Inception – The Beginning

Sometime in late March 2016, it was a few months after I left my job and started working on my business plan, I was at my home, relaxed, sipping my evening tea. As I was looking at few names written in front of me to finalize the name of my Jewellery E-Commerce business, I glared outside my room window – I saw people on evening walk around the park behind my home, sun was almost touching the horizon, painting the sky dark orange, my mind wandering with lot of thoughts and then, I see a bright star, first one to appear that evening, shining in that vivid evening sky and my eyes froze on the word in the list – ETOILE (meaning star in French). I instantly knew what my business will be known and that is how I conceived my very own E-Commerce venture – Etoile Fashion.

Around same time in late March 2016, I was sitting anxiously in my bathroom, having missed my periods, looking at the pregnancy test strip with mixed feeling of anxiety and nervousness. As the 2 lines appear on the testing strip, my nervousness turned into excitement and joy. It took a good 5 minutes for this feeling to sink in. Metaphorically I conceived 2 children within a span of few days – One my biological child and one my brain child – Etoile Fashion.

Abhijeet and I were overjoyed with this ‘Good News’ and shifted all our focus on my health and consulting doctor. One of the most important thing during pregnancy is to get a good gynecologist, especially when you are staying away from your home/family. And we were fortunate enough to find one in Dr. Vijaya Sherbet from Columbia Asia Hospital through a friend’s reference. She has a reputation of an old school doctor, with straightforward and on your face approach which not many people like. However, she also has a reputation of one of the best when it comes to normal deliveries and handling complicated cases. I felt extremely comfortable with her the first time I consulted her, and decided that she will be the doctor delivering my child.

Each woman goes through different phases during pregnancy. For me though, I only wanted to enjoy this phase of my life as much as possible. Yes, I did go through the inevitable body transformation and bit of uneasy health – heartburn, acidity, nausea, mood swings and cravings etc. But fortunately, my entire pregnancy was pretty smooth without any complications. As much as my body was going through transformation, it was even more overwhelming for me and my husband emotionally. Right from watching the tiny heartbeat on the monitor screen, to the first ultrasound scan; mood swings, to food cravings; long drives at night to gobbling half a kilo sweets at one go; birthday celebration & maternity photo-shoot to finally the labour room – we enjoyed and lived all these moments to no end. Everything seems just perfect in hindsight now. All this is still so fresh in my heart as if it happened just yesterday.

And of course, all this while, I did not abandon my brain child – my Etoile Fashion business, but it surely did take a backseat. But I took it slow and easy with my business and focused only on my health and nothing else – which I did wholeheartedly. This was indeed a golden phase of my life, one beginning which I did not want to end at all, for a matter of fact, I knew, there is another start of a long, tiring journey of parenting lined up.

It has been more than 3 years now – the pregnancy, childbirth, post-delivery recovery, raising this cute little bundle of joy from a tiny infant to this super energetic preschooler – no matter how challenging and frustrating the life has been in these 3.5 years – I wouldn’t want it any other way – ever. And I hope, this roller-coaster ride continues on a hell of an awesome journey. As I give the reins of writing more parenting experiences to my husband, I also hope to continue with few more articles on different phases of pregnancy and post-delivery – hoping to contribute my 2 cents to few fellow ladies out there who might be sitting in their bathroom, looking at the pregnancy testing strip, as nervously as I was back in March 2016. Cheers.