The Pihu Diary - A new life, a new beginning

One Friday night, the weekend before my last working week in office, I started feeling cramps in my lower abdomen. After three hours of enduring the same thinking it's a stomach upset, I woke my husband. We waited thinking it might be false labour. Soon I could neither stand nor sit without wincing and moaning and before long my water broke! That was our cue and we rushed ourselves to the hospital as recommended by my doctor. Once there by when I was already breathless with the pain, I was told the baby was ready to come out!!! I didn't know what to do but ask for my doctor who rushed in to confirm the same. So there I was, sprawled on a bed in a labour room delivering my baby almost a month before she was to come out.

Well into her ninth month but a little too soon than expected, Pihu was born to us on a bright Saturday morning at 7:39 am, slightly stressed and tired but absolutely normal and strong as ever. That morning confirmed my belief that God has his own plans while we keep making ours. Hell, I would have been at a film festival on that day if not delivering my baby! Now that I think back on it, the labour pain, the trauma of unexpected delivery, the actual process of getting her out and the healing thereafter is all part of a job well done, a mission successfully accomplished and a blessing that has been bestowed on us.

As cliched as it may sound, when I  look at Pihu's angelic and innocent face, it all seems well worth it. As anxious as I get about how good a mother I will prove to be, I am also deeply excited about what lies in store ahead, and how she grows up to be. When I let her curl her tiny and pretty little hand around my finger, I feel an immense urge to protect her, and fend for every comfort I can offer no matter the cost. As she grows a bit everyday, I wonder if I will ever be able to wean myself off her, for a career ahead, for independent holidays or occasions which are off limits for her. 

In the end, motherhood is an extremely humbling as well as heroic experience that you must go through if you are not afraid to test your endurance, patience and level of sacrifice. It is also a definite path to self discovery with immense scope for learning, laughing, love and long-standing commitment. One you must take only if you are sure of it and ready to be led to places you never knew existed. I now respect mothers a whole lot more. Not because I am one today but because I now realise the price they pay for it.

Pihu will go down in my list of accomplishments in this lifetime. I take it as a new responsibility to bring her up to see, enjoy and appreciate the bright side of life and gear up for the rough and tough part of it. I love kids; have always wanted one of my own. I have fastened my seat belt for the ride ahead. And so it begins...