Happy moments as Tebogo gets sister

The day is finally here after a nine months period that seemed like eternity. Sitting at the last baby shower brought back my memories of the times I shared with Tebogo at birth. The semblance of time had of course eroded the vividity of much of those moments but the very important ones seemed to linger on, albeit with a new freshness that brings a smile to my soul of souls.

But this is a journey into the recent past as I study the tiny little fingers of the baby lying next to me. My tears start rolling down my chubby cheeks and almost forgetting that I am in a ward, I end up shouting almost to the whole world, ‘You are so beautiful!’ As if to bombard that shout of exhilaration, the rest of the women in the ward burst out in laughter – to welcome the little life I have brought into the world.

At four hours old, you can breastfeed the baby,’ says the nurse in charge of this specific ward. I had been pretty apprehensive of this pregnancy and was not sure what to expect. The issue of the baby’s sex was one we had discussed at length as a family and agreed that the element of surprise would serve us well. This meant that unlike the previous pregnancy, this time around there would be no scanning in advance to determine the gender of the baby.

I had prayed it would be a girl but was prepared to receive a boy. This was partly because my maternal heritage is not overly blessed with the female gender. My mother happens to be the only girl in a family of four boys. Two of her brothers were fortunate to sire one girl amidst a trio of boys and only one managed to get two girls.

Of the four uncles from my mother’s side, one was particularly endowed with boys – he has seven and only one girl. I remember before I got married, the wife to the uncle with seven warriors would have babies every year and each time she would swear that it would be a girl. But for one, each time a baby would be born, a heavy voice would introduce the mother of the arrival of yet another boy.

The coming of my daughter was a welcome surprise. She looked angelic, much to the delight of her grandmother. I knew the moment I saw her that we  would have a wonderful time together. Enough times I have heard mothers say that once a woman has had a baby, they almost always know what to expect. So, I thought that having a pregnancy little after the older baby is a few months old would be a normal experience.

But this was not the case. Despite the fact that the delivery had to be through a caesarian section, seeing that I got pregnant before the end of a two-year period, I quickly regained my energy in time to bond with the baby girl that I had been blessed with. The excitement in my bosom would not give room for any comparisons between my current experience with that of my first delivery. As I looked into the baby’s angelic face, there seemed to be an instant connection of souls between a mother and daughter ..

I have never loved a man the way I love my son Tebogo and despite having been away from him because of this birth, I knew that life for us would never be the same again. Although Tebogo was only a few months old and could hardly articulate his communication, I knew that the arrival of the baby girl would bring him great joy.

For in his sister, Tebogo would find a friend, a confidant, and most of all a small person in the literal sense of the word with which he would fairly compare himself with and share his world with. Although he is a first in his own right, for all of us Tebogo, his dad and I we all had an opportunity to enjoy a new baby – this second time around.

END: BL 43 / 52