2 Little lines. A “C” under one
and a “T” under the other. That’s how it began. Initial jubilation turned into
hesitation. What if it was a false positive? Another couple of rounds of “pee
on the stick” put that doubt to rest. Yep. Definitely pregnant. First major
decision. Which doctor do we consult? Most of the well-known gynecs in
Bangalore have waiting times stretching above 2 hrs. And that is when you
already have a confirmed appointment. Good luck trying to get through via a
walk-in. Better bring your lunch with you.
One argument was that if
everything went normal, we do not need an expert Gynecologist to see it
through. My policy was, as the saying goes, “Better to have and want not rather
than want and have not”. Thus we decided to go with the best in the business, Dr.
Praveena Shenoi at Cloud 9, Old Airport Road. After a couple of walk in
wait-a-thons, with my wife constantly reminding me that if we had gone with
some other doctor, we could have reached back home by then, we succeeded in
getting a confirmed appointment for the third visit. The trick was to book the
next appointment as soon as you came out of your current consultation.
An array of tests and an
ultra-sound scan later - nothing to report, which is actually good news when it
comes to pregnancy.
Still, for the first 3 months,
each bump in the road, each pothole that the car ran into, was a source of a
minor heart attack. Every twinge of pain in the stomach/abdomen area raised the
heartbeats. It is said that around 85% of miscarriages happen within the first
trimester. And when you have already had one, the worry gets multiplied
manifold the second time.
It doesn’t mean that once you
cross three months, all worries are lifted and everything is hunky-dory. The
cycle I found during this time is, Tension before the scanà No issues in the scan
report à
Jubilation and reliefà
Tension before the next scan.
So basically, you are worried
about a scan basically all the time, and you have an array of scans to go
through too, Ultra Sound, NT, Anomaly, Interval Growth and so on. All you can
do is keep calm and cross all your fingers and toes that nothing abnormal comes
up in the scan reports. But even with all that, the worrying becomes an
integral part of your wait for the baby. Or maybe life is just preparing you
for the lifetime of worrying that lies ahead.
