Baby !!

 

It's a lovely feeling to hold your child in your arms ,especially as first time parents. We were blessed with a baby girl on 8-August -2021 in Chandigarh, India. 

9 Months waiting period :) for baby  was a journey filled with emotions, happiness, dealing with changes and of-course planning lot of things for mother, baby and everyone in family. There were usual couple fights , loving moments , chaos of confusion during this period. Going to the hospital for the first time to get check up done for your wife could be a crazy experience for the couple. You can see couples coming within their first 3/6/9 months of pregnancy and I think everyone co-relates with another. There are lot of smiling faces around with a hint of turmoil in the air. As parents you try to follow all the correct procedures so that everything happens as per plan but I think babies don't believe in following any protocols while in the womb or once they are outside of it.  With abundance of information on internet one will find ample examples of real doctor vs google doctor. For me I personally observed that during any scan if doctor says there is a complication (major or minor) it puts couple in enormous stress. Now one needs to fight this stress and try to find out what you can do to keep yourself calm in this.  Along with mothers, I have observed fathers being under a constant pressure working as Dark Knights . Most of the times they will not have anyone who they can talk with.  

To my readers Whole above paragraph might seems like a criss-cross,  knock-on-effect as in real life things often come like this  since, planning is the first causality in war :). 

So our initial check up was done in Chandigarh, India and then due to office work we needed to return to Pune in Jan 2021. In Pune when we started asking our friends about references of doctors/hospitals one visible difference was that most of our friends had normal deliveries whereas in Punjab most of kids in my family/friends arrived from C-Section. In Pune we shortlisted Cloud 9 hospital in Kalyani Nagar and  have a very good experience there. Also during interim my spouse and I got a new job in Pune 😀  with it's own set of interesting stories.  I believe it was a gift from God and our baby to their notorious parents 

In May 2021, we again returned to Chandigarh, and shortlisted Cloud Nine , Chandigarh.  We consulted Dr. Seema and must say has gifted hands. As the time was coming near by our preparation, to welcome baby was in full swing.  Meticulous planning started and we were busy in ordering baby items which we thought could be helpful for new baby, doing exercise routine for mother and getting insurances sorted out for expenses related to hospitalization.  Most important thing we did during this time was to attend a "Lamaze Session" which educates couple on answering very important questions like:

1. When is the right time to go to hospitals
2. What to do when "water bag" ruptures
3. How does your partner plays a very crucial role by supporting mother
4. Why it's recommend that partner should go in the labor  room with wife (This would be contrarian to most people believes in Indian Society )  

My mother ordered a soft toy for baby and to my surprise , the amazon seller sent us a beautiful Lord Ganesha sitting on chair. We as a family could sense that bundle of joy will arrive soon. 

On 1-August, I had my first dose of covid-19 vaccination which I was planning to take on 7-August. Fast forward on 7-August, we went to consult doctor and she said little munchkin can land at any time now!!  Running high on Adrenaline, time went really fast and on 8-August around 4PM we ( our families )rushed to hospital as my wife started feeling the contractions. It was Sunday , and unfortunately there was only single person at the reception. My wife was in emergency getting tests done. In the mean-time I was at the reception taking care of all the paper works and suddenly 4-5 new would be mother arrived all feeling labour pains  and there was a commotion :D. It was similar to office chaos in software sector, where a critical bug creeps in just before a major release. 

With getting the paper work sorted and in the meantime my wife was in labor room, I also rushed there. During that time, Doctor and staff of the hospital put on a fantastic piece of work handling all the would be mothers with great composure. I was holding hand of my wife and was constantly supporting her. After some time, doctors moved her to main labor room , my heart was pumping and at 8:38 PM with 2 pushes our baby girl entered the world . My eyes were moist and as I couldn't believe everything that was happening around me so fast :). Pediatrician, also a very thorough gentlemen "Dr. Sudhanshu Grover" was courteous and told me it's a baby girl of 2.9 KG . Dr Seema, told to my wife that our baby is a fighter and she came out with two knots of Umbilcal chord around her neck just like a Gladiator 🐯🐯 .  I was elated to know that Mother and Child are fit as a fiddle. My wife handled everything like a champion and so did everyone in family. 

Lord Ganesha was with us in Labour room and during our entire stay with hospital and we couldn't stop thanking them enough. "

'गणपति बप्पा मोरिया'

With god's grace everything happened like a clock-work. After a hour we were shifted to our room and got discharged on 10-August. On 10-August when were waiting for billing to get sorted we managed to click few pictures of  our new munchkin and brave mother :) 

Few things which I would like to share from my experience is 

1. Take accountability for your family. Take support from everyone around you , but when it comes to take a firm decision, take one and stand like a Rock during that time. 
2. Improve your knowledge, it's 2021 and with internet on everyone fingers tip plan everything in your capacity to make this process as smooth as possible.
3. Work for good firms as they provide you with excellent maternity benefits and you can manage your finances better.  
4. Most important,   have fun through the way, smile , crack silly jokes, keep the Josh high all the times. 

I am writing this post today, in a effort to save this as a memory which , as the years will pass we can read and cherish them later. Hopefully one day my daughter when she grows will read this & may it put a smile on her face. 

Love

-Dark Knight!