Worth the wait: The birth of Saanvi

After five years of marriage came the moment I knew I was pregnant. There was happiness, but also tension because it was happening after two miscarriages. During every checkup I was worried, but after hearing the heartbeat of my child, I felt relieved.

Every visit my husband accompanied me, and he took care of me a lot. I was told by my doctor that my due date was the first week of February.

The first trimester I had the usual symptoms—lots of vomiting. By the second trimester, I was feeling on top of the world—lots of happiness, especially when I would feel my baby move in my tummy. I wanted to keep the gender of the baby a surprise, so we were only shopping for neutral colored clothes.

During the third trimester, I would worry whenever the baby wasn’t moving as much. I used to eat ice to wake my baby up, so I could feel the baby move again. At all of the visits to my doctor, I was told the baby’s position was normal, and that it was a good sign I would have normal delivery.

On January 26, I had Prantha (Indian bread) for breakfast. I had a doctor’s appointment at 10 a.m., and—like all my previous visits—I was a bit nervous.

The doctor checked the baby’s heartbeat, and she said it was normal. I told her that sometimes I’d feel less movement. So she said they would observe the heart rate for an hour. When that hour was up, my doctor told me to rush to hospital because it was time for delivery.

I was little excited—and worried. We hurried to the hospital. We had done almost all of the paperwork and formalities during our predelivery visit in the eighth month of pregnancy, so it didn’t take long for us to get a room.

I changed, and they started the induction process. But I wasn’t having many contractions. They told me that they would observe me for 12 to 13 hours, and after that they would decide what to do.

My husband thought he would run home to get some stuff and shave, so he could take some photographs with our newborn. He went home for about an hour. While he was gone, the doctor came into my room and told me that they were observing the heartbeat and my animotic fluid was dropping—so I needed to have a C- section. I got nervous and told them to wait for my husband to come, but they said they’d have to start the process now.

I called my husband to come, and they started preparing for the surgery. They gave me the epidural at 6 p.m. While I was getting the epidural, the nurse told me I would make a bun on my girl’s head—so the surprise was out! We were having a baby girl!

Before the epidural took effect, I saw my husband holding my hand, and then I was out of it. I felt one jerk, and Saanvi was born at 6:26 p.m. on January 26, which is Republic Day in India.

When I came back to my senses, it was 7:15 p.m., and I saw my husband holding my little sweetheart. I asked if she was alright. I wanted to hold her tightly. We finally have our bundle of joy with us—the baby we waited so long for.

Send us your birth story! Whether you had a home birth, hospital birth, 37-hour labor or emergency C-section, we’d love to read the tale of your little one’s grand entrance. Write up your birth story (click here for tips on getting started) and email it, along with a few photos, to birthstory@pnmag.com. We’ll share it on our Birth Day blog and may even print it in an upcoming issue!