02 April 2004 @ 8:30 or so in the evening, K R Hospital, Hanumanthanagar
Pediatrician Dr. Santosh (who later became kids' doctor) peeped out of the OT room and asked "who is srikanth?" to a crowd of about 20+ people that had assembled in the lobby. I pushed & shoved people to stand in front of him as fast as I could. He said "you're blessed with twin daughters". It was one of rare moments in life that the grin does not go away and the mind is blank. i guess emotions & plain happiness fills your brain so much that thoughts drown in them.
I asked the cliched question that husbands ask "how is my wife doing". He said she is doing great and was in fact chatting with us through most of the operation! I felt a little cheated. Cos for more than an hour, I was tense like hell, cried a couple of times, tried to calm my mother, then cried with her. Life was teaching me the exact meaning of word "helplessness" during that difficult hour. I was thinking there must be something that I can do to help veena through those moments. And she was chatting with the doctors!
I had told my mother and others that I should be the first one to hold my daughters. So nobody dared to come near the OT door where I was waiting for my daughters. The nurse handed out neha first. Tiny weeny, she looked like a small photocopy of myself. very similar lips, forehead, face structure. bundled in a shawl, she was all of 2 kgs at birth! I carried her all the way to the room at put her in the cradle or handed her over to my mother (i don't remember). And then I rushed to the OT room entrance again waiting for nidhi. Nurse let me inside the outer room of OT to have a peek. They were giving nidhi a bath and then wrapped her and gave to me. She was plumper & had huge cheeks. they were falling down to the side as she had tilted her head a little. I thought she was heavier than 2.75 kgs that she was at birth.
Pediatrician Dr. Santosh (who later became kids' doctor) peeped out of the OT room and asked "who is srikanth?" to a crowd of about 20+ people that had assembled in the lobby. I pushed & shoved people to stand in front of him as fast as I could. He said "you're blessed with twin daughters". It was one of rare moments in life that the grin does not go away and the mind is blank. i guess emotions & plain happiness fills your brain so much that thoughts drown in them.
I asked the cliched question that husbands ask "how is my wife doing". He said she is doing great and was in fact chatting with us through most of the operation! I felt a little cheated. Cos for more than an hour, I was tense like hell, cried a couple of times, tried to calm my mother, then cried with her. Life was teaching me the exact meaning of word "helplessness" during that difficult hour. I was thinking there must be something that I can do to help veena through those moments. And she was chatting with the doctors!
I had told my mother and others that I should be the first one to hold my daughters. So nobody dared to come near the OT door where I was waiting for my daughters. The nurse handed out neha first. Tiny weeny, she looked like a small photocopy of myself. very similar lips, forehead, face structure. bundled in a shawl, she was all of 2 kgs at birth! I carried her all the way to the room at put her in the cradle or handed her over to my mother (i don't remember). And then I rushed to the OT room entrance again waiting for nidhi. Nurse let me inside the outer room of OT to have a peek. They were giving nidhi a bath and then wrapped her and gave to me. She was plumper & had huge cheeks. they were falling down to the side as she had tilted her head a little. I thought she was heavier than 2.75 kgs that she was at birth.
Neha was born at 8:23 pm while Nidhi was born at 8:24 pm. It is funny cos one of the most common questions that people have asked me is "by how many minutes is neha elder to nidhi?"
the background of their question is probably when mothers used to deliver twins through normal birth. Since it was a c-section operation, I reply back " they are separated by a minute & that is the time the doctor took to pull out the second one :-)"
the background of their question is probably when mothers used to deliver twins through normal birth. Since it was a c-section operation, I reply back " they are separated by a minute & that is the time the doctor took to pull out the second one :-)"
I've attached the first snaps of neha & nidhi (taken on 03 April), their second day.
