and urine tests plus ultrasound. I did it all the instructions, but I did not take all the vitamins because it gave me an upset tummy. On my 8th month, I got UTI, so my doctor gave me cefalexin to cure it.
C.      Delivering My First Born (Signs of Contractions)
The exact date of delivering a baby is not fixed. So, I was just waiting for the right time before going to the clinic and I didn’t have idea when would that be. The due was first week of June as what the doctor said but I gave birth on the last week of May. Midnight of May 26, 2014 I went to toilet for the call of nature. I saw blood stain in my underwear after I pee. I was a bit worried, but I ignored it. When I went back to bed, I couldn’t sleep because I felt a little pain in my tummy. I didn’t know that was the start of the contraction. At 3am, I arrived at the clinic because I thought I was having a baby. I broke my water as soon as I reached the clinic, the doctor told me that I’m going to have the baby at noon time. The pain in my tummy became stronger and closer to each interval. Until, I gave birth at 8am through normal delivery. So, I waited only 5 hours to have my baby and I stayed in there for another 10 hours to rest before leaving the clinic.

My Second Baby

A.Signs and Symptoms
I conceived my second baby girl after 3 years. I was 30 years old then when I had my first born. This time, I thought I was having a baby boy because I felt different. Completely different from my first experience. The symptoms I had were the following:

• Flu and headache
• Missed period
• Dizziness
• Vomiting every morning
• Always hungry
• UTI
• Sleepy
• Acidic tummy
• Burping
• Constipation
• Body pain (hips, back, cervix, tummy)

Every morning I vomit. After my every meal I threw up. Every night I felt dizzy. I didn’t want my husband to move too much in our bed. I wanted to lay in bed all the time and sleep. When my tummy became big and heavy after 6 months, my body pain became irritating. I complained about pain in my back, hips, and cervix. I couldn’t walk properly. During my 8th-9th month, I experienced Braxton hicks contractions all the time. I couldn’t sleep on my back, should always be on right and left sides to be comfortable. I couldn’t stand up without my husband’s helping hands. I also burp too much especially at night time when laying down in bed.
B.Pre-Natal
My Pre-Natal was so good. I availed the free service of the Costa Rica health care where they registered me and my baby in their system to get free check-up, ultrasound, lab tests and vitamins. I started my check-up in the Philippines one month of my pregnancy. In our hometown, I paid doctor’s fee of 400 pesos and got the lab tests for another fees. Also the ultrasound was around 1000 pesos. In Costa Rica, all free in public health care even giving birth. I tried the private clinic for one of my ultrasounds and I paid 38000 colones.
C.Giving Birth
The night before giving birth, I saw a brown stain in my underwear. It looked like blood stain but not light or reddish. I felt Braxton hicks again, so I started to observe the interval of the pain by checking the time. Until, I fell asleep and the pain was gone. The next day, everything was back to normal. Though the stain of blood still coming out. After our lunch, I felt the pain of my tummy again. I thought of Braxton hicks was attacking me. But, that was already the start of my real labor. At 1 p.m., when a little pain got started, I jotted down the time interval and it was 20 minutes each interval for an hour. In the next hour, the interval of pain became 15 minutes. Then, it continued the next hour for the interval of 10 minutes and the pain became stronger. At 5 p.m., I decided to go to hospital because I was not comfortable anymore in handling the pain. We packed our things and headed to emergency. We arrived in the hospital at 6 p.m. and I gave birth at 8.30 p.m. In this experience, my water didn’t break immediately. All blood was coming out first then, after 1 and half hours of pain my water broke up, then my baby came out after few minutes of pushing.
I delivered both of my babies through a normal delivery. But, both were completely different in my entire pregnancy period. I never breastfed my first born, I fed her with formula milk while my second baby was breastfed. Another experience to share for a first-time mom like me was the pain in breastfeeding and the sacrifice I need to do every night. That's part of being a mom but everything is worth it.
I hope you guys can gain some info with what I’ve shared here about pregnancy. Thank you for visiting my site. Please share if you think this is helpful.