New Year, New Baby: To the Second Li’l One Who Stole My Heart
Holding him in my arms was a high, as I smelled him, nuzzled him, drank him in with my eyes, writes Simrat Ghuman.
advertisement
The D-Day.
For a planned caesarian in the UK, you arrive at the hospital on the given day at 7.30 am and wait your turn. Our plan was that Darling Husband would accompany me to the hospital for the birth while my mother would join us there after depositing her precious grandson at the nursery. Mama, still on India time and nervous for me, was up at 5.30 am, although she was staying back to deposit Leo at the nursery. I was up a bit later and ready to leave at 7.
And who do you think we had to wait for? Yep, Darling Husband was still getting his mojo on at 7.30, lest anyone forget who the real prima donna of the day was! We reached the hospital to find a few couples ahead of us and I resigned to waiting till noon before our turn came. I noticed that the other couples looked nervous and anxious – probably first-time-C-sectioners, we guessed – whereas DH and I felt like smug veterans, laughing and joking about our first time.
How My Baby Laid Siege to My Heart
Thankfully, I was wrong about the wait. At 10 am I was wheeled in and the newbie made an appearance at 10.49 am, crying a bit to reassure everyone and then lapsing into a calm silence as he lay by my face while I was stitched up. Twenty minutes later, I was back in the ward and asked DH to call Mama so she could be on her way to meet us and her new grandson. Not only was she on her way, but she’d reached the hospital already. Not only had she reached and found out which floor and wing we were in, she was outside my ward, laden with food to prop up her darling daughter after the ordeal.
This, right here, is why mothers are so bloody precious, irreplaceable and unmatched in their devotion to their children. And here I was thinking she may be at home, praying for a safe operation. But practical as ever, she said she left the praying to my father in India and got busy reaching me. That’s my mama!
The newbie, well, is as unlike Leo as it’s possible to be. We were dreading and yet as prepared as could be for another colicky, fretful little boy who’d give us the pleasure of seemingly endless crying, projectile vomits, and worry. As long as he was healthy, we said, we’d take anything and run with it. But Littloo 2.0 is a calm, patient little boy who feeds, sleeps and occasionally squeaks when uncomfortable. Perhaps it’s too early to say it and perhaps I’m jinxing myself if I do, but it’s like winning a baby lottery. My mother sends up prayers everyday to the powers that be for every day of peace.
With Leo claiming all of my heart and soul, I did wonder if the newbie would be able to get anywhere as much love and devotion as his brother.
So here’s what happened to me: Till the morning of the birth, I was still focused only on Leo; his routine, his pickup from nursery, his food, etc. But the process of birth obliterated all thought of my precious first born for the next 48 hours. As the new baby emerged from my cut-open body, he tenderly lay siege to my heart and head and I literally didn’t think of anything else. Holding him in my arms was a high, as I smelled him, nuzzled him, drank him in with my eyes. All I could do was admire his exquisite, miniature perfection. If I make it all sound like a breeze, it’s all thanks entirely to my superhuman mother and pretty darn amazing husband (have I jinxed it?!) who picked up the slack, let me forget everything else and gave me the head space to just bond with my brand new one.
I’m lucky and I hope I never forget that. And how did Leo respond when he saw a new baby in the house? That’s for the next post!
(The author is a former TV journo who stays in London. She became Mama to baby Leo in April 2015. She started this blog as an outlet for the intense, roller-coaster experience that pregnancy and motherhood entail. And for recording the journey with as much humour – black mostly – as she can cram in. Oh and dispensing free gyan as she ticks the been there, done that milestones.)