Memoirs of my Pregnancy.

Folks, in just a few days my first born will be a year old. It is a special feeling… A feeling of pride, belongingness, affection and responsibility.  Although I am not sure if I can truly express what I felt when she was  born and now when she will be a year old. I had seen many mothers taking care of their babies but I myself had never been around babies and taken concern in their nurturing. Three years back our good friend’s Khushbu and Saurabh had their first born child Siddharth. That is when I started playing with the then infant who is now a big boy of 3 years.  Time just flew away when I was around him playing and listening to his babbling. Manish being more playful then me, I witnessed him playing with Siddharth as if he is not a ball of soft muscle but a small little athlete who could be turned and played with like a soft ball.

For Manish and me having a baby was like a self-initiated experiment.  There were so many myths related to pregnancy and child birth that we always looked forward to do things our way ….more like a Research & Development way. I have always wanted to share our bit of experiences, that made us look at pregnancy more in a fun way rather than the scared way as most of the people would make it sound to be.

Our first adventure started with travelling by air when we had just conceived Ananya. Although the gynecologist we first visited told us it is a high risk gamble to travel in the first few weeks of conceiving. But she did not give us a valid answer as to why she suggested so. Her explanation was majority of the doctors would tell you so in this condition. But she did not know that I had just traveled back from Bombay that too in local trains carrying my own luggage and then too my fetus was intact. We had to travel to Manish’s best friend’s wedding to Hyderabad, which I did not want to miss for anything. We decided to pack our bags and fly with rest of our friends but we took care by not picking up anything heavy, walking a little slow, eating healthy and resting in between. And so we did it. Everything went well and we landed back safely to our city. Somehow we could not confide in the gyne we visited. It took us time to search for a Doctor who could provide us apt reasons for either a Yes or No while our pregnancy. After small stint of search we found our Gyne. Dr.Gunjan Govil. She was very relaxed and made us feel as everything is normal, there was nothing to be afraid of. Pregnancy is just a health condition, and not an ailment that needs to be treated. We were really relieved to know that the Gyne whom we will visit for the next 9 months, she only would be delivering our baby.

Dr. Gunjan called us every 2 weeks for routine checkups. Manish was so relaxed after meeting her, that after a month or so I started visiting her myself. Manish followed up later by phone to know about the checkup. She monitored my weight, Blood Pressure and baby’s heartbeat. I being more on the healthy side she only cautioned me against not gaining too much of weight. Reasons being for an overweight person carrying a baby for the whole term that is 42 weeks is difficult in addition to having a normal delivery. While she maintained her advice to eat and not starve, but eat healthy and not treat yourself in the traditional way. She asked us to read as much as we can about pregnancy on the net. We learnt that for a pregnant lady it is recommended to have normal diet with an addition of only 300 calories to allocate towards the nutrition of the baby. In contrast we hear our mothers and other people going GAGA about eating double the amount of your normal diet during pregnancy. So there was one myth busted!

Another thing that people advice you is to eat something white in the morning to have a fair baby. How can be possible? Just imagine, if I would eat green peas early in the mornings…will my baby be green in complexion???!!!  What we read and learnt from the net is that eating anything healthy is good as carrying mothers tend to feel a little weak and nauseated in the mornings. Eating something rich like a piece of sweet, milk & dry fruits or even fruits is a good recommendation.  Many times ladies do not like eating and just throw up for the first half of the day. Every lady has a different pattern during pregnancy. I was lucky enough as I did not feel nauseated at all throughout my pregnancy. That was another reason as to why I could travel and move around without any complication.

‘Exercise during pregnancy’!!!...Such a big debate to have. I kept going to the gym until I was 8 months pregnant. My doctor recommended to do light weight exercises and a few yogasanas additionally walk as much as you can. One can get a good help from the internet about the exercises and yogasanas one could do in different stages of your pregnancy. While walking one should wear comfortable footwear & clothes. Talking while walking is a strict ‘No No’. Taking the stairs is also a good choice of exercise. But one should be comfortable doing so. If at all you feel restless or nauseated you should not follow this.    A regime of 20-30 minutes of activity every day kept me fit and fine during the pregnancy. After the eighth month you would only be able to walk and stretch but not exercise much.

Eclipses are another point of alarm during pregnancies. Pregnant ladies should not cut, clean and moreover sit cross legged. During the eclipse, one should not see sunlight nor should your womb. Some people even apply some sort wet soil to prevent the sun rays from ‘penetrating’ into the tummy of the would be mummy. J If you don’t follow these rules, your baby could be blind, one footed, crippled or any other sort of abnormality would occur…this is what they believe. When I was in my 5th month Manish got Chicken Pox. Ouch!!!!!!......Such a big concern. And the same week the eclipse occurred. I cut vegetables, made lunch & dinner, did the cleaning, went grocery shopping and even looked at the eclipse at night. The moon looked beautiful...Nonetheless after that…I was healthy and my baby was also healthy when delivered.  In olden times there were no detailed checkups, not every to be mother got the best nutrition & medicines, hence the chances of having an abnormal baby was high, that was interrelated to eclipses and other natural phenomenon’s.

We were having an addition to our family. Hence we bought a car even before our baby arrived. I was 5 months pregnant. Manish was new behind the wheels. Hence the initial months of our new car I drove around until Manish got his drivers license. I drove my car until the 9^th month of pregnancy…and enjoyed driving around as it gave a feeling of doing something new and exciting. I always wore my seat belt and never over speed-ed anytime.

Reading good, watching good shows on TV….all this do make a difference during the pregnancy. In fact reading what soothes your mind and watching what you enjoy is what I followed.  My friends gave me picture perfect photos of cute babies to hang around my house so that I could look at them and my baby would be just like them!...Sorry friends…but I did not look at those pics…Why would I want my baby to look like someone else.  Besides, a babies features and it’s gene structure is built in the first 2 months of conceiving.  No matter what you see your baby has already started to look like itself!

My trial of pregnancy came to an end in the full term of pregnancy and resulting in a normal vaginal delivery. I was discharged the second day of the delivery itself and asked to move around and gain activity on my own pace. But not be lethargic. I thought that everything till now was good , but there was one last ordeal to overcome. Breast Feeding. Ananya was a normal baby to be delivered but somehow, I and she as a team could not successfully attempt breast feeding. I was depressed that as a mother I could not feed my own baby. I visited Dr Gunjan and discussed my concern with her. She was quite supporting and asked me to be on some medicines and follow the natural way of feeding. But sometimes nature can be averse too.  Dr Gunjan explained that this is a natural process, majorly it happens naturally and in abundance, but if not…there is no cure or remedy for it. I questioned her that I did not follow a traditional diet routine is the reason behind this. She replied PooJa…let me tell you a small thing….even a beggar on the street with minimal of nutrition is able to breast feed its baby. Again because naturally she can do it. Diet is not a major concern here. Also when people say to pregnant ladies….Drink ample of milk as you will feed your baby. Milk itself does not produce milk! Does a cow who produces milk drinks milk in return….NO!...She basically eats grass and loads of fiber. However, I was in pain and gloom but I had a baby to feed no matter what!...I started using Nestle’s Lactogen. And within 2 months started Amul’s full cream milk. With the grace of God and our efforts…she eats well and is growing as a normal baby should.

 Now…when I share my thoughts with you I don’t mean to lionize myself and say what a Big Thing! What I mean is thinking differently never hurts. It only takes a little courage and a partner who could make you feel even if things go wrong it is ok. At least it will be your own mistake. I could not do this variety experiments during my pregnancy if it was not for Manish. His belief ‘Never  follow the crowd’ still is applied in our day to day lives and eventually that is ‘our’ belief now. With each day passing, my faith grows stronger when I say delivering a baby is not difficult task …but bringing up a child in a right way is a hell of a task. Our endeavor has been just a year old now…looking forward to write again when our myth buster ‘Ananya’ is grown up for us to know more facts about childhood and parenting.