Insanity it may sound, but the circumstances were such that we had moved to Cleveland in the last month of my pregnancy. To be precise, exactly 3 weeks before Chinipie was born. In fact, I attribute arrival of Chinipie, 10 days earlier than the actual due date, to the exertion and stress I had been going through coz of the whole packing, moving, buying and settling down to a completely new place. And we had moved from a settled life to a hotel, from a place where we owned a car to a place where we rented a car(we had to sell our two-seated solara for the obvious reasons), from west coast to the east coast, from the luxury of sun to the snow!
I had heard a lot about the scenic beauty of Cleveland and the day, Apr 6th to be precise, when we were to land here, I had excitedly looked out from the window of the aircraft to have a glimpse of the city which was going to be the birthplace of my child. There was not even a slightest hint of the greens that I had so much heard of, leave alone the flowers in vibrant colors! The only color that I saw was white all over. I did not believe my eyes and looked harder only to confirm the sights earlier. 'Is that snow?', I asked my hubby, who answered with a smile. "Oh no!! I wanted to go back to LA!!!", was all that I could manage to say in my state of disbelief. By now, every one aboard in the plane had started gasping and exclaiming. The flight attendant was announcing our arrival in Cleveland and very casually said,"Looks like we have an unexpected snow out there. Take out your woollens and enjoy your stay." Enjoy!! Woollens!! We had packed all our woollens and left with our friends' in LA to be shipped later when we have an address for it to be shipped to. So here we were, a man and his 35 weeks pregnant wife, in our summer outfits, standing in snow, renting a car and heading towards a hotel in a completely new city where we didn't know even a single soul!
I still remember how crazy we looked driving up and down on the snow-covered road, stopping at every leasing center in sight and asking if they had an apartment ready to be moved in! We had absolutely no idea about the place and were just going by the words of the helpful people at the CVS pharmacy store, hotel reception, the rental office guys(they often told them other properties that we could look) and a very nice couple(i don't even remember their face now!) at the hotel parking. As I told earlier, we were completely unprepared for the snow and so, when in the night we came out of the hotel to look for a place to dine, we found our car under the layers of snow. The rental guys had forgotten to provide us with the scrapers and the hotel didn't have them. DH and I had started removed the inches-deep snow with our hands and every bit of paper we had (we had couple of pamphlets from the leasing centers). This very nice couple had not only offered their scrapers, but they scraped the snow off our car, even before they did theirs!! In fact, meeting them made me like Cleveland for the friendly people who lived here! God bless them, wherever they are!! So, here we were in Cleveland, looking for an abode with the apartment guide and people's words as reference.
DH had taken a completely new job, which was our mutual decision after much discussions, denials, waits and tension-filled days. We should have moved here much before but the whole process took longer than expected. We could have gone for other options but our priorities made us zero down on this one. One of them being- moving closer to the family(for the moral and psychological support). The only family, we have in the US, is my first cousin's, who stay in New Jersey. We stayed with them for more than a week before moving to Cleveland and which was the place I got to rest to the fullest. This stay bonded the two families more than ever. We had loads of fun playing with the kids, talking, laughing. It was like a complete vacation for us. My bhabhi and niece had tried to guess whether the zee-baby would be a boy or a girl(we had decided not to find out the gender of the baby and let it come out as a surprise for all of us). My 3-yr old nephew had sung lullabies to baua's baby in the tummy and also given me a rattler for the baby (now! this was his momma's silver rattler, she used to play with it as a baby. So I was bound to return it when the nephew was not around. She, being so good-natured as she is, didn't ask for it or didn't even mention it but I knew what emotional values that rattler would have meant to her). My 8-yr old niece was so excited about the baby that she had wanted the baby to be born there! She had also expressed her fantasy of how my baby would be born there and how her mom(my bhabhi) would help me take care of the baby!! My bhabhi had packed veggie rolls for me, despite our protests, because she knew how hungry I would be and the whole process of claiming our baggage at the airport and settling in the hotel would not leave us with any time to stop for food. I am really grateful to her for this (and for much more!) as these rolls not only helped me survive the flight but also the hotel night when I got up at 3:00 am feeling very hungry!!
With so much love and affection, no wonder they were the first visitors Chinipie had!!
Chinipie's cousins wanted to hold her and play with her and eagerly waited for her to wake up so that they could at least get a smile from her. Her maama and maami waited for her to wake up so that they could hold her. And mom, dad and naani waited so that they could have their precious one snuggled around.. amidst all these waiting, Chinipie slept to her heart's content, waking only to nurse and then instantly falling back to sleep. We were all surprised as this was so unusual and concluded that finally she has adopted the sleeping manners that the newborn babies are known to possess!!
The next visitors for her were our friends from LA, who had come down to Cleveland to visit another friend of theirs. Since they were in the city, they didn't want to miss this chance to see Chinipie. They came when Chinipie had turned exactly 40 days old and came on a Sunday evening, exactly the next day after naani had left. Now this was the day she had decided to sleep over naani's absence but luckily, the friends came at a time when she had just woke from her sleep and decided to stay up though only for a brief period. These people were lucky enough to not only get smiles from her but also got to see her kick on the lovely tunes!
Chinipie's third visitors drove down on a Friday evening from Pittsburgh after their work. These couple, DH's old school friend and his wife, reached by the time she had already slept and were quite disappointed as they had hoped to find her up. As they were to stay the following day, we were sure that they would surely get a chance to play with her. The following day, Chinipie woke up at 6, her usual time, and momma decided to give her a massage and bath so that she has time to prepare breakfast later. After her bath, Chinipie refused to go back to sleep and both dad and mom played with her. Some time later, she fell asleep on momma's tummy and what could you expect then????? both mom and dad fell asleep too! only to get up at 10 that too when mom stirred in her sleep, lousily glanced at the clock at the nightstand and as she was about to close her eyes again, she remembered that they have guests at home!! She called out to dad that it's 10 o'clock and both of them hastily got up and thought would wake their guests up.. only to find that they were already up and patiently waiting for them to get up!! Some hosts Chinipie's dad and mom are!!!
Again, this was the day that Chinipie slept all day through and for almost the full day, they had to be content on just peeping over her crib watching her sleep. Only when they were about to leave in the evening that she thought would be the best time to grace them with her presence did she get up for brief 10 minutes, went in their arms, smiled to them and came back to momma and fell asleep!!
Everybody tells me what an angel I have and I am lucky to have a quiet baby who sleeps throughout the day and let's momma finish her chores. And both, DH and I, tell them that appearances are deceptive. We agree that we have an angel and we are lucky to have Chinipie who is smart enough to display all her baby manners to everyone else except her parents!!
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
A thought
Today, during one of her frantic crying spurts, chinipie, caught hold of a lock of my hairs as I was trying to soothe her down. Her grip was really strong and it took me a while to open her fists to free my tresses. Believe me, it was indeed difficult with her decked up on my shoulder, completely unmanageable and inconsolable, crying at her loudest volumes right in my ear, clutching my hair firmly in her little hands, refusing to let go either of momma's godi or momma's hair!!
Hmmm..... Time for a new hair-do!?!
Hmmm..... Time for a new hair-do!?!
Monday, June 25, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
Happy Father's Day!!
This was first Father's Day for DH and I had wanted to make it very special for him. Mother's day had gone by unnoticed as we had just returned from the hospital with over-extended stay at the hospital and all of us drained-out with a newborn baby. I did not want the Father's Day to go unnoticed as well and all the while had contemplated various gifts for him.
These are a few from the list that I had thought of and discarded
- a tie with Chini's photos all over but discarded as the time was too short to order the tie.
- a beautiful greeting handmade by me on Chini's behalf - again discarded for two reasons - one i did not have sufficient accessories for the type of greeting i had wanted to make and second i thought that may be when Chini grows up she would want to make one herself and then her gift would not be unique.. hmmm.. seems like i am already expecting a lot from her ;o)
- a personalized pen from Chini, this i discarded as we s/w engineers hardly use pens and in fact with the net, we have even stopped writing letters or maintaining diaries; e-mails and blogs have taken their place! I did not want my chini's first gift to lie astray a few days later.
While i was trying to come up with ideas, discarding them, and trying again, the weekend came by and I thought, well I still have the whole weekend with me! On Saturday, we had to go to the bank to finish up some paper work and I had hoped to come up with some creative idea before the day ended. Bank took a longer time than expected - initially coz as soon as we were about to step into the bank, our little angel chose that particular time to shun her angel-ness and wear her howling face instead! and we could not enter the bank with a wailing baby, lest to scare people away. We tried to pacify her which took some time and then finally when we were able to coax her to sleep and entered the bank, we found (to our surprise) that there was only one banker, it being a half day, to tend to the customers with a long queue of people waiting. We decided to wait, anyhow, as our angel was acting like one and sleeping peacefully. We could not let this chance skip by! It was almost two o'clock by the time we came back home and found a note sticking on our mailbox that we have a package waiting to be picked up!! We were expecting one from my company and checked on the customer service desk for the same. Looking at me, the lady said, " Oh! yours is a realy big one. So, I kept it inside. Let me bring it". "Now", I thought, " A few papers shouldn't be a big package. Since when my company start with any concept called - BIG PACKAGE - ha!" Anyways, when she came out, she was holding a huge bucket of goodies!! and instantaneously, my mind began listing out all the possible people who could have send it. It couldn't have been from Cleveland as we have moved just a few days before Chini's birth to this place and hardly know anybody here. To be frank, I couldn't figure out who could have sent it. So, as soon as I had the goodies bucket in my hand, I searched frantically for the sender's note, hoping to find it there(or else, the whole weekend I would have done nothing but play the "guess who" game!). Lucky me, I found the note and was really surprised by the thoughtfulness of DH's colleagues! If, by any chance, any of you are reading this, I thank you. This little act of yours touched my heart!!
Happy Father's Day, indeed!!!
Edited to add: As for me, I sent a customized Father's Day Certificate from Babyzone hoping that he would print it and pin at his office desk.
These are a few from the list that I had thought of and discarded
- a tie with Chini's photos all over but discarded as the time was too short to order the tie.
- a beautiful greeting handmade by me on Chini's behalf - again discarded for two reasons - one i did not have sufficient accessories for the type of greeting i had wanted to make and second i thought that may be when Chini grows up she would want to make one herself and then her gift would not be unique.. hmmm.. seems like i am already expecting a lot from her ;o)
- a personalized pen from Chini, this i discarded as we s/w engineers hardly use pens and in fact with the net, we have even stopped writing letters or maintaining diaries; e-mails and blogs have taken their place! I did not want my chini's first gift to lie astray a few days later.
While i was trying to come up with ideas, discarding them, and trying again, the weekend came by and I thought, well I still have the whole weekend with me! On Saturday, we had to go to the bank to finish up some paper work and I had hoped to come up with some creative idea before the day ended. Bank took a longer time than expected - initially coz as soon as we were about to step into the bank, our little angel chose that particular time to shun her angel-ness and wear her howling face instead! and we could not enter the bank with a wailing baby, lest to scare people away. We tried to pacify her which took some time and then finally when we were able to coax her to sleep and entered the bank, we found (to our surprise) that there was only one banker, it being a half day, to tend to the customers with a long queue of people waiting. We decided to wait, anyhow, as our angel was acting like one and sleeping peacefully. We could not let this chance skip by! It was almost two o'clock by the time we came back home and found a note sticking on our mailbox that we have a package waiting to be picked up!! We were expecting one from my company and checked on the customer service desk for the same. Looking at me, the lady said, " Oh! yours is a realy big one. So, I kept it inside. Let me bring it". "Now", I thought, " A few papers shouldn't be a big package. Since when my company start with any concept called - BIG PACKAGE - ha!" Anyways, when she came out, she was holding a huge bucket of goodies!! and instantaneously, my mind began listing out all the possible people who could have send it. It couldn't have been from Cleveland as we have moved just a few days before Chini's birth to this place and hardly know anybody here. To be frank, I couldn't figure out who could have sent it. So, as soon as I had the goodies bucket in my hand, I searched frantically for the sender's note, hoping to find it there(or else, the whole weekend I would have done nothing but play the "guess who" game!). Lucky me, I found the note and was really surprised by the thoughtfulness of DH's colleagues! If, by any chance, any of you are reading this, I thank you. This little act of yours touched my heart!!
Happy Father's Day, indeed!!!
Edited to add: As for me, I sent a customized Father's Day Certificate from Babyzone hoping that he would print it and pin at his office desk.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Exhausted..
I am finally experiencing that sheer and utter exhaustion often described by new parents.
For the past six weeks, naani was here to help me out. She took care of everything - from Chini's massage to her bath to her dirty diapers, though she made sure that I learn doing all these by myself so that she can return to India with a safe thought that her dear grandchild is being handled the proper way. With dad and naani around, literally, I had to do nothing except to feed little baby. Of course, I did chores at home, but if I didn't, mom was there to take care of everything. Dad and naani did most of the playing with Khushi and, of course, to take care of her crying (read howling) nothing and no one could beat naani's expertise.
Naani flew back home on Saturday, which I thought would give Chini two days to get adjusted to her absence and it would not be much difficult as Dad would be there to help me out in handling her, if she becomes a little difficult without naani. Little princess, instead, chose to sleep over it. She slept like an angel for two entire days (naani would have loved to see this!!) - waking up just to nurse or poop or to grace us with an occasional smile!
How I wished she acted the same on menace Monday!
First, she launched into one of the most painful, inconsolable crying sessions she's ever had. She was wailing, absolutely shrieking at the top of her lungs. It was heartbreaking and frustrating, as I tried everything in my soothing repertoire to no avail. I nursed her. I walked with her. I massaged her. I bathed her. I put her in the rocker swing. I sang to her. I danced with her. She just kept bawling.
Her dad called up from his office just to check how both of us were doing. He suggested to check her ears, her tummy, and very sympathetically offered to come home to help me out. I told him I'd be all right (though I appreciated the much-needed moral support), and proceeded to cuddle her very tight.
She was still crying and fussing, but I finally managed to calm her down and put her to sleep
(or she cried herself out to sleep), and then I thought is the perfect time to get out of the room to grab a quick bite and prepare something for lunch. Yes, I had not eaten anything since morning!
I thought perhaps all was now fine, as she seemed to be in a deep, peaceful sleep. But I think something was bothering her--gas in her tummy? water in her ear? a growth spurt? wet diaper? missing naani? hungry again? I was clueless.. everything i did to calm her down did not seem to last longer than 10 minutes-- she woke up every few minutes with a loud cry and nothing, nothing gave her peace. She'd cry. She'd nurse. She'd cry again. She'd pee. She'd sleep. She'd wake, she'd fuss, nurse again, she'd poop, while nursing, fuss again, tire herself out to sleep, cry herself out if I try to put her down to sleep - leaving no moment for me to leave her side or finish any chores in the house.
So here I am. Sitting with my sleeping baby in my lap, amidst the bed unmade, dishes unwashed, hair unkempt, clothes unchanged, body unwashed, drenched in her pee and poop all over. Today, I'm feeling it. I'm absolutely exhausted, my tired eyes just want to sleep. And now she's finally napping... I am not sure for how long.. but a look at her angelic face and I feel exhilarated at miracles of motherhood, even amongst the smelly pee and poop..
For the past six weeks, naani was here to help me out. She took care of everything - from Chini's massage to her bath to her dirty diapers, though she made sure that I learn doing all these by myself so that she can return to India with a safe thought that her dear grandchild is being handled the proper way. With dad and naani around, literally, I had to do nothing except to feed little baby. Of course, I did chores at home, but if I didn't, mom was there to take care of everything. Dad and naani did most of the playing with Khushi and, of course, to take care of her crying (read howling) nothing and no one could beat naani's expertise.
Naani flew back home on Saturday, which I thought would give Chini two days to get adjusted to her absence and it would not be much difficult as Dad would be there to help me out in handling her, if she becomes a little difficult without naani. Little princess, instead, chose to sleep over it. She slept like an angel for two entire days (naani would have loved to see this!!) - waking up just to nurse or poop or to grace us with an occasional smile!
How I wished she acted the same on menace Monday!
First, she launched into one of the most painful, inconsolable crying sessions she's ever had. She was wailing, absolutely shrieking at the top of her lungs. It was heartbreaking and frustrating, as I tried everything in my soothing repertoire to no avail. I nursed her. I walked with her. I massaged her. I bathed her. I put her in the rocker swing. I sang to her. I danced with her. She just kept bawling.
Her dad called up from his office just to check how both of us were doing. He suggested to check her ears, her tummy, and very sympathetically offered to come home to help me out. I told him I'd be all right (though I appreciated the much-needed moral support), and proceeded to cuddle her very tight.
She was still crying and fussing, but I finally managed to calm her down and put her to sleep
(or she cried herself out to sleep), and then I thought is the perfect time to get out of the room to grab a quick bite and prepare something for lunch. Yes, I had not eaten anything since morning!
I thought perhaps all was now fine, as she seemed to be in a deep, peaceful sleep. But I think something was bothering her--gas in her tummy? water in her ear? a growth spurt? wet diaper? missing naani? hungry again? I was clueless.. everything i did to calm her down did not seem to last longer than 10 minutes-- she woke up every few minutes with a loud cry and nothing, nothing gave her peace. She'd cry. She'd nurse. She'd cry again. She'd pee. She'd sleep. She'd wake, she'd fuss, nurse again, she'd poop, while nursing, fuss again, tire herself out to sleep, cry herself out if I try to put her down to sleep - leaving no moment for me to leave her side or finish any chores in the house.
So here I am. Sitting with my sleeping baby in my lap, amidst the bed unmade, dishes unwashed, hair unkempt, clothes unchanged, body unwashed, drenched in her pee and poop all over. Today, I'm feeling it. I'm absolutely exhausted, my tired eyes just want to sleep. And now she's finally napping... I am not sure for how long.. but a look at her angelic face and I feel exhilarated at miracles of motherhood, even amongst the smelly pee and poop..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
