Pregnant!

Jan 2017

At the end of 2016, we had decided to start trying for a family in the new year, riddled with uncertainty of how long the process would take. I told myself that I’d be happy if it happened within 6 months.

I had been using the Clue app since I got off the pill in September. My first period took 40 days to come and in those 12 days waiting for my period, I was filled with anxiety that it wasn’t going to come and the process was going to be difficult. 

We had no idea how to start trying but we did know to “fill the seats” before the star comes out. So based on the Clue app, we tried 2 days prior, the day of, and the day after. After my 40-day cycle, my period was consistently 26-28 days. This time around, 28 days passed, then 30. We decided to wait a week, but day 32 came and after a workout, Ad told me that we should go ahead and do a test.

Post-dinner, post-workout, I peed on a stick of a fairly inexpensive “Ms. TellMe” test. We waited the few minutes and…it went like this. 

We didn’t know how to react other than laughter, and slowly but surely, it sank in that we were going to be parents! I downloaded The Bump app and subscribed to the Baby Center updates to check on our little seed. I asked Farah and Kate for ob recommendations and they both had and really recommended Dr. Carvalho so I booked an appointment with her. I was also reading a lot of great reviews about Dr. Patel so scheduled an appointment with him as well.

Things were quickly unfolding at ThoughtWorks and I had a work trip confirmed for the second week of February and I was a bit terrified to fly at barely 7 weeks but also loved the idea of getting to tell our family and friends in person.

Our first appointment was with Dr. Patel and our first impression was wonderful. He is a sweet, old Indian grandfather who takes him time to talk through our questions and really tries to connect with his patients. He suggested that I come back at the end of the week for an internal ultrasound right before I fly. He also recommended a load of blood tests so I went down and got vials (yes, multiple!) of blood drawn.

Next up was our appointment with Dr. Carvalho, she is very straightforward and organized. We went back and forth, and back and forth for weeks about which doctor to go with and in the end decided to go with Dr. Carvalho because she was more organized, more thorough in tests, and a direct recommendation from friends. She recommended that I go to Medanta for the viability scan so we planned for it on Friday, the day before I was set to fly. 

Because of the internet, rainbow babies and miscarriages (at a rate of 25%), have been openly shared and talked about. This put a lot of fear in me. Almost every single day until the first trimester was through. Going into the viability scan, I tried to remain calm but I really could not contain myself. Meeting Dr. Handa for the first time added another interesting character to our team. He is a fetal radiologist and likely the best in the city. He’s very serious and soft-spoken, very little emotions, and very thorough. At barely 7 weeks, he was able to find baby’s heart rate which was an indescribable moment. He also checked to see how many babies were present and I slightly held my breath as he announced there was only one. 

Walking out of the scan, we were given a few photos of what Dr. Handa called “a blob” and Ad and I both had huge smiles on our faces. We heard our baby’s heart beat. We saw our baby for the first time. That was incredible unreal. It made the journey very real. And this was just the beginning.