Chapter Seven: Heartbeat.

It took me a good five to eight minutes processing the test result alone in the bathroom and I was excitedly nervous, if that made any sense. 🤷‍♀️ I ran outside and called my sister in law’s name repeatedly, “Balqisss! Balqissssssss!” then she ran out of her room and panickly asked what happened. I showed her the strip and she shrieked of excitement!

My husband opened our bedroom door and asked, “what’s the result?” Then, I gave him the strip, there was a puzzled look on his face and he asked me again, “what does three lines mean?” Lol. I cried and laughed at the same time and told him there were only two lines and said “I’m pregnant!” He sat quietly for a minute then hugged me and said, “alhamdulillah.”

We told the rest of his family, including his nephews and nieces, they were all excited! I was still shaking from the shock but managed to send the strip showing two visible lines to them, while I personally message both my parents. They were all overjoyed!

The following week, my husband dropped me off at Clinic Rimba, husbands or family members were not allowed to enter the premise due to ongoing pandemic at the time. The nurse asked me to fill in all my details and gace me a queue number. After my number was called out, they handed me the Maternal and Child Health Handbook. The frontdesk lady told me to wait for a few weeks and I will receive an automated message for my first appointment, along with the time and date.

It took about a month and my first appointment was on 20th May 2020. My first appointment was mostly reagrding my last period, weight and other personal details. They calculated how many weeks I was in and when will my due date be. I was already in my eight weeks at that time. My due date was said to be on 27th December 2020. My first and second appointments were uninteresting, because both appointments were mostly questions about me, such as my first blood intake and checking my urine, whether it’s okay or not.

The third appointment was somewhat special and emotional. I didn’t expect to be listening to my baby’s heartbeat on 13th July 2020. I was excited yet nervous at the same time. When the nurse was able to locate the baby’s heartbeat, it was a relief. I cried while listening to my unborn baby’s heartbeat, it was a surreal moment. I thought I’d never become a mother so soon or ever.

Semester break was almost over and by the time it was, I was around four to five months pregnant. I remember I was not confident to attend Uni while being this pregnant, mostly because I thought it would be difficult for me to follow up with my studies and the dilemma of how-many-modules-I-should-be-taking this semester have started (again)...