Wait continues...

What a day it has been!
Spent the whole day in the hospital besides lalitha.
We were hoping that she would be induced today. But, as it turned out to be, the labour ward was very busy with more urgent cases. so ours was deferred. Waiting and watching on the sidelines sometimes is very distressing. In an otherwise uneventful period, we were witness to a nice event..
A woman on the neighboring ward started moaning at around 12.30PM. she shouted for help from the midwife. The midwife arrived, rolled her to the labour room.. and excused herself for a brief moment to quickly grab some equipment for a VE (internal exam). By the time she was back, the woman was almost about to deliver. In a few moments she gave birth to a nice baby boy. The whole process lasted less than an hour! No pain killers... no nothing!! You should have seen the gleam of joy in the midwife's face as she narrated the event to us immediately after the birth.
God bless the baby.
Lalitha and me immediately sat in prayer.. wishing the only thing we possibly would at this time.. God, give us the strength to cope with any physical and emotional exertion. Give our baby the gift of good health! As your birthday present to our baby , We would only be glad if you give the baby good looks :-)
So.. may be tomorrow is the day!

Thursday night and friday

.. It was some kind of a disbelief for all of us that Lalitha had to stay at hospital. she was very fit and active. probably fitter than me. even the midwives were amazed that she could go about her tasks so easily.
but we had to accept it.
she was served little food. we really didint expect her to be asked to stay back in the hospital. so our preparation was poor to that effect. we just had a bag for her with some clothes and other essentials.. but no food/biscuits for her in case she felt hungry.
the food served in the hosp was little in quantity and she felt hungry in the evening. Lucky for her, the Newham general hospital has good midwives who care. A midwife hurriedly scouted her resources and got her some sandwiches.
the whole of thursday night was spent in tests and monitoring her and the baby. They took a lot of blood from her for tests fromthe veins on the back of her palm. Very painful.. More agonising because they left the plastic drip socket attached to her.. in case they needed to give her some drips.
so no sleep on thursday
i applied for leave on friday so that i could spend time with her.
friday was actually uneventful. we were moved to a special room.. where you could talk and laugh without disturbing other moms.
we just bided our time waiting for saturday when the induction was scheduled.
I have been reading some articles on the internet about induction of labour. http://www.rcog.org.uk/resources/public/pdf/rcog_induction_of_labour.pdf we were kind of caught offguard and havent really prepared for this. but yes, we have cheerfully accepted it.
Right now, i am preparing to go to the hospital for the induction. we are expecting the baby by this evening.. will keep you posted.
wish us luck... wish lalitha the least pain.
Murali

Thursday,,, hectic day in hospital

Much of last week went away in anticipation. The contractions which were to herald the arrival of the baby never happened. There really was no panic as such. Both me and lalitha were pretty cool about that.
We had a lot of fun watching movies and trying to figure out how our baby would be ..
The last time lalitha had an ultrasound scan was in her 4th month of preg.. and the baby decided not to show her face to us at that time.. she simply turned back to the scanner and wouldnt show her face :-)
cut to the current week.
There has been a lot going on since the day before (Thursday-27Apr). lalitha complained of some uneasiness and extra fluids. WE werent sure if the waters broke. ( it was happening on and off since 22nd apr)

Thursday she had an appointment with the midwife at 9.30AM. The 200 meter walk to the surgery took 30 mins. only lalitha and amma went to the surgery. I was in the office keeping my attention on the phone ringer.
The midwife expressed some concern and she asked lalitha to go to hospital for a scan.
Lalitha arrived at the hospital by 12noon. She was subjected to an ultrasound and foetal heartbeat montors for a long time. Being in the hospital meant keeping her mobile switched off and i was in near panic mode as i couldnt reach her for extended hours.
Finally i asked my manager to give me time off and i rushed to the hospital. it was 5.30 pm by the time i located lalitha. she was still in the observation room while her reports were being studied by a doctor.
the midwife announced to us that they fear the waters have broken and she might have to be induced. They asked her to get admitted to the hospital.
Murali

Easter weekend!

we had four full days of vacation time. Very valuable coz this is our first long weekend in London.
There was a bright chance of the weekend getting jeopardised as I was asked to go to office. But lucky for him, the plan got shelved. So we are kind of taking it easy now!
Another day to go for our easter vacations to come to an end.
We were thinking about buying a cot for our little one.
With only a week to go for the arrival of the little one, I am in an urgency to buy a cot. We have a nice store next to our house... so we keep spending quite some time looking at all teh models and debating at length abt the pros and cons of each cot.
Lalitha keeps telling that we should buy a cot only after the little one arrives. I told her that she might not come over to buy the cot with the little one in tow.
But she is ok with that. she thinks that she would zero in on the cot only after she sees the little one :-)
~Murali

A week to go

Murali's been asking me to write something before we welcome our lil one but I've not been able to get my act together.No, not that I'm short of feelings .I am full of emotions and only my heart knows the range of feelings that has greeted me. The feelings are not even clear enough for me to explain.I can only feel the impact.Sometimes, it's tears of joy at the very thought of the lil one, sometimes, it's worry about my ability to handle a new life,sometimes, it's the pleasure of a bundle of joy that's soon going to be in my arms,some other times, it's the strong wish to be a great parent.I enjoy the rush of these emotions and am still to think of the pain I will have to go through. I guess the thought of the new one at the end of it all, will help me muster enough strength to face it. We've been spending the past so many months talking about the new arrival and preparing for it.It's all hope, aspirations and anticipation filling the atmosphere at our place.
The much talked about, thought about, dreamt about 'sweetie pie' will soon be with us and make our sweet lil world even sweeter.