Becoming a Parent..
Teary eyed! Totally teary eyed I was when I heard the Doctor announce: “Congratulations! It’s a baby Boy!” as she walked out of the Operation Theatre of the hospital we were admitted in. “Both mother & the baby are doing fine.” she then said. Not a common thing in my personality to be wet eyed but the moment had me.
All I had in my mind during the wait was how would the baby look like, whether it’ll be a boy or a girl, what would be my first reaction after seeing him/her, how much more time is it going to take further before I see the baby, will it be the Doctor herself I’ll be hearing from first or the assistants, etc, etc,. All mixture of feelings, with major mood swings. This is one of those days of a man’s life which defines him for best, makes him even stronger & proud, reenergises him for the rest of his life. They say its a woman’s rebirth delivering a child, I feel no less for the men too.
It was the day of utmost happiness of my life. Rejuvenated. Delighted. Happiest. Contentious. Blessed. Revitalised & all the happy words of the possible English dictionaries were flashing into my mind in that one moment. Full of anxiety, my mind shot various thoughts, whether I should donate blood for good, or pay fees of some poor patient at the reception, distribute sweets to the entire hospital, or sponsor food for the needy ones at a temple, etc, etc,. Ultimately I convinced my mind to take control on self as I had to be there strongly for all of us until we reached home. I’ll be doing the last thing among the above for sure I promised to myself, its my kid in the end, right?
We then got the first glimpse of my baby with the cradle moving out of the OT assisted by a nurse. He was all healthy, happy, moving all body organs smoothly, his face towards the sunlight on his right. The paediatrician slowly moves the baby’s nappy to show that its a baby boy & informing his weight to be 3.5 KGs & birth time to be 4:00 pm. Most importantly he said that the baby cried well which is expected & that both the Mom & the kid are good. Mom had another half an hour to walk out to our room with few final dressings.
I was chanting & chanting “Om Namah Shivay” on a loop looking at the kid, still trying to believe that its my kid. Both the grand mothers had the kid in their arms turn by turn, feeding him honey as his first food. We then started making calls to all relatives informing about the Good News! I had set my whatsapp status as “Its a Boy! Mulga zala re! #proudfather”
There’s a divine feeling about all this I tell you. The baby would keep calm & focus towards when he hears Mom or Dad’s voice. Also when he hears tunes of ‘Ram Raksha Stotra’, ‘Hanuman Chalisa’, ‘Haripath’, the religious prayers that we had chanted for the entire 9 months of pregnancy. I know that he was habituated of those voices on daily basis but I can sense that its beyond all that.
Some time passed & we could see the mother’s wheelchair wheeling into our room, all smiles on her face, rather happy cries. She was still in such good condition to explain us what all happened inside the OT. Doctors had laid the baby as soon as it was out, onto her chest for the first touch. Everyone, the staff inside was so cheerful & encouraging & how they maintained a happy vibe throughout. When in room, she was all drained out & so had few cookies & tea for some immediate glucose.
We lived around 20 kms away from the hospital. My Mom & Dad left for home in the evening for fetching food for dinner for all of us. They were back in around 2 hours. There was a restriction on no.of people that could stay in the hospital due to COVID so my Dad & brother left late in the night. This was our first night with the baby & I was all prepared to be awake. The nurse had suggested breast feeding in every 2 hours frequency. We didn’t have the need for an explicit alarm, the baby would cry out loud whenever hungry. There was a small cradle in the room where we’d sleep the baby off after each feed.
We had a list of formalities lined up the next day. Filling up a form for the local municipal corporation informing about the new born, small 10 mins session with a lactation expert for few tips on breast feeding etc,. The Doctor visited us twice in our room throughout the day. There was one session of light radiation for filling up the stitches my wife had got during the delivery. The paediatrician checked out on the baby if he’s doing well. There are chances of Jaundice in the newly borns due to lack of exposure to sunlight for a long time, thankfully there was no such thing in our case. Furthermore we just had to spend the next 2 days in the hospital under observation, follow timely medicines & food and all.
Life will never be the same for me anymore.