Bawa baby Moosomin’s first of 2018
January 9, 2018, 1:35 am
Kara Kinna
When Mehak and Abhinav Bawa were told that the due date for their first baby was New Year Day, the Moosomin couple was thrilled. That’s because there is a special significance for that day in their family.
“The coincidence was that my mom, she had my brother on the first of January as well, so it was very surprising for us,” says Mehak.
“When they told me that I’m going to have a baby on the first of January, I was so excited, as my brother was born on January 1 as well. I was so happy that they were going to share the same birthday, because my brother is young, he’s 18 years old. He’s was so excited that he was going to be an uncle. It was a very emotional thing for him.”
However, as with most pregnancies, there was no assurance the baby would come on the due date.
“They were saying I may not go into labor on my due date because I didn’t have any contractions or signs of labor,” says Mehak. “So they actually scheduled me for induction on Jan. 4.”
But on Dec. 31, Mehak says she began to have contractions. Not sure if they were contractions or not, she didn’t say anything to her husband until her water finally broke.
“I was still lying in bed and I said to my husband I think my water broke and he said ‘okay go to sleep’ because he was thinking I was joking, because had I joked one day before that my water broke. And he said ‘go back to sleep’ and I said ‘no I am serious. This time, my water broke.’
“He was so shocked, he was like ‘okay let’s go, we need to go to the hospital!’ ”
The couple went to the SEICC in Moosomin, but were sent to Brandon where the baby was delivered at 1:15 in the morning on New Year Day.
They named their son Rayaan. Not only is the baby their first, but is the first grandchild in the family.
They were overjoyed, along with their families.
“My mom was really excited, she said we made a record because I had my son on the same day and you had yours the same day, so we can have a double party on New Year’s,” says Mehak.
“My husband’s family was calling us, checking on us every other hour, asking ‘is he doing okay, send us a picture, send us the videos.’ This is my family’s first grandson, so everyone is really excited.”
The couple has been living in Moosomin for two and a half years. Abhinav works at Seed Hawk as a production technologist. Abhinav moved from Toronto to live in Moosomin and work at Seed Hawk, and Mehak moved from B.C.
The couple came to Canada from India to study in Canada. Mehak has her criminology diploma Abhinav has an engineering diploma.
The couple have settled in well with their new baby, and credit their cat Romeo with helping them get ready for the responsibilities of parenthood.
“We got our cat about two years ago,” says Mehak. “We had just gotten married, and we were lonely because we don’t have many relatives here. I was the one who wanted to have a kitten. My husband was not sure if we would be able to raise it. We were never around pets.
“But he says having Romeo, raising him, it really helped him to know what will happen if we have a baby.”
Mehak says Abhinav took lots of responsibility for their cat, feeding him and taking care of him regularly.
“Now that we have a baby, it’s very convenient for me because in India most guys, they don’t want to change a diaper,” she says. “But my husband said it didn’t bother him, he was going to change a diaper, and he was not feeling icky or anything (because he had helped with the cat).
“So he said ‘well I guess we can even learn from animals.’
“He’s like our first baby, and we even called him Romeo Bawa,” she says with a laugh.
Rayaan Bawa was born at 1:15 am on Jan. 1, 2018 and weighed 7.5 lb. Proud grandparents are Rashmi Bawa and Jaswinder Bawa, and Reeta Setia and Pawan Setia. Proud uncles are Sanam Setia and Kanav Bawa.
