I pierced her ears

It was a very very traumatic experience. It need not have been like that. A lot of things went wrong. However, I never had any doubt that I would pierce her ears.

In fact, I was getting a bit worried that everytime Baby was not dressed in pink, people kept asking how old He was.

There were three options for me here in tropical paradise. One was the thattaan or the local goldsmith. Some people swear by them. Apparently, they know their craft, know how a earring should hang and the exact spot where the hole should be. They use some sort of thorn, usually from a lime, to make the hole. Once it’s healed, the gold earrig can go in after the thorn is taken out.

Although I’m all for natural remedies, I just could not let baby go through that because everyone agreed that it would hurt.

The second option is the Gunshot. I’ve had one of these. The pain was minimal. Sort of like someone pinching your ear. It could be done at any one of the myriad jewellery stores and it would be quick, not very painful and easy. The earring would go in with the Shot.

While it was lower on the pain scale, I decided to go for the third option.

Third option was the hospital. They put a cream on Baby’s ear which numbs it. They then prick the ear and put in the earring. That seemed the best option. No pain, earrings gained.

But things went horribly wrong.

For one, by the time we got to the hospital, Baby was tired. However, just before we put the ointment, she fell asleep so that was good. When time came to pierce her ears, she woke up but things were still alright. They asked me to lay her out on a bed so they could get to the ears. Baby was a bit puzzled but decided to go along with it.

Then they asked me to leave the room.

Big mistake.

Anyway, Baby panicked when I left and set up a wailing. It was not too bad but things went steadily downhill from there. The nurses could not find someone or something and Baby was kept waiting and waiting and waiting. All the time her cries became louder and louder till she was so hoarse she could hardly cry.

All the time, I was forced to wait outside the room.

It Was Horrible.

Next time, I’m going for the gunshot.

Has anyone had a bad experience with that?

Life with Baby in the tropics

Some would envy this life. Some wouldn’t. But what the … I love it.

Baby is lying on the mat with minimal clothing. Gentle sunshine is filtered by the dense cover of trees. It’s warm, slightly humid. The fan is running at full speed.  Sitting at my laptop with above average connectivity. I’ve just finished having scrumptious lunch that I did not have to struggle to put together.

Yes.

Life

Is

Good.

I think I should count one blessing a day. and Blessing for the day is that Baby slept undisturbed for 2 and a half hours while I read…ah bliss!

Travelling with an infant

I say travelling with an infant but I mean travelling with an infant — very small infant, overseas and alone.

I have come out stronger for the experience and all the surfing (I personally prefer the term trawling) I did. It did help. I cannot mention the sites that came up Google, but there were some really good ones. I came to the conclusion that all that can be said by way of advice has been said.

Take It Easy. It Will Be Easier Than You Think. Forget Routines. Accept Help. Ask For This Or That Seat. Breatfeed/feed During Take Off/Landing. Walk Up and Down. Use Babybjorn.

I did all of the above.

They are effective.

It works.

I actually found the journey to be fairly stress-free. Found fellow passengers to be helpful except for the guy who sat right next to me. (In his defence, Baby decided to treat him as her personal object-for-entertainment which meant he was kicked everytime Baby decided to move.) Not a fun trip for him.

I am going to write a whole post (it will be a long one) on this journey. Lest I forget.

A random group of mothers

That is the only way to describe my mother’s group. We are totally random. One is an executive secretary, one is a park ranger and another works in a call centre. The only thing we have in common is that we all have children under the age of 6 months. Oh! and we are first-time moms.

And who thought that could form such a bond. In such a short time.

The first time I went to my mother’s group, I was totally overwhelmed. All I could see were super-efficient moms. I was so overwhelmed that one time when Baby cried and cried and refused to be settled, I walked out and never went back. Till today that is.

I plucked up the courage a couple of weeks back to call the maternal and child health nurse and ask her for details of the mums so I could get back in touch with them. And that is how I came to have lunch with this group of mums…who had all known each other for about 8 weeks by the time I caught up. But they were super nice but more importantly, Baby was super nice, smiling like a cherub at every one who cared to look her way and even laughing with glee. ( I think she thought she was the reason we had all met up).

So the thing with this mother’s group is that I seem to be the only Indian in the group. There were initially two other Indian moms but I don’t know if they are regulars at these meetings. It does not bother me as much as I thought it would. I find refer to my first post about the mother’s club and I find that it transcends a lot of barriers.

I’m glad I made the effort to meet them again.

Because it will be six weeks before I meet them again

Because I’m going to India this week, for six weeks.

I’m interested to hear about other experiences of Mum’s group. I mean all you lurkers..I’m sure there are first time mums out thre.

A pram + a Train + a miracle = a lot of money to be made

Ok. So unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, you would have seen this.

Every kind of opinion that can be expressed has been expressed. This  includes widespread condemnation of the mother, amazement at the miracle that it is and even blanket blame for all Australians.

My question is this: What next?

Oprah has been the first in line. Victoria Police say their producers have already been in touch to find out if they can interview her.

There are bound to be more who are keen to hear the story. I, myself, would like to know what the mother is going through. How she is dealing with it? what about the train driver? I’d like to hear what he has to say as well.

So there is potentially a lot of money to be made if the family plays their cards right. So the mom has use this miracle to pay off/buy a house, put up the trust fund for the baby and stay home for longer than initially planned. Oh! I could think of heaps more.

Me, I would use the money to get my book series (which is an idea in my head at the moment) published and use the money to make sure that Baby is set up for life.

I hope they make use of this opportunity

Cos That Is One Lucky Baby.

Nap time struggle

There are all kinds of advice for parents about how to put their babies to sleep. The most laughable one in my book is the one where they say put your drowsy baby in the cot so they can put themselves to sleep!

This has never happened to Baby! I doubt it will. She is good at putting herself to sleep if she wakes up and realises there is no one around to play with her. But if I were to put her in her cot and stand by singing/humming/rocking the bassinette, I’m guaranteed to have a very playfull baby in minutes.

I’m resigned to rocking baby to sleep. I put her in the Baby Bjorn or I swaddle her and rock her to inane music for about 20 minutes, she falls asleep.

Sometimes, she falls asleep in my arms if I’m holding her and talking to someone. I think the hum of conversation works just as well as a lullaby for her.

To make my parenting seem fancy

I’m just going to tell people

That I’m into attachment parenting.

That is one ugly baby!

This is apparently a true story.

Ever since I thought about getting got pregnant, I’ve been trawling the internet for relevent websites and forums. So I’ve read my share of awful as well as thoughtful articles.

On one of the lesser known forums, a man claims that a four-year-old overheard his parents discussing the aesthetics of the baby next in line and went upto the mother of the said baby and exclaimed: “Man, that is one ugly baby!”

If I know anything, it’s that there is only one Most Beautiful Baby in the World and every mother has it. Even with knowing that and not being a particularly baby person, I have never in my life thought of any baby as ugly. Even the loudest, screamiest, rashiest, smelliest baby is still always …hmm..I’m trying to avoid the word cute here… but what the hell… cute. All babies are cute! There I’ve said it.

Now how could anyone say a baby is ugly???!!

In this story, the offending partner turned and said: “Would you look at that baby?” and the partner replied: “How can you go out in public with that?”

Who would talk like that?

Even if it is an aside?

When a four-year-old is listening???

(Header and picture used in conjuction solely for shock value)

Movie with Baby?

Yes.

My mother’s group consists of very brave women… about 8 of them and two with twins.

I just don’t know how to work this. I mean they all agreed to meet at 11 at the ticket booth of the local cinema. I could have walked there with the pram so I said yes. Did not think too much of it.

Well, seems Baby did not think too much of the idea either. She just slept all the way through from 8:30 am till 12 pm.

I don’t care what the experts say but I, for one, am NOT going to wake up a sleeping baby. No Matter What. So, missed Mao’s Last Dancer …. which, by the way, seemed to be just the kind of movie I would have liked to watch. A politically-charged tear-jerker where good and bad are all black and white.

Or so it seemed on the trailer

Obvioulsy I won’t know

Thank God for DVDs!

(Just a note here about these movie sessions. They are fantastic! So good that they rate a post all to themselves. I will hold off comment on them till later.)

Just Like That or JLT (as they used to say)

This is just to check a new application from WordPress which, by the way, I must say is fantastic because you have access to all these fantastic, high-quality, large variety of pictures. And why Beyonce? Because Baby almost got named so by her dad who loves music. Hey, I love music too but that name will not sit lightly on any shoulder.

Anyname, my idea won that argument

And just another one Just Like That

Just because I can

(Just me, or do they have the same skin tone?)

Gentle as a Mother’s Touch????!!!

I saw an ad while surfing a parenting website. The tag line was Gentle as a Mother’s Touch and it really made me snigger.

I snigger for good reason. I had just finished reading a blog which detailed a mother’s clumsiness — which included banging her baby’s head into the wall while turning a corner, scratching her Baby with her not-too-long-nails, pouring too-hot water on her baby during bathtime AND spilling tea on her baby. All accidents, all too common.

Gentle as a new mom’s touch would be more accurate. When Baby was first born, I was scared to pick her up thinking I might bruise her but within a fortnight or so, I was holding her so “confidently” I was getting disapproving stares!

The saying ought to be changed…

..or maybe modified to…

Sure as a Mother’s Touch