“Tessy, you’re pregnant?” she asked, moving closer to touch my belly as if she was a doctor
trying to examine it.
“Yes mum I’m pregnant,” I finally found the courage to say.
“What? You have killed me!” she screamed. Her screams caused Yemi to run into the
kitchen to find out what was wrong only for her to see my mum throwing tantrums like the
drama queen that she was.
“How did this happen?” she screamed, “is this an immaculate conception? Who is the
father?”
I didn’t even know which of her questions to start answering so I just stood there staring and
biting my nails.
“Answer me!” she shouted, “or am I talking to myself?”
“Mum, I’m not a baby anymore.” I reminded her, “I have the right to make my own decisions.”
“Is that so?” she screamed. “Let me tell you, you don’t have any right to make any decisions
until you’re in your husband’s house and the last time I checked, no one has come to pay
your bride price!” she ranted on. Like I said earlier, my mum is such a drama queen,
Angelina Jolie has nothing on her. As a matter of fact, she has been due for a Grammy
award for almost 34 years , I just haven’t found a way to get her nominated for one.
READ ALSO : Old Enough Yet Unmarried – Episode 33
Needless to say, after all her drama, I was able to calm her down and explain what
happened. She wasn’t happy about the fact that the man responsible for my pregnancy was
married and wouldn’t be involved in the upbringing of the kids but I assured her that I could
handle it on my own. She wasn’t totally convinced but she didn’t have much of a choice but
to accept, at least for a while. Eventually she forgot all her worries and was excited when
she heard I was expecting twins—she danced around for joy and couldn’t stop mentioning
how she couldn’t wait to finally be a grandmother.
Later I asked her why she came and she summed up the purpose for her visit by saying, “If
Tessy won’t go to the mountain, the mountain will come to Tessy,” and warned me that she
wasn’t going back to the village any time soon, especially since I was due for delivery in the
next few weeks, before picking up her bags and taking them to the guest room. I wasn’t very
excited to hear that and I began to wish I hadn’t been so mean to Mr. Frimpong in Ghana
when he had tried to chat me up—maybe he’d have been willing to let me stay in one of the
rooms in his hotel for free for the next few weeks because I was going to need it to keep my
sanity.
The next day I attended my antenatal clinic and the health talk for that day was on labour
and its stages… I’ll just share a bit of it with you because it’s something I think everyone
should know.
In simple terms, labour is basically the process of giving birth. It has 3 stages. In the first
stage, you start to feel contractions and the neck of your womb, called the cervix, opens
wide enough (dilates) to enable it to accommodate the baby’s head that will pass through.
The cervix starts from being fully closed to opening to a full 10cm wide and when this
happens, your doctor will tell you that you are fully dilated and it’s time to proceed to the 2nd
stage. The first stage is the longest, its length varies in different women from 8 to 12 hours or
more.
In the 2nd stage of labour, you’ll be asked to push when you feel contractions to deliver your
baby. It’s important not to push before you get to this stage no matter how tempted you are
or you may end up tearing your cervix and that would require surgical repair. Taking deep
long breaths rather than shouting the hospital down in between and while pushing helps a
lot. The 2nd stage should usually not last more than 1 to 2 hours.
The 3rd and final stage is the delivery of the placenta which comes shortly after the baby, so
don’t get too excited and start closing your legs once the baby is out because you still need
to deliver the placenta. This stage is usually the shortest and the least painful; it shouldn’t
last longer than 30 minutes. There you have it! Now you have an idea of what labour is all
about so when I go into labour it won’t be new to you.
I decided to do some baby shopping after my antenatal clinic and that was when I bumped
into Chinedu, one of my former suitors. He was one of those guys who would’ve given
anything to date me back in those days. He was actually a good guy, perfect definition of
husband material if there is any such term as that but I wasn’t ready for a serious
relationship back then, I just wanted to have fun so I didn’t take him seriously.
By the time other guys had “dealt with my emotions severely” and I was ready to settle
down, he was already married. I can’t deny that I regretted not dating him till today. I had to
live with the fact that I actually let a good guy pass me by.
Ladies, if you ever find yourself in a situation where a good guy is asking to date you, do
yourself a favour and accept to date him instead of keeping him in the friend zone because
tomorrow may be too late—take the advice from a sister who’s been there.
He appeared to be doing some shopping for a young boy who I figured must’ve been his
son. “Wow! Tess, it’s so good to see you,” he said smiling. “You look as gorgeous as ever.”
I do? I thought to myself—I didn’t think he’d still find me gorgeous in this pregnant state of
mine, maybe he was just trying to be polite because when I looked into the mirror, “balloon”
rang more of a bell than “gorgeous” to me.
“Thanks,” I replied.
“I see you’re expecting a baby too,” he said pointing at my belly. “Who’s the lucky guy you
finally decided to settle down with?” he asked, giving me a wink.
“There’s no guy actually,” I said, turning pink with embarrassment.
“Oh! Ok,” he said, looking clearly confused. There was an awkward silence for a few
seconds then I quickly turned to give the little boy beside him a handshake. He looked like
he was about 5 years old.
“Is this your son?” I asked.
“Yes he is,” he replied smiling. “His name is Sean.”
“Wow, that’s a nice name,” I said. “He’s so cute, I bet his mother must be really pretty,” I
added.
“Yeah she was,” he replied with a sad look on his face.
“She was?” I asked, looking confused, what did he mean by was? Last I checked, the
correct word should have been “is”.
“She’s dead now,” he went on. “She died 2 years ago while giving birth to his younger sister,
they both died,” he said.
“Ahh! I’m so sorry to hear that, please accept my condolences,” I said.
“It’s okay,” he replied, “That was 2 years ago, I’ve accepted it now.” He turned to face me
with a more serious look on his face. “Tess I’d like us to have lunch or dinner one of these
days, maybe this weekend perhaps? If you’re free?” he added. He looked at me with those
puppy eyes that brought back memories of the good old days we used to go on romantic
walks when he was asking me out. I could tell from the look in his eyes as he stood right
there in front of me that there was still a spark.
I was excited like a high-school girl who has just been asked on a first date… I couldn’t
believe my luck, was I really going to get a second chance at love with Chinedu after I had
messed up? I wanted to go ahead and say, “Sure why not, we could even go right now,” but I
played it cool instead and said “I think Saturday will be fine, I should be free from 5 pm.”
“That’s great,” he said. We exchanged numbers and said our goodbyes. “I’ll be at your place
by 4:59 pm on Saturday,” he said, giving me a hug.
“Ok I’ll be expecting you,” I said, trying not to smile so much.
“It’s a date,” he said smiling as he made his way to the next aisle with his son.
Boy! I can’t wait for Saturday, I haven’t been on a romantic date in ages…
Find out what happens next…