 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 it?” and “How will I make that happen?” she finally realizes her dream. Read about it in my book. "Before the First Breath - The Memoirs of A Newborn" Find out all that happens before you finally get to hold your little one. |