Winter’s Back! October 26, 2009

Slowly but surely…

The days have started to darken by 5 PM and the nights end with pleasantly cool mornings… so cool, it’w worth rejoicing that you can finally grace the balcony you have with a cup of hot tea or coffee.

And now it’s worthwhile to wake up to welcome the morning! Love it!

And it’s also worth taking a long walk in the evenings..

But I miss those days (a wee bit) of going to office, all dressed up, re-assured by the season that my expensive make up would still be perfectly in place.

Oh, by the way , speaking of mornings. Did I mention that the traffic going to Dubai chokes the road completely? Wonder how these Minibus and other public transport drivers manage to reach passengers to their workplaces in one hour? Especially when getting out of Nahda and on to E311 takes a good whole 40 min in traffic… So what about those people travelling from Rolla? Hubby uses a minibus too! And I’m always so worried especially when he returns home to tell me that there was a horrific accident on E311.

Anyway.

Let me enjoy this morning , staying warm with my tea and curling up in the warmest blanket ever with my daughter.

Is this Me? October 22, 2009

I was never this stupid  or this emotional. Or ever thought that love and motherhood would make me an emotional fool.

Everyone who knew me can vouch for me.

Now I watch Balika Vadhu and feel sad.

I watch Na Aana Is Des Laado and get emotional about female infanticide.

But then again, those who knew me will also say, ‘Umme never watched soaps, ever.’

(What can I do? I have lots of time to kill in between my baby’s naps!)

On Mirrors, Photographs, Moms and Miracles September 29, 2009

Most women, NO. Almost all women enjoy looking at themselves in a mirror especially, when they are damn beautiful.

And women find taking pictures of themselves irresistible.

They also love looking at themselves in the pictures

UNTIL

Baby arrives.

It’s funny how these women don’t care if they are wearing glasses and oily hair and look at their child in the mirror. It’s funny how these women charge their cameras and empty their memory cards to fill them again with 800 pictures of their child.

But then the word CHILD itself resonates of miracles, innocence, peace, love, need, and a purity too hard to resist. And when a woman finds herself enveloped in a sea of these emotions, she realizes she is and will always be A MOTHER.

A friend just put up 44 photos of her daughter on Facebook. All in the same place, in the same dress. And I know I became that woman too. Ah, there goes modesty.

Be Oblivious, Most People Are, When They Jog Too! September 29, 2009

I went for my regular jog, today, as a part of my post partum weight loss plan. Then I found myself getting conscious about my fat and didn’t do the jog because when fat people jog or run they shake and the world shakes with them. With every time I passed someone I thought, “will this person be laughing at me?” That got me to wondering what goes on in the minds of my fellow fitness freaks as they walk and jog their fat away. Then somewhere in the tunes, I got lost in trains of thought about -

My favorite type of music is Rock. Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams. Just then I realized “The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me”; “Take A Look Around”; “Bad Medicine”; “Don’t Speak”; Represent Cuba (by Orishas) – are some of my favorite favorite songs and certainly mood uplifting. And that my Favorite Pass time is thinking about my labor and the first time I held my baby and the first time I fed her and how it felt and the tiny little thing that she was and how much she has matured in the past 6 months. Oh in the past 6 months, I found that post partum weight loss WAS INDEED not a myth contrary to what the ‘old fat ladies’ said (They once told me I’d be fat after pregnancy and it’d remain. HELLO! I’ve lost 19 pounds already. Do I hear you muffle your “I told you so?”)  Then I thought of good dance moves to this Orishas song, one of those songs that makes me feel 16! And then I thought of me in my previous slim body and that brought to mind my Zahra dancing and smiling.

I realized I was smiling.

Again I was blessed with a Happy Realization. If I was lost in my thought, maybe others are too. And there are other fat women and men trying to work it off.. And may be some were, but not every one was LOL’ing at me!

Welcoming myself to this new world of oblivion.

Why Do Babies Hiccup? September 26, 2009

My baby hiccups after every feed. And it is pretty uncomfortable for her. Hubby and I kept wondering why this happens and then one time he suggested it could be because she isn’t getting enough water.

Concerned, I looked it up on the net. Yes, water does play a part, but in easing the hiccups.

For an explanation go here:

Hiccups After Feeding

Diane Sacks

Why nursing babies get hiccups is easily explained: We burp babies to help them with air they swallow during feeding. Swallowed air causes hiccups if the air irritates the diaphragm or the nerve to the diaphragm. Babies who gulp tend to swallow more air and probably need more frequent burping before they get air trapped under the diaphragm.

What to do about the hiccups is a little trickier. They do disappear on their own, but if they persist, a few sucks of water from a spoon tip may help alleviate them. Some say the trick is to try feeding when your baby is calm and not extremely hungry. However, since most babies get excited by feeding and are almost always extremely hungry, especially in the evening, this isn’t the easiest thing to do.

Paediatrician Diane Sacks spent 20 years at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, and is currently on staff at North York General Hospital.

October 2002

Hiccups After Feeding - Diane Sacks

Why nursing babies get hiccups is easily explained: We burp babies to help them with air they swallow during feeding. Swallowed air causes hiccups if the air irritates the diaphragm or the nerve to the diaphragm. Babies who gulp tend to swallow more air and probably need more frequent burping before they get air trapped under the diaphragm.

What to do about the hiccups is a little trickier. They do disappear on their own, but if they persist, a few sucks of water from a spoon tip may help alleviate them. Some say the trick is to try feeding when your baby is calm and not extremely hungry. However, since most babies get excited by feeding and are almost always extremely hungry, especially in the evening, this isn’t the easiest thing to do.

Paediatrician Diane Sacks spent 20 years at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, and is currently on staff at North York General Hospital.

October 2002

Food For 6 Month Old Baby September 26, 2009

I was searching for some guidelines on solids a 6 month old baby can eat safely. And this is a lovely and very concise chart. Thought of sharing it.

Updates. September 10, 2009

On the darker side of my life, I’m yet not free from a nightmare. And I’m afraid it shall last with me as long as I live. Meanwhile, I will continue to verbally emote.

On the brighter side of my beautiful life, I’m learning patience. Something I wasn’t born with. I get my lessons at 4 am., at my meal times, at her feeding time, at our playing time, my computer time, my cooking time… and my husband has fun watch me learn. Everyone is having fun just by the idea that I’m learning patience. Mom says, “Now you know!!! And just so you know more… she is exactly like you.” Every now and then I get a, “Enjoyed getting attention all the time? Now enjoy giving it.” (Barbie hogs attention all day long and until she sleeps at night. Thank God, she figured out ‘night’ means sleeping 8 hours.)

Yet on the brighter side of my life, I’m looking forward to winter in UAE and enjoying motherhood and being a wife after having become a mother. Some may wonder what the difference is, but many things do change after a child enters coupledom. I’m enjoying online computer games like Farmville and Mob Wars watching Sex and the City (got all 6 seasons). I’m back to blogging, which feels awesome. And yeah, I’m losing weight….

Size 14 is over with, now, I’m a size 12!!!

P.S.: Every rose has a thorn.

Missing the blogosphere. September 9, 2009

Writing that little poem made me feel good and stronger. How I miss the blogosphere. A few days ago I thought I had a block. I felt unable to express. And then sometimes I’d feel, “what’s there to express?”

Now I’ve refound how writing my journal makes me a little more happy, a little less stressed!

Hope I find the time to start following those blogs I once did and resume writing mine.

These past few months since I returned home, life has been all about Zahra. She has become our world. It’s amazing how one tiny little human has twisted us all around and we still say, “I’m having fun.”

My baby has started to giggle and roll and eat pureed foods… It’s fun cooking her meals..(The tremendous thought and care a mother puts into her baby’s food, I say!) She sometimes keeps me up at night and still manages to open shop at 10 am sharp in the morning – while I’m still half asleep. My hubby too, is having his share of diaper changing and sleepless nights, and some tiring days. He’s helping to get her to sleep and feed her…. She makes us run about the place and yeah it’s tiring, but, we still love her madly and yeah, “We’re having fun with our Barbie!”

God’s Gift. August 27, 2009

I look at my sleeping baby.

Boy, she’s an actress. Better than her mom!

She opens her eyes, she looks from right to left, drifts back to sleep.

Smiles. WIDE. From East to West until her toothless, gum-meee smile melts my heart. All in her sleep.

And my mom would say, she smiles because the angels are playing with her.

When did I get so lucky?

I guess the answer is all here.

Not Ready. Really. August 27, 2009

My Little Zahra is growing up.

Stale News.

But Reality hit me yesterday at the Pediatrican’s Clinic.

My Baby hasn’t been sleeping well for the past three weeks. She wakes me up twelve times a night at least. And it wasn’t fun in the beginning. I thought it was the changing sleep rhythm.

Doc said, ” Sleep rhythm will change for the better. Not to keep you awake. I think she is hungry.”

Hungry? I fed her a huge bottle of milk every night.

Turns out my baby needs for her stomach to be really filled. With Food.

Doc said, “You’ll have to start with the weaning process.”

That was the moment my heart started sinking. I’m not ready yet. Not for her to wean off. Not for her to start eating food. Not for her to be dependent on anything or anyone that was not me or from me. I’m not ready for her to grow up.

As much as I’m happy about it, I’m depressed to know she’s going to get independent slowly, slowly.

Will keep on babbling, but my heart is all heavy and I’d rather hold her in my arms for as long as possible, while I still can.