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EXCLUSIVE: Meri Aashiqui Tumse Hi star Smriti Khanna on breastfeeding her baby amid lockdown & the challenges
In an exclusive chat, Smriti Khanna of Meri Aashiqui Tumse Hi fame opened up on how she was a little terrified initially but once the lockdown was announced, she took a sigh of relief. Smriti also shared that she had decided to breastfeed her newborn but with no external help, it is getting difficult.
Meri Aashiqui Tumse Hi actor Smriti Khanna recently embraced motherhood with husband Gautam Gupta. The couple turned proud parents of a baby girl on April 15, 2020, amid lockdown. Both Smriti and Gautam have been ecstatic about this news but along with it, comes the challenges with no outside assistance available, currently! In an exclusive chat, Smriti opened up on how she was a little terrified initially but once the lockdown was announced, she took a sigh of relief. Smriti also shared that she had decided to breastfeed her newborn but with no external help, it is getting difficult. Over to her:
Did the lockdown and coronavirus outbreak news make you anxious?
It did. When we found out this entire corona situation, and the lockdown, initially I did panic because my delivery was due, I had a few doctor visits left and then you were hearing this or that hospital is closed because of COVID 19 cases. It was a panicky situation for us. That time, the whole lockdown had not happened, everyone was still going out and much was not spoken about how it can affect pregnancy. So, I kept looking for information about pregnant women in this situation and how to save yourself, but much information was not available. But once the lockdown was announced I was a little eased up because people from outside stopped coming, so it was a little safer.
How did you take this lockdown? Were you worried about delivery during this period?
I kept myself very calm and I spent a lot of time with Gautam. I told him these are the last few days we spend as just two of us because a third person will join soon. We were more focused on the good things and seeing it as a blessing in disguise because we spent a lot of family time. Thankfully we have a big space in the house, we could do our swimming every day and do my work, and spent time in the kitchen.
How has having a newborn baby girl changes life? Less sleep...?
Oh God! I can't even tell you. The first few days in the hospital, it was easy because you press a button and the nurse would come and take the baby. We had also kept a nurse for the baby but now she can't come because she is in Aurangabad. Now, I don't have help here. Sleepless nights we can still manage I guess but can't risk anyone just coming and taking care of the baby.
It's been two days since we came home, the first night was so bad, it was a nightmare. In fact, I decided to exclusively breastfeed the baby but due to COVID situation sometimes it becomes so hard. I was doing that till the time I had nurses around me. I had thought that for the next six months, it is going to be this way but I don't know now... there are so many issues, the baby keeps crying, I keep wondering if I am doing anything wrong, recently, it was like 2:30 AM and the baby won't stop crying. We did everything to make sure the baby stops crying. At last, we got a Dabba with that formula, we have been watching YouTube videos. Everyone was running to make her stop crying and then finally she did.
Any plans for a grand celebration post the lockdown is lifted?
We will have a puja or something if things normalises. We did a little puja in the house recently. But let's see. How do we plan anything? We keep face timing with friends and everyone because they are all so excited.
