Friday, November 16, 2007

Nine months route to Rapture

After a self imposed hiatus for the past few months, am back to the blog world. And it’s exactly in these months that I went through a very new experience and a very special one at that…the divine experience of becoming a mother…

I remember it was a windy Friday evening when my husband and I were waiting anxiously for the test results in the hospital. The laboratory assistant entered the room and very coolly just said “it’s positive”. Those two words rang in my ears loudly as Arjun, my husband, and I hugged with happiness! And that’s how the journey began.

The first few months were very tough, both emotionally and physically. I contracted some infection and grew ill, my husband traveled extensively on a project abroad and I had to decide to resign from my cushy job! Some days were spent cursing Mother Nature for being so difficult on women and yet some more went by thanking god for this gift. I stayed at my parents, when Arjun was traveling and thoroughly exploited their pampering :)!

With the second trimester setting in, the kicking in the womb started getting very prominent and that I consider the highlight of pregnancy. To feel those cute little movements is truly heavenly! This being the easier of three trimesters, Arjun & I decided to go on a vacation. It was one of the best decisions we’d made, because the vacation in Goa turned out to be heaven. We stayed in a beautiful resort, lazed in the beaches, ate sumptuous food and spent lazy afternoons reading up on the ‘What to expect when you are expecting’ book! J

The third trimester proved to be more of a ‘weighty’ period, with me finally gaining some weight and looking positively pregnant. Everywhere I went I was bestowed with the ‘preferential’ treatment with motorists stopping for me to cross the road and fellow shoppers allowing me to go ahead in the billing line :). I was by now growing anxious about child birth and spent time doing relaxing yoga and meditation. The customary special pooja happened (Seemantham- for the tamilians), to pray for safe delivery and the well being of the child. As I got closer to the D-day, I read up extensively on almost everything available about pregnancy, childbirth and new-born care. And thankful I was to have read up well in time, because as it turned out, my little one was on its way out well before a month, turning out to be a premature baby.


I was blessed with a baby girl and she looked beautiful. Soon after she was born, she was plopped on my lap. As I lovingly gazed at her, I saw she was so tiny, her skin was so tender, cute small fingers tightly closed and eyes firmly shut. Hesitantly I slowly tried to pick her up and hold her. Worrying if I was holding her right, I looked around for some assurance from the nurse, but she was busy with something else. And then as I looked down, my daughter slowly opened her eyes. They were sparkling and bright and she looked straight at me….it was as if she was trying to tell me something…it was as if she was telling me, “ Mom, don’t worry, everything is going to be alright, I am with you”. And that's when I realized that my life was never going to be the same again, I was a Mom and it's the most beautiful thing in the world!!!