Confinement

Confinement…yes, the experience is literally what it means and worse. I never thought I would follow all these old wives practice but I did (to some extent). For me, the most horrible part is not being able to wash my hair. I waited 2 weeks before my 1st wash and the 2nd wash in another two weeks, and I had to wash it with a type of herbal water. It took 3 shampoos to rid of all the grease. Not to be gross, the first shampoo did not yield any bubble. I ate so much of the “warm food” such as ginger root, sesame seed oil and warm soup that my body felt warm all the time. I would wake up in the middle of the night with my t-shirt drenched in sweat. If it is true that my body is just trying to get rid of the extra fluid, that is great, common sweat! I did not eat much veges because veges are believed to cause gas.

Ironically, this turns out to be quite true. This is what happened, after my 1 month of confinement, I started eating normal again with veges. Ian started to experience gassiness a couple times a day. It took me a couple days to figure out that veges indeed caused the gas, which was passed on to him. This was later confirmed by Ian’s doctor…veges full of fiber can indeed cause gas. And I was eating prunes daily to avoid constipation. I did not drink plain water; instead, I had to substitute plain water with warm ‘red dates water’. This is such a hassle.

Ever heard of baby blues? Yes, it happened to me for the first 10 days of so, as much as I thought I lack of the female hormone. I experienced all those things described in books and magazines, cries easily, feeling blue, feeling inadequate as a mother, forgetfulness, restlessness, etc… The confinement period made the blues worse.

All in all, I did not follow all the confinement rules to the T and maybe my body will suffer the consequences years later? Here are a few things that I violated during my confinement month.

· I drank plain water occasionally and gallons of it when I was at the hospital because I was told by the nurses.
· I drank semi-cold ‘red dates water’ when I was too lazy to warm it up.
· I had a cup of overpriced-cold-taro-boba tea that my hubby bought for me. Hey, it was my birthday and I was confined in the house, so I deserved a treat :)
· I ate some honeydew (honeydew belongs to the melon family and is thought to be ‘cold’ to the body)
· I wet my feet everyday though I did not shower.
· I ate some veges when no one was watching (just a little that it did not cause Ian any gas problem)
· I cleaned the bathroom a couple times although I am supposed to rest as much as possible. I have high cleanliness standards…what can I say.
· I washed my hair before the month was up. Salute to all those women who waited a month to do so.
· I had the fan blowing at me most of the time. Let me explain, my body temperature was so high all the time from all the ‘warm’ food that I ate. The fan was only on low setting.
· I wore shorts and a tank for the first couple days until I was told not to. FYI, it was the hot month of September.

So whatcha say, I did pretty good huh, just a few violations :) Like the Car Talk Show on NPR, you have just wasted a perfect hour (or less) reading this posting. Till next time…