My Confinement Experience

I’m a Moon and I called my daughter Baby Moon. Her name is Jun Ling and now she is 3-year old. She is no longer a baby but a toddler.

My pregnancy experience with my girl was wonderful because I totally had no morning sickness. I didn’t feel like vomit or no appetite. I just felt normal and the only small problem was I felt giddy in the morning sometimes and easily get tired.

The really nightmare of mine was the month of confinement. According to Chinese custom, during the confinement month, we cannot wash hair, cannot take shower, cannot even “touch” the water. These are just the very basic and there are more “rules” like no air-con, no fan, no plain water, no drinking while standing etc.

Since my mom was doing the confinement for me and taking care of my baby, she really did a good job in reminding me of all these “cannot do”. So, I cannot take shower (don’t mention about wash hair), cannot drink plain water (only ginger, longan, red dates soup), must sit down while drinking, and the “worst” for me was I need to take Chinese herb from day 1 of confinement to day 30.

My mom had brought some Chinese confinement herb and it was packed into 30 packs. The taste of the herb was bitter but luckily there are two types of herb,  one is bitter and the other tasted better (only a bit less bitter)

This is not the worst, my mom got another “recipe” herb and that’s the worst (the most bitter). This herb is mainly from the juice of ginger plus the Chinese pills. So, just imagine you are drinking a pure ginger plus melted pills. Eeeee…

Well, I would say that this is really a good “recipe” that can keep away the stomach wind and also keep the tummy flat. I regained my flat tummy after two months and it seems no sign of gave birth. That’s really worth for the “bitter” for the month.

Other than the Chinese herbs, I encountered sleeping problem during the confinement month. I couldn’t sleep well at night, especially slept with my baby who needed to breastfeed every two to three hours. I hardly get back to sleep again and that made me felt tired throughout the day.

I felt so uncomfortable when couldn’t take shower and felt frustrated with my oily hair. I really want to thank my mom who was so patience to clear my oily hair with the wine and also use the hair dryer to dry the hair every few days.  I could feel the love of a mother especially after I being a mom myself.

My mom also advised and reminded not to sit too long, not to watch TV and not to read during the month. According to her grandma, sit too long is not good for the waist and might cause waist ache in the future. While watching and reading are not good for the eye sight. I had to follow her rules and I felt a bit depressed during the month.

I felt frustrated and depressed easily especially when I couldn’t get sleep at night time. My hubby really showed his tender care to me and the baby. He came home punctually after work and even cooked for me the confinement meals. He showed his love with his action and asked me to rest more and don’t think too much.

The confinement experience was really a good?! one! Now I’m expecting my No.2 and I would follow the same confinement custom of my mom. My grand grandma ever told my mom and now my mom told me, “it’s suffering for a month but stay healthy for the life time.” Many “No” but good for my healthy, “bitter” but good for my body and shape!

A Brief Introduction / Bio

Moon Loh is a Mompreneur and has home based internet business. She believes moms can have own life and enjoy financial freedom while spending time with the family members. Her motto is “There is a Will, there is a Way!” and she shares her learning curves and experiences of being a Mompreneur at Mompreneur Asia.