26 Her first steps

Vivi started to take her baby steps after a week since Nina came home. Samuel was so happy to watch Vivi's first baby steps. But when he went to call his wife to show, he saw that Jasmine was busy changing Nina's diaper and dress. He informed her that Vivi is taking her first steps but Jasmine said okay and continued what she was doing. Samuel was getting angry day by day by Jasmine's activities. She totally ignored Vivi, as if she has forgotten they have a second baby.

That is when the problem started. They Samuel came inside the room and took Nina away from her hands and put her in the crib.

"Do you even remember that you are a mother to Vivi?" Samuel asked her.

"I did not forget but, Nina needs my care more as she has only her mother but no father". Jasmine's answer was straight and hurtful.

"So you want me abandon a baby like you did when she was just 2 months old?" Samuel also didn't control his tongue. "Have you ever thought about a 2 month old baby who was even abandoned by her own mother who even stopped feeding her?. Did you even care about her for all these 6 months if she is alive or not? You have yourself and Nancy to take care of a new born who was still in incubator but what about Vivi. Do you know that when you were in hospital, Vivi got high fever and was admitted in hospital for a week due to low immunity, she was in NICU to recuperate. For her lifelong she has to endure all health problems because of your stubborn attitude. To save an unborn daughter you want to kill your alive daughter. Are you calling yourself a mother?" he vented out all his emotion that day.

He was very angry for his daughter. More than anyone else, he was angry on himself. After that he stormed out of the room and saw his daughter who was smiling at him trying take few more steps towards him. All his anger went down like a punctured balloon. He was in ecstasy, when he saw his daughter was trying walk towards him.

He thought that his daughter doesn't need a mother who doesn't care about her. Who was adamant on her own policies than the health of her daughter.

Inside the room, Jasmine was stunned after her husband's words, it was true that she was spending all her time on Nina and didn't concentrate on her husband and the two kids. It was because of Nina's health that she didn't want to risk her daughter's health. But it indirectly caused her another daughter's life. She was crying if didn't insist on having this baby may their family might be same as it was before. But whatever happened has happened. Nothing can be changed. She can only change the future. She has to spend more time with her family than concentrating only on a single baby.

When she came out Samuel and Vivi were laughing and playing together. Samuel was on his knees trying to reach his daughter's height and was imitating his daughter's steps. Vivi was laughing at her father watching him. Then she got down on her 4 legs and started crawling faster than him. It seems they were having a race.

When Jasmine went to them to join them, she also got on her 4 legs and tried crawl towards her daughter. The father and daughter duo didn't even notice her, so she came there and tried to take Vivi from the floor mat, but when Vivi saw that someone was lifting her and when she saw the face of the person she immediately started crying, throwing her arms and legs in the air. She was wailing and was trying to go to Samuel. Samuel and Jasmine both were stunned to see their daughter's action that day.

So the problem is deeper than they expected. It has been 3 months since she has seen her daughter. As it was not safe for the baby in the tummy. So Vivi was who was not aware of her mother for the last 3 months, totally forgot her and was thinking of her as a stranger.

What they didn't know was that during the last one week when they came back from hospital Vivi was very aware of her mother's return. She was very happy and was trying to reach her, but her mother immediately moved to aunty Nancy's room. Except her father and Inir no one noticed her presence after her mother's return. But both of them were not there during daytime. Only her aunty Nancy will come to feed her during food time and leave alone after that. So she crawled to her mother's room to see her on the second day of her arrival. Only then she noticed that her mother was holding another baby in her arms and was smiling at her. Then Jasmine fed the baby Nina when she cried and after she fell asleep she put her on the crib(Which was originally Vivi's) and then went to take bath. During the whole process Vivi was sitting near the door and watching her mother taking care of another baby and didn't even notice her. She was very sad, it is very common for babies to get jealous when their mother or father was holding another baby but not even noticing them due to the arrival of new baby was very hurtful to her. She started sobbing and her eyes become red, when started to cry, her mother immediately came out from the bathroom and went to check on Nina. Again she was ignored. She was still crying and crawling back to the main hall, during which Nancy saw her and thought she was hungry and took her out to feed her.

The same thing happened for a whole week and Vivi noticed that she was replaced by the new baby. She was very sad nad started alienating herself from her mother. After that she never went near her mother's room.

So when she saw her mother holding her again she was again scared and become sad started crying. Samuel immediately took her away from Jasmine and took her outside.