Sanvi Reddy
I was still asleep when Shree called to wish me at 7:15 in the morning on my last year’s birthday. Since I wasn't awake completely, the call lasted for less than 20 seconds. I was waiting for the entire day but she never called back, which made me angry and curious at the same time. More than that I was agitated. When i was trying to fight with her she was not even fighting back which made me more and more restless, 3-4 days after she mentioned ‘if you were in my situation I wouldn't have responded’. The agitation continued and it became like a commercial Telugu Suspense movie. After 15-20 days out of nowhere she sent a message saying she is expecting her second kid. I did not know how to respond, as this came out like a shocker, and I took 2-3 days to digest the news and to wish her and her husband.
Shree is a very close friend of mine which made me see the pregnancy phase end-to-end. During my SIL’s pregnancy I was here in the US and they were in India and hence I couldn’t witness anything. Shree started getting nausea, and then came the mood swings. Her tummy was growing bigger and bigger.
It was just on the 3rd month the doctors found out the gender from one of the tests, usually the gender will be revealed on the 20th week. Shree mentioned it's a baby girl, my immediate response was ‘Anusha/Anagha/Ananya’. These are the names that are engraved in my mind from years ago. I even would have suggested these names if my brother’s kid was a baby Girl. From this moment onwards I started referring to the baby as Anagha, I used to ask Shree ‘how is Anagha? Has Anagha started kicking?’. Shree kept referring to Anagha as ‘baby’, but a couple of times shree also referred to the baby as Anagha (i was happy). In 6th month or 7th month Shree mentioned the baby name would be chosen based on the baby’s time and date of birth, and mentioned Amar is working on the names and is coming up with a couple of names starting with every alphabet.
It was the 7th month when Shree’s SIL Hema organized her baby shower at a friend's place on 27th of Feb. Coincidentally it was the same day as Shree’s bday. It was like 2-3 family friends and her relatives. I was the designated photographer for the event. One person in Fremont makes a custom cake, So I had asked that lady to prepare a Rasmalai flavored pull-me-up cake. As soon as I went to the friend's place where the function was organized Mohan gave me a Gimbal and I tried to get myself accustomed to it. It was so hard, I even took a few 10seconds clips but it was very hard to keep that running. I ended up taking the phone out of the Gimbal, and took photos traditionally holding the phone in hand. There were a few others also taking pictures here and there, End of the function I gathered all the photos (which was around 1500). Out of 1500 photos there wasn't even a single photo where I was there. The cake was a grand success, fortunately
I took a week to organize the photo, create a few movie clips and upload them to youtube.
Shree’s tummy kept growing, and Anagha had grown completely and was fully active in Shree’s tummy. Shree’s MIL came to the bay area this month at the start of her 9th month which was a great help for her in terms of cooking and taking care of household stuff. Since the elders were here they had organized a seemantham function (traditional baby-shower) on 6th of may. This was again just families/relatives and 2-3 friends. On that day Shree mentioned I might have to take the photos again which I was anyway planning to take. That day shree made sure we took a couple of pics together at the start of the function only and didn't miss later.
19th of may was the expected delivery date, but somehow it didn't happen on that day. For the next 2 days Shree was at home only, so doctors called her to hospital to induce pain and deliver the baby. It was 21st of may when they went to hospital at around 11 in the morning. I was under the impression that baby delivery is like visiting the doctor's office as an outpatient and the entire process gets over within a couple of hours. I started at around 4 in the afternoon at the hospital and called Amar a few min before reaching the hospital to check the status. He mentioned it'll take another few hours. Then I was around the walnutCreek area only roaming around, got dinner to Amar, I watched the Doctor Strange movie also in the meantime. I was near the hospital till 1 in the night. Again I was under the assumption that once the baby gets delivered they'll discharge Shree and both of them come out of the hospital with baby in hand. At around 1 in the night i googled to check after the baby was delivered how long would the hospital discharge the mother. This was when I came to know it will take at least 2-3 days to discharge the mother once the baby is delivered. I called Amar and headed back home. Finally the baby was delivered at 3:27 in the morning the following day which is 22nd of may.
Shree was discharged on 24th of may at around 6 in the evening. I visited their house at around 6:30 ish, when i rang the doorbell, people inside thought it was Amar, Shree and baby and came running with aarti. When they opened the door and saw me we all had a good laugh.
After contemplating much Amar and Shree finally gave the name 'Sanvi Reddy' to the baby which was suggested by Shree's elder kid Yatin.
Welcome to the world Sanvi
PS:
I learned so many things during the entire process
Delivering a baby isn't easy for a woman, it requires loads of sacrifice, the baby's entire growth happens with food from mom’s body, this will drain out the mother completely.
Baby’s delivery is not like visiting a hospital like an outpatient and won't happen within a couple of hours.
Mother will not be discharged immediately after the delivery, it takes at least 2-3 days after the delivery.
Mother’s tummy won't go back to normal as soon as the baby is delivered, there will be a big empty space within the tummy and mother has to wear a tummy belt constantly and needs to put in constant effort to get back in shape.
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