Apple baby bath seat review

When we brought baby TJ from hospital, I was quite worried about giving him a bath. With a grandma who can't risk sitting down owing to her arthritis and a father whom the mother thinks of as having no knowledge about taking bath, forget giving one, TJ had to rely on his mother for his bath. 

A bright blue round tub was bought. I held him in one arms and tried giving him bath using the other. In the name of giving a bath, I tortured a new born so much that my mother assured me that he would grow to remember this horrific part of life. That sent me asking the know-it-all Google baba for a solution and found that a bath seat could help. Having no time and patience to order it online and wait for it, I scouted around the local baby shops and found this one. A made in china product that cost me Rs. 370. Thinking that it would be another baby product that would go unused, I tried it by placing my son on it. He seemed to be totally relaxed on it and I was convinced enough to try giving him a bath on it. Oh, he took to it like a fish to water. He relaxes on it as if taking a sun bath.I do have a cute pic of him on it, but I don't think he would be thrilled to know that his nude pic is floating on the web.

He absolutely loves it and enjoys his bath. And me, I am happy too because he is on hands-free mode. I can use both my hands to bathe him and not worry about dropping him. After finishing off his front, then  his bottom by raising his legs and then I do his back by lifting his head off the seat.

The seat has raised sides and bottom so you don't have to worry about the baby going down the drain hole. Also it has vacuum suction grippers on the bottom and holds itself well on the ground.

This is one product I just can't do without and if we are gonna travel for more than a day I would make the husband carry it with us along with numerous other baby things of course.

There are many variants of this selling between extreme ranges. I believe that an inexpensive (around Rs.300) sturdy plastic seat would do the job.

My 2 and 1/2 months old boy

My boy

You're two and a half months old now, son. I have known you only for a very short time and yet the relationship is so blissful.

It wasn't love at first sight, my dear, sorry, it wasn't. Yes, you were (are) so cute and tiny and what-not-to-adore baby. I was also very frightened to be given such a task. When I took you in my arms for the first time, I was elated, horrified, stupefied all at the same time. 

But dear, your father handled it very well. He started his love for you even before you were born and started loving you even more after you were born. He adores you so much that every  morning, I have to chase your father out to work and take you off his arms. He even has his breakfast with you on his lap. I guess he must be seriously considering packing you in his bag and taking you to work. I've gotta screen him before letting him go, I guess.
You certainly have him wrapped around your little finger. Even if I yell and scream my lungs out calling your dad sitting just a room away, I will find him hooked to his laptop with no knowledge of the impending danger. But, you make the littlest sound, he comes flying to attend to you, to change your nappy, to comfort you and even complains about the lack of mammary glands (No, darling, you don't have a crazy father. He is just crazy for you).


Do you know that your mother who poses to dominate this household is such a weakling in the emotions department? Oh, yes and extremely sensitive. Even though its a fact that a baby will start looking at faces around 3 months old mark, I was so upset on day 3 itself that you weren't looking at me and so you may not be liking me at all. Your father had to convince me against  my weird theory with his even weirder theories and I remained unconvinced until quite recently when you decided to make me fly with a beautiful smile.

Also you have started coos and gurgles only now and I love watching you. Yet you seem to be quite biased as you usually sleep off in my arms, but converse so wildly with your paatti and dad. And your dad gloats about it. You love the rides he gives you on his shoulder and I guess you must be liking the view in a different angle. Your dad gloats more. He is just waiting for your head to stabilize so that he can carry you like a kangaroo. 

I believe you will be very egoistic and wont blame you for it as it could be an inherited one (Yes, from me). You dont cry for your needs easily. I have been noticing this since you were born. You used to fuss when you were a week old, but after that if you want to be attended to, you just yell out a loud 'Hey' and one of your slaves  (namely your paatti or mom or dad) run to you to serve you. You still behave like that but you have learnt to adjust the volume of your 'Hey's depending on the distance between you and your nearest slave.

You have already started living the life the way you want. If you wanna be cuddled by a person you want, you just keep 'Hey'ing until you're passed to that person and that person is almost always your paatti or dad and never your mom. Sigh.
There are times you just wanna be left alone to your own devices. Lying in your cradle with your big round eyes open and you in rich contemplation of the cradle hook and the wall beyond it. If I come peek into your cradle to see if you're ok, you shoo me away with a loud 'Hey' and I respectfully keep my distance.

Every evening, you call us for a family get-together meeting simply by your loud coos and gurgles. And once we assemble, you converse very animatedly with your dad and paatti and yes of course leaving me to be a spectator who is jumping wildly like a fan trying to get a celebrity's attention. And I never get it. And your dad gets to gloat more. So I just remain admiring you.

You love your bath. Every afternoon at around 12 you take your bath. You seem to have a good sense of time that your mother doesn't have in spite of all the wall clocks in the house. By one in the afternoon, you will become fussy and start Heying until I strip you down which is your signal for bath. I started giving your bath with water from a small vessel and upgraded to a small bucket. Now you take bath in a huge bucket full of water and I am sure that even if I empty the whole tank of water you would just ask for more. Though you dont love the getting soaped part, you graciously allow me to do it without a word because you know a lot of warm water will follow. With a father who is highly environment-friendly and takes just two minutes to take bath with just two mugs of water and no touch of soap (all in the name  of being environment friendly of course) And a mother who loves emptying a whole tank of water on her in the name of shower and spends an hour easily, you know whom you have taken upon on in this department.

Oh, there is another department in which you have inherited me and I am so elated darling. You have a fine sense of taste, just like your mother. Ha ha. On your face daddy. Its your paatti's job to give you your daily dose of vitamin drops and you insist on taking it drop by drop, tasting every drop, licking your lips clean with your tiny pink tongue. Your paatti enjoys seeing that. While a granny gets to give the modern english medicine, modern young mother is tasked with giving the traditional urai marunthu. And the faces you make for drinking urai marunthu goes from curiosity to utter disgust. When you were around two months old, one afternoon I was raiding the fridge for a snack and found a guava. You Heyed me for company then and I skipped, hopped and jumped towards you, well actually ambled towards you, and sat next to you relishing my snack. You started smacking your little lips, drooling all over. From then on, whenever anyone eats anything with a strong aroma, you go drooling and smacking your lips. I keep telling your father that pretty soon you're gonna snatch food from our hands and stuff it in your mouth. Along with your fine sense of taste, you also have a fine sense of smell. How else can I explain my suddenly obtained ability when I was pregnant with you to perfectly name the dish that is being cooked two streets away and can give a live commentary on the ingredients that are being added ? Now that you're born, I am back with my own perfectly normal sense of smell that makes me browse in the mobile peacefully, standing near the stove that's burning the day's meal.


Did I mention that you must have inherited this fine taste and craving for food from your mom? I am so happy dear. You know why? During the early days of the marriage, I wanted to impress your dad with my skills of cooking multi-cuisines. So one day, I told him that perhaps I can cook once in a while as outside food is boring and sent him to work with the promise of making a rich dinner. I browsed high and wide and decided on an Italian meal of pasta, brought out all the hard-to-get-in-local-shops ingredients like penne pasta, italian herbs mix, toiled an hour cooking it and two hours cleaning the kitchen. Your dad comes home, I serve it on a plate complete with garnishing, he tastes, makes a weird face and asks if we can have dosa with coconut chutney. Oh boy! After that day, I resorted to making good old south indian food like idli, dosa, rice and roti(roti and gravies have become south indian long ago). Now I don't want you to know about the huge tantrum I threw after his sheer inability to appreciate the pasta. But that episode (the tantrum part of it) has made him appreciate even a cup of water that I graciously offer him when he pleads for it. Good man he is. So now you know why I am happy about you. Yes, I can try cooking variety of food again.

Even though you seem to prefer your paatti or your dad over me (Perhaps I shouldn't have cribbed about the aches and discomforts while carrying you), your bath and bed time totally belong to me and you won't do without me. Everytime I place you on the bath seat, you hold my finger with all of yours for a moment, your eyes seeking assurance that I will let no harm come to you and then proceed to relax and enjoy your bath.
At night, you you come to my lap, cling on to me, and we look at each other, no words, an eternity seems to pass away and one or both of us sleeps off. I place you in your cradle and move to my bed with a heavy feeling of longing for you.

We love you lots our baby TJ.

Postpartum diet

In most of India, a new mother gets to be under day 40 days of confinement during which she is disallowed from doing any kind of household work and is given a specific diet.

There are lot of postpartum recipes shared by many in the blog world.

Though I don't follow a diet with specific recipes, my diet includes

garlic

shallots

black nightshade berries (milagu thakkali in tamil)

black pepper instead of red/green chillies

split green gram dal instead of toor dal

milk with rusk for snacks

sesame oil in every preparation

In addition to the special diet, I also take two indian medicines/legiyam daily.

One is a wonder medicine for lactation called sadavari/shatavari legiyam. It can be had twice a day daily till you wean the kid. It tastes just like jaggery. I got to know about this from my very favorite siddha doctor  Dr. Sivaraman.

Now the second one is the very popular prasava legiyam, which nowadays is mostly store bought by many families. I got mine from a store, as none in my family remembered the recipe. But my hubby's friend gave us a recipe which is handed over from one generation to the other in his family and is a treasured recipe. My mom made it for me and I have a good amla-sized legiyam twice a day.

Here follows that very treasured, age old prasava legiyam recipe.

The ingredients are listed by their tamil names.

Prasava Legiyam Recipe

Table 1
Sukku	200 g
Milagu	200 g
Thippili	100 g
Narukkumoolam	200 g
Arathai	200 g
Kasakasa	100 g
Adhimathuram	25 g
Dhaniya	250 g
Vaayulingam	25 g
Sirunaagappoo	50 g

Table 2
Omam	200 g

Table 3
Kadukkaai	1 no.
Jaathikkai (Nutmeg)	1 no.
Maasikkai	1 no.
Ginger	1 kg

Table 4
Akkara	2 no.
Jaathipathiri	2 no.
Elaichi	4 no.
Cloves	5 g

Preparing the powder

In a hot kadai, dry roast Table 1 ingredients one by one, just until they become hot to touch and reserve.
Dry roast Table 2 ingredient quite nicely.
Peel and thinly slice 1 kg of Ginger and dry it well in shade. This step can be done few days before starting the rest of the preparation.
Roast Table 3 ingredients (including the ginger pieces) in ghee and reserve.
Once all the ingredients come to room temperature, get them all (Table 1, 2. 3 and 4) ground to a fine powder in a mill.
Cool the ground powder by spreading on a clean paper and store it.

Preparing the legiyam
The prepared powder - 1 cup
Palm jaggery - 1 cup
Honey - 1 tbsp
Ghee
Sesame oil

Add water to palm jaggery, heat until it dissolves, strain and reserve.
Add water to the powder and make a thick paste.
Heat Kadai and add honey and then the palm jaggery syrup. Let it boil,
Now add the powder paste and keep stirring.
Add ghee and sesame oil and keep stirring until it comes to a non-sticky halwa like consistency.

It keeps well for a month in the refrigerator and can be made as and when required from the stored powder.

The hunt for the right cradle

When the pediatrician advised us to use a flat bed for the baby and avoid the traditional cloth cradle (aka thottil in Tamil), the hunt began. Since I wasn't allowed to go shopping right after giving birth, my DH went on the hunt after having his head filled with cradle ideas by his wife who was hooked to the computer browsing for models.

Source: http://www.wudplay.com

I so very much wanted to buy a 3-in-1 crib cot which can be used as crib for baby, then as a toddler bed and later as a sofa. After seeing many such models in US websites and drooling over them, I found some on Indian sites. Wudplay has wonderful models and I love them. 
But such cribs don't come cheap and I had to satisfy myself with just seeing them on my laptop screen. Sigh.

Source:babyoye.com

Then there are lots of economic cradles that one can choose either online or a nearby baby shop. We kept looking at these models (after reluctantly accepting the fact that my dream crib would just be a dream) and a month had gone by.

Meanwhile, I put the baby to sleep on a foldable adult-size cot, covered with a mosquito net  and kept it near my bed. It was easy for me at night, as I had to nurse every two hours and picking him up was easy. But I could see that he never slept so deeply.

At last when a whole month had passed without me making any decision(mainly bcos I couldn't get over the crib, sob sob), my  mom made a stern decision that the baby would sleep on a traditional cloth cradle just like all her ancestors, herself and her kids did. That night for the first time my son slept in the thottil made with my mom's cotton saree and he slept such an undisturbed sleep that convinced me and my DH (forgive us doctor).

Thus the great cradle hunt ended bringing peace to all parties concerned.

Now, this cradle setup serves two purposes really well.
1. My son understands that the cradle is for sleeping only and he will cry to be taken out once he wakes up. So, if we put him in his cradle, he knows he has to sleep and he sleeps without a lot of fuss.

2. He gets a lot of free bum time during his day naps and I get to do less laundry. The trick lies in the way the cradle is setup.

This is the wooden bar that is used to keep the two sides of the cradle cloth apart, giving the baby more space to move around and also good ventilation. If this bar is not used, then the cloth will enclose the baby which may be preferred if the weather is cold. 
The cloth runs inside the notches on both sides of the bar and the bar itself is secured by a  string. 
I usually put him to his day nap without a nappy in the cradle. When he pees, I take him out, pull one side of the cradle cloth to rotate it so that the wet side goes up a little and place him back on the cradle. Even if my son doesn't call me after wetting (which is rare), the only wet cloth being the cradle cloth under his bum, it will dry soon.

Though we are currently using my mom's old cotton sarees for this, I'm planning to buy white muslin cloth for this setup, as I prefer white color. I find mosquitoes in my home prefer darker clothes and settle on them, perhaps their camouflaging technique. Also its easier to spot dirt, stains and other insects on a white cloth.

However there is a steep learning curve for using this. Placing the baby in without anyone's help is still an elusive skill for me.I need someone to pull both ends of the cradle so I can place the baby. But I did find a solution to this. I sit on a chair close to the cradle, with one hand pull one side of cloth, place it between my knee ends holding them tight with knees, then place the baby in. Whew, its not easy and is a circus feat.
The other issue is with the cradle movement. This cradle needs a wide berth to be rocked. So its better to ensure that there are no furniture close by. Since you may find yourself rocking the cradle in a sleepy trance often, its better to ensure that.

Is your newborn's tummy bloated?

A week after he was born, his tummy started bloating. At first I really thought it was my imagination and was scared to tell my hubby and mom that the baby looked like a lizard about to lay her eggs. With his lean, long limbs and bloated tummy he either looked like an alien or a lizard I just described. When  I did voice out my creative imagination, the peeps in my home apart from being annoyed at my senselessness also found the baby's tummy bloated. The baby also started making lots of grunting noises almost always.

It got me so worried that right after 12 days of his birth, I made him take his maiden car ride from home to the doctor's. I was pretty convinced that I was not fit to be a mother and raising such a delicate fragile creature is not my cuppa tea. Apparently the doc reassured that the baby was fine and the bloated tummy was because he was not burped after feeding.

Why dont the hospitals give a baby manual? For a person like me who survives with the TO-DO lists and reminders stuck on every steel surface in my home with magnets, who cannot cook one proper meal without my phone (for recipes) and measuring cups, raising a baby is quite a challenge without a manual. For the exorbitantly priced normal delivery I had, the hospital could at least have given one. I digress.

Well, now I burp the baby. He is a late burper though. His tummy has settled down and he seems to look a human child now. Thank God!

Meanwhile we had started him on urai marundhu with the advice of our favorite Dr.Sivaraman. And ever since he doesn't grunt and has a normal sized tummy.

This pack consists of 30 pepper-like pills to be taken once a day mixed with milk or honey after food. I soak a pill in expressed breastmilk for an hour, mash it with my finger tips later and then feed him using a medicine dropper.

Baby sleep routine

My son started sleeping full night from week 5. His doc said that its quite normal and babies learn to sleep full night sometime between month 2 to month 6 and he advised me to feed him only on demand and not to wake up a sleeping baby. I would put him to sleep at 11 pm and wake him up at 4 am for a feed (yes, I don't listen to the doctor at times)and the baby would wake up only by 8 am the next morning.

I have learnt that my son complies to a sleep routine if its followed regularly. 

After 10 pm at night, I strip him, give  him a quick warm sponge bath (or a full hot water bath if we had taken him out on travel), put a vest and a diaper on (which my mom calls as his night dress), set his cradle with the mosquito net, switch the light off and the night lamp on, play a lullaby in my mobile (I love Vatsalyam by Bombay Jayashree) and nurse him. He would either have fallen asleep or feel groggy. I would very gently place him on his cradle and cover with the  mosquito net. If he hasn't slept, then a mild rocking of the cradle for few minutes would do the trick. I follow this routine regularly and it works almost always. Thank God.

Is your new born sleeping always?

When the adjacent rooms in the hospital were filled with wails of infants, my son was sleeping all the time "ALL THE TIME". When I was struggling with the milk supply to come, he just kept sleeping. No matter how much I prodded his ears and tickled his feet, he just kept sleeping and refused to feed. The nurses kept reassuring saying that I just have to keep prodding his ears. But it didn't help. When the pediatrician came to check on the baby, I voiced my concern. He advised to keep the baby warm and then we would see a difference.
How very right he was. I wrapped him up snugly, switched airconditioner off, the kept him warm and his wakeful hours increased. Its another matter that my baby started sweating quite a lot esp on his head and refused to be covered two weeks after his birth :)

Well, if your newborn sleeps without even nursing then try to keep your little one wrapped up and you may find the difference.

Post partum care and breast-feeding

I am gonna write about two topics that women normally are embarrassed to share. Many have elders in the family who advise about these issues. For those of you who do not have that luxury, I wanna share my experience so you can benefit.

Episiotomy stitches care:
These stitches usually run from the vagina till the anus on one side of the thigh. I don't intend to scare anyone. You will become super busy with the newborn that you will hardly have time to worry about it and it would have healed by then.
I was given pain killers for the first three days along with anti-biotics to speed up healing. You will normally have some pain only for the first ten days, though you can walk and sit normally. By the end of a month, it would have completely healed.

Wash the area as and when possible (atleast thrice a day) with warm water mixed with dettol, dry with toilet paper or soft tissues and apply Betadine ointment. You can use your fingers to lightly rub and wash without fear.

Breast-feeding:

Now this is an issue I am still struggling with. I had assumed that breast-feeding is easy as its natural. How very wrong!

My milk took three whole days to come. Until then I was producing colostrum which was transparent, thick and sticky just like sugar syrup, but very little. Normally the baby will have enough reserves to keep him going until mom's milk come and can actually survive on this meager amount of colostrum. It is essential that you let your baby suckle as much as possible, so that the baby learns to latch well, your brain gets the signal to start lactating.
If you think you are not lactating, please dont give up. I know how hectic, emotional and nervous it is, as I have gone through it too. But, trust me, you will lactate. There are medicines that the doctor can prescribe to help start the lactation. So please don't panic. You can definitely breastfeed your baby.

 On day three, I woke up with engorged breasts and one very huge and very very painful lump in my right armpit. My doctor whom I had been pestering about my lack of milk, laughed and said that the breastfeeding journey has begun for me. She put me again on meds for three days to help me with the lump in the armpit.

Engorgement was one great painful issue for me. It was quite very painful. If you get engorged in the hospital itself, the nursing staff will help you with the breast pump to help relieve it. Even if you're home and its too painful, you can visit the hospital for help.
At home, if you own a breast pump, use it to get relief. 
Soak a piece of cloth in hot water and apply compress on breast and gently massage it and hand express the milk or pump it out. The engorgement won't last long. It lasted for ten days for me.

For the first one month, I was milking like a cow. My breasts used to fill up fast and they remained full almost always. To top it all, I was leaking all the time. I could drench a terry towel in minutes. I could never step out of my room. I soaked through breast pads in seconds. Gosh it was very messy. I strongly believed that I could nurse two more babies :). By the end of that month, my body stopped over lactating and balanced the supply with demand.

Even now, I do leak when I am full and when I am nursing my son. I have accepted this messy part of the business with reluctance first and now happily as I am confident that I can nurse my son long(hopefully atleast till he is a year old)

Newborn essentials

In our culture(I guess in most of India), we don't buy things for the baby before the birth. Even a newborn is clad in used or at least washed clothes for the first time.

I diapered the baby in the hospital, though my mom had brought cloth squares to cloth diaper him. You would be battling with new emotions (esp if you're a first time mom), a fragile baby, breast-feeding issues and visitors. So I chose to use disposable diapers for him 24/7 in the hospital. The pharmacy had bella diapers and I would highly recommend it for a newborn.

A baby soap or baby wash will be required to bathe the baby in the hospital. And yes of course some set of jablas (vest-like). You may most probably receive these as gifts from visitors.

In short, you will only need the following things for the baby in the hospital:

1. Baby soap/ wash
2. Diapers
3. Wet wipes
4. Towel
5. Clothes
6. A hooded wrap to carry the baby

Once you're home, you may need a host of other things depending on your preferences and affordability.

I will list the things I had brought and their reviews. My baby is two months old now and these are the things that I find handy.

1. Disposable diapers: Bella and Huggies for night time use. Since the baby will keep pooping so very often, you'll need more diapers even its only for the night time use.

2. Wet wipes: Himalayas and Mee Mee

     I used Himalayas wet wipes for the first month. Since babies poop very often you may need to big packs for the month 1.

     From month 2, I am using Mee Mee wipes as they are cheaper and also of good quality.

3. Baby soap/ wash: Johnsons baby top-to-toe wash

4. Baby lotion: Himalayas

5. Baby Shampoo: Johnsons top-to-toe wash

6. Baby clothes: I had sewn them myself as I didn't find the store bought ones comfortable

7. Quick dry sheets

8. Soft Towels

9. A mosquito net to cover the baby

10. Cloth nappies

       I am cloth diapering my son during the day. I will review my cloth diaper stash soon.

11. Baby bath seat

      

My Delivery

Three weeks before my due date, on a July evening, my water broke. I was actually expecting to go into a sudden labor pain or something dramatic of that sort. But it was rather a passive event. I went to the loo for the hundredth time that day and I just went on for lonnnnnnnnggg. I was suspicious and called my mom and DH. Both were clueless and shocked. I told them that my water might have broken and ordered my husband to get out of shock and get the car out.

I changed into comfy PJs, gathered my labor bag, checked myself on the mirror, and got into the car. All the while in the car, I was leaking water, drenching the car seat and making fun of it. My DH was sure that I was just having incontinence and told me that its not labor day :)

But seeing me totally wet waist down, I was rushed into the labor ward. After getting my nether regions shaved and an enema, I was asked to walk till I get the pain. I was quite happy then, assuming that since my water broke, the baby will come out along with that water with no or less pain (Now I know why I didn't qualify to be a doctor). So there I was walking merrily and in quite a good pace along with other to-be moms who were struggling to walk. Seeing me walking fast like a mad woman and leaking water all over the floor, the duty doctor administered drips to induce pain. When the first pain came, it was received well. When the duty doc asked me if I needed an epidural, I was confident I could handle the pain. My mom who knew that I can't even handle a 100 degree fever was shocked to hear me say that. So there I was lying on the bed assuming that the pain had started and asked my mom to hand me the phone so I can talk to my DH who was just outside the labor ward door.

As I was telling him to be strong, the first wave of real pain descended on me and I screamed into the phone. I felt as if someone had inserted cutting pliers inside my hip and opened its jaws. It was excruciating. When wave after wave of pain swept across, I was begging for epidural. The doc said it was too late and rolled me to the labor room and was shifted to the gurney bed. Who on earth invented that kind of half-bed?

There I lay for 30 whole minutes begging for mercy to be sent home or to be killed, yelling insanely, screaming obscenities at the nurses who were busily discussing their dinner menu, ordering them to call my doctor or my DH, threatening to jump from the bed which only led the nurse to strap my legs onto the bed, begging for someone to do something to get the baby out. When the baby did actually come out, I was too drained to be bothered about the stitches I were receiving or even to see the child or know the gender. 

Hospital Labor bag

After a thorough browsing of assembling the labor bag, I started doing mine by the end of month 8.

Nightgowns - 3 sets (Choose thicker cotton ones so you can give the inskirts a miss)

Panties - 3 (large and cotton ones)

Nursing bra - 3

Breast pads

Sanitary Napkins 

Going home outfit

Towel - 2

Room slippers

Tooth brush & paste

Hand wash

Body wash (better than soap as it may have to be shared)

Face wash

Hair Comb & scrunchies 

Face wipes

Dry Tissues

Toilet Paper (Very essential to dry your episiotomy stitches)

Dettol bottle

Body lotion

Lip balm

Bindi

Kumkum

Mirror (in case your hospital room doesnt have one)

Anyother Makeup item you wish to use

Medical File

Mobile phone & charger

Purse with money (of course)

Camera 

Water bottles - 2 (one only for you and the other for attenders and visitors)

Flasks - 2 (one for water and the other for milk or tea or coffee)

Plates

Tumblers & paper cups

Spoons

Knife

Scissors

Plastic covers

PregnancyTips

You would definitely get a lot of pregnancy related advice from relatives, neighbors, friends and sometimes even from strangers.
Here are my two cents.

If you're planning on pregnancy soon, then don't buy underwear(esp. brassiere). Your body is going to undergo continuous changes and you may not fit into your pre-pregnancy clothes for a very long time(or forever). If you're buying clothes, then make sure there is room to grow.

Sometime in the second trimester, there will be a significant growth in the body and you may start finding your clothes tight. I avoided wearing anything tight around my belly to not exert pressure on it.

Buy a loose fitting open sandals to make your swollen feet comfy. I can't thank my DH enough for goading me to buy a sandal with very loose straps when we went shopping in the month 3, even before I knew what swollen feet were.

Always carry water and snacks while travelling. ALWAYS.

I walked every evening for an hour throughout my pregnancy, even though my neighbors advised against it in the first trimester. My doc gave me a go and I followed her advice. It really helped me through my pregnancy in staying fit and healthy. Perhaps in delivering naturally too.

You don't really have to eat for two people. Eat healthy. I tried eating healthy food with exceptions here and there. If you suddenly have an increased weight gain and doc warns you against it, then avoid rice for lunch. Instead take millets for lunch. My weight gain stabilized after having kodo millet for lunch. They taste just like rice.

I had millets dosa (either kambu or cholam) dosa for breakfast, kodomillet with sambar, kulambu and sabzi for lunch, roti with gravy for dinner. Snacks included cucumber, carrot, pomegranate, guava, watermelon and occasionally samosa :) .
Iron and calcium are very important for women, esp. more during pregnancy and post delivery. Other than the supplements given by the doctor, they can be included in diet too.
To increase HB (iron deficiency):
Two dried figs a day in the morning
Grind together, strain and drink the juices of 1 pomegranate, 1 carrot and half a beetroot.
For calcium, other than milk, include ragi more in the diet.

If you're staying at home, then invest your time in your hobbies to keep yourself happy.

You may see changes in your skin tone, don't panic. I darkened a lot all over. The change was quite sudden. I woke up one morning to see my face darkened, then was horrified to find that it was not localized. My DH comforted me saying that I turned from a light chocolate to dark chocolate, but a chocolate nonetheless. I had to worry about his insane imagination too. But from the moment I delivered my son, my complexion started getting back to normal an now after two months, I'm almost there. :) As a plus, my hair fall had completely stopped to an abnormal level. Not a single hair in my comb or in the corners of the room swirling eternally or clogging the bathroom outlet. Yay!

Always keep a bag ready with your medical file.

By the end of month 8, keep your hospital bag ready. I'll do a detailed post on it soon.

Keep an adult diaper handy at home by the end of the third trimester. If your water breaks at home, it will save you from a lot of embarrassment on the way to the hospital. I wish I had known this.

My Pregnancy

When there were two pink lines in the pregnancy test kit, my DH was ecstatic and jumping with joy in a filmy way and there I was freaking out. I was scared, deeply scared. It felt like starting a journey into another world.
I was expecting to vomit all the time and faint often. But none of these happened. In fact, I was quite energetic and resumed my usual walking with my DH and our darling dog Milo. My DH promised me that he will get me whatever I wanna eat and I can binge on them. He was even ready to travel all the way to Madurai to get me a pizza of my choice  :)

Then very soon I experienced a horrible heartburn.(Hey! They don't show it in movies). Then it became the norm of my life. Heartburn after every meal left me choking. The doc advised me to have small and frequent meals. Mom put me on restricted food: oil-free, spice-free and tasteless food. I was ready to eat ANYTHING to avoid having a heartburn choking episode and did what anyone told me. I drank bottles of various antacid syrups the doc prescribed. But nothing helped.
I had food cravings. I was hungry. But even when I had a carrot to eat, I was choking with heartburn.
I couldn't eat anything even remotely spicy.

The only thing that kept me sane was my doc's assurance that I will be normal once I begin my next trimester.

So I spent my first trimester trying to soothe my heartburn with Gaviscon, Ulgel, Omam infused water, cumin infused water, hing water, walk after every meal and what not.


My doc was right. Heartburn disappeared overnight when I started month four. I was so elated. I could eat spicy food at last. Yay!!
Very soon my feet were swollen. I didn't really mind it as many assured its normal during pregnancy. But one day (month 5), I woke up to see myself in mirror with a really huge swollen nose. My wedding ring was cutting into my skin. I was swollen like a balloon all around and was rushed to the hospital by a bewildered husband. The doc suspected something serious and put me on pressure meds and a strictly no-salt diet till the end of pregnancy. Salt-free?? Well I can do that. Did I tell you that I was already on sugar-free diet owing to my risk of developing Gestational Diabetes.
I had wheat bread and cucumbers for breakfast. Curd rice with unsalted sabzi for lunch. Roti with unsalted gravy for dinner. How long? For two days. By the third day morning I was ready to do anything to have edible food.
Miraculously the swelling left me in a week's time never to return, even though I had stopped the pressure meds. I started having food with less salt and got used to it that now I cant eat outside food without finding it too salty for my taste. The jealous monster in me refused letting my DH to add more salt while eating :) and he too now finds outside food too salty.

When I was in month 7, I suddenly put on 5kgs in a month and the doc advised me to go on a diet to prevent high weight gain. I wasn't actually binging.
The last two months  of my pregnancy were significantly better and uneventful. I was this huge mammoth that needed both the doors of my house to be open so I can walk through. My DH was very respectful of my girth that he chose to stick himself up on the wall on his side of bed and let me use the rest of the bed. I woke up every hour at night to pee that sometimes made me seriously consider using adult diapers for night (I didn't).

Since I had taken a career break before starting this pregnancy venture, I was quite bored at home and so my DH used to take me out on a bike ride everyday. With a huge belly, I would occupy most of the bike seat leaving him to perch on the petrol tank along with a bag that housed my water bottle(I was almost always thirsty) and a snack box(and hungry too!) and just hardly made a kilometer and then I would have the urge to pee and return home. It was actually quite hilarious.

Nothing deterred us from travelling though. There are not many(any) places to visit in Tirunelveli other than temples. There are a quite a number of ancient temples in and around Tirunelveli and we visited them almost every fortnight by car. I love ancient temples, their grandeur, sculptures, the location, the divinity, the cool unpolished stone slabs under your feet and yes the prasadam too.

Planning a baby

Having decided to start my posts with my pregnancy experience, here goes the first post in this series.

I didnt plan to be a mother and certainly believed that I wasn't ready for it. But when a not-so-small kid (actually a 15 year old :( ) next door called me by the fearsome word 'Aunty', I was quite heart broken. After taking a long look at the mirror and badgering my DH continously with the same question 'Do I look old?', we (read I) decided to meet up with a gynecologist. Finding that I have PCOS, she urged us to have a baby, and put me on medications.

Though I didn't really want to be a mother, I was scared of the possibility of remaining childless if I postpone having a baby and my friends with kids assured me that motherhood comes naturally.

There began my journey towards pregnancy and with the Almighty's (or the Nature's) blessings, I conceived  soon after. 

Hello world

Hello world or rather Hello myself

I am here because my memory power sucks and I really need to log things I do and things that happen in my life if I ever wanna remember them. I could write a diary, but how will I remember where to find it. Also I wanna keep track of all the lovely blogs I read, so I don't forget the next time I wanna check back on a recipe in a food blog.

So, here goes my attempt to keep an e journal.

Thank you
Mrs M