Nine months

Child birth stories always fascinate me. I simply love the anticipated wait towards the D-day and the excitement that follows. My neighbour just delivered a baby boy and two of my friends are due any time now. The funny thing with my neighbour was that she had many a false alarms and used to frequently rush to the hospital for getting the baby's pulse and health monitored. She had a difficult pregnancy and so every time she would rush to the hospital I used to wonder if this was it. Finally the day dawned when she was supposed to attend my son's birthday party and I came to know she was in labour. The baby arrived and soon there was me and her and another neighbour excitedly swapping the labour and child birth stories. You see a new mother is always excited about sharing these kind of stories. It is almost an accomplishment in it itself or so it feels. The joy is unique in its own ways and nothing in the world can parallel it. One thing I learnt from both of them who are now second time moms is that even during the second time around a mother feels the same rush of emotions, excitement and joy. There is absolutely no been-there-done-that-so-what's-new kind of a feeling.

The entire nine month run is filled with thrills. Some of the memorable events that most women and their partners go through are the confirmation of the pregnancy news, the visuals of the first sonography and then the one in which the baby can be seen, the first baby kick and the actual arrival. For the woman these nine months are a roller coaster ride of emotions.There are moments of pain - the morning sickness, food cravings or nausea and vomiting. In the vomitting season there is usually a fear of not making it to the vomit pot in time especially when you are in office and the rest room is way towards the other end. There also are those moments of funny mood swings which most of the time make the lady in question a drama queen. With the hormones having a field day most women feel tearful at the drop of a hat like watching a movie, husband refusing to relinquish the remote control or any such otherwise normal situations. Then there are those patience testing moments when everyone around offer unwanted advice that at times are throughly confusing.

The fruits of patience sure are sweet but as the countdown begins it gets pretty uncomfortable in those last few days when your belly probably feels as if it weights more that your entire body weight. Moving around especially changing positions when sleeping becomes akin to moving an elephantine load. Most mothers would agree that sleeping in itself becomes a challenge but imagine that in these moments of discomfort too, there is a certain joy in tracking and feeling the movements of a tiny being inside. One finds close family and friends indulging in various games whenever there is a pregnant woman in the house. The game where one guesses form the movements wheather that was the hand or the head of the baby that just moved. The other is guessing the gender of the unborn from the shape of the stomach or from the food cravings. But nothing beats the game of rushing the lady in labour to the hospital finally knowing that the big moment is here and the miracle of life ready to begin its journey into this world.