High Five

 

In the first  year of matrimony, Baby no: 1 was on the way. Rituals seemed the order of the day with the religious ones interspersing the hospital ones.  Appointments with the doctor became routine. I was meeting the doctor more than I was meeting the Hubby.

On my first wedding anniversary, I went into labour. Hubby and me were excited at the thought of sharing the date with our baby. But Baby had other plans. Baby ensured I got admitted and then went into snooze mode. The next two days I was sweeping the hospital floors as if it had never been cleaned for the last two decades. The more I swept, the better chances I have of a normal delivery , said the doctor. 

If I ever got tired and stopped sweeping, a nurse would come and make me push the wall as if it needed to move to the next two stations. The wall doesn't move, I told her. No, she declared, you idiot, it won't move. But the walls of your uterus will be strong to handle the delivery! 

Finally baby decided she needs to bless the world with her presence. All I remember is being scooped on a  stretcher. I hear an ambulance screeching and then I see the planets! Wow, here I am on the tour of space. There is a lovely Jupiter with the  moons and Saturn with the rings. I hear voices of people telling me ,push hard, the baby needs to come out , not go back in. But I am  happily gallivanting in space.

A few minutes later I hear a screechy cry. I find myself holding on to my husband who is weeping.Why was he crying when I was the one who went through the pain? People were congratulating each other as if they had won a race. Wasn't I the one who bore it and did it all? Well, I was stitched up , cleaned  and packaged back to the room. 

A few minutes later a nurse appeared with a bundle. She gave me the bundle. So baby was a bundle! 

See your daughter, she said. 

Bundle  stared at me with big grey eyes. 

I looked at her, wondering, ok what next? What am I supposed to do with this? I smile at the bundle. The bundle continues to stare back and then yawns, closes her eyes and goes  back to sleep.

The next few days are a blur. Feeding  burping, cleaning,  sleeping swallowed each day. I realise my home window has 24 grills and there are 14 yellow flowers on each curtain and 28 red squares. The design is awful, I concluded. Designs hardly mattered when I  soon realised that the only design that mattered was that Bundle  has three forms:

A two piece baby, when she is all wrapped up after a bath in a swaddle, the pieces being the head and the body.

A three piece baby, when she manages to free her arms from the swaddle

A five piece one when she refused to be swaddled , with a head, two hands amd two legs. 

Bundle definitely believed in slapping a high five !