THURSDAY SEP 30

Letter to Siddhu :DAY AT THE HOSPITAL

Doctor: Andrin Margaret
Nurse: Eddie
Epidural Specialist: Dr. Walker
Today ‘s Date: Sep 30th 2010

It was morning 7.05 AM when we(myself,your mom and lakshmi patti) started from our home to the Somerset Medical Center ,New Jersey ,US. It was heavily raining the whole day and it took us an hr to reach the hospital. After Parking our car,we went directly to registration counter in the hospital.
8.20 AM- we were at registration office of the hospital. All the formalities and procedures of registration got over around 8.50 AM. We were asked to march towards the Labor and Delivery ward. Immediately, your mom was admitted in room 153 of the ‘Labour and Delivery ward’.

9.00 AM –Your mom was asked to change her dresses and lie on her back. First they measured your heart beat followed by your mom’s blood pressure for vg and temperature. Then they took some blood samples. After that, to avoid dehydration, it was time to start the glucose dosage.Nurse pierced a big needle in her left hand to pass glucose.

9.25 AM -The doctor came in and measured dilation level and she said dilation was already 5 cms. So,5 more cms to go .Many ladies in US get admitted at 2.So,doctor was like-‘OMG,you are already 5 and we are good to go’.She was lot more surprised .

9.30 AM-Time for picotine.Picotine is a medicine which artificially induces labor pain. They started passing this medicine through her left hand along with the glucose. Now the time is 9.55 AM and the contractions have become little stronger than usual. To be continued….

11.00 AM-During this course , she had regular contractions which were monitored by the doctors and nurses…and finally @ 11.15, water broke on its own.

11.30 AM -Discussions were going on between the myself, nurse and your mom about taking epidural which is kind of a medicine that should be taken in the Spinal cord for reducing the labor pain. You know what, the pain is unbearable and this is a substitute which is used for this purpose to make pregnant women feel comfortable during pregnancy. So finally, I decided that your mom will go for it.

12 Noon - Dr. Walker walked in and explained us about the procedures of epidural and your mommy was given a shot. She had to sit erect and they injected a big needle through her spine during which she should not to avoid the risks of having a spine head ache.Epidural has lots of risks if not taken properly. I know it was un bearable for her seeing her reactions during that time. After 15 minutes ,she started feeling the numbness in her tummy, lower part of the abdomen and legs. But,this definitely will make her comfortable and she will be good to go for a while.

1:30 PM -she was 8 cms dilated. The doctors were expecting you around 3 – 5 PM. Thank God, she did not feel much pain because of the epidural .she was slowly dilating. Excitement still continues and the time was 2.15….
2.40 PM-Nurse has started setting up the delivery room for your arrival. They said that by 3 PM Viji can start pushing… heart pounded more …TBC at 3.

She could feel the baby's head right in the spot and at 3 PM the doctor and nurses stepped into the room to start pushing exercise. It was time for my role to give her hope ,confidence ,mental and moral support that she could do a natural birth. She started pushing but could not make it. I know it was tough to get it right at the first time. She tried too hard but couldn't make it. The doctor helped her and I could see bit of the your head and hair when she tried pushing. It's around 3.20 PM and doctor felt that the your heart rate may go down and she said she was going to use a vacuum to pull you out.

I personally felt that she could have waited more because your mom just started pushing and for a first timer how could they expect to push the baby out in 20 mins. She took the tools and set the vacuum in appropriate position and in the next few pushes the you were out @ 3.32 PM.

3:32 PM HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIDDHU,MY JUJU BOY…

It was all mixed emotions and I have been with her all through this process and in the last 30 mins holding he hands and legs ,helping her out in all sorts of ways that I could.Few drops of tears rolled down my cheeks after years. They took you out and droped on your mother’s chest for a while and the doctor asked me if I would cut the umbilical cord between the boy and mommy. I boldly said YES and bravely honored the cermony .

Then nurses cleaned and measured your body. You weighed 5 pounds and 15.8 ouncesyou’re your height was 19.4 inches. While they were doing this, doctors were doing stiches for Vg parallely .Without caring for the pain,her eyes were set on Siddhu .She was asking if she can see you again.I could see that pain in her eyes vanished the moment you were born.

Finally after cleaning it was photo session and sweets distribution. Long story in short . Finally we are entering parenthood and its going to be exciting, thrilling whatever you can name it. All together it's going to be a new start again for us with you, cute little pumpkin SIDDHU.


-Narration by Nagaraj .editor -Viji Nagaraj :-);dedicated to Siddhu Nagaraj