Dear T,

As you turn 18 months today, I look back at the fond memories we created in the past 1.5 yrs. You know, I had an extremely difficult pregnancy with days spent in and out of the hospital, continuous scary scans and accompanied with morning sickness throughout. Remember I even slipped from stairs at 8.5 months! Your Baba showed unusual resilience and strength throughout this period. Your delivery was way more complicated with the C-section taking 2.5hrs to finish instead of the regular 45 mins. Infact before I slipped into an unconscious state, the last statement I heard from the gynaecologist was that the baby's movement can’t be felt. I could barely say, Please God, not this time...before I passed out under general anaesthesia since the previous 9 efforts of epidural by an intern anaesthetist turned out to be an epic failure. As I slipped in and out of my zombie state, I saw you for the first time after 6hrs of your birth.

There you were, all bundled up in a hospital towel, so pink, so tiny and so fragile. The generally ever so confident me wasn’t even sure how to take care of you. How do I know your wails are because of hunger, cholic pain or just the need to sleep. How much I missed your Dimma then, my Ma! Being a motherless mother, I learnt everything the hard way by being on the job. Your Baba was a huge revelation to me. He was suddenly in charge and totally in control of anything related to you. No wonder you are his little yet biggest fan. Your Dadai, Didun and Dadubhai were trying to play the perfect grandparents to the best of their abilities.

The initial few months were a huge challenge, you barely slept a wink throughout the night. Your Baba and I would take turns to rock you,cuddle you but you wouldn’t just give up. The sleepless nights have gotten slightly better with time but you have managed to make us jump out of the bed by the faintest of your sound. My anxiety level, when it came to your well-being was at paranoid best. Everytime you puked, I would start worrying that there’s a bug in your stomach. Remember when you had that horrible respiratory tract infection, your Baba and I would stay up the whole night trying to soothe you at the slightest of discomfort. I always thought I was good at bottling up emotions but the mere hint of a nasal congestion brought me to tears.

Priorities changed. Topics aggressively researched on changed. When does a baby sit, when does he stand, when does he start waking – the endless list continues. The only decent conversations I seem to have these days are about weaning, potty training and vaccination schedule. A lot of my friends think I have gone nuts.

I can just go on and on. This 18 month journey will probably have more than 180 pages narration. Please know that your Baba and I love you unconditionally to the moon and back. I chose not to go back to work after my maternity leave got over because I didn’t want to miss a second of your growing up. And I feel so glad to have taken the decision and so privileged to have the support of your father in this. We moved back from Bangalore to Kolkata for good because it was important that you grow up in the nurturing, caring and indulgent environment that only grandparents can provide with. Till date, nothing comes closer to the feeling of happiness invoked by the sound of ‘Mum’ from you.

As we embark on a new journey hereon, let me tell you that you are the reason and inspiration for us to get into a new phase of self-driven career path. Well, I still don’t want to miss a moment of your growing years.

Precious little, I wish I could have said all this to you in person but you are way too young to understand. I am writing this with the hope that at any point of your life, if your thoughts are clouded by self doubts,this letter will tell you what you mean to us.Thank you for coming into our life.

Yours ever lovingly,

Mum