Just Pregnant!

As soon as you find out that you are pregnant and the news is confirmed, you almost drown in a sea of advices, words of wisdom and caution .... on top of it, you have the pregnancy books, which give you all information about all kinds of pregnancy. A popular book that almost everyone refers to is 'What to Expect When You Are Expecting' - its definitely a good reckoner, and covers a broad range of cases. The book is in a Q&A format, and answers most of the questions that surface in your mind. The only problem I faced with it was that it is meant for the Western audiences, and many references and practical suggestions in it are not very suitable for the Indian scenario. Although, there are Indian authors like Nootan Pandit who have attempted to bridge the gap. In my opinion, the best resource by far is the internet, which can answer any question that you may have.

Now when you have access to all those books, internet and people, an information overdose is natural. So after a month of discovering that I was pregnant, I began to feel really ill. Doc said not to take stress and to watch my diet, and my info bank said that first trimester is the most 'dangerous' and tough... what with constipation and flatulence and nausea and tiredness and mood swings and cravings ..... my mind went in a twirl, and I experienced ALL the symptoms I read about! I began to sigh without reason at any physical movement, was always tired, and constantly felt stressed about what would go wrong ... the result - I could not continue going to office, and had to apply for 'work from home' ... forget about keeping the news hush hush for the initial months, before the week was over, my entire office of some 200 people knew that I was on the family way!!!!! In all this, I think the only thing to get jinxed was my work...

One advice given to me at that time may have helped, had I been listening .... "Pregnancy, my dear, is a miracle, to be enjoyed... you are not ill, just pregnant ;-)"

Fact... or fiction?

With the pregnancy a number of questions and doubts started coming to my mind... I did not know what part of my normal life I could continue living, and what would need to change. Believe me, that phase is pretty scary for a first timer, but looking back, has a number of incidents, stories, myths and experiences that all add up to make the pregnancy most memorable.

It is my atempt to try and list here some of the interesting fact vs fiction stuff that I was subject to.. would love to hear from you all what your fiction quotient has been like:

1. No papaya, no pineapple .... an aunt threw in Gauva as well, just in case ;-) So I could not have the Tropicana mixed fruit juice, no mixed fruit sundae... infact, no 'mixed', period. My mum-in-law felt that coconut was missing from the list, so no fresh coconut as well... soon I was in a state where before every bite I was looking for help... can I eat this, pleaaasssseeeee???

Btw, a visit to my gynae confirmed that this papaya, pineapple an gauva taboo is actually just a myth, once the pregnancy is confirmed, these fruits cause no harm!

2. It seems pregnancy is the time when the woman becomes weak, is easily suceptible to attacks and influence of the other world ... so.. a knief went under my mattress, I was not to go out in the dark alone, not for fear of the living, but for the fear of the not-so-living ... hey, but no superstition is ever without a solution, so, I could go in the dark and pass from under trees if I have an iron object in my hand... alas, in addition to the iron tablets that I have to consume, there is more 'iron' in my life!

Creation of Life - Phase 1

Life takes a dramatic turn as the pregnancy is confirmed. You begin with a book or two on pregnancy, and chatting up with other mother to be's, or recent mothers. And ofcourse, not to forget, you chat with your own mother.

Jinxed!

Its amazing how there is something inside you that gets you so excited that you feel like annoucing to the world that you are pregnant, but the fear of jinxing the baby forces you to keep the new arrival a hush hush affair. So much so, that if an enthusiastic and happy being, like your mum, happens to spill the beans to the relatives, you look upon them admonishingly, as if they spilt out the top secret defence code of the country and now there will be no one left to save us from a nuclear war!!!!

At that time, I followed all the jinx advice and kept it a hush hush affair... but looking back, I would like to ask all those who scared me with the jinx story - its the arrival of a baby ... its a happy news and we must celebrate.... why not tell the world... ever since the news my world has changed, the pregnancy and the tiny life inside me is all I can think of when I talk to anyone, all I see around me is babies and expecting mothers, suddenly I have begun pausing on any baby face on the tube... even if its for an advertisement. I want to share my happiness with all around me, I have got the gift I was longing for.... then why give way to fear?

Leads to an almost philosophical discussion - why are we scared of losing even before we have actually won?

Discovering pregnancy

Becoming pregnant for me was like a dream which you often see but dont expect to come true... you would go out of your way to deny it. I have always been fascinated with children, but to have one of my own ... my response was always "Someday? Yes sure, now...? ..No way!"

So when the home pregnancy test kit showed a faint double line ... I didn't believe it. Did the test many times over, went to a neighbourhood doctor, who interpreted the results as "weekly positive"! Imagine... having to tell your husband, "Darling, there is a weakly positive indication of your becoming a daddy..." The man was livid..... what in the world was meant by "weakly positive???!!!" Well.... after thousands of advices, opinions from parents and sister, I went to my regular gynaecologist ... who promptly removed the 'weakly" from the positive results. And thus, I, was formally diagnosed as 'PREGNANT'. But that, my dear, was just the beginning of my experiences with creating life...