Hi readers! I’m back with my second blog about my pregnancy/childbirth/motherhood journey. Moms on here, do feel free to let me know of yours 🙂

I have heard so many stories of women’s individual pregnancy journeys. Some of them were understandable, and others I found hard to believe. Of course, I later learned that until you experience some things, you may never fully understand or believe them. I even did my own research just to try to understand how some of the reported experiences were even possible. God blessed me with a beautiful baby boy and now well, I have my own gestation testimony.

So many changes take place in a pregnant woman’s body due to hormones and their instructions, understandably so. Some are expected, like the distending on the abdominal cavity in order to house the tiny human growing and developing in there, and as normal as that may seem, some women go through their entire pregnancy with no baby bump! Amazing!

May I just add that I was 15 weeks along, totally ignorant to that fact, with a six pack!

Enlarging of the breasts as the mammary glands begin to produce tons of milk. Swollen feet because of the enormous pressure that they are now under, with at least 25 pounds of extra weight. Other changes are sometimes categorized as strange, unexpected, and downright unique. Seeing that there are over 8 Billion people on the planet, what one may find unique to them may not at all be, but everyone still has a right to their own stories and experiences.

Here are a few things that happened to me during my pregnancy.

I Lost a tooth. Thank God it was only one! I had no weird cravings during my pregnancy. I usually crave chocolates and other sweets right before menstruation, so wanting those in my third trimester of pregnancy was not a surprise to me. Still, it was not an intense need for the sweet stuff, and I didn’t drive everyone crazy to find me candy. I binged on fruit to get the sugar that I wanted. I’d literally go to my regular supermarket (shout out to S-Mart again!) and the workers there would know that I came for all the fruit on the cold shelf. Salty cravings were at the beginning of my pregnancy when I didn’t even know that I was with child. All I knew was that I had a taste for salted fish, Johnny-cakes, cheesy stuff and salty butter. Well towards the end of my gestation, I was sitting at the table having dinner. Stewed chicken wings, rice and peas! Man, I was having a good old time when I felt a crunch. I automatically thought it was a piece of chicken bone, but that part of the chicken usually didn’t have any, unless the main bone was shattered. I spat it out because it was near impossible to crush, and to my surprise it was a huge piece of my tooth! I used my tongue to see which tooth it was, and when I found it, the sharp edge cut me. I proceeded to the bathroom to do a quick rinse so that I could attempt to check it out in the mirror and with the water that I spat out, came the rest of the tooth in tiny bits and shards.  My tooth had completely deteriorated and had fallen out! I was mortified! I’m a singer first of all, so teeth falling out was a NO NO! My mom told me not to panic, that these things happen. Ok, but I was worried. I thought that it was as a result of my cravings which to me were not that intense. How many of my teeth were going to crumble and fall out? I visited my doctor later that week and told him about it. He too said it was something that some women experienced. Some babies suck up calcium and other nutrients from their mothers faster than the mother’s body can compensate for and so it results in compromise. This is also common with big babies and boy were they right! Along with my pre-natals, even if there was already some in there, I started taking calcium pills to give my baby all that he wanted, hoping that he would leave the rest of my teeth alone. Thank God that tooth was at the back!

On a good note, the Asthma that made my body a home (for I refuse to say “MY”asthma) reduced its vicious attacks on my respiratory system. It is said that some things get worse before they get better. I’ve battled asthma for a long time. I wasn’t born with it but developed it when I was about 9 years old. I have no idea what the cause was, but over time I believe that have learned my triggers (some of them definitely people! *rolling eyes smiley*) Depending on what I do and where I am, I get horrible, repeated attacks. It is also believed that according to what is ingested, more mucous production can lead to attacks as well. During my pregnancy I had a new type of experience with asthma. In my first and second trimester, I was fine really. We got an air purifier that cleaned out the dust and whatever else was in the air like magic! You felt the difference immediately after turning it on. My triggers would be smoke, dust, pollen, or an aftermath of allergies. In my third trimester, when my belly was huge and all my organs were pushed up to my chest, I went through it. I have heard pregnant women who were not asthmatic complain about the struggle to breathe, so I knew that I was in for it. There were nights where I could not bring myself to lie down. I would pace up and down the room, repeatedly using my portable nebulizer, trying to get my breathing under control. I could not take the herbs that I usually did during my pregnancy because they also affected the condition of the womb, some of them causing contractions and well, I did not want that. I ran through at least five Ventolin inhalers during my last three months of pregnancy, and when my son was born, it was at if asthma had completely disappeared. I had no attacks for months and boy was I happy! I was really starting to believe that I was healed and even stopped buying asthma medication altogether. I was secretly worried that it might come back I guess, because when about 9 months post-partum, I was visited by my old friend. SMH!

Back to the X-Files stuff! My Skin became weird!!! This is probably the most interesting thing about my pregnancy. My skin became weird. Not in how it looked. It looked fine. In fact, my acne disappeared. I had had hormone issues, and therefore skin issues. I went through the entirety of high school with a riddled and spotted face. I still have a few scars today. I guess because menstruation was no longer an option, neither was acne, which for me went hand in hand. My face held an even tone, my pores appeared smaller and tighter, and breakouts were a thing of the past, no matter what I ate, used on my skin or how much I sweated. Bliss, until I noticed my skin’s texture change. I became the clay-woman. I would rest the cell phone on my lap while I did something else and when I was done and would lift it off, I’d have a rectangular impression on my thigh. I would have to peel the thing off like it was glued to my skin. The exact shape of the phone could be seen. If I were to rest my elbows unto my thighs, especially for a long time, I’d have two deep ones, and those would actually hurt.

E would sometimes come feel the baby’s kicks and movements, and sure enough, if he placed his head against my belly, or his hands on my legs, I would have a ear shape on my tummy and his fingers would sink into my skin and print. Everything left an impression in my skin, and the heavier the deeper the impression. I took pics of marks that, hair, ears, hands, pens, glasses, keys and coins left behind. Some of them took more than three hours to disappear. I was a pregnant cup of jello.

I finally achieved an insane water intake. I have never been a normal drinker of water. Even as a baby my mom said that she had to ensure that I took at least one drink a day. As an adult, I have apps on my phone that tell me to drink water. I’m talking plain water here. I do a lot of watered-down juice, or tea, fruits, coconut water etc. During my third trimester, which I’ll now call my gangster trimester because everything seemed to take place during my last three months, turned me into a fish! I saw myself drinking up to 10 glasses of water a day, and I’d run out and have to go refill during the night. Of course, I lived in the bathroom, always having to pee, but the heat that built inside of my body sent me drinking oceans. I hated days when I had to go to the capital city because I knew that every five minutes I’d need to pee. Thankfully, God took care of me. I was never turned away when I asked to use the bathroom at offices of supermarkets. Women ran to my rescue saying “I know how it is!” I tried to keep up the drinking of water after giving birth but I slowly weaned out of it. It’s better than before. I make the effort everyday to drink at least three glasses of plain water, but still go to my teas and fruits.  

Singing voice changed. **Insert scary drama music here***

I am a singer by profession. I have been singing for a long time and know my range quite well. I know when my voice is in great condition or the opposite and I also know what notes I am able to hit, and vice versa. I sincerely believe that I gained both higher and lower register notes. Singing certain songs became much easier for me. Where I used to struggle in both range and power, seemed effortless and I noticed it right away. Even now I am surprised when just casually singing to myself and I hit a not that I didn’t expect to. I find myself repeating it just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.

I am not sure if this is linked to the fact that asthma was no longer a major issue for me for the majority of my pregnancy, but I was happy with this change and tried to take advantage of it by recording some song ideas on my phone, but I was so bloody tired most of the time, I never really got around to it. I did however do my live performances at home for WUNC/ NPR Music and The Recording Academy/ The Grammys with my belly in tow! Links here:

ReImagined At Home: Watch Navy Inject Soul Into Billie Eilish’s Alt-Pop Hit “Everything I Wanted” (grammy.com)

Video Live Sessions: Navy – WUNC Music Session (npr.org)

Despite all of that, I am super grateful that I did not have a super difficult pregnancy and extra weird cravings. I have a healthy baby boy and life is as good as it gets. Thank you, Infinite Spirit.

Sincerely, a back-to-normal (well almost) Island Girl.