The first week!

My first glance at my baby is still etched fresh in my mind! He was all clean and white. You must be wondering what kind of statement is that. Well it was quite different from what I had expected so those were my first thoughts. He was very unlike the birthing and just born baby pictures that I had seen on the Internet. Frankly when I first saw such pictures my first thoughts were if the babies look so gooey just after birth, how will I feel love for her/him? I don't know if any of you first time mommies felt so too.

I even used to feel ugh at the thought of cleaning poop when I was pregnant. Its a different story that I did not even feel 1 millisecond of disgust when I had to do it the first time.

The second picture memory after his birth is when they brought him to me after cleaning up wrapped in a sheet, he looked so tiny, so adorable and fuzzy! And he looked straight into my eyes. After I kissed him on his forehead they took him away for some tests etc.

Once I was moved into my labor room back again, everyone started to come and congratulate me. It was around 10 pm when they finally moved me to my room where I would be staying for the rest of the period till I was healed up to go home. It was quite an eerie feeling lying on the stretcher and nurses taking you through the galleries with me looking at never ending pipes on the ceiling. Everything seemed to whiz past me and was making me giddy so I closed my eyes for the rest of the journey to my room.

Betu was kept in the intensive neo natal care unit for the first 4 days as he had had meconium aspiration. So it took 4 long-decade-like-days before he was given to me 24X7. Before that I would walk down to the nursery, and feed him there itself.

Walking down to the nursery was quite a painful task for me because of the episitomy stitches but I remember how I would wait for the feeding times or would just make excuses to go and feed betu. Just so that I could see him. Betu would never start feeding without spending at least a minute of looking at me. However hard he must have been crying of hunger, he just would not latch on without the look-at-momma time. So I used that time as our conversation time. Many a times nurses would talk to him saying you give us such a tough time wailing so loudly and now you don't want milk? :D

A day or two after birth while going back from the nursery to my room, I stopped at the nurses station and asked them for a weighing scale. I had been reading so much that mothers loose quite a bit of weight after birth and I wanted to know how much have I lost. The scale told me I had lost 8 Kgs.! WOW! I was ecstatic! And I thought to myself..only 6 Kgs to go. But who knew that those 6 Kgs will be with me forever! Those 6 Kgs just refuse to go away.

Betu was quite an active child since birth. That's what all the nurses told me. They said usually after crying for 10-15 mins all the babies sleep most of the time. But he slept quite little. He used to look around and throw his hands and legs in the air quite a bit.

On day 4 when they finally shifted him to my room, it was celebrations time for us. Whether he was sleeping or awake, everyone just wanted to hold him or look at him. I remember DH's expression when he came in the evening from work and held betu for the first time in his arms. DH was grinning from ear to ear and just kept admiring our little one. And the first words he spoke to betu were "Aur Mr. M? Kya haal hain?" We all had such a good laugh at that! (Our surname starts with M). This is his picture on this day when he's is just 4 days young.

I'm 4 days young!

The first night after he was shifted in our room was terrible. He woke up way too many a times and latched for 40-45 mins each time. Because of my stitches it was really painful to sit for long and I did not have my feeding pillow in the hospital. So next day I asked DH to bring it to the hospital and God! It was such a relief!! I guess for both of us as the next night was not as eventful as the first one. I really feel that these small small gadgets/accessories that are now available for mommies are such a boon!