Going Public

It is currently our 16th week of expecting our first baby. The highlight of this week was the long-anticipated morning sickness. Only it visits during the hours between 4.30 and 6.30 p.m. Looks like this baby is on an India time.

The other big event this week, was a feast cooked up by the Subabe’s grand aunt who is currently staying with her daughter M who is also pregnant -- about 30 weeks . The menu featured long-desired items such as Vada Pav Mumbai style, Dahi Wada’s a la Bombay and of course homemade Srikhand Puri. I felt like I had the most wonderful dohaljevan* already.

As if that was not an amazingly lovely sumptuous foodfest, I was invited to G&S’s home along with two other pregnant friends, for an authentic South-Indian dinner on Saturday night. G had made lovely food including items like rasam, sambaar, vettakozzumbu, sevai, avial, red chutney, and a homemade lime pickle. Not to mention the homebaked cookies, made by her and her four-year-old daughter S for all of us.

It was truly memorable for me because this is the first time after our big announcement that we met two other couples who also announced that they would be newpies soon. So it felt like an expectant parents’ gathering, with the conversation ranging from guessing the babies’ sex, to asking G’s daughter if she would change the new babies’ diapers. All in all seems like a fun time for the baby.

*dohaljevan: There is no literal translation to the word dohaljevan, it loosely translates to food cooked to satisfy a pregnant woman’s food desires.

We Meet Again

DTB goofed up! Big Time! Between classes to teach and a bureaucratically induced illness, he failed to get MTB to the hospital for the second ultrasound on time. Big doodoo! We got there about half hour after the suggested time. The ladies at the front desk were not amused, but they let us in. MTB was bursting to go... having consumed 32ozs of water in anticipation of the picture shoot. DTB was trying hard not to be sick in the waiting area.

But, it all passed. The technician was kind, but very matter of fact. Subabe is definitely bigger and more mobile on the ultrasound screen. The head is very prominent; the digitorial extremities all very clearly defined. Headroom within MTB is clearly becoming an issue. What's with this dinky accommodation?!

Later we had a chat with the doctor, who said everything looks OK! So, now we can go back to being worried about everything else!

We Are Family

Ever since we announced to our family that we are ‘expecting’ interesting things are happening to us. Previously, we went around minding our own business and people let us be. Now everyone shoves advice in our face. Right from eat this fruit, to don’t take that medicine, to bolster your protein and calcium intake, to advice on ‘how-to-parent’ websites. It just feels a little strange, after years of living without drawing too much attention to ourselves, we find ourselves center-stage.

On another note, just this morning as V and I went out for a walk in the snow-filled park, I saw a flight of birds in the sky flying away from us. And I was wondering to myself how do they know when they need to move to a warmer clime, and who actually decides for them. I thought maybe the lead bird possibly a female decides for the whole flight of birds. Then again, V and I were discussing how the whole concept of family evolved. He told me, that women (likely) invented the concept of family. I don’t have definite proof on this statement being a fact yet, but the arguments he made for it seemed pretty strong. For example in some in the animal kingdom such as elephants, lions or tigers it is the female of the species who are in charge of the young ones; they keep the family together and provide for it. The male of the species are like folks visiting, they come and go. However, the female of the human species has decided the man was essential to the well being of the family and therefore ascribed him the role of a provider. It seems like that’s how the whole concept of the family as a unit evolved.

Like I said earlier I have no proof of any of this however, since it seems like a working plan it must be a woman’s idea. And, since now is the time to speculate, we continue to do so...