Before the first breath –
the Memoirs of a newborn
From the very first moment that I held my newborn daughter - I was
convinced that she had something to say.
I was excited!
Wow! This was a first!
A newborn who wanted to talk - she must be brilliant - I thought.
And, why not?
She was my daughter after all.
OK - I am not brilliant. But I do talk a lot.
With pride in my voice I conveyed the news to my husband.
He was pensively calculating how he was going to get his sleep that
night between changing diapers and following my nonstop instructions - and as I
made this announcement - the look of intense concentration on his face morphed
into one of dread.
The look he gave me said it all. It said - “Oh dear! Now a mad wife - to
add to the chaos.”
“Go to sleep. You must be really tired - go to sleep” was all he finally
managed to say.
The implied message however was loud and clear.
I looked at my baby - I was certain she looked indignant too.
“Yes Mamma” she seemed to be saying “of course I have something to say”
Not one to give up easily on conversations -especially when they smelt
promising - I mulled over what this hour old creature could possibly have - to
say.
“Hmmmmmmmmmm…………. there was no way I was giving up on this one”
Through sleepless days and nights of exhaustedly and yet proudly feeding
and changing my new possession - I mulled and mulled over this mystery.
And one fine day when I was sufficiently sleep deprived - it hit me.
This baby that I thought was just a few days old - was in fact just as
old as me.
She was that one cell who had made it from the ovary to my arms when so
many others hadn’t and as a cell she had been born as soon as I was born.
What adventures she must have had! No wonder she looked like she had so
much to share!
It must have been so tough for her - a little cell in an obscure corner
of my body - with such a big dream!
I was certain hers was a story worth chronicling and I determined that I
would do it.
But how would I know what she had to say?
Hmmmmmm……… it would have to be my Embryology and Obstetrics textbooks to
the rescue.
It was such an important story - I could not possibly be technically
inaccurate.
Between being Mom, doctor, wife and myself (where my procrastinating
self has certainly been at the forefront) - this book has taken me a while to
write - but at last it is done.
It tells the story of a cell in the left ovary who suffers with fortitude
through her boring uneventful childhood - survives the trials and tribulations
of her Moms teen years - and hopes and prays to meet her Prince charming - and
one day finally does.
Marital bliss with her Prince charming morphs into an exercise in cell
resource management and meeting of deadlines - as she hurtles towards her dream
of being born a little baby and making it to her Mom’s arms.
After several - “Will I make its?” and “How will I make that happen?”
she finally realizes her dream.
Read about it in my book
Find out all that happens before you finally get to hold your little
one.
