Miraculously, the surging hormones usually quiten by the end of the first trimester and off you head back to being with your husband and doing routine work. Now, you begin enjoying pregnancy, getting excited everytime the baby moves or kicks. Its exciting to see the tummy swell up and for once you don’t feel guilty that you are buying clothes one or two sizes bigger.

In no time its the third trimester, and again you get to go home! Now, you are not just fussed over by your family but every relative and friend in town and how! They usually come home to see you and wish you good luck bringing along as many as 5 to 6 dishes that you like. Almost everyday some cousin, aunt or friendcalls you up asking “So what do you feel like eating today?” and you just have to say “I feel like eating spring rolls”. Poof! Two boxes of just-out-of the-frying-pan spring rolls land in front of you. And just in case you’ve had enough of the vegetable rolls, there is the meat rolls too. In the meantime, the lady folks reminascense how they felt being pregnant, the memorable events that took place during delivary and so on.

There are also several rounds of advice. ” Make sure you go walking everyday”, “Drink kashayam as soon as you get labour pains, it helps clean your stomach”. Some funny ones come in too like ” Drink Fanta, the baby will be fair” or “If you’re throwing up even in the final months, then your baby will surely have lot of hair” – this one atleast you could hope for.

Anyway, all these food and visits is a great way to pass time in the last trimester when you can’t wait for the baby to be out. I enjoyed every single day and most of the old wives tales and stories came in useful later.

It made me realise that all this was made customary for a specific reason. Research has proved time and again that a happy pregnancy leads to a happy baby and so it is important for a to-be- mother to think happy thoughts and feel happy. Having relatives and friends home can only make one feel loved, cared for and utterly happy. Hence, our forefathers must have conceived this simple yet thoughtful practice eons ago.

This, though, is fast fading away in most of the families, thanks to  modern lifestyle where people find it a nuisance to entertain people or just that they are not many relatives and friends who would come forward with this gesture. I only feel sorry for these people. We should not let this die away.

The next time you know a cousin or friend is expecting a baby, make sure you drop by sometime. Even if you cannot cook her a meal, try to pick up a fruit basket or simply go around and share your experiences of becoming a mother. Its not only her who would have enjoyed the evening, you would have too.

Nevertheless, there are a million other things we want to share and talk to with other moms. So many whys and hows to be answered. Through this blog I wish to reach out to the other women who like me have graduated to becoming a mommy and those who are close to being so.

And, this is where I begin.