Masters in Motherhood - I

I'm writing after ages. So this post has ended up being longer than i planned. Don't complain later. Also, don't run away. All 5 of you readers of this blog are important for my self esteem. 

Whoever said that being a mother comes naturally to women has to be a man. 

I've been a mother for six months and let me tell you, i've had to learn how to get the job done. And learn quickly. The only thing that came naturally were the labour pains. And those were far from quick. *shudder* No, not going to talk about those because i'm trying to keep this post expletive free. Let's just say those were the ten worst hours of my life so far and no, you don't forget the pain as soon as you see the baby. 

In fact when they gave me the my baby, a tiny thing bundled up in a cloud of blanket, my first reaction was "what am i supposed to do with him?" and the nurse told me "nothing". And so i lay there, trying not to crush this tiny, crumpled human that was my responsibility now, and it comes to me that the Fellow hadn't seen him yet (what with him pacing outside the maternity ward). So, since they'd given me my phone by this time i took photos of my 30 min old baby, dropped the phone twice on his head (thankfully babies are too shell-shocked right in the beginning to take note of this obvious piece of bad parenting) and generally tried to not fall off the delivery table in my attempt to get a good angle.  

Then there was the part where I had to learn how to nurse the baby, which, contrary to popular belief and mother-baby magazines, is not the most natural thing in the world. Didn't help that all i wanted to do was sleep for a month straight. Instead, i was up all night, struggling to hold a mouse sized baby correctly. Oh, and did you know, babies need to be burped after every feed? And that you can't put them down unless they do? And that they can take forever to burp. So much time in fact, that by the time they do, it is time to feed them again? On night 3 of doing this, i even fell asleep with my head resting on my baby as i held him up to burp. I told you, i had to learn how to be a mother - especially when it came to poop.

I have to confess that the first poop cleaning for my baby was done by my mom because i couldn't stop getting grossed out. But then the hospital i was at wouldn't let her stay the night and i was thrown, quite literally, into the deep end. Also, no one told me that new borns poop several times a day. And night. The only silver lining was that it wasn't smelly. But it did go from black to green to mustard and it was then i learnt the most important lesson of parenthood - everything is about the poop.

On this smelly note, Part I ends.

Part II shall be about more poop, pee that goes in all directions, sleep cycles and bath time. Amongst other things. 

At The End of The Day...

...all's well that ends well.

All the drama and panic in the last post might have been slightly premature. I blame over active hormones and a slight neurosis when it comes to having my whole life organised. You can't fault me though. There were too many variables involved when all i wanted was a constant in life and freaking out was a natural reaction.

Of course, with this episode turning out all right, i'm just more free to panic about other things. Like having to get up at 8 am and drive myself to the next appointment with my doctor. 

--Blank--

I've lost count of the number times i've started writing this and then hit the backspace key. I don't know where to start. Or what to start with. So much has happened. So much is happening. Sometimes it all feels a bit surreal. This is the kind of thing that happens to other people. 

Life has not been the same since the evening of February 19th 2013. Without going into details here, lets just say that what happened is the worst nightmare in the life of any pilot and his family come true. When i first got the news i went numb for a couple of minutes. I guess my mind refused to process the information until it was sure i had all my coping mechanisms in place. 

The week that followed tested each and every one of those mechanisms. Thankfully, i have my mom's head when it comes to a crisis the likes of which i was faced with. Even while one part of me was numb with disbelief, the other knew that remaining calm was extremely important. I knew that people around me would take their cue from how hysterical or not i was. It wouldn't help anyone, especially the worried parents halfway across the country, if i gave way to my worry and panic. And so during the day, i was strong and practical and non-weepy. I was in good humour about what had happened, looking at the good in the situation and ignoring the what-ifs.   

But back home, exhausted after 12 hours in a hospital chair and alone, the calm would shatter and the tears would fall freely. In a way, those nightly crying sessions rejuvenated me for a whole new day. And i guess i had everyone convinced that nothing fazed me because when i did let my worry show about small concerns like travel plans, they appeared shocked and surprised. After all, i'd remained calm where most wives would get hysterical. 

And now, a month and a half later, when life finally seemed to be going well and we had a lot to look forward to, the universe decided to keep pushing our limits. It seems we hadn't gone through enough and still had some residual bad karma to make up for or something. Nothing else explains the situation we are in now. Unless you want to believe in the whole evil eye concept and how people can't be happy that things are going right for you. 

Yes, in the bigger picture of life, we should just count our blessings and be happy. But i'm out of perspective and so done with looking for silver linings. And i'm tired of being strong and composed. I'm human. I'd like to be able to get hysterical and cry my heart out till my eyes are puffy and painful without having to explain it to anyone. I want to be able to vent and rant and howl. And i want people to stop being shocked by my lack of composure or calm in the face of a messy situation. I want to be able to have a breakdown and not feel guilty about it. I need to be allowed my reactions. And emotions. 

I need it all to just end well.

I want it all to just end.