candid diaries of a dogged mom

Dear Son,  There is so much I want to tell you right now even as I watch you sleeping soundly (the only time I can write is when you drift off to dreamland). But that’s how you are designed right now; you simply cannot comprehend the human language. So here it is, I am writing down my thoughts for you to read one day, after you’re a grown boy. Giving birth to you has been a beautiful experience, one that cannot be described in words. It’s not just the birth, watching you grow from a baby to a bigger baby has been breathtaking. But you should know that it has been pretty challenging at times, and I have had to take it one day at a time. There have been a dozen times when I’d wished you could talk. But all you ever do is cry when you’re uncomfortable. (I desperately wish you could at least tell me the simple truth if you’re feeling cold or hot, so that I don’t end up over bundling you or freezing you.) Decoding your cries has been my number one task. Even after 9 months, ...

When I first learnt that babies can get bored, I wondered if that was truly possible. And I still sometimes doubt if babies can get bored. From my experience with a baby, I think it’s partly true. Babies need to be entertained quite often. As they get older, they get bored quickly and need new methods of entertainment. For some reason, I am not a big fan of television. And I don’t really like babies watching TV. So I have tried my best to let my baby get entertained from other areas. Once you become a mother, your creative juices get stimulated. You start figuring out how to entertain your baby so that the both of you can get along and have a fairly less fussy day. Aside from the fact that babies need to be entertained, I figured out a few things along with my baby to keep him busy. Massaging : I massage my baby every morning before I give him a bath which is really fun to do. (What’s more fun is to watch your husband massage the baby, hilarious but an extremely beautiful...

There is a first time for everything. Most first time things just make me nervous or excited. But being first time parent has been nerve wrecking, anxiety filled, scary thoughts, and nightmarish times added with a pinch of excitement as well. As parents, my husband and I didn’t know what to expect once the baby is born. It was as if God had decided to hand over a little slithery baby in our hands just in a span of night. And that’s how it really was. One day we’re all full of excitement and talks about the future, the next day our hands are full of diapers, wipes and burp cloths (which is still the same)… and at least a thousand other things on our mind. I am the kind of person who needs my cell phone, glasses, a novel, a chewing gum, a notepad, a pen and water beside my bed every night. And I am very specific that I sleep only on my side of the bed every night (my husband isn’t even allowed to even try to take my side, try as he may). Of course, after the baby came, I n...

After a baby is born, it usually spends more of the first few day eating, sleeping, crying, crying and more crying. So much that your ears can sometimes pick up cries even when they don’t even exist. My first few days after I gave birth were just blurry, hazy and confusing. Lack of sleep and rest made me incapable of decoding the cries of the newborn. In fact, I think the baby probably obtained extensive luxury in crying blissfully all the time. What is really amazing is that a baby can actually cry in different patterns, sounds in various pitches. What if I told you that each cry came with a message? Yeah, I rolled my eyes wide when I discovered that a baby is usually talking to you by crying. I always thought babies just cry whenever they wanted something, mostly food. But it so happens that there are various things a baby needs and will cry in different ways to let you know. When I found myself drowned in my baby’s cries, I did a lot of research to decode the cries. Some...

“Breastfeeding is a mother's gift to herself, her baby and the earth”- Pamela K. Wiggins I have always known that mothers are protective when it comes to their children. In fact, a mommy gets extra super power when she has to go far and beyond to protect her child. This fierce love, I believe comes from the bond between the mother and the baby which begins right after birth. For whatever reason, I began bonding with my baby only a few days post-birth, after making sense of reality by digesting the fact that ‘ I have a baby of my own , yippee’ Breastfeeding is a concept which has both confused and baffled me to a considerable extent. I was told that that breastfeeding plays an important role in strengthening mom-baby bond. Once the baby is born, it’s stuck at mother’s breast for ten to twelve times per day for months to come as the baby survives purely on mother’s milk. My experience with breastfeeding has been rather blissful, not to mention that it’s also been a bu...

It all began when I started to grow curious at the whole idea of having a human being grow inside my tummy. Initially, I thought it was insane to actually have a life grow inside you (never mind the glaring fact that this is how we have preceded along generations). Yet, I was equally fascinated and dumbfounded at the very idea of carrying a life inside my tummy for a whole nine months!!! Gee, who does that? Duh, I told myself, practically most women on earth. To beat the curiosity out of my head, I decided to take the plunge to see for myself and let the magic of nature work on me. Shortly enough, one early morning, I found myself staring at a stick with two faint pink lines that silently screamed ‘gal, you are pregnant’. I AM HAVING A BABY, I thought aloud as I tucked myself into bed after nodding at my husband who had been anxiously waiting for an answer. We decided to take things really slow, to actually let the news seep into our heads. Nah, that didn’t work for long...