quirks of a big bellied woman

i never really believed in things like "paglilihi" where a pregnant woman asks for incredulous things like a pineapple with no eyes or a smooth guyabano or a purple ponkan. i thought it was just a woman's way of getting back at her husband for making her big and miserable.

when i got pregnant in 2007--wait are you waiting for me to say that i finally believed in paglilihi

because i experienced the same thing? no, i never really asked mike to get me some weird fruit from some alien planet.

but what i do remember is having adverse reactions on food that i was normally fond of. like shawarma, for example, i hated that food so much that i secretly cursed the woman selling shawarma in a stall in mrt shaw boulevard station each and every day that i went to work.

(i know she was just doing her job and she wasn't doing anything bad to me but i was a big bellied woman with an irrational mind, so sue me)

i also hated bagoong, which used to be my favorite. but because i was stubborn, i tried to resist this aversion and i still ate bagoong a few times. my baby never accepted it and once it reached my tummy, baby throws and returns it back to the sender.

the only thing my stomach would accept in the realm of fastfood s and restaurant during the peak of my morning sickness pregnancy stage was a 1 piece burger steak from jollibee. take note, 1 piece only. 2 pieces would be a different story.

good thing, i didn't have any aversions towards homemade cooking as long as i cooked the food myself.

as for "paglilihi" per se, the only real craving i had was for a pair of twin popsies (chocolate flavor) which i MUST have in one way or another every after i had my routine check up with my ob-gyne.

i still didn't want to call it paglilihi back then. i thought of it more as a routine like it was a standard procedure in a maternity check-up--blood pressure check, weight check, internal examination, twin popsies.

the most bizarre part of this concept that many old folks believe is that your baby becomes what you eat. for example, if you ate kambal na saging, you would get twins. if you ate a fried frog, your baby would say "kokak" instead of cry.

as a kid, i remember watching inday badiday's eye to eye show where she sometimes featured babies with abnormalities which are purportedly caused by the paglilihi of their mothers.

in one episode, i saw a baby that was covered with hair all over. his mother said it was because she ate too many baluts when she was pregnant.

my baby did not become twins just because i love twin popsies but a neighbor said that is the reason why his skin is chocolate-y :)

from what i know, there is no medical explanation for paglilihi and for all i know, it is probably just a coincidence that your baby resembles your favorite pregnant food. true or not, the important thing is that you choose to crave for foods that will not be harmful to your little one. :D