April
We had been by now seriously considering about starting a family. Now, after 2 years of marriage, we felt the time was just right.

It was about the mid of April, when I began to feel ‘not so good’. Everyday I kept feeling slightly sick in the tummy. On April 26th, we went to the National Hospital medical lab in Abu Dhabi for a blood test. After this we left to attend my cousin's first child’s baptism party at the Sands hotel.
It was about dinner time and Dominic & I were standing at the buffet counter to get dinner. Dominic suddenly left me saying he had to go to the restroom. He came back a moment later with a strange expression on his face. I asked him what had happened. He said, “It’s positive"

For a moment I had no idea if I was hearing things, then I asked him again, and he repeated what he had just said and also told me that he had called the lab and they told him the test was positive. My eyes clouded up for a moment, I could feel butterflies in my tummy, and I suddenly lost all my appetite. To top it all, I suddenly began to laugh and talk excitedly, thus attracting the curious gaze of nearby diners. We left the party early and went to the lab to collect the results. There was the lab result sheet, very much positive, I was going to be a mommy. We rushed home to tell my mom, but decided to wait till we spoke with the doctor before telling everyone else. The next day we met with my doctor at the New Medical Center. She scanned through the result and told me that it was ‘very much positive’. She made me undergo a scan to confirm that the baby’s position was right. Everything was ok so far, now I had to take care and also take folic acid tablets.
We went home and called up Achichen, Amma, Tom and Suja to tell them the good news. Sue was here in Abu Dhabi with us, so she had come to know already. By evening we had told very very close members of the family, the others we decided to wait till I completed the cruicial 3 months.
A new phase of our life together had begun.

May
By the first week of May, all hell broke loose. I was sick to the stomach and feeling absolutely queasy 24 hours a day. I couldn’t eat, and whatever I ate, I couldn’t keep it in, unless I went to sleep immediately after eating. I started starving, and all the food I could eat was in my dreams. I didn’t vomit much, just once or twice a day depending on what I ate and how much. My main diet now consisted of tomato soup and pears. Every moment I felt as though someone had placed a boulder in my chest. It also felt as though everything I ate stopped at the level of my chest and refused to go down into my tummy. Each day was a nightmare coming true and I just wanted each day to come and go. I was even taking two, 10mg of Duphaston tablets which seemed to worsen my situation. However, that tablet was a protection against a possibility of a miscarriage and I had to take two each till my 12th week and one each in my 13th and 14th week for the baby. My sense of smell had also improved. It was soo great that I felt like a K9 on duty 24 hours a day. Every smell , including my own was getting on my nerves, and some were so great that I would rush to the bathroom to throw up. I couldn’t work and had to take 45 days off from work. I couldn’t even check my emails. I couldn’t drink tea, only water, oh how I missed drinking tea. Each day wore on slowly.

June
We continued with me staying in Abu Dhabi and he coming over on weekends till June 14th. On June 15th we returned to Sharjah together. By now I had figured a diet that worked. In the morning I would have a sausage sandwich, for lunch I would have a sausage sandwich and for dinner I would have some french fries. I could no longer stand the sight of tomato soup or pears. I returned to work on June 17th. Dominic took over everything from cooking to cleaning as I would get home from work exhausted. He used to prepare my breakfast, fix my lunch and even warm dinner. Thanx to mummy sending us cooked food by the bucketloads over the weekend, we managed.

July
By the first week of July, I couldn’t stand the smell of sausages nor could I eat another bite of a sausage sandwich. I had altogether from May till now lost about 4kg of body weight. However I had now completed my course of Duphaston tablets and my appetite was slowly working its way back. Intitally I was afraid to eat anything, but gradually I realized that food was actually going into my tummy for a change and not getting stuck my chest. I still could not drink tea or any kind of juice. Water was good to a certain extent, then it was a bit ‘boring’.
On July 2nd, I had my first pizza from Pizza Hut after almost two months of eating nothing. It was our 2nd Engagement anniversary. Slowly I began to eat everything else and how heavenly it all tasted.
On mid-july my appetite was almost back to normal. On July 19th I designed our little darling's website. By the end of July, I fel t like my old self, all the discomforts of the first three months had almost totally disappeared. Day by day I could feel the baby more often.

August
On August 9th, I had my 20th week scan. Everything was ok and normal so far, by Gods grace. We (Dominic & I) saw the baby's spine first...that was a bit creepy... I mean, we could actually see just the spine there... so clear and long... due to the fact it being so white in the screen... I felt a bit freaked looking at that but I was more awestruck at the same time... I mean, there was my baby's spine! We then saw the hand and baby had its right hand upto the chin. Then we saw baby kicking its legs about, well actually it was not a 'kick' but more of a sway. The doctor then zoomed in on the face, and we saw its eye and ears :) And we could always see the heart beating furiously!!!
By the 18th of August I could feel the baby almost every other time. The movement was very strong now, and sometimes I could feel a very slight bump on my tummy and then it would disappear. By bedtime, when I would settle down, it was like my little darling had decided to take a swim around mommy's tummy and I could feel bumps, and sort of funny tickling like sensations for a long time till I eventually felt asleep.
Baby had by now already started giving daddy a hard time. Everytime Dominic tried to feel the baby move, it decided to keep still, till the very second he took his hand away, and then, the little lamb would bound around all over again! Fortunately my insistence and Dominic's 'not there so often patience' paid of, and he did feel baby move and bump around eventually :)

September
I was also developing swelling in my legs... actually feet. However, the swelling would reduce if I lay down and put my feet up slightly elevated. I was also finding it difficult to work on the compter sometimes as my right hand would hurt and my legs would go numb often.
On the 2nd, we opened a file at the Corniche Maternity hospital in Abu Dhabi. This was where we were planning on having the delivery, as it was the only hospital with complete maternity care.
By now I could feel the baby move about morning and night. The bumps and bulges were getting more and more pronounced. By around the 14th if I placed a cushion on my tummy, i could see the cushion jump once in a while as baby moved around. :)
Then on the 15th I felt the baby's bulge on my right side. Dominic lay his hand on the bulge and it began to move about... like a moving bump. That absolutely freaked Dominic out. He jumped and hastily removed his hand saying "aah! that felt so wierd!". He then refused to touch the bump contending to just sit and watch it move instead. After a while he became curious enough to slowly touch and gently pat the tiny moving bump.
On the 27th we had the official 'bringing the expecting daughter home' ceremony. From my side - Papa, mummy, Appachan uncle, Jochan uncle and family. From Dominic's side - Mathew chettan and family, Joppu. Papa and Mummy bought - 1. Diarymilk chocolate; 2. Cake from ceaser's; 3. Diamondcuts; 4. Mixture; 5. Fruit tarts from ceaser; 6. ; 7. Mummy & Papa also presented Dominic with a gold chain and locket.
They came around lunchtime and by 4:30 pm we all left Sharjah together to Abu Dhabi. with Papa, Mummy, Jochan uncle, Bindu aunty and me in Jochan uncle's Toyota Prado. Appachan unlce, Dominic , Kevin and Keith followed in Dominic's car. I had to return to Sharjah on Sunday as I was still working.
On the 30th I opened a file at the Corniche Maternity hospital in Abu Dhabi.

October
In October I gave my resignation at the place worked. The rest of the month I spend organising stuff at home and work, as I was leaving our sharjah home for atleast 5-6 months and my office for good. Weekends were spent resting and cleaning and throwing out accumulated junk of 2 years to make space for baby stuff that would be coming in when I returned. Weekdays were spend organising stuff at work and backing up my work and preparing my portfolio. On the 30th of October I bid goodbye to our house in sharjah, my office and Dubai and returned to Abu Dhabi.

November
From the 1st of November I was busy preparing myself for the baby. There were so many things to do and I was so glad I had resigned and come home to peace and calm. Most of my work involved a lot of organising myself, as obviously life was going to be different once the baby arrived. As I was not planning to return to fulltime work and wanted to be with the baby and take care of my family, I decided to go on as a freelancer once I was well settled with the baby.
By the last week of November, we had done the basic shopping for the baby- 1 brush, 1 comb, 1 blanket, 1 baby wrap, 2 overalls, 1 baby body suit, a pair of mittens, a pair of booties, 1 bib, 1 hat, 1 face cloth, 2 towels and a Baby (Memories)Book (which was presented by Semina, my sister Suja's best friend.) I also had my hospital bag prepared by then. Dominic and I chose a name each for a boy and a girl. Obviously we had to wait till the baby was born to know if we were having a boy or girl so the only ting we could do was to keep a name ready in both cases.
By now the baby had turned and was head down in my tummy. So far by God's grace, everything was going well and baby was doing ok.
At one point fora period of 2 weeks I had excruciating pain on one side and sleeping was just totally out of the question. I used to spend the night just trying to sit and get a few winks or walk around to get some relief from the pain. After about the 2 weeks period, this pain disappeared as suddenly as it had come and I was left with lesser but constant aches/ numbness and just plain discomfort. But I could sleep now at night without much trouble, even though it was not a real deep and restful sleep. I would sleep after lunch and sleep in late in the mornings as for some wierd reason that was the time my body was so exhausted to care anymore and I would drift into a heavy sleep for about 2-3 hours.

December
December came in. By the 1st week of december my baby could be considered full-term and safe if born before the due date of around Christmas time. I was counting the days now and so was everyone else. To make matters worse, Dominic had to go on a 5 day official trip to Bahrain. I started praying desperately that the baby would not come while he was at Bahrain. By God's grace, baby was waiting for his daddy to get back and nothing happened.
Dominic's mother came to stay on the 14th and Dominic too returned.
Baby still showed no signs of wanting to turn up, I was getting worried that at the rate I was eating I would really end up havinga big, heavy baby. On 18th Dominic and his mother decided to visit relatives at Ras Al khaimah. They returned on the 22nd.

On the 23rd it began...
At 6 am I woke up with pain and by 7:30 we left for the Corniche hospital Emergency. They told me to return to hospital when I was really racking in pain and so by 9:30 am we left the hospital, went to Ruchi Restaurant had breakfast and returned home.
As I was feeling 'ok' I decided to do the 'last minute christmas shopping' and we went to Lulu Al Wahda for a little while about 11:30.
At 01:30 pm, we returned home, and I slept till about 2:30pm when I had lunch.
at 04:30 pm, Dominic and I went out for a walk near home, came back to rest after a while and went down again for another walk.
By 9:15, we had dinner. Papa and mummy (my parents) went to the Abu Dhabi Airport to pick up Suja and Sue who were coming down for christmas from Bangalore.
By 10:30, the pain started to intensify. I was walking up and down, Dominic and Amma were waiting. with me.
end of 23rd night.
At 12:15 am 24th morning, Papa and mummy returned with Suja and Sue from the Airport. They saw me for the first time as an 'expecting mother' and were all excited as they were not too late. By 12:30, we decided to go back to the hospital.
At 12:40 we reached the hospital emergency. And by 04:00 am after all the usual checkups and tests I was admitted to Ward D, 19B.
By 5:00 am I was given a medication for the pain and slept on and off till about 8:30 am. I spent the rest of the morning walking in the room till at 12:00 noon visiting hour, when Dominic came and at about 4:20 pm I was taken with Dominic into the labour ward, Room 15.

On 24th at 4:20pm I was in the labour room no.15. The pain was real bad now and getting worse. The oxygen helped to ease the pain a bit but not much. Each hour went by slowly, with me in and out of consciousness. Dominic was with me holding me encouraging me and supporting me the whole time. I guess the experience was more exhausting on him than on me. The few thing I remember is his voice far away asking me to hold on and supporting me in the most difficult moments.
By midnight, there wasn't much progress except for the intensity of the pain. By 4:00 am on 25th morning, they knew that the baby was in distress and I had to have an emergency c-section.

At 04:48 am on 25th, Christmas Day, Kenny Mathew Dominic was born. As I was under local anesthetic, I heard him cry and he was bought to my face, as soon as he was cleaned so I could see him and kiss him. He was healthy, 2.75 kg and about 49cm tall. He was beautiful!

Dominic could not be present at the operation and he had to wait a while before he and everyone else could see the baby. When they saw the bab for the first time, Kenny looked at them all and beamed a big smile as if to say 'I'm here finally!!! merry Christmas!!!'

Our son was with us.

For the next part of the story, go to my baby's journal...