Happy 5 months!!!

R turned 5 month old today! I have heard its called Mirthday or month birthday. So we did the usual photoshoot in the morning post bath. He has stopped sleeping after his bath, so no breaks for me!

I had a plan to make monthly birthday stickers, so got them done with a friend's help and then got them printed! So we use it every month...if nothing else it makes Mumma happy ;-)

So it's been 2 months that R turned over, after that there hasn't been any major milestone for us. He moves backwards..no moving ahead, doesn't turn on the back either yet. Not complaining..all in good time! He tries to sit up though and it's advised not to encourage it.

Another happy event today, but before that a lil background. I am into babywearing, which is a blessing!! I plan to write a separate post about it. So this is the international babywearing week and various vendors are giving away stuff.. And I won a gorgeous Soul Sling on an Instagram giveaway!! It couldn't come on a better day!!

Looking forward to wearing R in the Ring Sling!

First Ganesh Chaturthi

I am not a religious person but I love the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi. We get the Ganesh Idol at home at my mother's place for 1.5 days.

It was R's first Ganesh Chaturthi, so even more special for me. It was last year on the first day of this festival that we knew, my HPT had come positive. So in a it was like a blessing from Him and R was born on Sankashti Chaturthi as well.

Even though he is too little to understand what was happening around him, it was special for me! Next year he will be running around and would want to go and get the idol home as well. So look forward to it!

4 months!

I had thought of maintaining this blog like a journal, but look where I am :-( So the plan right now is to add a short entry every other day or at least weekly. I shall be writing about the period from labor to completion of 4 months, whenever I feel like or remember :P

On Monday, we celebrated 4 month birthday and it got me very emotional. I had this over whelming surge of emotions that my baby is growing up too fast!

Some milestones we achieved:

6th Sep: Grabbed a moving toy!! Yay!!

7th Sep: 4 months old today...and noticed that he has feet!! Tried to hold them, successful in third attempt!

8th Sep: Started screeching.Ouch! We and V were wondering how to get him to stop. He screeched so much that it must have hurt his throat and started coughing. When we spoke to him, he stopped, smiled and resumed! So thats going to go on for a while I guess.

Until the next post....we will keep screeching and smiling :D

My Labor Trial - Part 1

So I was past my due date and tired of waiting. The baby apparently was in no hurry to come and how true this was going to be in a few hours time.

I woke up very cranky on 6th morning and in the same mood left for my check up. Like the last time I expected to be told..all is well..come back on 8th. My NST was done and it was fine. I told that my usually super active baby was only a tab bit low on activity today. To my surprise, she said okay..since u r already late, lets get you admitted and induce!!

I was NOT prepared for this! So I was given 2 tablets to have and another one pushed down below! I was propped up in the labor room. I was scared and did not know how to react and what to expect. V was there to calm me down. We were waiting for the contractions to start and also for a room to be allotted. V informed at home and the wait began. This was on 6th May noon.

I was transferred to our room and I felt mild pain across the lower abdomen. By 4 I had no contractions, so another tablet was pushed in. I was also given an injection via IV dextrose drip and we waited.

Then I had to encounter what can be called as the worst pain I have ever felt. Pelvic Examination! I was not aware of it..the pain it would cause. The dilation of cervix is checked by the doctor - by fingers and its very very painful.

My doctor apologized for the pain and said..the progress is very slow!

...part 2

Crossing the due date

So my due date was 4th May 2015, the day I completed 40 weeks of pregnancy. During pregnancy, I somehow ended up expecting the baby to be born before 40 weeks and I was hoping for an April baby. This made my waiting period increase by 2 weeks.

I was ready to go and deliver by 38 weeks and there were no signs or symptoms of labor. Still arent! You are frustrated and irritated by the end of the term. You just want to get it over with.

Every morning I have my friends and family checking up on me, that feels nice! People who remember and care to ask how you are holding up.

I am visiting the hospital every 2 days now. Have got 2 NSTs done. NST stands for Non Stress Test. It involves placing a monitor on the abdomen to check the fetal heart rate. A graph gets plotted of the heart rate - when the baby is at rest and when moving around. So the NSTs have been fine and I am told to wait for labor signs.

Baby seems to be loving being in the womb.....for now...waiting!

Baby Names

Naming your baby is difficult. Very. You do not want to end up naming your child something which they do not like / appreciate / or downright hate. After all it is going to be their identity for the rest of their lives. There are so many names or different origins, different meanings that you feel it would be easy to find one which you like. Sorry to disappoint - Not true! You will end up having a feeling that there are no nice names left in the world and your child will be left nameless!

When I was in college (which was a decade back) I had a list of names I liked. If I came across any new interesting name, I simply added it to that list in my diary. I went and looked back at it - oops! All filmi and typical names were on that list. So I had to toss it away and start afresh. There are innumerable sites for searching baby names, some specific to the origin as well.

The criteria for a baby name has changed over time. It should be easy, unique (totally hatke), with a good meaning and if you are Indian, the name should also be easy to call out in western countries. the name should also be easy to call out and sound well with the middle and last name. I had similar criteria in mind. However, the more hatke name you choose, probability is that it would have become common in the age group of 0-5. Also, you are not the only one choosing the name - your spouse has an equal say in it. To come to an agreement is difficult.

Since in India we do not know the gender, we have more work to do in this department. Find names for both genders. From personal experience, I can tell you that there are nice names  My friends expected me to have the name finalized in the first month itself. Here I am, past the due date, yet to finalise the name! I just have shortlisted 5 names for each - boy and girl!

Lets see which name we end up naming our baby with!

Nursing Scarf - DIY

I am someone who plans a lot and quite well in advance. Things which might even be relevant to be me at that time, but maybe in future, I keep in mind and plan. So I was out with V for a dinner date to celebrate out first engagement anniversary at Malaka Spice. This was much before we even started TTC (Trying to conceive)

There was a lady with a small baby and she was breast feeding with a nice Nursing scarf around her. I thought that was a brilliant idea - I had never seen or heard of nursing scarves before this. I did not even tell V about it, but it remained in my mind.

I like DIY things and in the second trimester, I started looking online for nursing scarves. There were so many varieties available and at such exorbitant prices! Just check out this one, for example! I would not, ever, pay that kind of money for a piece of cloth! Anyway, since I was planning on something DIY, I searched and found a nice looking, easy to make Nursing Scarf tutorial.

It required using the sewing machine, which I did not have, nor do I know how to use. But as always, Mom to the rescue. She has a sewing machine and can use it very well too! I sent her the links and asked her to make one for me. She made it only once I came to live with her, with the cloth of my choice.

She made it for my best friend as well and in time, as she intended to buy one for herself!

So, here are the blog and video links for the tutorials:
http://madebythemamamonster.blogspot.in/2008/04/nursing-cover-tutorial.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzgfHeQOxJA

Mom made it without the D rings, the strap around the neck was made of my size, so could just put it over the neck. Also, the boning was real hard to find. My cousin got it for me from Andheri Chaar Bungalow market.