The longest day...

7th July 2008

This day marks the beginning of a new chapter in our life, the chapter of parenthood. When we all went to bed last night after watching Spiderman-3, we had no clue of the events that unfolded today. It was around 2.30A.M when Anu woke me up and asked me to call up the doctor. She started feeling some pain in the lower abdomen. After bringing myself to a steady state, I called up the doctor's office. We waited for around 15 minutes before the doctor gave us a call back after being paged by the nurse. Doctor asked us right away to go to the hospital.

We packed certain essential things and started to Chilton hospital around 3.40A.M. We checked in at the maternity department and Anu was admitted in. I was allowed to be with her in that room while my in-laws had to wait outside the department. I went and updated them whenever I got a chance. Initially couple of nurses attended her and after all the routine checks, they confirmed that Anu is going to have the baby today. Anu was very much afraid and tensed on knowing this. None of us had expected it, we thought that we will return home after a shot or some medication to relieve her pain. The baby wasn't due for another 1 month, he was supposed to be born on 08/08/08 as an olympic baby.

We were informed by the nurses that the baby may not come home with us as he might need help breathing and might be kept in special care due to early delivery. This added more tension and worry to all of us though I convinced Anu to think about the probability of he being normal. Anyway, I said 'lets get through the delivery first and hope he breathes fine'.

As the time went by, Anu's pain started increasing. She got shifted to her delivery room and in-laws were allowed to be with us till the morning shift nurses take charge at 7A.M. Anu couldn't bear the pain as contractions started to occur frequently. After repeated inquiries to the nurses about the arrival of the doctor, they assured that the doctor will be in by 8A.M. Doctor came in, examined Anu and asked Anu whether she would take an Epidural to numb her abdomen area. She gladly nodded yes for she had suffered far too much pain in a short span of time. She took the epidural and fell asleep from the tiredness of fighting with the contractions since 4A.M.

While Anu took some rest, I made calls to mom and dad to inform the news. They were happy, excited and tensed about how we will manage. We made calls to Anu's grandpa and uncle in bangalore. We told them that we would keep them updated on the progress. We had some breakfast for the sake of having it. Anu woke up after some 2 hours of sleep around 10.30A.M and felt hungry. She had some snacks but was too afraid about delivery to eat further. I stayed next to her all the time and assured her that she will come through fine with the baby. I knew she will, if I am there to help her.

Around 11.30P.M, we were informed that doctor will come soon and prepare things for delivery. Meanwhile Anu was making fine progress with her contractions. Nurses told us that the doctor is going to take care of the delivery for another lady before attending Anu. We waited for nearly two and a half hours before doctor came in. She asked Anu to breathe heavily and keep pushing the baby out. Three nurses and I were there helping Anu to push when the contractions occur.

From 2.20P.M, Anu started pushing out the baby heavily and slowly he started coming out. After 45 minutes of continuous pain and pressure, Anu delivered him at 3:06P.M. To add to the shock of early delivery, he surprised the doctors and nurses with his good health condition. They said he does not need any special care as his breathing is fine. Anu and I had tears at the edge of our eyes once he was born. The nurses cleaned him up and gave him to me. I showed him to Anu and congratulated her. She wished me as well. Then I rushed to inform my in laws who were unaware of the progress and eagerly waiting to hear the news any time. I couldn't stop the tears of joy when I broke the news to them. We had decided his name as Shashank only a few days back. Shashank means moon, for a change, the moon landed on earth.

12 hours of relentless suspense and tension, all washed away in the river of joy on seeing him, his tiny body parts.

Vj