General khair khabar

Just had a long Easter weekend which was a welcome respite. So these are the small  itsy bitsy happenings in my world. 

• Friday managed to step out to a mall. It was the very first time since guddlu was born. And it was so refreshing. Since it was a baby friendly mall, we managed to deliver the regular feeds to munch bunch and roamed around for close to 5 hours. We even dined in a restaurant while the baby slept like an angel. It was refreshing.
• Saturday we had plans to go the local farmer's market. There is a lady who during my pregnancy was insistent that I come over and show the baby once its born.  I went to pay her a visit. And boy she was happy. She came over and hugged me and congratulated me. It was really a very warm moment for me which I shall cherish for ever. That followed a really scrumptious breakfast of crepes. I even inquired at the local health club for the swimming facilities. I am not sure when and how I can ever manage to get going, but getting the facts with me seemed like a first step enough :) The afternoon made another trip to the library where I was able to lay my hands on some really amazing books. Woo hoooooooooooooooo.
• Sunday came up to date on all the episodes of MTV Roadies 9 :) 
• Btw also watched Paan Singh Tomar. It is a brilliant movie to say the least. I am doing the propaganda of this movie to whoever I meet. It is a must must must watch.
• A friend I made here is moving back to India. I am going to miss her terribly since I had spent some really amazing time with her. So Easter Monday we both took to the city center  for her last shopping spree. It was real fun to help her in her shopping. She was filled with nostalgia and so was I. But we were happy that we were able to afford a day to spend with each other. Like old times, we sat at a coffee shop and chatted. The last we had done that, I was pregnant. Now I was there with a baby in tow. How fast things move! And I felt strangely enabled and emboldened   by the fact that I was mobile and out and about with a baby.
• And yesterday I ventured just with the kiddo for some shopping. These are baby steps I am taking to the being I used to be before I was a mother - so each tiny step is a special something :)

Survival skills of a new mom

Well its been 4 weeks on the new job and boy do you have to adapt fast. Its literally a baby eats mother world out there. I will be adding on to the skills acquired, but as of now these are the path breaking ones :)

1. Sleep when she sleeps and eat when she eats - Yes every well meaning veteran says this and every new mom vouches this is not done. But for my survival it ended up being like the Brahmastra. There were dishes to be done, clothes to be folded and the house looked like a war camp. I let it be. With time I realised I dont need all that naps the baby does. That was the time to catch up :)
2. Manage to use 2 hands like 4. So while feeding there goes on blogging and chatting with the a telephone conversation in loudspeaker mode with folks back in India. Its eating and rocking the cradle while  searching online for lullabies all together.
3. Keep anything and everything at arms length. So got the cell phone, tv remotes, lip balm, headache balm, tissues, bottle of water, the book being read, bibs, pillows - you name it. I can reach any of them with a mere stretch of the hand.  
4. You offer help, I make sure I take it. K and I were blessed to have colleagues around who brought in food on a regular basis. We would not have been able to survive without them. I cant thank them enough for whatever they did. And when some offered to cook something when they came home - I in the most unabashed fashion have said - 'Go ahead there are some veggies in the fridge'.
5. Make your partner work. So I have made K do alllllll the house work during his paternity leave. Post that, he feeds me most of the time - so that we can have our meals together. He does the first and the last nappy change of the day. He also wakes up in the middle of the night for the feeds so that we can also share a mid-night snack :) 

Well. There go my new fangled skills. Experienced moms please do pitch in :)

Deliverance

Disclaimer:- Pretty personal post ahead. Wanted to write this lest I forget the experience.

26th Feb started as any lazy Sunday. Calls were made to home and then we dilly dallied as to how to spend the day.We finally decided to take a longish walk to a store specialising in Indian stuff. It was a good long walk where K and I got to 'talk' after many busy weeks. (Busy for him).

Once back home, I got a bit concerned since I did not feel much movements of the munchkin inside. We decided to get it checked at the local hospital. Everything seemed ok but since I had approached them with a similar concern 2 weeks ago and I was already full term they gave me the option of being induced into labor. We went ahead with it, since there was no sign of the lil one coming out without a bit of a poke. It was a bit scary and intimidating when things started to precipitate. And the bad part was K had to go back home at 2200 since there were no visitors allowed from 2200 to 0800. K left at 2145 and I steeled myself for a long night. 

But then exactly at 2205, they saw the heart beat of the cutsie spike up. I also had a temperature. Seemed like the hormones for inducing labor were going haywire on both of us. I was promptly taken to the delivery suite and K was called over to be the helping hand. I was put on drips to get the heart beat stabilised for junior. But 45 mins past, there was no improvement. The baby seemed to be in distress, and the doctor asked if I would want to be delivered surgically. In plain terms, go for a C-Section. We both nodded. The doctor made me sign a consent form, which had pretty scary stuff in the risks sections. I should make a special mention of the anesthetist who was a real perky individual. I will never forget her wink as she said - Come on lets get this baby out  and snapped her fingers. 

K was given a pair of scrubs. And off we went to the theater. It was 2350. Just to distract me K said, 'If its born in another 10 mins it would be an anniversary gift to your parents'. The anesthetist said 'Oh it will be out long before that'. 

And at 2355 with the words 'Its a GIRL' we welcomed Vaibhavi into the  world!

In the book '365 meditations for new mothers' the author says - when you deliver you deliver a baby and also yourself into motherhood. When I saw K's beaming face near my head with tiny Vibha in his arms I realised I had delivered him too to Daddyhood. We had officially arrived at parenting :)

Ek teer se do shikaar

Nancy and Deeps handed me "The Versatile Blogger" Award. 
As part of the award, I have to complete a tag and write down 7 random facts about me! Ahem! 
R-A-N-D-O-M says you, Random gets me :) 

1. I cannot listen to the songs of Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - especially Paint it red. It was during the summer of 2011, that both my and K's parents made the trip to UK. It was a time filled with fun and warmth. It was time with family. It was also the time which hooked me to this song and would be the first one when I used to venture out on my walks. Now this song fills me with dreadful nostalgia :( 
2. My nose remains cold no matter how warm the temperature it. I am annoyed like crazy by it. I suit up and gear up against the cold with layers and layers of clothing. But what do I do with the nose?!!!!! It remains cold, frigid and just does not warm up. And I have no idea what to do with it. I do keep cupping my fingers around it and blowing air. But then it is not very helpful :(
3. I love seeing photographs - old ones, new ones, people, flowers, buildings, sceneries, mine, family, friends, unknown people, random people, celebrities - anyone, any occasion. I just love seeing photographs.
4. I have never ever baked anything. I love cooking. I have tried most sorts of cuisine and am completely hooked to recipe sites. Somehow, I have stayed away from baking. My mom used to bake immensely tasty cakes and cookies. And I have taken recipes from her umpteen times. But then have never been able to bring myself up for baking. I seriously envy people who can bake. I wish someday I am confident and daring enough to bake something. I should atleast try something in the microwave with so many brownie and cookie recipes which are do-able in a microwave.
5. Tea without biscuits does not complete the experience for me. I am in love with tea. The evening cuppa is a ritual for me - sacred and unmissable. But what I love with tea is biscuits. There are days when I run out of biscuits. Those days I miss it so bad. I feel as if something was missing from the day. 
6. I seem to have an OCD when it comes to responding to pings on instant messengers, sms-es or emails. If I am around I will surely respond. In the electronic era, it is very easy to ignore a hi or a ping. But if I am around I am sure to respond. I just cannot imagine not doing it. It somehow seems a bit rude to me to not respond.
7. I buy accessories but forget to wear them when the time comes :D Yea, I get them all, I stock them and then I forget them. Its mostly when I see someones ahem photograph in which everyone stands beautifully dressed and accessorized, I rue why I dont I do that more often :|

Now tagging 15 people is simply out of bounds. So I am going to tag Furobiker and Amrita.

Bucket List

Well, I am waiting. Yep - for the inevitable. For the end of life as I have always known. 


Carrying itself was a novelty. The feeling of life inside you is surreal. The inconveniences it poses is as they say in "corny-land" - preparation for what lies ahead. There are moments of agony and pure exhilaration. There are times when you wish it would all end while there are others when you are ok with it going on forever for you are clueless what to do when its all over. But then as my midwife summed it beautifully - kids are the good things in life and all good things make us wait, and cos they make us wait, we love them so much. Hmmm true!!!


Waise, main aise dadi maa types batein kyun kar rahi hoon. Yea sab mujhe shobha nehi deta :D So I am going to revert to original self. Now my mobility is severely restricted thanks to all the Ahem "nutritious" food that I am consuming (carrot cakes and ferero rochers and margarita pizzas ;) )which have added Dunlop tyres to me. I can barely walk 20 mins without panting like a hippopotamus who ran a triathlon.  K's paranoia is also at its zenith with rules imposed as to how far I am supposed to travel at what time of the day and how I am supposed to get from point A to point B. I am like ok Saar what ever you say :P 


So that has given me lots and lots of - TIME. And I have thought of a bucket list. Thus every single day, I catch up on friends :) Then watch a good movie - an interest I am trying to re-inculcate. Read some pages of a good book. Then of course there is the usual of cooking and eating good food :) 


The movement to a new house has also landed me with a lot of additional chores. So there is also setting the house in order. With K's office being across the street, thankfully I have his company for all the meals of the day - which is a great bonus. So its a good run now - eat, relax and be merry - for tomorrow we may have sleepless nights :)

Time for the ritual- Yea the year end post!

Now is the time for the year end wala post J

Don’t believe it, that in a day this years going to be over! This year went really really fast did nt it? There were no big milestones that I crossed but there were some junctures which I crossed that made this year extra special. The most epic one was our decision to become errr… parents. Scary thought eh? I know. I would nt trust myself with a child, let alone a baby. But then I dunno, I feel one fine day you just feel ready to take on the journey. Yes, any right minded person would think – Whoa are you crazy? But yea buddy – there are quirks in nature. Life does bring you to a stage where you see past the dirty diapers, the puke, the terrible twos and assume you can cope with all that. And take that big leap of faith. I could go on and on about how the whole thing can make you feel, but then I would become arduous. So dive we did and mind you those were some months of anticipation.

We had reached a point where we had given up – yes we are impossibly impatient. We were rather looking forward to the parents making a trip. When they reached, it was sheer bliss. The little one bed apartment accommodated 6 people! There was cooking, chatting, shopping, roaming; the house was literally on fire. I also acted guide after a long time organising trips sans K to Scotland, London and the Bath. It was some serious fun. On the last week of my parent’s 3 week stay, we got the confirmation of the new +1 in the offing. It was delirious to break the news with everyone being there in person. There is a reason God makes one wait for good stuff. The smiles (and tears for the moms) on everyones face add so much splendour to the whole fact. The icing on the cake was, 2 people I am pretty close to are also due within weeks of me – one 2 weeks ahead and the other 4 weeks hence. We don’t constantly swap stories but do get some reassurance from the fact that we are all sailing in the same boat. J

My parents stay drew to a close and it was terrible to bid them goodbye. But Amma was to be around for some more months, so there was not a sudden vacuum either.

Life moved on as I cleared 2 technical certifications – phew atleast something to write home about.  This brings me to a post by Nancy where she rues about merely existing. I feel that it is not a bad thing entirely. Yes there are young guns who take the world by storm, there are achievers who make us feel like nothings and there are qualifications and titles which make us feel incompetent – but then is nt everyone a mere face in the crowd? I do not propagate complacency, but then I don’t think we fare any less by doing our day to day tasks with diligence and honesty. I feel every person has a role to play in the fabric of the world. Just like the much clichéd every drop makes an ocean, every person’s carbon footprint adds up, every person’s activities add up to some economic, social or ethical good. We might be part of a mass, but our actions might end up making parts of a product that improves the quality of life somewhere. We might be mere parents but we might end up giving values and ethics to future world citizens who may in turn bring momentous changes. We might be merely “existing” but our actions might be the reason someone else smiles and goes on. Well sounds philosophical and my philosophy might be totally misplaced. Hence I shall stop blabbering.

As the year draws to a close, there are lot of new things to look forward to. We a moving to a new house which will be literally a stone’s throw away from K’s work place. Life will be different there. We will be a getting a new member to the family and life will never be the same again. And we have to brace for the zillion uncertainties that life is anyways going to throw at us. 

So heres wishing good changes and the strength to bear them in the New Year! Hope the year brings the best for all! Happy New Year!

Zip Zap Zoom - went a wonderful Christmas

Just done with the most idyllic Christmas vacation and seriously loved every bit of it.

It was 4 days of holiday and K thankfully did not have to go to work any of the days. That itself was bestest gift I could ask for. Friday evening he gave the surprise of surprises by coming home early. He also chose to skip his customary friday booze party. He has been really sweet lately by giving up time with the "guys" to spend time with me! I love him 10 times more when he does that :) though I keep telling him he could go and have some fun rather than being stuck in the house with a fat lady :) But stay he did and got on with cleaning some surfaces and painting bits of the house where some stains had come along. After grubbing on some frozen samosas, we called it a day.

The next day the sun shone bright, we chose to trek in search of some more Indian fare. Food does call the shots in our choice for outing. We decided to go for a new restaurant and had the most scrumptious Kachodi chat and dhokle. K was developing a mild eye infection, but not letting go of the holiday spirit. Once home, he made a trip to his favourite electronics shop for some window shopping. We ended up spending the evening watching The Inbetweeners and eating lots and lots of Indian snacks that we had purchased on our way back.

Christmas being the day when the city shuts down, we decided to take it slow. We still had to make a trip to the hospital, since K's eye infection was worsening as was his cold. Once back, I got on with the cooking while K attended to some serious enemy killing. All fattened up, we got on with back to back animated movies - Monsters Vs. Aliens, Happy Feet and Ratatoulie. I then chose to hit the bed with a book while K had to get back to saving the world. We saved up all the energy for the next day was Boxing Day - the day when the "SALE" gates open. I do not get the customary rush to shops on Boxing Day. I feel no difference in the options available on this day compared to any other time of the year. But somehow the frenzy is infectious. People do flock to the stores at 5 in the morn!! We too stepped out of the house at somewhere around 1230 to enjoy the sights. We chose to go to a mall far far away with a group of K's colleagues. Since it was a holiday, getting there got a bit painful since transport facilities were way limited. We took close to 2 hours while a normal day should have taken us there in 45 mins. But then it was totally worth the pain, since the decorations, the activity and the general festive fervour charged me with the same emotion. Did not splurge a lot, but it was amazing to catch the guys go crazy in the shops! Now that does not happen very often! Caught up on some reading in the evening along with catching up on 50 most annoying celebrities of 2011 :D (The stuffs people countdown and people watch :D )

Tuesday heralded the very last day of the Christmas holidays (boo hoo). We had a couple of friends invited for a small eatout and K helped me hugely inspite of his illness and eye infection. He was an outright darling from the outset.

As K started to work today morning, I could not help but treasure the wonderful time I had with him. It was a near perfect Christmas.