Tricia & Anupam @ carrotcurries.com

It's 4:31pm Pacific Standard Time on 30th December and Trish has been in active labor since this afternoon. After Carol got the water bag to burst, things progressed quite quickly!

At last count, she has about 1 minute and 45 seconds between contractions. Last night it was about 10 minutes.

The interesting thing was that 2 of our friends called us, just to see what was happening. They were the first outside family to know.

More soon!

Well yeah, it has been a long time since we posted anything or have been online really. We haven't even posted anything new on our website since we left India about 2 months back...

A few updates for those who don't know.

Trish left for Switzerland in early October for a few weeks. I stayed back in Bombay to wrap up work and so much more. Sold the car, my motor cycle and lots of other things. I met her in Frankfurt a few weeks later, only in transit. We flew from Frankfurt to LA together. My dad operated the flight, so we flew First Class all the way. In fact we were the only ones in First. We spent a lot of time sitting and chatting with the pilots in the cockpit. They pointed out all the dials and gauges to Tricia who was suitably impressed. Now, my dads has been flying for about 40 years, so he is one of the most senior pilots there and so were treated like the royalty we are... :)

We arrived in Los Angeles, where Aunt Kathy and Sameer picked us up and we were given a ride to Aunt Kathy's place. Now I must tell you right here, that we had over 10 pieces of luggage and both Sameer and Aunt Kathy had another 4 pieces between them. We spent a week in LA, meeting up with Sameer a few times, we met Mili too and Donald (Tricia's bro) too flew in to LA from Phoenix to spend a few days with us. We went o Hollywood and did the touristy things. We saw a live taping of the show "Yes dear", which was quite interesting.

The day of Halloween, we drove up to Grandma's place in Ukiah, which is in Northern California. We had rented a mid sized SUV. A Ford Escape. We have almost no pictures of LA and the drive up north since our digital camera died and we had no backup camera. We had so much luggage in the SUV that we had almost no place for ourselves. Yeah... we moved bags/baggage and all!

We spent a couple of quiet days in Ukiah, which is a really quiet little town. Quite nice to visit, with Lake Mendocino close by. We sat and chatted with Grandma and connected with her. It was very nice to meet Trish's family this time. All this time she had been meeting my family all over India.

On the 2nd of October we drove off from Ukiah and headed towards Albany. Our destination after about 18,000 kilometers... from Bombay to Frankfurt to Schaffhausen, back to Frankfurt, to Los Angeles to Ukiah, California and finally to Albany, Oregon.


We drove up highway 101, which stretches along the west coast of the US and is probably one of the most scenic roads I have ever driven on. We had pretty good weather, till we spotted a sign that said Albany - 60 miles. That is when the skies turned grey, the rain came down and it got pretty cold. As we pulled up to Tricia's home, we saw her mom come out, beaming. Yup, her daughter was home after living in 4 continents in 6 years. Europe, Australia, Asia and of course North America. Mom and daughter reconnected while I unloaded the car. We almost filled up the garage.

We took it easy for a few days, while we worked out our insurance, banks and other things. First we unpacked all our stuff. Then we had to find space for everything. Then we went through all of our stuff that had been lying here for 5 years. Most of Trish's pre-preggies clothes were packed away and the warm clothes brought out. We also packed away our hiking and backpacking stuff. Put everything in the attic.

Then we got into shopping for the baby. We bought a crib, a bassinet, a carrier, breast pump, bottles, and cloth diapers. We have tried to make sure that we do not cause any more landfill than possible. We will not use disposable diapers if possible. We brought a suitcase full of stuff from India and bought more stuff here. Tricia's mom, granny and Aunt also gave us a bunch of things for the baby.

We had a baby shower where we met some of our old friends. We had some fun games too, where the boys had to brink beer from a baby bottle, all of us had to guess the price of baby products that Ingrida had bought and taste Gerber baby food and guess which fruit it was made from. We also guessed the sex of the baby, the weight as well as the due date. It was a lot of fun.

For Christmas, we had Aunt Kathy and Grandma come to Albany. We had a good time together. I sat with my coin collection as did Aunt Kathy. I made lunches and dinners for Grandma. Indian food. She quite liked the dals but was a little wary of "Posto" and a couple of other things, but she graciously tried everything.

I am happy to be spending so much time with Tricia and working on making this home for us, but I also want to get back to work. I like working. I especially like the social aspect of work. I like working on my interpersonal skills. I also like the fact that I am able to lead teams effectively and that I get excellent feedback from all my clients as well as my team. Ok, enough with the self worship. Seeya!

Tricia is now at full term with the pregnancy. Today we went to Carol and were told that she is 80% effaced and 2 centimeters dilated. This means she is good and ready to go. For you single people, this will mean a lot. I have been reading books about natural birth and deliveries without medical intervention.

We wanted to make sure that labor and childbirth is as blissful a process as we can make it. Being in a hospital will certainly not make it that way. Plus doctors will not listen to a woman; they have been to medical school they know much more about what a woman is feeling... than the woman herself. All living beings can give birth, large or small. Why do we need episiotomies and tranquillizers? Have our bodies evolved into something where a little bit of pain is too much to bear?

Now, I am not belittling the engorgement and the discomfort a woman goes through during labor. Of course it isn't easy. Can you tell me something that is easy and the rewards that fulfilling?? Well, I can't come up with anything. If you have something to say, I'd love to hear it.

The plan is that Tricia will do a water birth. We have ordered the heated tub and all the paraphernalia that we will need during the time. We have packed for a hospital if need be, but our desire is to have the birth at home with our family present with familiar surroundings. If that is not peaceful, what is? We will have a midwife present... Carol and two of her birthing assistants. Carol has assisted with over 600 births. Now that is a number that gives me some security. She knows what she is doing and she has had to go to the hospital for medical intervention 3% of the time. That tells me she will not hesitate to bring in medical professionals if there are any complications.

I did not always think home births are a good idea. I thought about all the possibilities for things to go wrong. But as I researched birthing and all the options, I realized that women are much safer at home than at a hospital. You would think that is just crazy talk right? Well, let’s work that out. A doctor makes 100% off a caesarian section than a vaginal birth. So, if we do some simple math... if a doctor does 30% C-sections, which is small number in many hospitals... he makes 30% more money than if all the women delivered vaginally. The tranquillizers are also quite expensive. Hospitals make 100% on the cost of the medication and sometimes much more... so; we are now looking at a profession that needs to make money for themselves, the hospitals they work for, the staff of that hospital, pharma companies and so much more... the mind boggles when you think of how mechanical the money making is.

When you look at someone like Carol, who is a certified midwife, she is someone who supports a husband being around. She supports a woman’s needs. She understands that gravity can help with the descent of a baby. Yes, squatting, leaning over and other positions are great. Many countries in Asia and Africa still practice such positions. She does not look at labor as something that needs to have a timeline. Labor in different women is quite different. Some might have a quick labor where as, some might take longer than other. Our bodies are different.

Yes, I am very happy with how things are going... Trish is still quite mobile. Driving, walking, shopping... she does it all. She eats very healthily and gets her full nourishment from all the supplements.

The tub is filling up as I type this, so she try it out... Trish is very excited. She will get to it as soon as she gets back from her swim.