MuNa √ (COMPLETED)

#10 - CHANGING MY WORLD 😍

"Muna come o." Muna heard her stepmother call. She finished tying the wrapper over her stomach and walked gingerly to the sitting room. It had been two weeks since she gave birth and she still felt pain in her abdomen.

"When will this pain stop?" she asked her stepmother as she entered the room. Her stepmother was sitting on one of the couches with Zina in her arms as usual. Muna could count the number of times her stepmother had let someone else hold Zina since she was born on the fingers of one hand. Not that she was complaining. Apart from when she had to breastfeed, she had rarely held her daughter. In fact after giving birth to her she had expected to feel that overwhelming love and happiness and satisfaction that mothers always say they feel when they see their babies for the first time. Instead she had felt a mixture of relief and tiredness. Relief that she had given birth successfully and her baby looked fine both physically and facially. One of her biggest sources of happiness was from the fact that her baby had a full head of dark hair (she was never going to cut it!) and she barely looked like her runaway father. Yes she was petty! except for the dimples which she didn't mind at all.
Kesi's mother had called a day after she gave birth to inquire about the gender of the baby and had quickly hissed when she was told it was a girl. That was the last time they had heard from her and Muna wasn't mad about it. After seeing that her baby was fine, all she had wanted to do was sleep long and hard. She had been soooo tired. Even when Amara and her siblings had come to see her in the hospital, she hadn't been able to wait for them to leave so she could sleepppp.

"You've been asking me this question everyday. Are you still feeling as much pain as you felt when you were still in the hospital?" her stepmother inquired.

"No but I thought I'll no longer be feeling any pain by now." Muna answered sitting down gently on the single-seater couch beside the couch her stepmother was sitting on. It had become her breastfeeding couch.

"Mummy Mummy let me help you give Zina to Aunty Muna," Chisom asked, with her arms outstretched to take the baby from her mother. Chisom was twelve and the oldest of Muna's half-siblings.

"You want me to give her to you so that you'll fall her down?"

"I won't fall her! You don't allow anybody carry her. Mummy give me nah!"

Muna laughed because she knew Chisom was right. Her stepmother was OBSESSED with Zina. And it made Muna happy. First because her daughter was heavy! She weighed 3.5kg when she was born and just few days after she was already at 4kg. She had round cheeks, pudgy arms and legs. Muna didn't know where she got all that weight from and how she had hidden it while in the womb because her stomach hadn't grown
Muna hoped she would miraculously start walking at three months so that she would have to stop carrying her. Muna was also happy because it was exactly what her stepmother had promised her when she had spoken to her about her desire to keep the baby.

Muna remembered the conversation she had had with her aunt that Saturday after their first meeting with the couples at Hope for Children Agency.

***        ***             ***

"I don't know why I like Mr and Mrs Adeyinka but I think that's who we should go with." Muna's stepmother had announced as she and Muna stood in the kitchen that evening preparing dinner. Her aunt had been referring to the couple that already had three boys and were looking for a girl child.

"Hmmm" Muna had responded.
She didn't want to think of giving her child for adoption because the more she thought about it the angrier she became. After her stepmother had told her that cute little story about how she regretted aborting her own child, she was going to allow her give her own away?

"Which one is hmm you haven't said anything since we left the counselor's office. Which of the couples do you prefer? Shebi you're the one who's supposed to choose."

"I can't believe you're going to let me give my child up for adoption." she blurted out.

"I don't understand. Is it not better that we give this baby to people who need it than for you to abort it? I had to come up with this plan in order to stop you from trying to get rid of it again!" her stepmother whisper-shouted.

"Well what's the use? I'm still going to carry it till 9 months and everyone would know that I'm pregnant. That's why I wanted to remove it so nobody else would know."

"What are you saying?"

"I don't want to give the baby to anyone."

"Really?" her stepmother replied, her eyes sparkling.

"Yes."

"Oh Muna." her stepmother said hugging her.

"This child would have more love poured on it than it knows what to do with."

***            ***          ***

Muna knew that she had been kind of selfish for wanting to keep the baby and she was almost regretful of her decision sef because Zina never stopped crying. And at night. Like she practically sleeps all through the day, wakes up when she's hungry then sleeps again only to cry all night.

"Abeg shift!" her stepmother told Chisom standing up and giving Zina to Muna.
As her aunt dropped her and Muna positioned her below her breasts. She laughed when she remembered how she used to struggle to place her baby properly the first week after she gave birth.
As Zina sucked, she opened her big black eyes to stare at her mother's face. Her stepmother told her that her baby had started seeing clearly by now

'Her eyes are just like mine', Muna thought. She felt a warmth fill her chest at that realization. So black and bottomless. Muna remembered how people always teased and made fun of her because she had black irises. She had never seen anyone with eyes like hers and neither had anyone. And now her baby had the same eyes!

''My baby," Muna whispered. "Oh my God I have a baby. My own baby!"
She stared as Zina as she flexed her pudgy little hands on her other breasts as she sucked. She felt like her eyes just opened and she just started seeing clearly like her baby because it felt like she was seeing her baby for the first time. The warmth and joy and love that filled her heart was so overwhelming that she felt her chest tighten and her eyes grow wet. Her sight became blurry. So this was the feeling women usually say they feel when they see their babies for the first time. Like it was all worth it. It was just like her to feel it two weeks later.

"Zinachimdi," she whispered, lifting her baby up to kiss her fat cheeks. "You're going to have so much love poured on you than you know what to do with."

*Author's note*

I feel like crying cos it's over.  Hope you enjoyed Muna's story. Thank you for reading.

                                      ❤
                                      Oluchi