Survival skills of a new mom

Well its been 4 weeks on the new job and boy do you have to adapt fast. Its literally a baby eats mother world out there. I will be adding on to the skills acquired, but as of now these are the path breaking ones :)

1. Sleep when she sleeps and eat when she eats - Yes every well meaning veteran says this and every new mom vouches this is not done. But for my survival it ended up being like the Brahmastra. There were dishes to be done, clothes to be folded and the house looked like a war camp. I let it be. With time I realised I dont need all that naps the baby does. That was the time to catch up :)
2. Manage to use 2 hands like 4. So while feeding there goes on blogging and chatting with the a telephone conversation in loudspeaker mode with folks back in India. Its eating and rocking the cradle while  searching online for lullabies all together.
3. Keep anything and everything at arms length. So got the cell phone, tv remotes, lip balm, headache balm, tissues, bottle of water, the book being read, bibs, pillows - you name it. I can reach any of them with a mere stretch of the hand.  
4. You offer help, I make sure I take it. K and I were blessed to have colleagues around who brought in food on a regular basis. We would not have been able to survive without them. I cant thank them enough for whatever they did. And when some offered to cook something when they came home - I in the most unabashed fashion have said - 'Go ahead there are some veggies in the fridge'.
5. Make your partner work. So I have made K do alllllll the house work during his paternity leave. Post that, he feeds me most of the time - so that we can have our meals together. He does the first and the last nappy change of the day. He also wakes up in the middle of the night for the feeds so that we can also share a mid-night snack :) 

Well. There go my new fangled skills. Experienced moms please do pitch in :)

Deliverance

Disclaimer:- Pretty personal post ahead. Wanted to write this lest I forget the experience.

26th Feb started as any lazy Sunday. Calls were made to home and then we dilly dallied as to how to spend the day.We finally decided to take a longish walk to a store specialising in Indian stuff. It was a good long walk where K and I got to 'talk' after many busy weeks. (Busy for him).

Once back home, I got a bit concerned since I did not feel much movements of the munchkin inside. We decided to get it checked at the local hospital. Everything seemed ok but since I had approached them with a similar concern 2 weeks ago and I was already full term they gave me the option of being induced into labor. We went ahead with it, since there was no sign of the lil one coming out without a bit of a poke. It was a bit scary and intimidating when things started to precipitate. And the bad part was K had to go back home at 2200 since there were no visitors allowed from 2200 to 0800. K left at 2145 and I steeled myself for a long night. 

But then exactly at 2205, they saw the heart beat of the cutsie spike up. I also had a temperature. Seemed like the hormones for inducing labor were going haywire on both of us. I was promptly taken to the delivery suite and K was called over to be the helping hand. I was put on drips to get the heart beat stabilised for junior. But 45 mins past, there was no improvement. The baby seemed to be in distress, and the doctor asked if I would want to be delivered surgically. In plain terms, go for a C-Section. We both nodded. The doctor made me sign a consent form, which had pretty scary stuff in the risks sections. I should make a special mention of the anesthetist who was a real perky individual. I will never forget her wink as she said - Come on lets get this baby out  and snapped her fingers. 

K was given a pair of scrubs. And off we went to the theater. It was 2350. Just to distract me K said, 'If its born in another 10 mins it would be an anniversary gift to your parents'. The anesthetist said 'Oh it will be out long before that'. 

And at 2355 with the words 'Its a GIRL' we welcomed Vaibhavi into the  world!

In the book '365 meditations for new mothers' the author says - when you deliver you deliver a baby and also yourself into motherhood. When I saw K's beaming face near my head with tiny Vibha in his arms I realised I had delivered him too to Daddyhood. We had officially arrived at parenting :)