The first time I walked down this road...

... in more ways than one. This tag talks about Nino who is my first born, (and if the damn husband has his way, there will be no more Nino clan to write about, grrr) and it's also my first tag, thanks to Tharini and one that I've absolutely loved doing. I will also do this with absolute honesty, and I'm not proud of all my answers.

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED?
No. Nino also was not planned, not expected and not wanted at that particular time.

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME?
Newly :)

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS?
I cried my eyes, heart and lungs out. Huge, embarrassingly loud sobs that seemed deafening in the silence that Nino's Dad greeted me with.

4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU?
Yes and No. It's complicated. The line between the right no and the wrong yes.

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU?
25.

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT?
My periods are timed. They even stick to the very second they're expected to arrive. Needless to say I knew within 24 hours that it was time for a test kit. Even though I never really expected to see two lines.

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST?
The husband obviously, who was waiting impatiently outside the bathroom door. He checked the kit instructions several times over to make sure he was seeing what he was seeing!
Then the sister-in-law, that is, the husband's sister. This was right after the test. We were driving down to a much awaited sale, and I told her and she whooped and gave me the first of many sane advices I was to receive from her. 'Don't buy the belts and the heels,' she said.
Then I saw the doc. Then I told my mum. I was really really worried telling her about it, and her hesitation in answering killed me. She thought I'd been too careless, too young. I thought she was right.

8. DUE DATE?
January 8, 2006.

9. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS?
Nope. I had nothing. I was working with a newspaper at that time, heading a team of four people, and I did 14-hour days most of my pregnancy, happily.

10. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE?
Okay, this is corny, and not inspired by movies. Very Berry Strawberry ice cream by Baskin Robbins. At about 11:20pm every night.

11. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST?
Three suspects here. The only possible negative side-effect of the pregnancy was that I completely and totally lost my sleep. I must have slept six hours across nine months. That irritated me a lot. And the fact that I couldn't wear the kind of clothes that I was used to wearing. Somehow that bothered me to no end. I have always been a top-heavy girl, but I discovered the pain of an abundant bosom far outweighs the seeming attractions during this time. I was in pain, no bras would fit me, I'd have deep gashes on my shoulders from the straps weightlifting.

12. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX?
Male.

13. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING?
A bit. Though somehow I always knew I was going to have a boy. I think I just like girl's names better. I had already chosen Radha/Uma in my head :)

14. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY?
I was 45 kilos when I got pregnant, and was strictly instructed to put on some serious weight. I put on no weight in my first trimester, worrying the family to no end. Then the kilos started piling on, and have yet not left! I put on 20 kilos.

15. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER?
Yes, two of them! One for friends with all the typical baby shower games including a sipping-from-the-nipple beer competition. And a traditional one organised by my grandmum. Lots of flowers in my hair, green bangles on my wrist, and a lap full of fruits :)

16. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW?
I knew about both - and I planned the first one to perfection!

17. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY?
No, it was as smooth a run as could have been. Though I did spot a bit in my first month and was given a bed rest for five days out of which I worked for four.

18. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH?
In a hospital's cold, colour-less and disinfectant-smelling room. I will never forget how cold it felt.

19. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR?
I think six to seven hours. My water broke at 6am, I was induced at about 9, the contractions started kicking in at about 11. They kept coming till about 6:30pm, but were not strong enough, medically speaking, although they almost killed me. In those hours, I'd dilated only ONE measly centimeter. The old matron on duty told my mother I was not letting my body open.

20. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL/BIRTH CENTER?
The family. Husband, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, father-in-law. My parents, who live in a neighbouring city, joined me an hour later.

21. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH?
My sister-in-law. The doctor was adamant that nobody would be allowed in the operating room, and I was shrieking my head off, calling out to Nino's Dad. They finally came out to call him, couldn't locate him, and the sister-in-law held my hand instead.

22. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION?
Unnatural c-section.

23. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN?
I was squashed into a foetal shape and jabbed. So I guess, yes.

24. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH?
The weird part is, two days before I went into labour, we'd gone for an ultrasound, where the doctor said the baby's weight was 2.7 kgs. The doctors were a little concerned about the weight when I went into labour. As he pulled Nino out of my belly, the first thing he said, no, slightly screamed was, 'It's a big baby, oh my god, it's a big baby.' Nino was 3.6 kgs. Very chubby. He had layers of fat on his thigh that I kept kissing! You can hardly say the scrawny thing that stands next to me as I type this had such a deliciously cuddly beginning.

25. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ?
Two days after Christmas. One of the first sms-es I received for his birth came from a colleague I despise who wrote: 'Do din se mother mary hote hote bach gayi.'

26. WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN THE DOCTOR ANNOUNCED THE SEX OF THE BABY?
They din't announce it, I actually had to ask them! I said oh, and gave in to the anesthesia and slept for the first time in months.

27. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST REACTION ON SEEING THE BABY?
I din't know what to feel. I spent the whole night checking if 'it' was alive and breathing. And then I started to cry because I had never felt this torrent of love and protectiveness that has started to claim my soul.

28. DID YOU CRY?
I just gave the answer away!

29. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM?
His alphabet was chosen according to the Hindu Rashi calender and its Sanskrit root means ascending.

30. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY?
Three years and almost three months.

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Phew, what a bag full of secrets to let out. Very vindictively, I tag Swati, Momstir and Manjushree, if they'd like to take this up. I love these three women and their ideas, and I'm dying to know how they walked down this road that has bound us all, the first time!