Text Book Parents - Part II

Second trimester went in a blur ….numerous tests, waiting to feel the first kick of the new life, waiting for the next doctor visit so that we can hear that reassuring heart beat sound again, wait …wait and more wait. The only highlight of the second trimester was another untrasound and this time that tiny one centimeter object has taken a recognizable shape. Not so clear yet overwhelmingly clear enough to make your heart burst with love and apprehension. And within this trimester came ‘the moment’ when the life inside responded to my touch. Is she ok in there? Does she has enough space to move around? What if she chokes on that fluid around her? Is the baby safe in there, what if she strangles her neck with the umbilical cord? Just when we touched the mark of 1 million, two hundred and ninety questions the second trimester gave way to the third.

If you have been a patient soul all your life, third trimester is the time to get introduced to your impatient self. If you have always been an impatient soul, brace yourself cause you would nearly trip over your own nerves and set new records of impatience. Yes impatience was the keyword for the third trimester for both of us. If you want me to put it in literal terms based on observing Sim I would say it was itchy, achy, heavy, leg cramps in the midle of night and less mobile for her and it was full of anxiety, fear and apprehension for me. Two false alarms followed with two emergency hospital visit which costed us close to 500 dollars. Bags were packed and placed in the car trunk (just in case). Gas tank was filled to the brim (just in case). All baby stores were ransacked for most everything they might have had to offer. We have finally read and memorized ‘week 240’ of the book ‘Pregnancy week by week’. Crib was all set and nursary was decorated. With all thos going on there we were a week prior to the due date and nothing to do except eat, sleep, wait, be anxious and grow impatient.

Thus came the due date and ….went just like it came… and …nothing happened!!! We were dumbstruck. This wasn’t something which fitted in our scheme of things. Not that I should talk of it right now but this was just the beginning of things and situations we haven’t thought about over last 240 weeks. So just when you thought that endless wait has come to an end, we realized it ain’t over till it ain’t over. The wait till now had a deadline and the one we were having then hadn’t one, so the paranoia and anxiety have permanently camped in our heads. In the meantime we had to reopen the “Pregnancy week by week’ and read week 241 and week 242 which we skipped earlier and no matter what they write it just didn’t seem pretty. Father of the bride – part II was watched for the umpteenth time and god bless Steve Martin, we felt a lil better.