Maya and thereafter..Part 2

THE D-DAY-

We reached the hospital by 6:30 sharp and the first good news that day was the room itself. We got the Deluxe room. It may not seem like a big deal but it really is. You see, this is one of the famous maternity hospitals in the city and room availability is not a gaurantee any given day. Only two weeks before one of her friends was looking for a deluxe room and due to unavailability and also because of her rapid contractions, she was asked to deliver in general ward, which we were told was really not that clean. Room booking is not an option as they keep that open for those patients who come and get admitted due to rapid contractions or more emergency options. So getting the room we wanted we checked in to the room. It was small room with attached bathroom. It contained two beds, one large bed whose one half can be lifted into shifting position by using a lever for the patiend, and a plain one for the attendent. It contained a old-modeled square shaped 7/7 inch shaped tiny TV, which I am sure you would not be able to find anywhere in any shops that you have seen so far in your life, in one top corner of the room affixed on a flat wooden base. There were two movable tables.

The first task for the day was to get a presentation scan done. Amma and me went to the first floor to get it done. This is to check your position for one last time to see if you turned or not. Apparently you have followed my path to the T and vehemently refused to spin. We came back to find your Dadi being there in the room all excited for the proceedings. Jeyjeyya train was delayed and he phone to say he may be delayed, with a note of sorrow that he wasn't there from the first.

Around 9:30 we were called to say that Operation Theater was ready. Amma and I started moving first with Dadi and Avva at the back and your Thatha at the last. Amma started to cry and as I turned to see your Avva too was crying. Dadi was tough and frankly I didn't see any need to cry. This was the moment we were all prepared and I for one felt one should go for it may be with sense of trepdation but never in a sad state. Poor Amma, I know these were tears of joy and tension but it should have been resevered for what to come next. As Amma went in, we were told it would be another 30 minutes or so after which the surgery would begin. Meantime she would be administered local anesthesia.

We were asked to be seated on the chairs that were lying on the other end of the corridor. I was bit tensed as we sat down. I had mentally prepared myself that I would be there in OT as the operation goes on be it for the normal delivery or for the C-section. I strongly believed I should be there as a moral support and as to encourage Amma during this pivotal moment of our life to see our first new born. In my mind though, I wasn't sure if I could withstand any signs of blood during that time of surgery. I just go week in the knees if I see blood. Just to illustrate how weak I am, I remember one time during the office hours, something had resulted in me getting a gash on my finger, which led to some blood oozing out of it. I had gone to our office clinic to block the wound. Just seeing it and smelling the blood caused some dizziness and I had to rest for 10 minutes before I went back to work. I knew I wasn't up for it but I didn't want to back down either. This being a C-section, I knew it may not be as messy as it is during normal but one never knows until one sees or experiences it. Amma too told me that I should be there inside and adviced me to have a seat in case I felt giddy. Lakshmi Avva too sent across the same advice.

Time was much past 10:00 and then a nurse came out looking out for us. Everyone wished me well as I went towards the OT. As I proceeded to remove my slippers, nurse told me that she had come to tell me that it would be delayed some more time as there was another emergency patient to which doctor is currently attending to. I went back little disappointed with added anxiety and tension. Jeyjeyya too landed up just then. He was all smiles and gave me a reassuring hug and told me to relax. It was 45 agonizing minutes later I was finally called.Frankly for some reason I thought you would be boy maybe because some of her friends delivered boys in succession during the same month.

I went in. Firstly I was asked to wash both my hands fully and have it dried. They then gave me a surgical mask to put on, a headcap to cover the hair and was given some sanitized clothes to put on, a pair of floaters to put on. I was then taken in to OT where there were already 3 to 4 people operating on the bottom half of your Amma. Amma was lying on the bed with upper half of body covered with sheet followed by a cloth that was being strung from the top vertically so at to block the view for Amma and the other half was where the operation was being done. There was a stool arranged for me to sit which was positioned near Amma's head. She was awake and had a oxygen mask on but was able to speak. She was happy to see me and she held my hand. I was giving some commentary on what was happening.

The moment of truth arrived. The whole wait over the last ten months was about to end and this was what we have all been waiting for. As I turned to look the other side, I could see the doctor slowly pulling you out. I had expected a straight pull but there was quite bit of twist and turns before you were finally lifted out. The doctor who performed this lifted you up in her hands and proclaimed - "Amma, Samhitha meeku papa amma".

Amma had tears in her eyes and thanked the doctors and I too kissed her on the forehead and we both were extremely happy. You were taken out of the room for some cleaning and we could her some loud cries. I stayed there and I managed to get the message out to the whole wide world that I was a proud Nanna with the proclamation 'It's a girl!' to both the J-Gang, and the head of the families.

I was then asked to come out to brief on you that you were of weight 3.6Kgs, 40 cms tall. We were told that your sugar levels were to be monitored for a while considering mom had gestational diabetes just to ensure they aren't more or less than the expected levels. In addition to that Amma it seems was getting shifted to another room for some much needed rest.

Your first ever shot with Amma

With Nanna

I came back to say final good bye to Amma. You were then brought out to be shown to all the anxious grandparents waiting outside. Everybody was ecstasic and one by one took some nice pics. The one above was taken by your Jeyjeyya.

What followed was Avva and I stayed back in the room for the morning shift while Ammamma and Thata went back to home to be prepared for the night shift. Avva and I had some nice time in the afternoon with you exclusively as Amma wasn't yet brought into the room. That's how the day ended and it is one of the biggest moment of our lives to have you.

Maya and thereafter..Part I

Hello Maya..

Finally you are here my sweet love. I don't have the words to express you but to say that 'you are beautiful' is an understatement of epic proportions.

Before I go on to how you came to be let's rewind a little and dwell on the last few days before the D-Day.

Few Days Before-

12th September - That was Amma's last working day. I did manage to come early that day to find everyone in the house was busy packing. Your Dadi was clearing her cupboard in installments. She had sent almost 2 huge boxes of clothes to the Nallakunta house and the last and final packing was getting done. Coming to Amma, though initial batch was sent, it looked as if nothing was sent. I mean to say her cupboard is like Magician's hat, there are always somethings left even if you have pulled the rabbit out of the hat.

Your Dadi again brought her favorite topic back to the table - my forgetfulness. She is fully prepared to buy a small jhoola. The vision she has in mind is to see you come running to open the door, take all the things like specs, wallet, phone etc and keep it in the jhoola. This one sounds simple enough right? The follow up is even more creative. As my office time nears, you would be running round the house searching for my things and bringing them to me one by one as I reel it off like say

'Maya..bring me my specs',
'Maya..bring me my wallet'

so on and forth. The bottom line is simple my sweet love. On weekly basis at least 2-3 days I spend on searching for things just as I am about to leave to office, which they have aptly 'everytime-last-minute-lo-edo-okati-etukutav' moment. It frustrates Amma to no end and we did have fights on it which always somehow end up with me apologizing even though the shouting was uncalled for. Anyway by Saturday afternoon lunch time Amma and I came to Avva's house, not before doing some mild shopping.

Amma a day before had spoken with her friend Anu Preeti who had her child a week back. She jotted down and made a nice little checklist of all the things to keep ready for both the baby and herself. Time and again she proved herself to be the most efficient and exceptionally best when it comes to the matters at home. As I might have told you before, right from the start of pregnancy she has been the one who had collated all the reports, made note of doctor appointments, found alternative location in case the doctor wasn't there. In short she was the one in charge throughout. Never once has she missed the diet schedule (of course with alterations) or the medicines. I really admire this remarkable quality of her and something I cherish and bring pride to be her husband.

So with that list in hand, we went to Mom & Me store in Hitech City to do the first shopping for you. Things we had to buy were - two rompers, baby lotion, baby shower gel, wet tissues, baby powder. Going in to the shop I felt it was a whole new world yet to be explored. Mom & Me baby store is store equivalent to HomeCenter shop for furniture. Every thing there is just perfect to be bought and kept at home. They are so darn tempting but expensive too. With list being limited we bought the things we need and I sure did take one pic to christen your first buy -

 

First baby product/accessories

Seeing the McD at the basement Amma got tempted to buy PiriPiri (french fries coated with some masala), a favorite of her to which I couldn't oblige. Thing is as per doctor, she needed to be on control till the very end but when she kept that cute little face like a baby when she asked me, I couldn't say no. I was happy inside though that she is mindful of it to an extent that she asked permission to buy. Technically speaking these weren't the first buys though. Your Jeyjayya had already got nice bunch of langoti's ready for you. Langoti's, you can say are Indian diapers. Its an accessory we had much before any guy who invented diaper. Generations together this was a standard item that was used to wrap you up to keep you preventing from going to susu or poo poo.

Langoti's as is the case now wasn't available ready made when we were young. The process involved in first finding out the person who are used to wearing pattu panchas (usually elderly persons like thatha, jeyjeyya etc.) Soak them and get them to dry. Send these to the local tailors who then uses his imagination and skills in transforming them to 4/5 langotis (depending on pancha size) which fits to any baby of any size. Its wonderful really this tiny little invention. Greatest advantage of using these apart from re-usability is your skin is forever protected and there is never any case of rashes getting formed, which is the case with modern-day 'diapers'.

It was used during my childhood days, my father's childhood days and his father's childhood days. It goes all the way back and this was what was bothering me for some days as this essential million dollar armament was not yet ready. Your Jeyjeyya as always got things done in the background. The only difference now is it was gotten done by using a fresh cloth. Thing is no one wears pattu pancha anymore. They have gone out of fashion.

When Nanna did finally reveal it to us just the day before we were starting off to your Avva's house, Amma couldn't stop laughing and pointing at me, she added that she was fully relieved to have it as it seemed I was eating her head with non stop bickering about this piece of cloth not yet in place for the main event.

Traffic was unusually huge that day and it was very taxing by the time we reached Avva's place. All throughout the journey we kept thanking your Dadi's advice to drop the idea of your Amma coming back on that night and going back again following day. Gautam Bava (am not sure your relation to him yet) had thrown open a party to send off Amma and also as part of get together at a restaurant that same night. The place was decided as Sandwhicho's. I was eager to attend as this would be the last party for Amma before the delivery and also because we could get to meet Sowji akka, Gautham Bava, Ravi Bava. When we talked about this to Dadi earlier day, she wasn't happy about the plan. She gently adviced to rethink about the journey as making the trip from our place to Avva's place twice during that stage of pregnancy would make her very tired and that it is best to avoid so that she can have maximum rest. In the morning, we had accceeded to the advice and had to decided to quit and phoned Bava too that we weren't coming. That small journey from our place to Jubilee Hills checkpost, with that huge traffic reaffirmed that we took a proper and sound decision, all thanks to Dadi.

For the night on Amma's insistence that post delivery, she would be on kind of 'strict diet' regime, we had Biryani from Paradise bought restaurant. It was one of the most yummiest biryani's I had ever head and it was the very first time I was eating chicken in that house. It was to me at least an achievemnt of sorts. This 'one' last time translated to next day too when I took Amma to our house at Nallakunta. Dadi had wanted your Amma to see the recently shifted house at Nallakunta, which coincided with the lunch time. Another this-will-be-the-last-time I am going to eat out day finished and I went back to home ra kanna.

Back at home, I lied down on the bed. My thoughts were lost. The house looked so different with noone present and this would be the condition for at least 5 months ahead. Of course the real effect of that hadn't sunk in yet as I am yet to experience such marked departure for long time as 3 days later you were due to arrive.

The next 3 days were testing days for me as the workload at office was at peak. Our project was at a critical state and one day I had to overstay the whole night, which actually gave me some time in the morning to clean up and pack some things. I skipped the 17th big project party too, which if you remember I said earlier was one of the things that Amma was teasing me about, as that day the packing of my clothes, combined with clearing of fridge items, cleaning up the dhobi stuff, etc took me almost 7:30 P.M. to complete.

As we were adviced we finished off our food by 10 and hit the bed. I was bit tired from office work that day and the added journey but it was nothing compared to the next day. We both had one common concern in our mind for the past few days which was whether you are a boy or a girl. As the D-day's count down started ticking in, this thought occupied us more and more.

Anyways..it isn't over yet ..wait for more to come..

Dear Baby - Part 15

Hello kanna,

Just wanted to catch up with you. I know its been a long time. Couple of weeks back Amma underwent the last scan of the three trimesters. It was again not so pleasant encounter. Scan was scheduled for the afternoon 1:30. It was only after agonizing wait of another 2 hours we were let in. Prior to the appointment scanning was done and we saw that you were in a breech position. Breech position refers to the state where your legs are near the the uterus rather than head, which makes the normal delivery not possible and has to be done only via C-section.

Jogita was the one who was present for the appointment. As soon as she saw the scan she had a huge smile from ear to ear. It seems your Amma was a third patient that day with breech position. Amma's first question was to enquire if it was heriditary to which doctor smiled and said no. You see, Dadi had to undergo C-section for my delivery, hence the doubt. She assured us that we shouldn't be blaming ourselves and added, much to our dismay, that only 3% cases have such breech positions. She told us about ECV procedure a method employed to rotate the baby by a certified physician that we can opt for. It was 34th week when we found this. For ECV, the best time to have it done is around 36th/37th week and we scheduled another appointment for 1st September.

One additional thing that we learnt was there are some stretch exercises using which it is possible for baby to rotate naturally. Since this wasn't a scientifically proved or tested theory they aren't having any authority to publish it or advice but told us to search on the net. That ended our consultation for the day. On our way back Amma was visibly upset and cried a little. Poor thing, she had so much hopes to have a normal delivery and she felt cheated that all her strict exercise routines and walks did not yield any results. I told her to look at positive side of things i.e. exercises helped her avoid any leg or joint pains. Now that it may lead to C-section, she can even plan her leaves better, have the delivery on a auspicious day after consulting panthulu. (frankly I don't believe in such things). The bottom line is you can have only two types of delivery - normal or C-section. With a population of 7.24billion people on earth, that 3% translates to millions, meaning it really isn't a odd thing. I too was one such right. That seemed to have cheered her up.

As per doctor's advice searching the net, we saw 4-5 standard practices being adopted for such cases of breech babies. Except for one (Breech tilt) everything else looked a bit daunting task to do and it definitely needed a supervision. This stretch involves Amma lying down on the floor, having both her legs on the bed at an height. Once in that position we need to elevate the remaining body in an inclined manner of about 45%. When we tried to implement it though we weren't sure if we were doing it right as that inclination was hard to get by. It had to be done on empty stomach and was advised to be done at least twice per day. Amma wasn't enthusiastic to pursue after one or two failed attempts.

She went about performing her regular exercises, everyday hoping you would turn naturally. Yesterday i.e. 1st September we went for the checkup. Though we could see that the bump quite clearly at the top, still we had to have this appointment. It was Jogita again who performed the scan and confirmed you are still in breech. So we now have two options -

Option A - ECV (which was I talked about at start of the post). She checked up with the branch at Abids about the doctor's availability for the week and two dates are given to us - 4th Sept or 9th Sept.

Option B - If we don't wan't ECV, then the only solution is a C-Section and that it would need to be performed between 10th to 17th of this month. She explained to us that C-section is done usually in the 37th or 38th week post which it becomes difficult for surgery.

She asked to think about it and get back to her with our answer. We did a brainstorming and we have decided not to go for Option A. Thing is even after you come to natural position post-ECV, it is no guarantee that you would stay like that till the due date. Added to that we weren't sure the effect of ECV. Amma found out from her colleague that out of 4 cases she has known 2 were successful (meaning baby turned to required position), 2 other had some complication. Hearing it we decided dead against ECV. Jeyjayya and Dadi too were firmly against it.

What this all means is my dear muddula kanna is we are going to have you sooner than expected, which quite frankly took some time for us to let that sink in. With our mindset set on the week of 24th, and Amma deciding to work till 12th to have sufficient time for her to get into the mood of settling at home. This puts a spanner in the works. Question then is to see if she should be taking leave much sooner. On 4th anyway Amma is going to Avva's house (your first home till 5th month) till 7th. Does that mean it is better to be on her maternity leave from 4th itself? What if on 12th, on the next scheduled appointment, you turn and we find that the delivery needs to be pushed till 24th?

Nope not really, she will continue with her original plan of taking leave from 12th. On 14th and 15th its a project go-live and I am all set for any day after that, which actually leaves only two days 16th and 17th. Amma is totally miffed at my mere mention of 'work'. I don't want to do any injustice to my work, that's my stand. The decision is still left hanging and would be taken up either by your Amma or Avva.

Anyway let's talk about you. You have been the most obedient baby all throughout never giving Amma much trouble. Of late you have been very responsive when I gave small kiss to the tummy. You spin round and round as soon as I do that. It just makes me immensely happy. Dadi who has just come back from her trip to Bangalore meeting her friends gave us an advice to start treating you neutrally and not just as Maya. It seems baby's have sixth sense and you may be cross.

Only few more days left kanna, waiting eagerly with all my heart.

With Loads and Loads of Love,
Nanna
P.S. On getting a checkup done for my leg pain, I have come to know I have Hypothyroid apart from deficiency in Vitamin B-12 and Vitamin D. Am taking all prescribed tablets and vow to become fit as a fiddle to play with you endlessly.

P.P.S - We also have bought new DSLR camera exclusively in the wake of your arrival. Hoping to capture and treasure each beautiful moment with you. Will be posting some pics soon.