Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers

Tuesday 29 April 2008

Shower-Baby-Shower

I think April would be incomplete if I did not blog about the online baby shower hosted by a group of bloggers - a student, many moms, aunts all in the gang. The organisers have mentioned about all the happenings over the last 4 weeks that led to the creation of a lovely blog - which now has a treasure trove of information for all mums alike. You can read them here:
Notes from behind the scenes
Oh!! What a Ride It Has Been
Since you were wondering what I was up to...
So we had a party
Explaining the Previous Post
Spilling the beans
The mystery is solved

The opening mail that read 'Mega Baby Shower' from Tharini arrived in my Inbox on April Fool's Day. As I was busy with other mundane chores and only managed to open my Inbox a week later, I missed out on joining the riddles team. That is each blog hosted a riddle and gave a clue - just a letter or a blank and the all important riddle to the next blog. My Inbox was flooding with over 100 emails everyday and to read and reply to them was so much fun. I was overjoyed to be part of this shower and it made me feel important as a mother. But before I could start posting my wishes, I found many other early birds had provided all of the essential tips and advice. So I ransacked my brain and added a couple of my own experiences. Those few weeks seemed longer than usual to me as I waited for the baby shower Friday but it would not have been the same for the organisers - what with riddles to create, blog to be readied, collecting and collating wishes, sending reminders to those who were a bit lazy and keeping the group informed of the current work in progress. And I should mention that I came to know many more bloggers from all over the world. My Blog Friends list rose from a meagre 8 four-fold to 32 and will continue to rise over the next few weeks. Some very personal experiences were added as part of the wishes and that was what made interesting reading.
We thought the fun would begin on Friday. But B o o smelt something too soon and started cracking the userid and password to the shower blog. That Thursday was a lot of fun -what with all the MTB's working enthusiastically to break the code. At the end of the day they proved it only too well - that their single minded determination worked well and Boo again broke the code around 2AM on Friday morning. Well, all good things come to an end and so this fun game ended well too. The best part for me was to know about many more bloggers. As someone rightly mentioned, blog hopping helps unwind after a long day.
Wishing all you preggies a safe and speedy delivery.

Thursday 24 April 2008

The Golden Words

Most moms would agree that the one real reason that they go through nine months of labour and childbirth is to hear the baby - be it the first cries, the cooing during the early weeks, the 'tha-tha-tha' or 'ba-ba-ba' during the initial months and await to hear the baby call out 'amma' or 'ma' or 'mom'. From time to time, my little girl would cry out Amm-mmm-ma and it gave me much pleasureto listen to what I term 'the golden word'. Whenever she called out Amma, Prashanth would pop in and teach her to say 'Appa'. Obviously he wanted her to address him as well and not just make me happy.
Last week, when Aditi was down with a bit of cough and cold, she had disturbed sleep during the nights. The tickly cough irritated her throat, leading to more coughs during the night. Eventually she would get up, all upset and demand to sleep with us on the bed. **Sigh**. On one such night, when she started coughing, I picked her up from the crib and put her on my lap to rub some Vicks Vaporub on her chest. The vaporub usually acted like a miracle and the cough always subsided. That night, Prashanth woke up and was examining her chest for any signs of infection. Aditi who was half sleep uttered clearly 'Amma' followed by a quick 'Ma'. Then she looked up at her dad who was still busy with the steth and said 'Aitipa' (short for 'Aditi appa') and pointing in his direction again said 'Aitipa'.
Both of us had huge grins and were overjoyed that our little one called out to us even in the midst of night. Its not too often that we get addressed as Amma or Appa and it certainly made us so happy that we spent the next couple of days telling the grandparents about it. Aditi hasn't learnt to say 'Appa' as yet. She would often address her father as 'Aitipa' or 'Yebbbbba' when shes too tired after lots of physical activity. The father is trying to get her to say just 'Appa' and the lessons still continue.

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I believe the purpose of blogging is to jot down incidents and happenings for posterity. Another small incident to indicate the the little girl does everything with a purpose. Last evening, after we returned from work/nursery, I gave her a bottle of milk. Then I gave her a biscuit as a snack and switched on the cooker. Aditi finished half of the biscuit and when I turned around, she was pointing at the dining table. I could hardly make out what she was trying to say and did not give much attention. Then she started putting both her hands under the table cloth. Atleast at this stage, I must have understood something. Yet, I proceeded to give her dinner and put her to bed. When we sat for dinner, I straightened the table cloth, when I found a biscuit piece on the table. That's when it all came together. The poor girl had left her biscuit under the table cloth and was desperately trying to look for it and I was so ignorant not to make sense of it. I have definitely learnt my lesson and shall try to comprehend what my baby says/shows in the future.

Sunday 20 April 2008

Snow in Spring



The shops have huge banners outside that say 'Mid-season Sale'. Going by the seasons, snow falls during winter. March was the season of hope as the days grew warmer and longer - more daylight during the day. Over the last few years, we've seen snow in March. And so, end of March was the end of snow. Little did we know that the British weather would be so unpredictable in April too. There was a little bit of snow in the first week of April. But the first thing that greeted me last Wednesday morning was the white layers on every roof top. We live atop a hill and the view outside extends to all the homes in the slopes below us. I came down to find the garden covered in a white layer of snow. Although we've got used to the snowfall now, I still feel excited to see snow in my garden. It was terrbily cold that morning, but the snow melted by midday and things seemed normal when we returned home that evening.

Wednesday 16 April 2008

DIY and its (dis)advantages

Most pieces of furniture bought in this country come flat-packed and needs to be self- assembled. Honestly, I am not a particular fan of DIY. The first few pieces of items we had to assemble on our own were Aditi's travel system and her crib. By the end of it, we were not so happy. Prashanth would crib over the lack of instructions on the single sheet of paper provided and it would be a mess by the time we finished it. Imagine doing DIY with a naughty baby around, trying to grab every tool and screw she could place and preventing us from completing the challenging task of assembling the furniture. Over the years, although our DIY skills have improved and we have a bigger tool box - electric drill, different types of hammers, various sizes of alan keys, screw driver set, spanner set and what not, yet I am not fond of self-assembly. So when it came to buying furniture for the new home, I desperately tried to avoid DIY stuf. Unfortunately for me, I could not avoid it completely.

We managed to find living room and dining room furniture and wardrobes that came ready assembled. But the bedroom and study ones came flat-packed. We decided to assemble the bed frame after Aditi slept. It took well over 2 hours to put up the frame and we were exhausted at the end of it. Little did we realize that we would have so many pieces to put together. I particularly hate screwing up the pieces together.

When it came to putting up the stair gates, we decided to do it when Aditi was around. She in turn banged the gate and happily scratched the walls. She still keeps testing the gate on the top of the stairs to see if its really sturdy. It was extremely difficult to keep a baby at bay and help Prashanth with putting up the gate.


In India, we would not even dream of trying to assemble furniture on our own. It was left to the carpenters. I understand that it is due to the availability of cheap labour. But in the western world, I am surprised to find that people even build houses on their own without much professional help, something that is unheard of in our country. With all its disad(in my opinion), DIY is still a passion amongst people here. But I'm sure we'll never be fond of the 'assembling' art and will seek professional help as much as possible. Feel free to express your views on DIY.

Tuesday 8 April 2008

Sleep - How it all happened

The popular saying 'sleeping like babies' is extremely misleading as not many babies that I know of sleep for 20 hours a day. At least, Aditi was not so. She slept for probably 10 hours out of 24 and the rest was spent either feeding or crying. During the first 4 weeks, my mom and I had many sleepless nights not knowing what would put this baby to sleep. And she would not sleep until midnight which made us even more tired. We would be terrified when the clock struck 9pm.The drama - as we called it would begin by 9pm and go on until midnight, when she would finally be rocked to sleep. In those early days, moving her from my lap after a feed to the bed would result in lots of crying and I would have to feed her in lying positions for as long as 40 minutes to put her to sleep. In short, it was tiring and not so much fun.
Sometime around the sixth week, I was introduced to mommy blogging. I was happy for 2 reasons - to take my mind off feeding Aditi and learning that most mommies had similar problems that I faced. The solution to the sleep issue came in the form of Tharini's 'A Tale of two sleepers'. As I read the entire post, I was thrilled to find that sleep training was possible even when the baby was as young as 2 months old. We started playing a classic CD on Ganesha hymns. We had to break the 'rocking to sleep' habit and to get Aditi to sleep in her crib. She was co-sleeping until about 2 months. I was told of CIO, but was not in favor of letting my little baby cry so long and tire herself although I knew that it worked well for a few other friends.
The musical mobile fascinated her and it was constantly played during the day. Wished we had a remote controlled one so we did not have to wind it up every 6 minutes. Thanks to my father who would play the mobile on and on endless number of times until Aditi fell asleep. At night, the musical mobile proved a distraction, so had to be removed before Aditi could sleep. I would leave Aditi in her crib, play the CD, sleep beside her on the bed and keep patting her until she fell asleep. It wasn't easy in the beginning, but I am thankful to many bloggers who guided me to teach Aditi to sleep.
When she was about 2 weeks old, amidst lots of protests, we bought a pacifier. My mom wasn't particularly inclined to give Aditi the paci as she found it terribly difficult to break my habit. It seemed that I would never give it up and would ask for the 'va-va' all the time until about a year. Aditi used the va-va to sleep until about 5 months and then stopped using it on her own. When I gave her the va-va, all she did was play with it and throw it after a little while. Instead she took another approach to sleep.
Come month 4 and Aditi started sleeping on her side. She chose her right side and placed her leg on the pillow beside her. As soon as the CD played, she would be asleep is less than 5 minutes. Oh and what a change was that to the endless rocking that happenend a few months ago. I was happy mother and started enjoying mommyhood. She would nap about 5 times a day - 30 minute sessions, and I chose to work around her nap times.
Around month 6, there were more changes to the sleep patterns. She started sucking her thumb! If she was sleepy, she would suck her thumb and all I had to do was put her in the bed and play the CD. She would sleep off in a few minutes. She had 2 well defined naps of about an hour in the morning and an hour and half in the afternoon.
The sleep technique came in handy on our trip to India. She would sleep off in a jiffy, but the trouble was the sound of two wheelers and constant honking on the road outside. India trip brought its own sleep problems. As she did not sleep in her crib for 6 weeks, she insisted on co-sleeping after we returned. And we would wake up all cramped every morning. Yet another habit to break....I strated to put her on our bed to sleep and place her in the crib as soon as she was asleep. This worked well and sometimes she wakes up at 4am demanding to sleep with us. And we sleep happily not having to share the bed with our baby.
Mommyhood does teach us lots of patience, but I also learnt to persevere and be steadfast in whatever I chose to teach my little girl.


Tuesday 1 April 2008

My first haircut


Mommy calls it my album but I have never had a chance to voice my views. For a while now mummy had been contemplating cutting my hair that kept falling on my eyes and on my back. For those of you wondering why we did not have my head tonsured during the recent trip to India, I learnt that there is no such custom on my dad's side and girl babies are not allowed to have their head tonsured in the temple. So my parents decided to cut my hair unceremoniously here at home. Last weekend when the sun was shining in all its glory, mummy embarked on the project. Dad was away at work. So it was just us at home. First she wrapped a towel around my neck and held it secure with a big nappy pin in the front. With a comb in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other, mommy carefully started cutting my hair on the back . All i saw when I turned around were some strands of black stuff and I dint know what to do. As it did not hurt me, I stayed put munching my biscuit. Mummy then started combing my hair in the front and using the scissors started removing some of the hair from the front. It was all over in less than 5 minutes and mummy swiftly removed the towel and cleared up the place around. She showed me a mirror and I was only too happy to see my reflection (as I always am). Check out my new haircut!