March 29, 2004 - The D-Day - Our precious little son is born!

March 29th came with no signs of contractions. I mean REAL labour contractions. I used to have Braxton Hicks contractions quite frequently starting from the 7th month. And since past 2 weeks or so I used to get about 35-40 in a day. Yes...that many! And still no signs of actual labor ..*sob* *sob*

My doc was surprised that I still haven't dilated or hadn't started labor pains naturally coz in my last visit with her on March 26, I had about 8-9 in my 15 mins appointment. And each one used to last about 40 seconds or so.

Anyways, the morning started as usual. Everyone (Myself, DH, MIL and FIL who had also arrived a day before) got ready and Mummy did havan at home and then we went to Mandir before going to the Hospital. When we reached there, I saw such a huge bunch of full term mothers-to-be penguin walking in the Labour and Delivery admissions area that I almost started to giggle. I really found it quite amusing. They took almost 40 mins to finish with the initial paper work. I had been all cool and calm as if this was just another checkup day. No nervousness or anxiety. Dunno why..not even when you have to sign the paper where it says they are not responsible if anything happens to the baby or the mother during..blah..blah... But that's how it was UNTILL they did not allow DH to come with me inside the labor room. They said, he can join later after they are done with the initial preparations.

I got so scared then that I had tears in my eyes. The whole place was echoing with moans and groans of mothers-to-be in labor and total strangers. And it really scared the hell out of me. On my way to my labor room I saw some women were even sharing rooms with other women. I was really glad that I had a room to myself. Rest of the story I'm just copying and pasting from the birth story that I had posted on his site 2 weeks or so after he was born. So here it goes

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Anirudh, was born on 29th March, 2004 at 5:54pm after being induced at 11 in the morning. My labor lasted about 6 hrs and although I had a normal delivery, it was a bit complicated. I moved from 4cm dilation to 8cm very quickly so in spite of me yelling and shouting to give me epidural, they couldn't. (This was coz of the homeopathic medicine which helps in fastening the labor - Kali Phos, that I took not known to the docs. This is the same medicine that Ma took when she was having me :D ) So it was literally hell!! I kept shouting to call DH but they just didn't. I remember telling them that "Tum log mujhe maar daloge!!" (You're gonna kill me!). One medicine they gave me had such a sinking affect on me that I thought I was going to die..lol!! They ruptured my membranes at about 5 pm and took me to the delivery room at 5:30 pm.

At one point baby's heart beat went down to 90 which scared my Obs and she started preparing for C/s also. But later it went fine after they gave me some meds (don't know the names). Then at 5:30 they moved me to delivery room and tried to take the baby out using vacuum but that didn't work. Then they did forceps delivery and he was born!!

Later they told me that I had lost lot of blood during delivery and they were planning to give blood infusion next day after checking my Hemoglobin. It was 7.6 and then they decided not to. They would have done it if it had been lower than 7. Am I glad about the fact that they didn't? WAY TOO MUCH! I hate needles. HATE THEM! I never had been pricked as many times in my whole life till my pregnancy. Since my veins are very thin, they as it is can't get it right the first time. Its only after 2-3 pricks that they get it right.

He weighed 2.8Kgs and was 20" tall. When he slipped out of me, my stomach suddenly felt so empty. You know like the feeling you have once you have passed out gas when it has been troubling you for long..lol!! When they took him out I thought it was a boy but wasn't sure as my eyes were full with tears. Few mins later they confirmed that it was a boy. And he just whimpered in the beginning and cried little louder few minutes later.

While they were cleaning him up, he was crying. And to divert my mind from the pain coz of the episitomy stitches they were doing, I kept talking to him. I think I blabbed a lot to the doc and the nurse coz of pain. Feels a little embarrassing to think about it now. I remember few things I said to them. Like "Mujhe baksh do..chhod do mujhe..jaane do.." (Please leave me..let me go), "Kya kar rahe ho...bahut dard ho raha hai" (What are you doing..its hurting a lot!), "Mere pair(legs) so gaye hain..khol do inhe" (my legs are numb..open them up) (..they had tied them up), "Kyun baandh ke rakha hai mujhe..baaki stitches baad mein laga dena" (Why have you tied me up...do the rest of the stitches later!)..etc..etc..

I even said that next time I will have a scheduled C/s. And my doc said "First take care of this one, there is plenty of time to think about the next time!" Hahaha..just can't help laughing thinking about it.

About 10 mins later after being born, the nurse brought him to me all cleaned up and asked me to kiss him on the forehead and then she took him outside to show him to all the family members waiting.

They took about 1hour and 5 mins to stitch me up. Since it was a forceps delivery, I got a 3rd degree perennial tear and that's why the stitches were more. I finally got moved out of the delivery room at 7:10pm. DH was so worried since they took so long to bring me back from the delivery room. He later told me people were calling him up to ask him and were congratulating him but he just wasn't in the mood since he hadn't seen me :)

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One thing which I did not write in the birth story was that I had asked my Obs & Gynae to show me my placenta. She was surprised I wanted to see that. Probably basis her past experience of patients and thier behaviours, she told me that I would loose my appetite after looking at it. But still I insisted and they showed it to me. I did not at all found it gross or anything to loose appetite on. For me it was the one which gave blood, oxygen, food and all the things required to my baby! It was the thing that nurtured my baby before I could nurture him myself. How could I not want to see it?

One thing that even my OBG would vouch for that is that I really gave her a tough time. I would read about each and everything relating to pregnancy and birth on the internet and in each appointment had tons of questions ready for her! :D

I remember her telling me once "Please stop reading so much on the internet!" We both had a good laugh then.

Pregnancy Continues

November - March 2004
Rest of the pregnancy went uneventful besides the usual ups and downs. Checkups went fine. Monthly visits to Gynae continued and by the starting of 8th month my nausea and throwing up also ended. And then started the wait. Wait for the baby's arrival. And thats when I started to feel time was dragging. Dragging r e a l l y slow... I had started to feel so heavy, back used to ache so much. I had gained whopping 14 Kgs. DH used to give me back massage sometimes which I used to simply L O V E.

Got to see my betu twice more through U/S. Appa also came along with us in the last two visits and he also enjoyed looking at the ultrasounds and watching his movements inside the womb.
In February, started to have weekly checkups with the Gynae. Did some shopping for baby clothes and basic essentials. I remember me and DH freaked out on seeing such cute outfits. We really had to stop ourselves from buying off the entire shop :D

I can't even describe the feeling that I got when I was washing the baby clothes. I was so overwhelmed with emotions. It was a mix of longing to hold the baby plus just the thought that I will be a mom soon!

In my last appointment in Feb 2004, my Gynae told me since the baby's head is already fixed and engaged we should be ready around March 6 or 7th. The wait began...March 6th came and went by, 7th came and went by..15 the came and went by..so on and so forth. In fact my younger sister, betu's Chhoti Mausi (CM) was visiting India and she had such hopes that the baby will be delivered during her visit. But she had to go empty handed as betu-ram was playing very naughty. In the appointment on March 26, 2004 Gynae said we will wait till March 28 i.e my actual EDD and if I don't start labour on my own, they will induce me early morning on March 29th.

March 28th came and nothing happened. Afternoon I went to the parlour, got my pedicure done. Got my nails painted. (Although the nurses removed the nail paint as soon as they admitted me the next day..grrr....my feet and toes were looking so nice in that beautiful shade!!)

What to expect when expecting!

August 2003
I subscribed to plenty of newsletters and websites and started doing a lot of reading on how the baby grows. There were some sites that you tell details of the weekly growth of the baby. How the baby grows from the size the head of a paper pin to the size of a rice grain and so on. It was really amazing reading all that!

I really had a tough time in the frist trimester. Lot of morning sickness, aversion to smells in big big way. During this time we also learnt that I had lactose intolerance. So no milk and milk products for me. We realised this after 3 days of my constant throwing up. Trying to eat light, I would have thin chachh, lightly sauted paneer etc but nothing would stay in. Earlier we all thought that it was just the pregnancy symptoms. So the 3rd day my gynae gave me a medicine to keep my food down. I ate a roti and daal after it stayed. But the moment I had milk, I threw up again. And then it struck me what it was. I talked to my Gynae and she also agreed that it was indeed milk products that were causing all the trouble. So now I was off milk products totally. I still remember I tried little bit of paneer once..maybe just 2 bites and I had to face the consequences again. So that was it. It was strictly no milk products for me.

September - 3rd week
We went for our ultrasound at Holy Family Hospital.. The first one! We both were quite excited as we would be able to see our precious little baby! I think we can describe our feeling as a mix of nervousness an d excitement. There was quite a queue there. When my name was called we both started to go inside but the nurse stopped DH saying you cannot go in. I spoke to the doc the that he being the father has all the rights to be there. She somehow didnt like hearing that and said I will call him after I've done my scan. I asked her to tell us in details of the baby. She didnt respond and I got really upset. But then there was very little I could do about it. She did the scan and then called for DH to come inside and then she showed on the teeny weeny black and white monitor the baby and the various parts. The ultrasound system was such outdated one that we could hardly make out except for the heart beat and the spine. The lil heart was going up and down so fast like a spring that had been stretched and released and was now bouncing!

And no one could not have missed the spine...the curvy little structure of bones.

So after the doc was done and we were ready to go out, we asked her how is the baby doing. She again was not as responding. She said its fine. You just need to talk to your Gynae for details. Me being me, I was not satisfied and asked her but you did the scan so you must have something to say too. So she said the placenta is low and otherwise all is fine. Nothing more, nothing less. Then she said she has to look at other patients now. I was really angry with this lady now and decided then and there that I will never ever come here for any of my futre U/S.

Anyhow, we went to my Gynae next day after collecting the report and she explained what is a low lying placenta and the problems associated with it and what needs to be done. She advised me bed rest for a month and also prescribed another U/S at 18th week. As this was our first pregnancy and with the age I was in, she asked us not to take any risk. We got quite anxious and a bit worried after knowing the details.

Just a week before I had informed my office (was working with some other company those days) of the pregnancy and now I had to tell them that I needed atleast 1 month off. I spoke with them, and our CTO decided that I will work from home and they got broadband connection installed at my home system. That is one gesture that I will appreciate all my life.

My bedrest started around Sep 27/28. While at bedrest, I started going more often to the forum on pregnancyweekly.com and made lot of friends. Spoke to them about low lying placenta, got thier first hand expereinces as lot of them had had children earlier as well. So after reading more on the internet about my condition nd talking to others on the forum, I learnt its nothing serious and just a bit of bed rest takes care of the problem. So it was a big relief for all.

October 21, 2003
Then came the day for our follow up U/S to see how better is the situation with my Low lying placenta. A friend of ours had suggested an U/S specialist in Defence Colony saying he was too good. So we had decided that we will get it done from this doctor only. Went to the clinic, waited for almost 40 mins before our turn came. But in the end there was mutual consent on the fact that the wait was worth every minute! First, DH was not stopped for coming with me for the scan. Second, the doctor desribed the growth of the baby so beautifully and showed us all his organs in such details. The machine here was a much advanced one and we could see colored visuals. When the doctor focussed on his hand, betu had his one hand in a thumbs-up style...with thumb sticking out of the closed hand! Betu had been such a tease that day. We requested the doc to show us the baby in the 3D mode and when doc focussed on his face, betu had his one hand on his face. So we could see nothing but part of his lips. Thats about it.

Somehow the wish for a girl was too strong for us and we had already started calling our baby "MItthi". When the doctor came to know about this nicname, he said "Mitthi" sounds like an extra sweet Kheer! We all laughed a lot!

So after the checkup, the result was all was perfectly fine and placenta was where it should be. We were really relieved to hear that!!

The Beginning!

Anirudh was born on March 29, 2004 at 5:54 PM after approx 6.5 hrs of labour. We had a normal but a complicated birth. But as they say "All is well that ends well!" and we became very happy and proud parents of a wonderful baby boy!

Anirudh is our first child. We had him just after celebrating our 4th anniversary. Having him was a completely planned pregnancy, we both had been quite excited from day one. I will call the day one as the day we came to know that we were pregnant! I say "WE" because I feel in the current days, its not a one man show or shall i call it one woman show :D

What I mean is that the fathers are equally involved and interested in day to day development of the baby in the womb and take care of their expecting wives to the utmost extent. Probably more than the mother-to-be! It was true for me. I was a little bit carefree but Anirudh's dad took so much are of me that I have no words for. I was pampered to the hilt.

Sometimes I still tease him that I guess I should get pregnant again to get that kind of pampering. :D And there are days when I tease him that you pampered not me but the baby! I was just the means! Haha...

July 24, 2003
This is the day we learnt that we are pregnant. It was little earlier than 6 AM. I had hardly slept the night before since mind was buzzing with anxiety mixed with nervousness. So I took the test and only one blue line appeared. The test had said the 2 blue lines will show if you are positive. But for about 30 seconds it showed only one line. I was kind of disappointed and started thinking it was our first try only to have a baby. It takes time and blah blah... And then suddenly I saw the second line appear. First a little faint and then it grew darker. I was so excited. His Dad was sleeping that time. And being so excited I was totally out of words. So I woke him gently and said these exact words "Anu, I tried the test." and I smiled at him. He understood what it meant. We didnt need any more words. He hugged me and we just kept smiling. I don't know for how long. It was almost an hour when we came out of the daze and decided to call our respective parents. It was around 7 am. I called my father. Somehow I just didnt know what to say. This is what I remember of our conversation

Appa : Hello?

Me : Appa Ram-Ram!

Appa : Haan Nidhi! Ram Ram.

Me : Ummm... (Later he told me he had guessed what I wanted to say but he wanted me to say it explicitly).

Appa : Haan beta?

Me : Umm...aap fir se nanu banne waale ho! (My eldest sister had a son already)

I don't remember much after this. What I do remember is that the papa started to congratulate and give aashirwaad and I started to cry. So I gave the phone to hubby (DH from now on). After talking to Appa, DH rang up his parents in Jaipur. At Jaipur papa picked up the phone so after general exchange of "kaise ho?" "theek hain", DH asked where is Mummy. So papa gave the phone to mummy. And then DH told her "Aap Dadi banne waali ho!" She got excited and spoke to DH and me and then papa spoke to DH and asked him why didn't DH tell him the news straight away. Then papa spoke to me and gave me aashirwad and told me to eat well and take care. Then mummy spoke to me again asking me how we got to know. So we told them we ha got a home test and soon we will get it clinically checked as well. And told them that we will let them know after we get the clinical test report. We went to the hospital near our house "Holy Family Hospital" and gave the test. They said report will come in 30 mins or so. So we came back home and had some breakfast and got ready to go to work. Then we went to collect the report and it also confirmed the pregnancy. So we called Jaipur and told them the report. It was quite a happy day for all.

Just a week before all this, we had gone to Pithoragarh, a lovely place in Uttaranchal. It was so beautiful and peaceful. DH had to go for office work so I accompanied him. I got to see around more of the place than he did because he was tied up with work. I had been feeling a bit of nausea now and then the feeling of food coming back up. But I just waved it away thinking it must be the weather and the environment mixed with the rich food we had been having at the various restaurants. But after we found out we were pregnant, I was sure it was all due to the pregnancy.

July 25/26, 2003 (Do not remember the exact date)
Myself and DH Went to the Gynae with the report to take the guidance for future steps. After the usual whats and hows, she prescribed me to take folic acid tablets and what I should include in my diet etc and also wrote a prescription for having an ultrasound (U/S) in the 13th week.