My old journal (Kav's pregnancy to birth to 5 mos)

Extracted from an old journal blog.

Kav's milestones: http://rkavin.tripod.com/milestones.html

Monday, September 19, 2005
Please go to http://storyofamommy.blogspot.com/ for recent entries.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Two days before completing his 5th month, Kavin rolled over onto his tummy. He's become chunkier since I started cereal and I've been noticing that he has gained enormous strength and control of his head, back and hands. I guess he let go of his initial fear of rolling over and just did it yesterday!!He has been rolling over pretty easily from tummy to back the past week. I am so glad that I kept putting him on his tummy inspite of advices to the contrary from the old ladies around me!! Its really helped him gain strength and hence confidence.He has been rolling back and forth and back and forth continuously all morning today. I can't keep him on my bed any longer. So I am making our living room his play area and moving away all the rug and furniture.We all went to a couple of restaurants with him recently. He was pretty well behaved. We got him a stroller last week and getting him used to it. As for solids, he has tried carrots, peas (Gerber) and apples so far. He hated potatoes. I will give him bananas the next 4 days.I measured him at home yesterday and he was 26.5 inches long. So he has gained much more than half a foot since birth. He has started practising his b-ahs and b-urs and p-ahs. I think he's over the vowels. I haven't videotaped him in a while, but his talking is real funny and should be captured. I've started a mommy blog at http://storyofamommy.blogspot.com. So check that out!

Thursday, September 01, 2005
Kavin will be 20 weeks old tomorrow. Let's see. What happened this month?He started on solid foods successfully. Loved carrots. Hated potatoes. Am going to start sweet potatoes or green beans tomorrow. I love feeding him solids. He opens his mouth as soon as I put him in his chair! It's so funny when he gets impatient between spoon and let's out a roar as if scolding me. Just love it. Aint that crazy?!!I wonder what his weight is now. Home scale shows 11.5 lbs.Took him to Triplicane last week for the first time. He got more clothes as gifts. We went to a restaurant for the first time yesterday. I was scared, but he was so well behaved. Just looked around a bit, and then started practising his sounds. He started fussing a teeny tiny bit when he felt sleepy. By then, I had finished the main course and was able to rock him to sleep very quickly. Totally loved the experience. I am so glad that Rajesh insisted that we should get out!

Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Kavin is 16 weeks old. I will prolly be starting him on cereal very soon. We got a high chair for him. Just need to find a good time to feed him the solids.We got him his first play gym over the weekend. It is a kick and play carnival with lights and sounds. So far, he does look at the moving ferris wheel, but is not too bothered when it stops. I just wanted to get him all the toys that were in Lifestyle!! They have a great collection, and have all the hi end brand names. All at US prices though :(Kavin has started to give noisy giggles. But it is reserved only for daddy. Similarly, his loudest shrieks and talks are with daddy as well. It is amazing to see how he interacts differently with each of us.He has started to hold up his head farely well. He can sit up for a bit on a sofa or against a cushion. I was planning a get together last weekend for Rajesh's bday, and was thinking he can hold Kavin and cut the cake. Didn't work out, as my grandpa passed away the previous day. So took Kavin to my mom's place for the whole day. He was such a gem. Playing by himself and fussing very little. Felt like the luckiest mommy in the whole world :))

Monday, August 01, 2005
Kavin is exactly 3 1/2 months old today. He had another dose of vaccinations at his doctor's today. She was real happy with his weight gain this month. It stands at 4.8 kgs now. She said that it was time to get a play gym for him. She said that the hand chewing and lotsa drooling were all normal, and that he didn't have an ear infection. I told her that he takes breaks and looks around a lot when feeding. She said just get used to it :) Doc also has given the go ahead to start him on rice cereal. I am real excited about it. She joked that I am going to be an obsessive mom. Thank you very much :P He talked a lot with her as well. She said that he was going to be very vocal about his likes and dislikes. Ain't that true already!!Kamala, Nithya and Jaggu thatha came to visit him yesterday. Nithya got him doggies on train tracks. He's too small to play with them. But she was so excited about it. So we assembled it and showed it to Kavin. He did look at it for a bit, and that made her real happy. Such a nice chitti for Kavin!Yesterday, we video taped him talking non-stop for 20 mins. He actually talked more, but Rajesh got tired of holding the camera and the battery became low as well!His doc was interested in starting classes for new moms, and I totally encouraged her to push for it at the hospital. It would be awesome to interact with other moms and get the babies to play together.She asked me not to kiss him since I had fever. So I am totally bummed out about it :(

Thursday, July 28, 2005
I had Kavin on his tummy 2 days back. He hated it as usual. But this time, he made different noises, lifted his butt and just flipped over to his back. I squealed so much, hugged and kissed him and basically scared the hell outta him!! He did it again the same day but didn't after daddy came home :)Another major development (more for me than him!) was he slept in the crib 2 nights back. It was a pretty smooth transition from the bassinet.He has started to hold and pull our fingers towards his mouth, hold the rattle and even shake it and of course, talk real loud and endlessly.I can't wait for his noisy giggles next..

Thursday, July 21, 2005
13 weeks and 5 days old. Kavin has started to grab and hold things that catch his fancy. Like mom's nose, dad's watch and his 'raatnam' toy. And I think he has crossed 10 lbs as well.He has become extremely vocal and loud. Needs someone to play and talk to all the time.He just thrilled me 3 days back by jumping to me from my cousin's hands, when I held out my hands. How the heck did he know to do that!! We found out later that that's his fav game now.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Kavin's now started his 13th week. It's exactly a month since the last journal entry. He's gaining weight now. He is at 4.2 kgs and has added on 2 more cms. Breast feeding is now well established and my advice to new moms hereon will be to tough it out the first 2 months. He's doing so many things that I am sure I will forget to list something here! He smiles a lot, is very friendly with new faces as well, can talk non-stop till sleep time, talks to his mobile and toys, recognises faces and just loves eye contact.He has just started to like tummy time a bit more than before. He can lift and move his head from one side to the other. No rolling over yet.We were at my mom's for about 10 days last month. I don't think he even noticed the change. He came back with lotsa mosquito love bites!!His night sleep is kinda established. He sleeps anywhere between 9.10-11.30 and sleeps till about 7, with one feed around 3am. He's been more sleepy this week. Maybe having a growth spurt.His first long outing was last week to Caddy and Supriya's wedding at Dakshinachitra. But he slept thro' the whole ceremony! Every time, we take him out in the car, he falls asleep. Our rough roads sure do have one benefit of lulling a baby to sleep :)We took him to 'Just Born' and made him try out the bouncers, prams and play gyms there. I was more excited than he was doing all that. Those vibrating bouncers are too darned expensive though. Should get him a play gym once he starts to grab things. What else? Nothing much. Just that he's such a darling, so mild mannered and I love him soooooo much :))

Monday, June 13, 2005
It's been a while since I updated here. Time's been just right to feed and play with Kavin. He has just entered his 3rd month. Today was doc's appt for 2 immunisation injections (my poor baby) and OPV drops. His wt was 3.71 kgs and he has grown by 7cms. Doc was satisfied with gain but asked me to add 3 more feedings during the day to help him gain even more. Easy to say, but there are just 24 hours in a day!!!Kavin's been smiling like crazy and talking non-stop when not feeding or sleeping. Yesterday, during his 10pm feeding, I started to cough. He stopped eating and gave me one of his biggest, lop-sided smiles for many heart stopping seconds :) Why did he do that? Did he realise that my cough was irritating me?? Kavin has his biggest smiles for first thing in the morning. So much so, that he has turned me into a morning person. ME. Who even hated the thought of 6am and has hardly seen sun rises!! Motherhood sure changes a woman!!I've to get more toys to keep him engaged. Babies certainly do grow up fast, and he has become so attentive so soon. Ok, gotta feed him now to get the 10-12 feedings in today....

Monday, May 09, 2005
Yesterday was my first Mother's Day. Probably one of the best days of my life!! Rajesh got me a cute card and an RK Narayan book and presented on Kavin's behalf. My baby also gave me the most wonderful gift by smiling at me all day :) In 2 days, he's started interacting so much more.Rajesh and I also went out to dinner alone for the first time after Kavin's birth. We went to a nice (although expensive) Meditteranean restaurant at Kotturpuram. I was suprised and happy not to be obssessed about Kavin. It was nice to just be with Rajesh after a loong time.

Friday, May 06, 2005
My baby is 3 weeks old already!! Seems like just yesterday when he came out, all crying and kicking. We have started to notice a tremendous increase in his responses to us. He is more attentive when we talk and has started to make sweet, little noises. My mom also swears that he smiles at her. Although I have caught him on numerous occasions smiling in his sleep.I hate giving him the supplement but looks like he needs it. The first time he was so confused by the bottle, but now he is managing just fine.

Monday, May 02, 2005
Kavin is over 2 weeks old now. And I have so many updates. Week 1 was a lesson in patience. He used to cry upto 2 hours each night and mostly continuously. There was really no rhyme or reason to it. We took turns to hold and try and put him to sleep. I have slowly started to sing and talk a whole lot to him! He just did not know how to fall asleep by himself at nights. His weight at the 1st week appointment was 2.56 kgs. Babies lose the water weight in the first week and gain back in the next 2 weeks. He also got his first tuberculosis shot.There were so many exciting things he did every day. Rajesh had taken the first week off and so we both enjoyed it. He held his head on the 3rd day itself. And rolled over completely in the 1st week (scared the beejeeses out of me!!). We could see that he was responding to sound by the end of the week.Week 2 saw him responding to day and night a lil better. He sometimes slept upto 4 hours between feedings. But he still took an hour to feed. I didn't see any appreciable increase in weight. Life was one big cycle of feeding, eating and crying! He loved a good bath. His stubbornness showed through this week. Lotsa guests. They started to comment he is looking more and more like Rajesh and his dad. We had his naming ceremony on May 1st and had over 70 guests. It was a fun, informal function. Kavin was given 3 more names: Sridhar, Ishwar and Yatesh.His weight at doc's appointment today was still pretty much the same. So I've started to supplement my milk with formula 2-3 times a day. Hoping that he will put on weight in the next 2 weeks.

Monday, April 18, 2005
Well, my 'instincts' were all wrong. My boy was infact in a hurry to get out. From early morning on the 15th, I started to feel some cramps that were not too bad and spaced some 20 mins apart. By 10am, they were lasting anywhere from 15-40 secs and were coming 5mins apart. It still didn't feel very painful but they were tiring me out.So mom and I went to the hospital around noon for a general consultation. I did take a backpack with some toiletries though if they turned out to be the real thing. My doc took one look at me and said 'You look too happy to be in labor'. Well, how wrong she was!! I was 4cms dilated with a totally soft cervix. I was put immediately in the labor room and an IV and epidural was started.By the time Rajesh got to the labor room, everything was setup. An initial push attempt around 3pm was not effective, so doc went home. When she came back at 5pm, I was ready and Kavin was out in 40 mins.He cried for a few minutes soon after but settled down once he was handed over to daddy. He weighed in at 2.8 kgs and around 22 inches tall. We stayed on in the hospital till Monday and were discharged Sunday evening.Now, we are settling down at home and having a crash course at the 'fun' nightlife of parenthood :)

Tuesday, April 12, 2005
11 more days to go. I don't see much progress towards an early delivery. Baby's head is moving down bit by bit, and I've felt a little cramping the last few days. But the doc pretty much said that I would go on till my due date and that she will even wait 10 days after before deciding to induce or whatever. I've been walking and stretching in the hope that it would help things along.My biggest joy last week was when I found a carpenter to make some shelves for our home!! Storage has been very tight and now I can make all the book shelves and toy chests that I want.

Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Due in 18 more days. Saturday checkup showed that I was 60% effaced but not dilated at all. Dosen't mean a darn thing apparently. I could deliver tomorrow or go over the due date!! The baby's movements are going strong. The head has not yet 'dropped'. Almost done with all the shopping. Shwetha got me a baby monitor and a newborn tub from the US. So I just had to get an infant bathtub. Plus some nighties, robes and other miscellaneous for myself. I also got around to getting a washing machine to help out my maid with all the baby's clothes and washcloths later.I just have to get the baby clothes all washed up once to soften them a bit. btw, Madras is jus lovely-o-lovely after some heavy rainfall the last coupla days. It would be nice to deliver during pleasant weather.

Monday, March 28, 2005
Due in 26 more days. Doc's weekend appt was normal. A final u/s showed that the baby was in the right position for a normal delivery. I received a list of baby supplies needed for the hospital stay and was surprised to learn that the hospital provides absolutely nothing! No pads, no diapers, no sheets. I've been reading up on some labor stories, and am so surprised by how varied the experiences are. Right from symptoms before labor to the actual labor pains and delivery. So it will be interesting to note how my own experiences will be.For now, I have learnt that it is very, very important to be conscious of the baby's movements and count atleast 10 movements every 6 hours.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Its' exactly 30 days now to DD!! Yesterday, I went with Sandhya to Lifestyle and Babylous to get most of the initial baby stuff. I now have a week's supply of shirts, onesies, diapers, nappy pads, bath products etc. Just some shopping for me left. And packing it all in.Lifestyle was pretty disappointing in its selection and help staff. But these specialty stores are good and stock everything that's needed. I am only confused about what bathtub to get now.

Sunday, March 13, 2005
I am 34 weeks and 2 days done! We've finished air-conditioning the entire house in time for the baby and an already scorching summer. Yesterday I went to Triplicane with my parents to see the Theppam after years. That stinky place still makes me go sentimental 'cause I was born in a hospital in that area and have fond memories of early childhood. There was no peep out of my baby during the entire stay, so I don't think s/he shares my sentiments. Like father, like baby! But it did wake up when I had a wonderful Amul cornetto in Marina.My cousin Nithya got my baby its first dress (one day ahead of me). She is so stroked and is planning to get tons of stuff once the sex is known. I am pampered like crazy by my aunts and cousins and I love it :)Mom has taken off for a few months now to stay with us. So bye bye to the kitchen for now. But my poor dad has to say hi hi and start cooking for himself now. My weight : 151 lbs, a gain of 38 pounds. (Did I just swoon?? I hope I have one fat baby, so I can lose it all soon). btw, I still can't start thinking in metric. US of A be damned!

Sunday, March 06, 2005
I can now happily say that my due date is next month!! Yippeeeeeeee. Now in the 34th week (33 and 2 days complete) and around 40 days to DD.The doc's visit over the weekend was normal. She also conducted a seminar on labor and childbirth that was compulsary for dads-to-be as well. Learnt that I will be kept in the hospital for 3 days even if I have a normal delivery. Also I bought my first baby clothes on Sunday at Just Born! Made me real happy.

Thursday, February 24, 2005
So that was wishful thinking about my weight gain. I put on 2 kgs in 2 weeks before my doc's visit last Saturday. She wasen't too pleased and blaming her weighing machine didn't help either!!The Seemandam function on Sunday went on fine. It was a fun affair and well attended by 80-odd friends and family members. I stayed with my mom for the next few days as per tradition.

Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Baby's been moving and poking around like crazy all week. It's left me wondering 'when is s/he resting?!!'. I still haven't been able to figure out body parts though except maybe the legs.The shopping we did last weekend in Indira Nagar was pretty reassuring. The store had everything from cribs and diapers to nursing pads and maternity clothes. They were mostly of local make though without any safety certifications. I've been walking regularly for the past 2 weeks. Hopefully that will reflect in a reasonable weight gain with the next doc visit this Saturday.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005
The doctor's checkup on the 5th was routine. From hereon, I will be meeting her every other week.I think that the baby has moved down a lil bit. I am able to breathe so much easier, even after a heavy meal or when lying down. I sang a bit to it yesterday, but there was no response from inside. Did s/he hate it or did my lullaby lull it to sleep?!!We are very close to deciding on a boy's name. Still searching for a girl's name. I've drawn up a list of baby items to buy. Hopefully we can start shopping this weekend.

Saturday, January 29, 2005
The past week has been so much fun at mom's. It was the week when she organised my poochootal. It was filled with relatives, bangles, new clothes, jewellery, mehndi...At its 29th week, my baby has started to have strong movements several times a day. But I still can't clearly establish its wakey/sleepy pattern.

Thursday, January 20, 2005
Baby's been kicking and moving all day the last 2 days. And I am very, very hungry especially in the afternoons and evenings. I wonder if hunger is related to the baby's activity.I've been reading about delivery procedures and scaring the hell outta myself! I didn't know about all the gross things that happens during a delivery. So I've closed the books for now and concentrating instead on breast feeding, nappies etc :)

Thursday, January 13, 2005
I am now at 25 weeks and 6 days. The baby's been kicking well today. A friend emailed me this morning that a baby's sleep pattern when we are pregnant with them continues after they are born. Well, mine wakes up at 5.30 am sometimes, and I am thinking as to how to change his/her's wakey hours! I would love to have a late riser. My mom says I used to sleep most of the time (even when visitors abounded), so hope my baby's so as well!