Congratulations, you made it through the first year!

My Baby This Week -- Your 11-Month-Old, Fourth Week

   My baby center newslater starts with this headline today..
On Yes, my little wonder is now 11 months old..and just a week away from the Big Day..His first Birthday..

   All along I was thinking, I will capture every little thing in this blog, he kept me so very busy with a new surprise almost everyday so though I am coming back here to write pretty late, it was all about my baby all this time

I still cannot believe, its been already a year since I was waiting for my maternity leave to start and waiting for the surprise growing inside me to come out :-)
Last whole year is so very fresh in my mind and in front of eyes...but the proof of reality my son A is really grown from a tiny little infant to a independent toddler..And growing more independent each day..

All this time was so sweet that I would like to live it again and again..But its for sure has to be with A again!!!

   Though I cannot leave the past again, I know the present and future are going to be equally exciting. So here is my post of grab all those memories of gone one year...

Past one year..in fact I should say 1 yr and the 9 months, each day was so very special..and not only day, each night was equally special :P with waking up with his kicks in tummy, and then waking up for feeding, nappy changing, crying and soothing... and many of those nights I would feel, this is not going to to get over ever!!!!
  But each day and night things changed, and they changed so fast that, it was difficult for us to cope with and believe...
Soon A was sleeping well most of night and no waking up for feeding, nappy change nothing...so much that sometimes I used to wonder, OMG, did he really slept 6 hrs at stretch???

And the days were more filled with fun and family time...Initial day after my C-section, MIL and all in family(and in fact some of friend's also!!) expected me to behave typically like a lady with C-section should.. don't bend, don't stand long, don't feed while sitting, don't pick up things from floor etc etc
most of "don't" I would simply forget and get scoldings :P
But guess as I started moving around a little almost 2nd say of my C-section, kept me all going ...
   And then there were baby blues to fight with, so much that I felt was the decision correct???
Moments I felt so helpless and scream and cry..
   This is for all the new moms or moms-to-be, who experience baby blues, surely you are not alone..Reading my story would remind you of this and trust, this will pass so fast that when you look behind you will feel, ohh really I was so depressed to have such a sweet baby????
And yes also remember, post your delivery, you might face some restriction for choosing what you eat (no spicy, no chat, no bhel etc etc) and then you feel more miserable, but then this is for your little one, as what you eat will surely affect the little wonder through feeding...
Again, this phase also not so long, by the time you understand & fight your carvings for this chatpata food and get time to think out of nappy changes and feeding, your sweet heart will be already developing his immunity and would be growing stronger by each day, so fast that it will be almost weaning time!!!!

Hmmm..So many things on my mind..so many things missed to be written..
I decided to be more regular now, so hope I post next time soon...

Morning sickness, swelling and food carvings!!!

 There was a big gap from last post since I started working on my second blog..Meanwhile, my son is growing really fast, and every day is a challenge to keep my pace with him :-)

 But then I wanted to list out all my interesting experiences of past before I move to the present.. So here are some more things I followed as routine during my pregnancy. I am sure these few small tips will help you enjoy your most precious time more!!

Fighting Morning Sickness
 As such I did not face much morning sickness. But initial few weeks having food was so much difficulty for me.. Food that I used to love also was not helping me satisfy my taste buds :-(
If you face similar situation, try out adding different Chatanies (dry and wet) to your meal..I used to have office food only, because there was no one to help me and found it tough to cook in the morning, so I used to carry these Chatanies with me Also keep a packet of homemade salted sounf mix with you and chew it frequently. I will post the sounf mix on my kitechen-katta soon..

Swelling of feet
 Drink water..plenty of water... I used to drink almost 8-9 bottles in a day
And as my job involves lot of sitting, going for filling my bottle every hour would give me nice break!! This in fact helped me from not developing the swelling on my feet.. I also used to put a pillow below my feet while sleeping at night and used to follow simple feet rotating exercise whenever possible..while sitting in my office chair...These small steps helped me keep away the swelling..

 Also my gynac suggested me to drink Barley water every morning to avoid swelling of feet. Though I hunted a lot for Barley here in Bangalore ( and also to know the Marathi name for it!!) I found this pearl Barley in M.K Retail store...and with same name on packet (no local name:-))
For making barley water, soak one table spoon barley in 2 cup water overnight. Next day morning, boil the water with barley and drain and drink the water when lukewarm. Also buttermilk made in barley water tastes good.

I even switched to low sodium salt towards seventh month of my pregnancy.

Hunger pangs and food carvings
 In later stages of pregnancy it was more food carvings unlike the earlier..

Doctors suggested to have  4-5 small portions of food instead 2 large meals..but was wondering what to  eat 4-5 times and that too healthy food???

 Here are few idea on some power snacks that you can try on

Dry fruits and nuts was on number one when I thought of power snack. Always carry some with you when commuting to office, and also keep some in your office drawer so that you can chew on it whenever feeling hungry.

Second on list is fresh fruits (except papaya) , I had almost all fresh and seasonal fruits. Next choice was fresh fruit juices..lucky I, that we get them in office juice-junction, but when I travelled to places where I could not get fresh juice handy, I preferred Tropicana as these not contain any added colors.

 Occasionally  Multigrain/whole grain biscuits and crackers,  corn flakes and oats and rarely some Haldiram snacks also made it to my list though whenever I chose any of these I ensured it does not contain artificial/added colors..

Here are few things you should avoid if you are planning to eat outside or eat any ready to eat food items:

1. Make sure the food is prepared hygienically

2. Make sure the food does not contain any artificial/added color or preservatives

3. Do not forget to check on the mfg date and expiry dates

4. If you suffer from high sugar, then don't forget to check on sugar contains or added sugar for caned juices

Hope these small tips help you to enjoy your precious time more...I sign off till the time I write my next post on Hospital hunt and admission :-)

(My son A is growing so fast, I wanna catch up on those interesting things here soon..so next post planned to be last one on pregnancy!!)

Tests, Scans and more...

   Ok so here I am back with my second post..Gave quite a thought as what it should be about...Well here are some more things about the 9 months of shear excitement...

   Once it was confirmed, there were ,

'n' number of tests to be done :-/

Never in my life I had visited hospital so many times..nor I imagined what all was to come...

   Apollo (Koramangala) was my choice..just because my gynac was available there in morning early hours, so that I could finish all and reach office on time! Though the clinic was quite far away from where I stay, I chose it just because of the convenience of time

  And I was Not at all disappointed with them..every time all will happen just in time!! Meet the doctor, give blood samples for tests (for that matter any test, they had all available in one place), do a scan, get scan reports almost in 10mins and meet the doc again...This all I was able to manage in almost an hour and reach office on time. All was possible because this clinic is so very professional..you don’t have to wait for long for anything!

  When it came to tests, there were many to be done through out the term. Though your doctor would tell you most of info each time you visit her, I found it was really good to do some homework though.

   In every visit I would ask her, what next..once I get to know what are the tests or scans planned for next visit, I would read whatever info I could get on net about it. And it really helped me gain peace of mind. Moreover my doctor also was very friendly and would encourage me to read about everything before I go to her!

Well, here are few things to remember while going for tests or scan:

1. Ask your doctor about tests/scan planned in next visit

2. Read whatever possible info about it on net

3. Don’t forget to check the prerequisites for the tests with the clinic/lab

4. Always carry your own water bottle, some good muchable snacks, juice etc with you as you may have to wait for a while or might get stuck in traffic for good amount of time

5. Write down all the queries that had risen to your mind & carry the list with you, so that you do not miss up asking things to your doc

Also make sure to keep your doctors direct mobile number handy.

  So head on and enjoy the moments when you hear the first heartbeats of you little one..and then the tiny creature that you will see in scan ...and again  in the next visit the heart beats...and go on....

How it all started!

    The very idea of writing this blog came to my mind just because of my son.

Baby blues that I fought made me give a thought that if I write down this experiences may be someone might benefit.

And my biggest inspirations were my Husband and my Mom apart from my Son.

In this blog I try to collectively put my experiences through my pregnancy and motherhood and share little things that helped me in daily life.

The writings I share, are my own experiences, so please make sure to talk to your doctor, gynac or pediatricians before practising any of techniques/methods

So here I go...

   The very first thing I did after my pregnancy was confirmed by my Gynac was I ordered the book by Sri. Balaji Tambe "Ayurvediya Garbha Sanskar".

Though I knew I might not follow each and evrything this book says, I was sure few things might help to understand what to do and what not to, especially when there was no other guidance source! I am in Banaglore and could not find any book store where I could get this book and so I turned to Flipkart!

  This move turned to be very fruitful and was very happy to get the book within couple of day of order.Ayurvediya Garbha Sanskar has talked about the very basics right from planning for conceiving, till birth of child and infant care.This book became my guide and my mate during the most special time of my life.

   Though most of the time I ensured to talk to my doctor before following up just to be sure in case. Also skipped following many things described in this book based on my baby's pediatrics advise. During all the nine months I regularly followed taking "panchanmrut" in the morning before I eat/drink anything else. Though I cannot comment scientifically how useful it was, it surely gave me a good start of day! Will post the recipe of the same at the end of this article.

   Secondly I also bought "Garbhasanskar" audio CD and listened to it every morning or whenever I would feel low during my term. The music really helped me clam down and would make me more positive about the days to come.

Such was the effect of this regular routine that my son even after his berth would clam down and sleep peacefully when I put this music on.

  And third important thing I did was to create a login on babycenter.in and subscribe for their weekly mail updates. Babycenter's weekly email updates,inside pregnancy videos, articles and information helped me understand my baby's growth week by week and prepared me for what to expect next!

  With the routine setup with this my journey to the motherhood started!!

Now as promised here is the  "panchanmrut" recipe:

1/4 cup of milk
1 table spoon yogurt
1 T spoon Honey
1 T spoon sugar
1 T spoon of Ghee (preferably home made from Cow milk)

Mix all ingredients well and enjoy the taste!!