Our kids sure have a busier social life than us!

Every month at least we get one invite to attend a birthday party from one or the other of Anirudh's playmates at the school or the daycare. And its so true that their social lives are busier than us. Its because of Betu that we socialise whatever we do. So yesterday when we picked him up from his daycare, he showed us 2 invites in all the excitement you can ever imagine! Why would he not be excited..one had spiderman and the other had mickey mouse on them...the characters he so fond of!

While I open and read them with him in my lap, he is talking about the cake and the balloons and the works that they have at birthday celebrations! However all the time he was just talking about "Tina's bday!" I guess he must be more pally with Tina compared to Tara - the girl from the other invite. So pointing at each card one by one I told him "This is Tara's and this is Tina's". And suddenly I hear huge bawling! I was shocked for a moment as I didn't know what triggered it. I thought maybe the invite touched him somewhere on teh face and he got hurt. So I kept asking him "Kahan chot lagi? Kya hua?" and Betu is crying louder and louder with tears flowing down his cheeks without saying a word. I asked him to calm down and tell me what happened as I was totally clueless why he was crying.

So in between all the wailing he said something which sounded like "Yeh mera hai". And that's when it suddenly clicked to me as to what triggered all the drama. He thought I was saying that those invites belonged to Tina and Tara and not to him. I couldn't stop my laughter thinking how he had perceived my statement "This is Tara's and this is Tina's". God! How does the minds of the children work is still a puzzle for me. I'm learning each day!

So once I understood the reason for his bawling out, I told him "Haan Betu, yeh aapke hain par invitations Tara aur Tina ke hain". While still a few tears were rolling down he goes, "Nahi yeh mere hain!" I realised its no point talking to him further on this and said "Haan yeh aapke hain!" and he started cuddling with me and after few seconds, the crying stops totally and the excitement and talking about the birthday party returns! :D

However the best part was DHs comment in the end. Once Betu was all happy again, DH laughingly tells me "You must blog this!" I looked at him, all surprised with mouth gaping wondering if I heard right! He..talking about me blogging this..?? In fact I told him this upfront that I'm so surprised you told me this since you don't even read it yourself :P

And it was yesterday only when I commented on poppins post saying how unconcerned DH is about me blogging about Betu despite having given the URL to him. Sigh..such are the men!

Yet another daycare!

It will be the 3rd ever since he started going to one since the age of 9 months. The first one was Kiddies Corner in Lajpat Nagar. After a stint of one year we shifted him to Pink Elephant in New Friends Colony. Reason for shifting was "Too many kids, too little space" which resulted in Betu catching infections quite often. And now just after about a year and few months at Pink Elephant, we need to look for another one. I would not have moved him from here at all if things were in my hands. The playschool and the daycare is closing down because of space issues. This was a rented place and the owner now wants it back. The management has not been able to find a place within its budget without increasing the costs for parents. We already were paying about 6K per month so I wonder what they would have increased it to. So they decide to close it down.

It was the perfect place we could look for. Be it the space, the facilities, the teachers..just about everything.

Anyhow, no point in thinking too much about it. We have already looked at 2 other options and now we need to decide which one to go for. One option is The Little Scholar and the other is Mother's Pride. Me and DH went today and saw both of them. We liked both. I was really amused with the bathrooms in one. They had washbasins built up for heights of toddlers. So if any adult would stand next to them, the heights of those basins would not even reach to our knees...maybe just halfway between knees and ankles! I found the idea so very cute and amusing!

Both these day cares are located quite close to each other and close to both our offices too. I guess a little more closer to my office than DHs. So by this weekend we need to decide on one and then take betu to the selected one on Saturday before he starts going there full time from Monday.

I've been trying to mentally prepare Betu by talking about a new school and new friends and as far as talking about it goes, all is well and he seems excited. Rest only time will tell.

Knowing his nature, I will give him about max 2 weeks to settle in there. Since he has been going to a daycare since he so small, I feel it won't take more than that. But also now that he's a big boy and has his share of likes and dislikes, I'm giving him that much space to settle down. I know for sure he will settle quite well.

I feel really proud of my son and thankful too when I look back when I started sending him at 9 months. If it was not for him, I would not be working as of now. If he had not adjusted in the daycare, things would have been totally different for us. Its not that I need to work to make ends meet. I need to work because I like to. I really appreciate mothers who quit working after having their child! Hats off to them. Staying home whole day and just managing the house will drive me nuts within a week. Managing the house is just not my cup of tea.

I would be lying if I just attribute it to the fact that "I like to work". We could easily do with extra money to give him a good lifestyle and good education and also to give us some pocket money for some of our whims and fancies :D. So basically its the need+want to work combined with need for money.

What a night!

Don't start thinking on something exciting and happening on reading the title! It wasn't and wish to never have it again! It was one of those sleepless, testing your patience night. It was one of those "cramping in the legs" night for Betu. Yes..one of those. He has been having cramps in the legs since about 6-7 months..but not regularly. The frequency is more like once in 2 months but one can see how uneasy he gets. Its a mix of him wanting to sleep and the pain from the cramps. So lot of whining and tossing and turning mixed with 15 min naps in between.

We did talk to the paediatrician when it happened the first time and the third time. But all we heard that this was was growth cramps...something that we were expecting to hear. You might wonder why "expecting"? Just a few months before he had his first one, we had read an article about cramps in kids. The article also related the cramps to growth spurts. So when the first time Betu had a cramp, both me and DH immediately thought of the article. But just to be on safer side, we took him to the pead. Second time, we just tried to calm and soothe betu as we knew what it was. When it happened third time we again took him to the pead and to the homeopath who is treating him for his Bronchitis Allergy. They both said the same thing again - "Growing cramps". This is the 4th one he has had so far.

But what amuses me or irritates me is that why do these cramps occur only at night? Why? WHY?

And to add to all this was my migraine. I had a bad one yesterday. I'm sure it was due to all the smells of paint (we are getting our woodwork painted). It had been bothering me since day before. So because of my migraine, I slept off early at 9 PM and left Betu to be taken care by DH. Like always, Betu must have given DH a hard time and DH was out and over with his patience. So when this cramping thing started, DH was getting very irritated at Betu. So despite my throbbing pain on the left side of my head, I tried to take care of Betu. And after bit of cuddling and calming he finally slept for what seemed like an hour again to be woken by with another bout of cramp. So again the whole process started. I pressed his legs for sometime and then DH took over, some cuddling etc etc. Finally he slept well around 4:30 in the morning and we let him sleep till late as we both felt he needed that sleep after such a tiring night.

So now you know why I titled the post as I did!

Few more memorable incidents.

"Tumko pasand lagta hai??
Thats how Betu asks if we like something :) Its like a mix of two sentences, "Tumko pasand hai?" and "Tumko achha lagta hai?". He had been using this sentence whenever we would go to a shop to buy something. And whatever the sales person will show, Betu will point at each one and say "Tumko pasand lagta hai?" :D And if we will ask him "Aapko achha lagta hai?" He would nod his head. And sometimes he would pick such awful stuff and say "Yeh achha hai!"

***

"Oh Wow! Yeh mera favourite hai!"On friday night I was making myself a pair of jam and bread slices when Betu walked in the kitchen. And as soon as he saw me spreading Jam on bread he goes "Oh Wow! Yeh mera favourite hai!" I was totally awed at his expression. I never used the word "favourite" with him nor have ever tried to teach him this word. So him picking up new new words is quite amazing for us!

"Ab aapki turn hai!"

It was around 8:45 PM (yesterday) if I remember correctly. I was starting to put one load of laundry in the washing machine. Betu's papa was talking to his Dadu at Jaipur. Since he also wanted to talk, DH stopped his conversation and gave the phone to betu thinking he will continue after Betu is done talking.

(I don't have the other side of conversation since it was our cordless without a speakerphone. So I'm putting his Dadu's conversation in grey as I'm assuming he must have said that!)

Betu : Dadu? Aap kya kar rahe ho?
(I prompt him to say namaste)

Dadu : "Aap kaise ho?"

Betu : Namaste. Main theek hoon..

Dadu : must "Aap kya kar rahe ho?"

Betu : Main laptop dekhne ja raha hoon

Dadu : "Aap Pogo dekh rahe ho?"

Betu : Nahi Pogo nahi. Pogo mein fighting aata hai. Woh ganda hai!

Betu : Ok. Bye

And then Betu came to me and wanted me to talk. But since I knew DH's conversation was pending so I told him "Nahi..papa ko de do..!"

He replied back in a stern voice "Nahi..ab aapki turn hai. Papa ki turn ho gayee!" Hehehe...

So I spoke to my FIL and when I told him what Betu said, he had a hearty laugh!

"Meri shaadi ho gayee!"

Yesterday evening we had gone to Lajpat Nagar market for some work. We have a fixed area where we usually park our car and the car parking guy recognises us quite well so he always helps us in getting good parking spots too.

Betu is also quite familiar with the parking lot and which way he needs to take to reach McDonald's! So the moment we parked yesterday, Betu started to walk on his own towards McDonald's and I had to literally run to catch hold of him. In spite of telling him we will have it later, its not dinner time etc. etc. he didn't listen so finally I got him his McVeggie burger with cheese. Was actually thinking of buying the Happy Meal but the toy they were giving him was "Pinocho" from the movie Shrek which was something I knew he wouldn't really appreciate. So decided on ordering a burger separately.

Anyhow, before I go on and on about the outing yesterday, on our way back to car after we were done with our work, he was bought a balloon on demand...those long ones. On way back home, he wraps it around his neck and said "Meri shaadi ho gayee!" For once I thought I didn't hear him right as we had never talked about shaadi etc with him before. So I asked him "Kya?" He again said the same "Meri shaadi ho gayee!" Me and DH burst out laughing and when I asked him "Maala (garland) pahenne se shaadi ho jaati hai?" He nodded his head in affirmation. It was so funny.

Then I asked him "Teri bahu kahan hai?" He goes "Bow?" "Bow to doggie karta hai!" "Usko bow nahi bolte, doggie bolte hain!" :P We were in splits hearing his response!

Just thinking of how he mixed up the word "Bahu" with "Bow" is so hilarious that I can't help laughing even now when I'm writing this!

Testing my patience or being creative?

Betu was literally testing my patience yesterday by doing some mischief or the other. We, myself and Betu, reached home around 6:10 PM after I picked him up from his daycare. Within 5 minutes DH was also home. Like always we had something to munch on, had some juice and then we switched on cartoon network as Betu likes to watch "Richie Rich" which starts at 7:00 PM.

You must be thinking "Cool..a relaxing affair". But wait. It was anything but a relaxing affair. Three incidents happened all in just 1 hour post that.

Incident 1
After watching 10 mins of "Richie Rich" with Betu sitting on my lap, I thought of resting in the bedroom since my back was aching. Since I thought he would keep busy watching it I can get some rest. But sorry no..he wanted to watch it with ME. So I told him mumma is tired so lets play in the bedroom. He agreed and then started to jump on the bed despite me telling him again and again that he might hurt himself. Well I should have been worried otherwise...

During all the jumping sessions, twice he jumped on me. Once his knee hit my pelvic area and it hurt like MAD. Probably on seeing me in pain and realising he's done something wrong, he started crying. I got really angry and asked him why are you crying. "You are the one who hurt Mumma!" Anyhow after some cuddling and talking he went quiet. I thought that was the end of the jumping session. But hell I was so wrong! It soon started again and this time he jumped on my right side of the stomach and again it was his knee that landed there. It hurt like hell! I was almost in tears! Again this time I hadn't said a word to him yet and he starts wailing! I ignored him as I was in too much pain. And the volume of his wailing grew. So DH scooped Betu up in his hands and started talking to him about what he had done and how it hurt Mumma and that he shouldn't be crying but should be saying sorry to Mumma. Well that was that and he went to see his cartoon back in the living room. DH was working on his laptop in another room and I kept resting in the bedroom.

Incident 2
Few minutes later..maybe 5..maybe 10...I got up to just do general house chores and the moment I stepped in the living room and this is what I saw -


When he saw me looking at the floor, he goes "Mumma, maine drawing kari hai!" I was like a erupting volcano by then. So in loud voice I asked him "Yahan Drawing karte hain?" He nodded his head in negative. Then I asked him "Kahan drawing karte hain?" He replied in his whisper like voice "Paper mein." I asked him again pointing to the floor "Yeh paper hai!" He again nodded his head in negative. I just didn't know what to do so I just told him to hold his ears and stand in a corner. He quietly went and stood in the corner holding his ears.

Then I got some water, a scrubber and some liquid soap to clean it up! He had colored up the entire drawing room length. And I was thinking to myself "Am I glad he didn't color up the walls which we had gotten white washed just 7-8 days ago." I started scrubbing and cleaning and my back hurting like mad. (Its another story that I was amused at what he had drawn..it looked like a staircase to me..:P )

All this while betu is standing in the corner holding his ears and once I was done around 1/4th of the area, I looked at him and said "Haath neeche karo!" as I felt making him hold his ears is not a goo idea. I will just let him keep standing in the corner. The moment he heard me saying that he thought his punishment was over and he started to walk away. So I again told him in my angry voice that he is not supposed to move and to keep standing in the corner. I think he realised what big mistake he had done so quietly obeyed. Once I reached almost the end of the drawing, he blurts out "Mumma yahan bhi hai!" pointing to the extreme end of the drawing. I almost laughed but had to stop as I didn't want him to think its OK. I then saw he had colors on his legs also so asked DH to wash them up. I again thought that was end of it! Wrong again!!


Incident 3
After the scrubbing the floors, I came back to the bedroom to rest some more as now my back was hurting even more. And since Betu was with DH, I thought all will be under control. God knows where my mother instincts were to think like that!

After 15 mins of resting I got up as I felt he just needed to spend time with us and we were just busy with ourselves, he is doing all sorts of mischiefs. So I got up and on the way to the living room, I noticed all the bathroom lights were open. So before switching them off I just thought to look inside just in case DH was not in any of them as the doors were shut. I looked into the loo..all OK . I switched off the light. I looked into the bathroom and I froze. Betu was in the bathroom, with our soap and his liquid bath gel lying around. The bucket was full of water and foam and he was making some more foam by putting some soap between his palms. He had made small small pieces of our Nivea soap and when I picked up his bath gel to put it on the shelf I realised he had emptied almost 1/3 of the quantity that was in the bottle.

I was seeing only red by then but instead of saying anything to him, I took him, washed his hands and told him loudly "Go away!" He goes wailing to his papa saying "Mumma ne danta!" and I was rolling my eyes hearing that!

So all in all quite an eventful day when all I wanted was some bit of rest! Sigh....

Main big boy hoon!

Yesterday when I reached Betu's daycare to pick him up, like usual he came running to me with his arms open. And once he's close enough I pick him in godi and we hug each other. Its almost like a ritual for us! I can't remember any day when we have missed out on doing this. But I guess we need to put a stop to it as my back is starting to give away!

So after the hugging ritual I put him down and as we walk towards the car, he suddenly pipes in "Mumma, Main big boy hoon! Main papa ki gaadi chala sakta hoon!"

Every time he comes with statements like these that just leave me awed! So I asked him "Kisne bola yeh aapko?" He goes "Papa ne!" So I asked "Are you sure? I don't think so.."

He thinks for a while and then says "Nahi papa ne nahi bola. Meri Ma'm ne bola ki main big boy hoon!" Then I again asked him "Ma'm ne bola ki aap papa ki car chala sakte ho?" He goes "Nahi. Mujhe pata hai! Main big boy hoon na! Meri Ma'm ne bola ki main big boy hoon!"

And then he spotted my car and goes "Very good Mumma!" like he always does on seeing my white Maruti!

Some more memorable incidents

I had posted about some of Betu's memorable incidents earlier. Some more cme to my mind recently which I am writing here before they slip my mind again. I do not remember the dates for them but still they are as amusing as they can be :

He's such a tease!
He truly is! Just a few days ago I asked him "Mumma paaru hai na?" He nodded his head. My next question was "Mumma kitnee paru hai? Thodi ya bahut saari?" He had such a naughty smile on his face and after thinking for a while he kept his thumb and the pointer half an inch away from each other said "Itnee!" And started to giggle which basically meant he understood what he was doing and that it was intentional! And when I made a sad face, he came to me quickly and gave me a tight hug and then opened his arms wide and said "Itnee paaru hai!" and hugged me again! It was such a sweeeeeeeeeet moment for me!

***

I lub (love) you Mumma!
So many times I used to tell Betu, "I love you Betu!" when cuddling with him. However, I never taught him to say it back to me. Suddenly one day he himself responded back by saying "I lub (love) you Mumma!" I was so shocked, happy and got so emotional hearing him say that! That moment will always be etched in my mind. It is too precious for any mother to forget.

***

"Very good Mumma!"
Isn't it so nice to hear such compliments from your children? It surely makes my day! One thing for which he always says this to me whenever I go to pick him from his daycare is when he sees I've come in my white Maruti 800. So when I go inside the premises, he will ask me "Aap white waali car laye ho?" And when I respond in affirmation (which always is since I only drive that car.). And when he will see the car himself out comes the compliment "Very good mumma!". You will think "why is that?".

This is why. Since my Dad was travelling to US since march, he had left his Maruti Swift with us. And DH used to use it quiet often. In the beginning he used to love the big car and insist on going anywhere in that car ONLY. But later he started insisting on using our white Maruti 800 saying "White waali mein jaana hai!". But after some coaxing and cajoling he would agree. We realised much later why he started to prefer the small Maruti 800 compared to much spacious Swift.

B e c a u s e....his visibility was hampered in Swift as the windows were higher and the seats were more deep! But in Maruti 800 he could easily see things outside!

Aren't the kids these days way to bright for us!!!??

***

Betu has an alibi for all his deeds..or shall I call them misdeeds!?!
You bet! Whenever he does something wrong and when you ask him "Yeh aapne kiya?" he would promptly respond back saying "Nahi. Monkey ne kiya!". :P So my boy who was just about 2.5 yrs young has had a alibi to cover up all his misdeeds!

His brain works too much for us to handle. It actually started when we were visiting his Dadu-Dadi in Jaipur last year(2006) sometime around October. Sometimes a group of monkeys would come and break the earthen pots for plants outside the house. Once he saw one broken pot and ...

Betu : Yeh kisne kiya? Aapne toda?"

Me : "Nahi. Monkey ne kiya!"

Betu : "Monkey kahan hain?"

Me : " Woh chala gaya!"

Betu : "Moneky badmashi karta hai?"

Me : "Haan.."

That was end of our conversation then. For me it was the end. But it had more impact on his mind than I could have ever imagined. Few hours later, he opened the kitchen drawer when none of us were around and opened one of the masala dabbis (bloxes) and spilled them in the drawer. And when I saw what he had done and asked him about it, he promptly replied "Monkey ne kiya!" And on questioning him ki "Monkey nahi aa sakta yahan! Aapne kiya hai!", he again had an answer for that "Monkey bammashi (badmashi) karke bhaag gaya!". I was left totally speechless hearing his responses! When I narrated this story to his Dadu-Dadi, the couldn't help laughing!

Crying, stubborn and a defiant child!

Till now I've been all the time posting about how good, adorable and lovely child he is. But that's just one part of the story. He can be as adorable as he can get and at the same time as badmash, as uncontrollable and stubborn too!

Recently he's got this habit of crying at the drop of the hat! For reason or no reason. And it kind of irritates me and DH both. When you scold him, he will actually pay no attention to what we are telling him but will start crying.

Even if we try to reason with him that what he was dong was wrong without reprimanding him in any manner whatsoever, he would still start crying.

Its so irritating when he cries at anytime and every time. Whether you are scolding him or just talking to him. He just knows that crying out will get him things the way he wants. But before you start thinking that we give in whenever he starts crying, NO..we don't. There are times when we will let him cry for 10-15 mins and then he will come and cuddle with us. Once he is quiet and we will talk to him about what he did wrong, he will nod his head and will say not to do again.

But again the same thing will start on something or the other. I really don't know where are we going wrong and what should we do to stop this behaviour.

In the mornings we literally have to drag him to take his bath so crying starts. Once in the bath, crying stops. When time comes to get out of the bath, crying starts. First he doesn't want to take bath and then he doesn't want to come out! This is just one example that I'm writing about here. It gets maddening at times!

If you scold him, he will come back to us asking "Aapne mujhe kyun daanta?" When you reason with him, he doesn't listen. When he does something wrong I usually tell him to "Hold your ears and stand in the corner." Now he's picked up this line and when he gets angry because we are not doing things as he would want us to, we get to hear back these lines on us. "Hold your ears! Stand in the corner!"

There have been few time long ago when he would trouble me while I would be driving I would tell him that "I will put him out of the car!" But later I realised it wasn't a great idea so stopped saying it. On Sunday out of the blue, he got angry while we were going back home after dropping his Dadu, he goes "Main aapko gaadi se bahar kar doon?"

So all this makes me so confused as to what should we do to control him and what we shouldn't do. Any ideas are truly welcomed!

Dadu chale gaye!

Betu's Dadu was here for the past 8-9 days and he just loves his company as no prank is bad, and if he gets any scolding from Ma-Pa, Dadu scolds them back! So all in all it’s the best time he can look forward to!

So Saturday afternoon when we reached RTDC office @ Bikaner House, near India Gate, as Papa (his Dadu) was to take a bus to Jaipur from here, betu got really excited looking at all the big buses. He kept asking us "Hum bus mein jayenge?" There were 2 buses standing that time so he would point to each one by one and ask, "Hum isme jayenge?” On hearing that only Dadu would be going and in which bus he got very very upset and said repeatedly "Mujhe bhi Dadu ke saath jaana hai!” So just to console him for that moment we said yes we will go too and that got a big "Yay!" from him.

It started to drizzle soon and betu was more than happy that he is getting a chance to use his froggy umbrella! He always looks forward to rains just to use this umbrella! And I also think its quite a cute one! Here is the pic of Betu with his precious froggy umbrella -


Some time later, he decided he has to go and sit in the bus! So up he went in the bus with Dadu and was ecstatic looking out of the big windows of the Volvo bus. He kept waving at us, pressing his nose against the window and just having a gala time! The pictures below show how much fun he was having being in the bus -


Now taking him out of the bus without having a tussle was a big challenge. So when it was time for the bus to leave, I told DH to tell him let's go buy juice and Betu happily agreed and came down. But as soon as the bus started to move and he could understand that Dadu was going and he wasn't, out came the tears and wailings! He just wouldn't stop crying. When we were going back home and he was still crying, he spotted a white bus! Suddenly the wailing stopped like a button was switched off! He exclaimed, "Look! Dadu ki Bus! Papa udhar jana hai!" Since we were going in the same direction he was very happy and would keep saying "Papa gaadi tez chalao. Dadu ki bus chali jayegi" :D

But when the bus took a turn, which we didn’t have to take, he got so angry, and shouted "Papa humein idhar nahi jaana. Dadu ki bus udhar gayee hai!" When he realised no one was listening, out came the tears again!

This is the first time when he took so long to be consoled. Yesterday he demanded to speak to Dadu. And this is how the conversation went...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Betu: Dadu! Main Anirudh bol raha hoon! Aap kya kar rahe ho?
(Here I prompted him to say namaste)
Betu : Namaste!

Dadu : Namaste! Aap kaise ho?

Betu : Main achha hoon

Dadu : Aap school se aa gaye?

Betu : Aap bus mein jaa rahe the. Main aapko stop kar raha tha. Mujhe bhi bus mein jaana tha!
(He said all this in such excitement that Papa - his Dadu, couldn’t get much of what he was saying so I told him what betu had said)
Dadu: Aapko bhi bus mein aana tha?

Betu : Haan.

Dadu : Aa jayo jaldi se. Theek hai?

Betu : Haan.

Dadu : Aap school se aa gaye?

Betu : Nahi main ghar pe nahi hoon. Main ghar ja raha hoon.

Dadu : Theek hai. Bye.
Betu : Bye
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(I've tried to put the words as exactly as he had said them. No words added or corrected. )
We have to go to Jaipur one of the weekends but we are contemplating whether to go by Bus or by Train. With the bus I have only one problem i.e. his nature calls. It would be quite inconvenient to stop the bus whenever he needs to go and sometimes he takes a lot of time too. We have been going by car ever since he was born because of the conveniences that I need not explain as everyone can imagine traveling with a small kid. But just because Betu would love a Bus or a train Journey, we have decided not to travel by our own vehicle.

His love for books!

I do not remember when I initiated books into his schedule. It was probably when he was around 1. I first started with big picture books of either animals or shapes or fruits etc. At night, I would make stories using the elements in the book and add lot of sound, face and hand expressions into it so that he would enjoy it and also understand it to some extent.

I guess this started our daily bedtime reading schedule. There's been no stopping since then. He loves reading books and there will be hardly any days when he would sleep without reading any. I've had tough times when travelling I forgot to carry any. So its a practice to add his books into my travel checklist without fail now.

There were days when we would get late in putting him to bed and would want to do away with the book time but to no avail. He just wouldn't sleep without it. So we started to reason him saying only 1 book tonight as we are getting late. Sometimes he would agree and sometimes with such innocence and big requesting eyes he would say "Wum mo" (one more) that we would give in. It was impossible not to give in.

The books started to vary as he grew and then came the additions of stories. After reading a book or two he would want me to say a story as well. But it was he who decided which character the story will be about. The character's he knew were from watching Pogo and Disney. They would include

• Oswald
• Kipper the Dog
• Pingu
• Thomas & Friends
• Noddy & Friends
• Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

He has a large collection of books as of today and it just keeps growing! I remember the day when we had gone to a bookstore in Feb'07 in Bangalore when we were visiting DH's brother and his family. He was totally awed seeing so many books in the store. He was going from one shelf to the other, picking out a book or two as he went along and putting them all in the basket I was carrying. And then he saw another child sitting in one corner and reading a book. It was like a superb idea for him which he had to do as well. So he selected one corner for himself, picked up 2-3 books, sat down and started flipping through the pages (I feel so stupid now thinking why I didn't click him then).

When it was time for billing, we had to secretly take out 90% of the books that he had placed in the basket. I'm sure reading this incident you can imagine how much he loves books.

One of his latest acquisitions include the electronic book from Fisher price in which you can place its cartridge book and it will play sound and words depending on where you touched it. I will try to post a picture of it soon.

There's another book called "Blue's Clues - Telling time with Blue" which teaches your child to tell time. So after you move the hands on the clock and press the "Time" button it speaks out the time. Its quite an interesting book but I'vent been able to keep his focus on learning to tell time as yet. He gets busy playing with the hands on the clock by putting them in different positions or pressing the sound buttons.

Lot of people really appreciate his love for books and we do too. But we really wonder if this habit will stick long. I hope it does!

His love for paints/colours!

When I say paints or colours it includes water colours, crayons, poster paints...you name it!

And I must admit I really admire his skill at colouring up the shapes etc. He does it quite neatly. he had been using crayons and pencil colours since a long time..since he was about 1.5 years. But recently he has acquired liking for water paints or shall I say painting with a bristle brush. Its the combination of brush and water that excites him. There are days when he does it so beautifully that I feel so proud and like to show off his works to all. And there are days when he does it so bad that people would say that earlier works that I showed were not done by this same boy.

Here are 2 of his good ones that I like to show off..

'A Tree'

'A fish in the Sea'

I haven't' clicked any bad ones yet..didn't see any reason to click them..hehehe...

Not to forget the days when he becomes our art teacher. Sometimes at night, betu will give me and DH each a sheet and a crayon. Then he himself will take a sheet and put it on the wall and draw something on it. Then he will ask us"What is dis?" (yes..in English). If I answer wrong (mostly purposely and sometimes that its actually difficult to make out what he drew) he will say "Nooo...." and then he will tell us what he had drawn.

Then he will ask both of us to draw the same thing on our sheets. When we aer at it, he will come with his hands clasped behind his back and inspect what we are doing. He will also sometimes comment "Yeh aise banate hain?" and sometimes "Very Good Mumma/Papa!". Its really good to hear him compliment us!

Once the outlining is done, he will take away the crayons he gave us in the beginning and give a different color to both of us and then we are asked to fill the color in the outline. Again the inspection will start and he will tell us "Theek se karo..abhi white white dikh raha hai!" or "Theek se karo..line se bahar nahi nikalte! Uske andar karo."

So now we don't only have a dance teacher but also an art teacher in the making!

Teaching names of family members!

It was about a month and a half ago, somewhere around beginning of May, 2007 when I started to make him learn the names of our family members. He had already picked up ours hearing myself and DH calling out to each other. So I started with teaching him names from my in-laws side. I recited with him names of his Dadu, Dadi, Chachu, Chachi to start with. It all went fine. He pronounced the names just fine.

After few hours I asked him what was Dadu's name just to see if he remembers although I knew he wouldn't since it was a long name. So after thinking for a while he said "Dadu Mittal"! We just burst out laughing on hearing this. In a way he didn't say anything wrong too! He was correct in his own stance. :D

Its just amazing to see how the brain of children work and how they apply logic to various things and situations. The kids these days are way too smart for sure!

His love for music!

Ever since I can remember, it was quite obvious to all that betu loved music. Even when he was a week young. I am sure I can attribute it to the fact that I listened to music a lot when I was pregnant. Being the first time parents, we were really enthused with the idea of playing good music as we had read and heard that its good for the baby's development. But besides also I have always been fond of music and dance. How I had always ached for the ability to sing well...*sigh*...

So from buying tapes and CDs of soft music to hindi mantras and even buying "Garbh Sanskar" - a collection of music/chants especially for pregnant women, we tried all. I was never a avid TV watcher so spending any spare time or resting time was spent in listening to Music.

So probably his love for music was passed on through the genes. I remember how he would calm down whenever I would sing to him when he was just a week old. The first month and two his favourites were -

• Nanhi Kali Sone Chali... (Sujata)
• Chanda hai tu, mera suraj hai to... (Aradhana)

When he was about 3 months or so he would love listening to the songs -

• Chun Chun karti aayi chidiya... (Ab Dilli Door Nahin)
• Ichak Dana, Bichak Dana... (Shree 420)
• Lakdi Ki Kathi... (Masoom)

Betu used to love the sounds of various animals that I used to make while singing "Chun Chun Karti aayi chidiya.." and the sound of "tak bak tak bak" in "Lakdi ki Khathi..". How much he loved the song Lakdi ki Kathi became evident as that was the first song he learnt!

October 07, 2004 - Our Musician Baby @ 6m 1w!

His love for music was not only restricted to songs. He was just about 10 months when he would dance away to any music. Since he was not able to stand without holding onto something, he would either hold our hands or would stand holding onto a chair or a table and would sway his hips and shake his legs! He used to look so adorable!

As he grew his choice of songs grew from kid songs to songs like "Kajrare..Kajrare..kajrare tere naina" from Bunty Aur Bubli, "Dus Bahane karke le gayee dil.." from the movie Dus, "Dhoom Macha le Dhoom Macha le Dhoom.." from the movie Dhoom(the first one in the series), qutie a few songs from the movie Rang De Basanti. So any fast foot tapping number and he would be trying to sing it and dance as well.

His current favourite is the song "Dil na diya..to bolo na to bolo kya kiya.." from the movie Krrish. Whenever we go out in our car, you will only get to hear this song..over and over and over again. You just cannot listen to any other song. As soon as it finishes, he would either ask you to play it again and sometimes he would do it again since he has observed which button does replays the song!

We've quite a few videos of him dancing when he was smaller. I'll try to upload them here. Now we have to take his permission before clicking him or making a video. Yes..its true. Otherwise he gets angry and asks us in such an angry tone "Maine aapko photo bola tha?" :D

Lately, in his playschool+daycare they are teaching them some dance steps. So there have been days when myself and DH were both ordered to stand in a certain way and copy the steps he would show us. If we did not do it right, we would get scolded at saying "Aise karte hain? Mere ko dekho." and "Main 'Sir' hoon. Meri baat suno."

"Aap Mumma ho?" or "Aap Papa ho?"

Recently, whenever betu calls for either his 'Papa' or his 'Mumma' the person to answer back HAS TO BE the same he called for. If not you get a good one from him. So for e.g if he called for his 'Papa' and if I answer back he will wrinkle his nose, fold his arms on his chest and will ask in such an interrogative tone "Aap Papa ho?" :D

However I try to convince him that 'Papa' is busy and try to distract him with some other talks, he just will not listen! That works only a few rare of the times!

Same happens with DH if he goes to answer betu's call for 'Mumma!' The same question will be shot at him in the similar fashion "Aap Mumma ho?".

We both wonder where he picked this expression from!

"Mujhe dikhane nahi de raha"

I know the sentence is as funny as it sounds! Lately whenever betu can't see anything, this is how he communicates to us "Mujhe dikhane nahi de raha!" It is really so funny to hear him say it and to look at his expressions when he says it is soooooo amusing. If you translate this sentence to English it probably sounds funnier "I can't show it to me!"..hahaha...

We try to correct him by saying the correct sentence word by word as slowly as possible such as "Mujhe...dikhayee...nahi...de...raha!" And when he repeats it he will say something like "Mujhe dikhayee dene nahi de raha!" And its really difficult to restrain yourself from laughing hearing him talk like this.

But still we are trying hard to get him to say this statement correctly! Every time he says it we try to correct him but its been a month and we have no luck yet!

Some Memorable incidents

Ever since he started talking, its really funny the way he responds to things or situations. And now when he understands the full context of the situation, its even more interesting to hear his comments on it. I remember a few of the incidents which I am writing out:
Feb 28, 2006I was watching something very emotional on TV. And me being me I usually get tears when I see something this emotional/sentimental. Anirudh saw my tears and he went to DH and asks for a tissue. DH gives him one. Neither DH knows what he wants the tissue for not I am aware that he's taking a tissue from DH. So after taking the tissue, he comes to me and wipes my tears with it! I was so overwhelmed at his reaction and concern!
(I found this incident in one of the chat logs so could put a date to this incident)

***

We i.e myself and DH call each other by names and I usually use a shortened version of his name. This I guess is the case for almost all of us. Suddenly he decided to use those names to call me or DH. It used to be so funny hearing him say our names. But we had to keep reminding him not to call us like that but use 'Papa' or 'Mumma'. Sometimes he would agree and sometimes knowingly and intentionally he would call us by our names as he used to enjoy our reactions to that!

***

Jun 2, 2007Whenever I talk to anyone over the phone and before handing over the phone to DH I usually say "*A* (Dh's name) se baat kariye." I guess he picked it up and whenever he was done talking on phone, he started repeating the same i.e calling his papa by name saying "*A* se baat karo!"

***

Jun 5, 2007After bathing betu in the morning, I was generally talking to DH saying I'vent put oil on him in a long time. Suddenly betu pipes in "Mumma badmashi karti hai! Oil nahi lagati!"

A big boy!

He's 3 years young now and my baby has turned into a big boy. Its so good to see him growing well but there are times when I miss my little baby! But as they say, "You gain some, you lose some!" :D Its so much fun to hear him talk. He started talking sentences suddenly when he was about 2 yrs and a month or two. We all were so surprised at the sudden outbursts of words and sentences from him and felt so very proud too! He used to speak few words and sentences earlier and sometimes by action we would understand what he wants to say.

I still remember the day when in the evening after picking him up from this new daycare I had given him some snack to eat. After finishing it he said something which sounded like "iwammo" and after he said 2-3 times I realised he was saying "I want more!" At first I felt so stupid not to understand what he was saying but at the same time it was so amusing to hear him say that. I thought it was a great progress since it had just been a week since he had started going to this new daycare (Pink Elephant). As the days progressed his speech kept increasing slowly and steadily.

He was also potty trained by this time leaving aside a few accidents. I remember how much I used to hear from everyone that I have delayed his potty training since I used diapers all the winters when he was about 8.5 months till 11 months when I should have actually potty trained him. Hearing those stuff really used to irritate me. But at 2 years and 3 months I used to feel happy and satisfied as I knew he was not behind being potty trained than usual non-diaper children.

He started to talk so authoritatively when he was about 2.5 years. He would get angry at us or tell us that we were doing something wrong. We literally used to roll out laughing hearing him talk like that. The first incident of this nature I remember is when I heard him say "paagal" (mad). I asked him who uses that word. So he said "Papa!" Probably when DH was scolding someone, betu picked up that word. So I told betu not to use that word. Its not a nice word. So later whenever he would hear me or DH saying that word we would get a nice little scolding from him. He would tell us "Aapne papagal kyun bola? Aise nahi bolte! Sorry bolo!" :D He would keep saying that till we would say "sorry".

Joining back work and starting his daycare!

I had been on maternity leave from 1st week of March 2004 since my OBG had expected me to deliver around 1st week itself. But who knew betu had his own plans. So almost 1 month of maternity leave got wasted waiting for the D-Day.

By the time my maternity leave got over, betu was just about 2 months. As I had been working with this company since quite a long time I had accumulated about 40 days of leaves. So we decided that I will use them as well and join back work a month later. All got settled and my extended leave started.

This is the period when we started to try formula feed for betu since I would be joining work full time. From one feed a day for a week and gradually increasing it, betu did just fine and adopted to this other form of milk as well. Although I had to try many a shapes and brands of bottle nipples from Indian makes to imported before he settled on one. It was Avent and only Avent for him. Nothing else. DH used to say that betu doesn't settle with anything but the best! It was around 6-7th month that he started drinking from other shapes also.

Time passed and the day the came when I was to join back work. I was so nervous inside as I had never been away from him for more than an hour and a half. And here it was the question of 9 hrs. Somehow I went to work and got busy and everything settled fine. It must have been 2 hrs since I must have been in office when I heard a baby cry somewhere outside of our office. On hearing it I got so anxious and started to miss betu soo much that at one point I almost had tears in my eyes! I waited for lunch time as I used to come back home during lunch hour to feed him and also as I needed to relieve myself.

This went on for a month and then I spoke to my CTO saying if I could work half day from home and the second half from office. He understood my problem and agreed to this arrangement. I couldn't have asked for anything more. So this arrangement went on for 4 months till November when I decided that I should be working full time now as he had already started on other food items since long.

We started his diet other than milk when he was 4.5 months. We first started with daal and then with rice, banana when he was about 5.5 months and after 2-3 weeks we started his cerelac too. So many a things were added to his meals gradually like daliya khichdi, mashed potatoes, thin soup, suji upma although quite watery and what not. Whatever he liked, we gave. He was particularly not fond of sweets. So all tryouts for various meals for him were salt based.

Most of the times he was quite a good boy and would eat almost everything without making a fuss. And sometimes meal times would involve singing poems, songs and making voices of various animals and birds. That would distract his focus from the food and he would eat fine. When he grew older this method also would not work all the time and then I would put a cheeseling or a rice puff on every spoon of the meal. That used to amuse him a lot!

Till First week of January, we used to drop him off along with our full day maid at my SIL's place and in the evening we would pick him back. But by this time we had had a lot of problems with maids and their unplanned leaves that we decided to look for a daycare. After looking at 2 which were nearest to our house as well as work, we chose one that was walkable distance from my work.

Betu was 9 months and a week when we sent him to the daycare. It was a very tough decision for us to send him to place full of strangers. Handing over our baby to the unknown is not an easy thing. Myself and DH both felt that we had to be stronger at heart more than the child. He would get pacified after a few minutes of crying by playing with other children. For quite a long time everyday at the drop off time he would start crying. Probably crying is a softer word. He used to wail like crazy.

After about 2 months he got adjusted and the cryings would usually happen only on Monday's because of 2 day holiday of Saturday and Sunday. Everything went on smoothly till his ayah at the daycare left. She was quite a good lady and to quite a large extent our feeling satisfied was also because she used to take care of betu. We had built up great confidence in her.

So as things progressed we decided to change his daycare. And we changed it just a few days before he was to turn 2 years. The premises were much more spacious than the earlier one and since he was 2 yrs, we started his play school activities as well. Betu took about 10-15 days to settle down in this new place and then the time came when he would so happily jump off the car and wave us good bye when we used to drop him off at this daycare. Sometimes Monday's would not be as smooth again because of the gap of 2 days and little bit of crying used to happen. But nothing major for us to get disturbed about.

We could see remarkable change in his personality within the month of him joining playschool. That made us feel good that we had taken a good decision. A big relief and satisfaction for any parent I'm sure.

Some pictures from the early months!

These are a few pictures from the first 3 months -

April 18, 2004 - What a thinker baby!

April 21, 2004 - Monkey baby having a burpie time with Mumma!

June 26, 2004 - His tiny little foot!

June 27, 2004 - After maalish!

Homecoming and the months after!

My stay at the hospital was for about 5 days. On Sunday, April 4, 2004 we came back home. Hey! It just struck me that it was 04.04.04 the day we came home! So interesting! My SIL had been home with her kids waiting for us. She did tilak and pooja when we reached home.

Few minutes after we came back home, betu decided to do all the nature calls. We all laughed saying he's making everyone realise that there's a small baby home as we had all gotten busy talking to each other.

Once we came home, relatives and friends started to pour in. Not one day went for entire first week when we would not have someone home at least 2 times in a day! Things started to slow down the second week. How time flew, it was beyond me.

I could spends hours just looking at my baby. He was so cute that sometimes I would think to myself, I never expected my baby to be this cute! Hehehe...

Every time I would look at him I would be so amazed at the whole process of having a baby. And it still amazes me. How from a single cell it grows up so big inside and how the baby is delivered. It is just all so intriguing for me.

A week after we came home, his dad and his Majhli Mausi (MM) went to buy a cradle for him. Since betu would not sleep on the bed and would sleep only cuddled up in arms, we thought the swing motion of the cradle would work. And it did work great for him and for us too!
In the beginning, how hard he used to cry at maalish and at bath time. Few days later he started to enjoy the bath as long as you don't put water on his face. He never liked maalish though. Not till he was about 2 months or so.

He would hardly sleep for long during daytime in the first 10-15 days. The reasons were
- Reason 1: The family living on the floor above us had a huge dog (dunno the breed..I think he was a mix). He would be out in the balcony 24X7 and would bark 24X7.

- Reason 2: The neighbours were getting a room constructed just adjacent to our bedroom so you can imagine how much noise that created.

But after the initial 10-15 days, my poor baby almost learnt to sleep with all that noise and would frighten up or wake up with sudden noises only that these construction people were making.

On April 30, 2005 when he was a month young, we all (betu, myself, DH and MIL) went to Jaipur in Rajdhani Express. That was his first train ride! Since my in-laws stay there, the naamkaran ceremony was to be held there. His Dadu was waiting eagerly for him in Jaipur. Dadu had made the bed ready for his betu-ram and had spread up such a pretty sheet. The moment I opened his diaper, he peed right on the sheet. Hehehe...

A day or two later, DH and FIL (father-in-law) went to select a card for his naamkaran ceremony and selected a cute one. The date for the ceremony was fixed for May 15, 2004. We actually took a long time to decide his name since me and DH were anticipating a girl, we had selected a name for a girl - 'Sneha'. So we took a long time before deciding on the name 'Anirudh'. Despite the fact that ranked the first in preference in the list of names I had prepared for both girls and boys.

Till June, 2004, I didn't have a digicam. So we used to use our regular camera to click pictures. I think we clicked about 2 rolls of film. But somehow never got to scan those pictures to keep them on the PC in digital format. So in June 2004, his Badki Mausi (BM) sent a camera as a gift. Although however she justified that it was for her own selfish reasons so that she can get to see pictures of him being so far away (in US), we knew it was a gift to us.

As a small baby he used to love getting his pictures clicked. But sometimes he would get so conscious looking at the camera that he would stop doing whatever he was and just stare at the camera.

Months flew past and Betu grew into charming little baby! He was so much fun! Everyone adored him so much. And he also responded every one's love by smiling at them and laughing and giggling when they talked to him.

Thinking of his milestones that I can remember as of now are

• Betu had started to smile when he was little less than a month.
• In Jaipur he did his first flip - from back to tummy when he was approx. 40 days young. The date was around May 10/11, 2004.
• When he was about 4 months, he learnt to make this funny sound with his lips along with spraying everyone around him! :D The sound was something like "Phurrrrrrrrrrrrrr........" using his lips.
• Betu started to sit on his own by the beginning of 6th month. We had been propping him up since he was about 5 months and a week it was so much fun to see him topple over. I guess it wasn't as much fun for him as he would sometimes start crying if he would fall on his face.
• And just after 2-3 days into his 7th month, he got his first lower tooth. The next lower one and the other 2 on the top followed soon within a period of 1.5 months. But the next tooth took more than 2 months to appear.- The first word that he spoke were 'Papa'. This was when he was about 7.5 months. But by 9th month he stopped saying it. We used to wonder if he forgot it or just didn't want to say it. However we repeated the word but no, he was in no mood to say it. He would only talk the baby talk..the usual gibberish.

The first week!

My first glance at my baby is still etched fresh in my mind! He was all clean and white. You must be wondering what kind of statement is that. Well it was quite different from what I had expected so those were my first thoughts. He was very unlike the birthing and just born baby pictures that I had seen on the Internet. Frankly when I first saw such pictures my first thoughts were if the babies look so gooey just after birth, how will I feel love for her/him? I don't know if any of you first time mommies felt so too.

I even used to feel ugh at the thought of cleaning poop when I was pregnant. Its a different story that I did not even feel 1 millisecond of disgust when I had to do it the first time.

The second picture memory after his birth is when they brought him to me after cleaning up wrapped in a sheet, he looked so tiny, so adorable and fuzzy! And he looked straight into my eyes. After I kissed him on his forehead they took him away for some tests etc.

Once I was moved into my labor room back again, everyone started to come and congratulate me. It was around 10 pm when they finally moved me to my room where I would be staying for the rest of the period till I was healed up to go home. It was quite an eerie feeling lying on the stretcher and nurses taking you through the galleries with me looking at never ending pipes on the ceiling. Everything seemed to whiz past me and was making me giddy so I closed my eyes for the rest of the journey to my room.

Betu was kept in the intensive neo natal care unit for the first 4 days as he had had meconium aspiration. So it took 4 long-decade-like-days before he was given to me 24X7. Before that I would walk down to the nursery, and feed him there itself.

Walking down to the nursery was quite a painful task for me because of the episitomy stitches but I remember how I would wait for the feeding times or would just make excuses to go and feed betu. Just so that I could see him. Betu would never start feeding without spending at least a minute of looking at me. However hard he must have been crying of hunger, he just would not latch on without the look-at-momma time. So I used that time as our conversation time. Many a times nurses would talk to him saying you give us such a tough time wailing so loudly and now you don't want milk? :D

A day or two after birth while going back from the nursery to my room, I stopped at the nurses station and asked them for a weighing scale. I had been reading so much that mothers loose quite a bit of weight after birth and I wanted to know how much have I lost. The scale told me I had lost 8 Kgs.! WOW! I was ecstatic! And I thought to myself..only 6 Kgs to go. But who knew that those 6 Kgs will be with me forever! Those 6 Kgs just refuse to go away.

Betu was quite an active child since birth. That's what all the nurses told me. They said usually after crying for 10-15 mins all the babies sleep most of the time. But he slept quite little. He used to look around and throw his hands and legs in the air quite a bit.

On day 4 when they finally shifted him to my room, it was celebrations time for us. Whether he was sleeping or awake, everyone just wanted to hold him or look at him. I remember DH's expression when he came in the evening from work and held betu for the first time in his arms. DH was grinning from ear to ear and just kept admiring our little one. And the first words he spoke to betu were "Aur Mr. M? Kya haal hain?" We all had such a good laugh at that! (Our surname starts with M). This is his picture on this day when he's is just 4 days young.

I'm 4 days young!

The first night after he was shifted in our room was terrible. He woke up way too many a times and latched for 40-45 mins each time. Because of my stitches it was really painful to sit for long and I did not have my feeding pillow in the hospital. So next day I asked DH to bring it to the hospital and God! It was such a relief!! I guess for both of us as the next night was not as eventful as the first one. I really feel that these small small gadgets/accessories that are now available for mommies are such a boon!

March 29, 2004 - The D-Day - Our precious little son is born!

March 29th came with no signs of contractions. I mean REAL labour contractions. I used to have Braxton Hicks contractions quite frequently starting from the 7th month. And since past 2 weeks or so I used to get about 35-40 in a day. Yes...that many! And still no signs of actual labor ..*sob* *sob*

My doc was surprised that I still haven't dilated or hadn't started labor pains naturally coz in my last visit with her on March 26, I had about 8-9 in my 15 mins appointment. And each one used to last about 40 seconds or so.

Anyways, the morning started as usual. Everyone (Myself, DH, MIL and FIL who had also arrived a day before) got ready and Mummy did havan at home and then we went to Mandir before going to the Hospital. When we reached there, I saw such a huge bunch of full term mothers-to-be penguin walking in the Labour and Delivery admissions area that I almost started to giggle. I really found it quite amusing. They took almost 40 mins to finish with the initial paper work. I had been all cool and calm as if this was just another checkup day. No nervousness or anxiety. Dunno why..not even when you have to sign the paper where it says they are not responsible if anything happens to the baby or the mother during..blah..blah... But that's how it was UNTILL they did not allow DH to come with me inside the labor room. They said, he can join later after they are done with the initial preparations.

I got so scared then that I had tears in my eyes. The whole place was echoing with moans and groans of mothers-to-be in labor and total strangers. And it really scared the hell out of me. On my way to my labor room I saw some women were even sharing rooms with other women. I was really glad that I had a room to myself. Rest of the story I'm just copying and pasting from the birth story that I had posted on his site 2 weeks or so after he was born. So here it goes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anirudh, was born on 29th March, 2004 at 5:54pm after being induced at 11 in the morning. My labor lasted about 6 hrs and although I had a normal delivery, it was a bit complicated. I moved from 4cm dilation to 8cm very quickly so in spite of me yelling and shouting to give me epidural, they couldn't. (This was coz of the homeopathic medicine which helps in fastening the labor - Kali Phos, that I took not known to the docs. This is the same medicine that Ma took when she was having me :D ) So it was literally hell!! I kept shouting to call DH but they just didn't. I remember telling them that "Tum log mujhe maar daloge!!" (You're gonna kill me!). One medicine they gave me had such a sinking affect on me that I thought I was going to die..lol!! They ruptured my membranes at about 5 pm and took me to the delivery room at 5:30 pm.

At one point baby's heart beat went down to 90 which scared my Obs and she started preparing for C/s also. But later it went fine after they gave me some meds (don't know the names). Then at 5:30 they moved me to delivery room and tried to take the baby out using vacuum but that didn't work. Then they did forceps delivery and he was born!!

Later they told me that I had lost lot of blood during delivery and they were planning to give blood infusion next day after checking my Hemoglobin. It was 7.6 and then they decided not to. They would have done it if it had been lower than 7. Am I glad about the fact that they didn't? WAY TOO MUCH! I hate needles. HATE THEM! I never had been pricked as many times in my whole life till my pregnancy. Since my veins are very thin, they as it is can't get it right the first time. Its only after 2-3 pricks that they get it right.

He weighed 2.8Kgs and was 20" tall. When he slipped out of me, my stomach suddenly felt so empty. You know like the feeling you have once you have passed out gas when it has been troubling you for long..lol!! When they took him out I thought it was a boy but wasn't sure as my eyes were full with tears. Few mins later they confirmed that it was a boy. And he just whimpered in the beginning and cried little louder few minutes later.

While they were cleaning him up, he was crying. And to divert my mind from the pain coz of the episitomy stitches they were doing, I kept talking to him. I think I blabbed a lot to the doc and the nurse coz of pain. Feels a little embarrassing to think about it now. I remember few things I said to them. Like "Mujhe baksh do..chhod do mujhe..jaane do.." (Please leave me..let me go), "Kya kar rahe ho...bahut dard ho raha hai" (What are you doing..its hurting a lot!), "Mere pair(legs) so gaye hain..khol do inhe" (my legs are numb..open them up) (..they had tied them up), "Kyun baandh ke rakha hai mujhe..baaki stitches baad mein laga dena" (Why have you tied me up...do the rest of the stitches later!)..etc..etc..

I even said that next time I will have a scheduled C/s. And my doc said "First take care of this one, there is plenty of time to think about the next time!" Hahaha..just can't help laughing thinking about it.

About 10 mins later after being born, the nurse brought him to me all cleaned up and asked me to kiss him on the forehead and then she took him outside to show him to all the family members waiting.

They took about 1hour and 5 mins to stitch me up. Since it was a forceps delivery, I got a 3rd degree perennial tear and that's why the stitches were more. I finally got moved out of the delivery room at 7:10pm. DH was so worried since they took so long to bring me back from the delivery room. He later told me people were calling him up to ask him and were congratulating him but he just wasn't in the mood since he hadn't seen me :)

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One thing which I did not write in the birth story was that I had asked my Obs & Gynae to show me my placenta. She was surprised I wanted to see that. Probably basis her past experience of patients and thier behaviours, she told me that I would loose my appetite after looking at it. But still I insisted and they showed it to me. I did not at all found it gross or anything to loose appetite on. For me it was the one which gave blood, oxygen, food and all the things required to my baby! It was the thing that nurtured my baby before I could nurture him myself. How could I not want to see it?

One thing that even my OBG would vouch for that is that I really gave her a tough time. I would read about each and everything relating to pregnancy and birth on the internet and in each appointment had tons of questions ready for her! :D

I remember her telling me once "Please stop reading so much on the internet!" We both had a good laugh then.