8....7....

Weeks 31 & 32 were Bliss Central, but I was holding off on posting until we had our growth scan at 32 + 3 today *just in case*. A was super busy with work, and even had to go to Mumbai one day, with a day's notice. All of that just made the times that he WAS at home that much more valuable. There was a lot of lazing around, and, as the baby stuff we ordered online started coming in, nightly readings of The Very Hungry Caterpillar aimed at my belly. We ordered a lot of stuff online because the Great Online Shopping Festival had some amazing discounts, and some of it is still trickling in. We keep marvelling at how tiny the newborn sizes are. I look at those onesies and think - oh yeah, I think I can push out something THAT size! Far more comforting than the images of pumpkins and watermelons that Baby Center and the like keep projecting. 

My stomach's really come into its own lately... there are some baby positions that actually make me look unquestionably pregnant, for the first time. I'm still worried about pre-term labour just because everyone else I know had their babies early. I don't want an early baby! I think, anyway. I'm still not uncomfortable, or even doing the pregnant-waddle, but I hear it all starts to get painful four weeks from now, at 36 weeks. I attended a Lamaze class - A couldn't come, he had an investor meeting - and realized I needed to start putting together the highlights of birthing related material for him to look at when he's free. Maybe next week. This week I was busy working on his birthday surprises. It's his last one before he becomes a father, so I wanted to make it count. Among other things, I like the memory capsule I made for him - it has photos, dates, celebration details, songs, videos, love letters - all the stuff that's gone into making the two of us US. Life may change after the baby, so I thought it was helpful to store it all away for easy reference.

And now, coming to the scan. It's gotten me kind of annoyed, to be very honest. The last time we had a scan, about a month ago, the baby was measuring average overall, but in the lower percentiles for abdomen size & fetal length. I was told to eat more protein, and cut down on sugar, since it looked like I was gaining weight, but the baby wasn't. I was SPECIFICALLY asked to eat 6 Threptin biscuits a day, among other things. So I dutifully measured 80 grams of protein a day - not easy when you're a non-egg eating vegetarian - and forced it all down, despite never even being hungry. That much protein, every single day, is just vile, even when your stomach isn't the size of a pea. And I exercised, and I did yoga, and I was generally exemplary. 

I went in today, really nervous, because as I said, I'm worried about preterm labour. The baby's sizes have increased percentile wise, and it weighs almost 2kgs now, but I was told, "Can you start eating eggs, maybe? You've only put on 450 grams. The baby's gaining weight independent of your weight gain." And then, the statement that really annoyed me, "Don't eat Threptin, it has sugar in it." And also, "Your amniotic fluid levels are on the average side for this week of pregnancy, but if you continue at this rate, they'll be low by week 36, so you need to drink more water."

Goootcha. So to reiterate, every day, I'll now be eating: 2 idlis for breakfast, 10 almonds, a cup of legumes with sprouts, a glass of milk with protein shake in it, a protein pill, two servings of fruits, one serving of vegetables with 3 rotis, buttermilk with millet flour mixed in it, another helping of legumes, a carrot, another serving of vegetables with 3 rotis, curd, and somehow in between all that you want me to drink 3 liters of water? Not to mention iron pills twice a day, calcium once a day, and B12 once a day. 

It's bloody frustrating. Not to have the effort that I'm putting in acknowledged (A does, all the time, but I mean by my doctor). To see-saw back and forth on this, where if I put on weight, I'm at risk for gestational diabetes, and if I don't, then I'm not getting enough protein. Too many effing scans. I feel like we're constantly paranoid about what may happen. And I just want this baby out of me so that I don't have someone monitoring my diet to this crazy extent. 

Week 30 or T-9!

We're down to single-digit weekly countdowns and fortnightly doctors visits now!

Should I resent my five minute appointments? It's great that there's nothing to complain about, but it always feels like such a waste of time to go in and hear that nothing's changed. On the other hand, some people really enjoy that reassurance. My husband, for instance, loves our appointments though they've rarely lasted longer than 15 minutes. What I like about fortnightly appointments is that it gives me a greater incentive not to cheat on my diet or exercise. When my next appointment was a month away, I'd give in to temptation more often, but now I'm vigilant about treats.

I'm still eating like I'm on probation for gestational diabetes, though the test results came back and my glucose level is well within the normal level. More importantly, I'm trying to get in my 80gms of protein a day. That's more difficult, since I don't eat eggs or meat. So 80 grams of protein = 2 cups of yellow daal, 2 cups of green sprouts, 2 glasses of milk, 1 glass of buttermilk with 2 tablespoons of millet flour in it, and 6 Threptin biscuits... in addition to 3 regular meals, 5 helpings of fruits/veggies, and 8-10 glasses of water. 

I feel like I'm always eating, or prepping food to eat, or thinking about what to eat. Also, while I enjoy eating healthily, I hate sprouts, and millet flour triggers my gag instinct. Every time I look into a bowl of sprouts, I wince thinking nine weeks to go = more than 2 months to go. Soon may they fly by.

I'm staying awake till 11pm-12am again, although I have a hard time waking up before 7am. Mostly, I'm sleeping pretty well though. A woke up before me the other day, and said my belly was dancing all over the place - he had no idea how I slept through it all. I guess I've gotten used to the baby kicking by now, and getting in as much sleep as I can, while I can :) I enjoyed hearing about "his" moment feeling the baby kick while I was oblivious though - it feels like the reverse is so often true that this was a really special moment. Especially for A, who worries that the start-up takes up too much of his mind space.

What can I say? I'm low maintenance. It's a chicken-and-egg quandary - I'm not sure if I don't complain because I have nothing to complain about or vice versa, I just know that pregnancy so far has been really easy. One more week with no duck waddle, whoop! A and I had a lie-in yesterday. All day. It's the kind of thing we won't get to do with a kid, and which we really enjoy doing, just the two of us. We binge-watched The Good Wife, ate a lot of cheese, and were generally happy. This morning, A said, "It's not that the job's hard, or the work's repetitive or anything... it's just relative to being with you, everything sucks." D'aww :) That means a lot given how much he loves his company.

I started one DIY project for the nursery last week. I should really finish it up today/tomorrow. Not to mention start shopping for the baby. I think I'll put in my first order for baby books today.

My friend, who was due to have a baby at Christmas, had him three weeks early! Both of them are doing well. She was strong enough to be on Whatsapp for much of the super long labour, it was very impressive! As for me, I'm worrying about preterm labour now. I ideally want this baby to come slightly late, on Feb 17. That way, we'd have conceived the baby at our wedding anniversary, and had it at our engagement anniversary :) But honestly, any day after Feb 11 will do. 

I have a growth scan scheduled two weeks from now, which I'm anxious about. Part of the reason why I'm being diligent about protein is because our baby's slightly on the small side. Fingers crossed for an average sized baby at our next scan! 

Week 29: Pre-Launch Party for Baby A

A launched his website this week! The response has been overwhelming, especially considering it's still a pre-launch at this stage, that'll be fully ready in a fortnight. We also had a pre-launch party for Baby #2, as I refer to ours, since A's company's clearly the first born. My family threw us the South Indian version of the baby shower. This doesn't resemble any other shower, so here are some highlights of the valaikappu & seemantham function:

- Since we were combining some religious rituals (seemantham, homam) with the social shower (valaikappu), it had to be held in month six or eight. The social function alone is held in months five or seven. We held mine at the start of the eighth month, and I blessed my doctor for all the exercise she's been making me do, because all the sitting cross-legged on the floor & jumping up would have done me in otherwise. It's a workout like you wouldn't believe.

- The 'auspicious' time for the ritual was deemed to be before 6am. That is, we had to get started at around 5.15am. And, with breaks, we'd end at around 11.30am. Also, there were to be 4 outfit changes in that time; 3 of which I didn't know how to get on. In my defense, very few people do. These are special, long, nine-yards sarees that married women get to wear for religious functions in their own households, so the opportunities to wear them are somewhat limited. 

Since I had to rely on someone else to get my sari on, I had to wake up at... wait for it... 3am, and bathe. Then, apart from the sari, someone had to do my hair up the way it was at our wedding - a long plait down my back, with jewels and flowers all woven in. 

- The valaikappu, or social function, is a women's thing, where my mum kicked off the proceedings. She put three bangles, or kappus, on each hand - one made of a neem stick, one made of gold, and one made of silver. The gold & silver ones will be melted and made into jewellery for the baby once it's born. After this, several relatives took turns putting multicoloured glass bangles on my hands, until there were 43 glass bangles in all. These are technically not supposed to come off till the delivery, but there's no way I can manage that. I do have a nice DIY project planned for the nursery with them though, so it's not like they'll go to waste. 

- After breakfast and an outfit change, we had a homam, a ceremonial ritual where A & I had to do whatever the priest told us to - chiefly repeat a lot of prayers. A actually did most of what was required. After a while, I was even told to go sit on a chair leaving him alone in front of the prayer space. Interesting to note that even in pregnancy, patriarchy doesn't waver, and it's still the male who's responsible for the baby's wellbeing. The most memorable part of the homam was being led to a chair, and having A dunk a bucket full of water over my head. The Ice Bucket Challenge, Iyer style. Bangalore's about 16 degrees, so even with a bit of warm water mixed in, this is probably the reason I've been sniffling and sore-throaty since. A was super apologetic, poor thing.

- I had about ten minutes to change out of the wet sari and everything else, into yet another nine yards sari. About ten people worked on me, while I tried not to get my drippy hair on the silk sari. I assume this is a way to stave off any modesty you may have about showing your body to strangers pre-labour. Oddly enough, I didn't really care, as any strange bulges can happily be attributed to the baby. More chanting and so on followed, again mostly led by A. Then we had everyone shower akshatham and blessings on us - that's over fifty people throwing rice our way. And in yet another weird tradition unique to Tams, A was asked to squeeze milk into my nostril. The priest kept checking, "Did it go in? No, really?" We both quickly assured him it had.

- Everyone who came gifted us money, sweets, and fruits. The sweets trigger my diabetes alarm, though the fruits are much appreciated; especially as I'm going through three a day in an attempt to keep up my fiber (did I mention I had a hemorrhoid erupt when I woke up at 3am? I'm surprised I made it through the day). And arr, I have even more gold now. I did ask my parents to invest in bond certificates or something else instead, but they refused to listen and bought me a bracelet as well. Plus my maternal uncle gifted me a beautiful set of long gold earrings that look exactly like the fake jewellery I wear more frequently. 

- Although everything wrapped up by noon, there was another outfit change, some rituals from A's side of the family, a couple more hours of socializing, photo taking, and at least trying to help my parents as they took care of all the work that had to be done. And then it took an hour to undo my hair and pack all the clothes and jewellery up. Suffice to say everyone was in bed by 4pm in an attempt to recover!! 

I should have been more shattered, but was riding on adrenaline. And, honestly, though over fifty people showed up, I really did know and like everyone there - unlike at the wedding where faces started to blur into each other as over seven hundred people came. Knowing everyone and getting to talk to each of them made the whole day feel quite personal and relevant. A & I were in our best 'we're-a-team' mode and kept pulling faces to make each other laugh, apart from trading jokes and running interference if the other person looked like they needed rescuing. At the end of it all, seated in front of the priest and all, we shared a fist bump. I'm glad the videographer recorded that bit :D