I don’t need mummy no more

As I didn’t post at all for three months after Vihaan was born, I haven’t written about any of the basic  baby blog topics like breast feeding and diaper changing yet. I didn’t really put much thought into breastfeeding during my pregnancy because well, breastfeeding is good so just do it, right? Surprisingly, in the hospital I delivered in, I was given the baby only on the day after the delivery. Apparently babies need very little feeding in the first two-three days after birth which is when the milk starts to come in. Up until then, the breasts secrete only small quantities of colostrum  or pre milk which is sufficient to nourish the baby besides containing essential antibodies. Fortunately, I had absolutely no problems with the baby latching on or learning to feed. We were off and running from the first try itself. Initially, the baby used to feed every three hours regular as clockwork. However, he also used to feed for an hour at a time. Apparently a baby sucking efficiently can empty a breast in 6-10 minutes. However, they also have a “need to suck” which is variable in babies. I was feeding on demand and not by the clock, I decided to be guided by the baby on the duration of the feed as well. As I was spending upto seven hours a day feeding the baby, I shifted a straight backed chair with arm supports into the room and acquired a feeding pillow. This is a soft half doughnut shaped pillow which fits around the waist on which to lay the infant. As I am a creature of habit, I fed on the chair even in the middle of the night. It has become second nature to grab for the remote before settling down to feed. I have watched a lot of sitcoms over the past few months. I later realized that maybe feeding in the bed might have been less disruptive of my sleep cycle but I never got the hang of it. Usually the baby was as anxious to go back to sleep as I was although there were a few nights when we were up to hear the morning azaan. I had the usual anxiety for the first couple of weeks about whether the quantity of milk was sufficient and ate arhar dal and other weird herbs to increase milk production and felt appropriately like a cow. The anxiety was not helped by my mother in law commenting that the baby was hungry each time he howled. He is a baby. He howls. Thats just how it is.

It took me about two months  to get really comfortable with the whole feeding deal. At about ten weeks, my son the angel started sleeping for longer and longer stretches at night and gave up his three a.m. feed by twelve weeks. He was always regular as clockwork about his three hourly feeding schedule ( I could feed him, hand him over and dash out for dinner or shopping ) By his fourth month, he has started having longer gaps between his daytime feeds as well and the duration of each feed has reduced to twenty minutes. I could leave him at home long enough to watch a movie in a theatre when he was four and a half months old.

The current guidelines recommend that you start weaning from breastmilk only after six months. Many paediatricians however continue to recommend that the best time to start introducing semisolids is at four months. I don’t have much choice in the matter as I will be resuming work full time from April when the baby will be five months old. I initially considered expressing breast milk for his daytime feeds but after much research decided to opt for early partial weaning. I will of course continue to feed him when at home. Next came the question of what to wean him with. I have started him on Rice Cerelac for one feed and it seems to be working well till now. I started with a couple of spoonfuls and have gradually increased it to three scoops of Cerelac. He learnt to eat from a spoon easily and the photo is evidence that he seems to enjoy it.

I am planning to substitute one more feed with formula milk ( Nan 1 is the most recommended brand ) By the time I start working, I plan to feed him in the morning before leaving, at 6.30 a.m. He will be fed Cerelac at around 11.00 a.m. followed by a bottle of formula at 2.00 p.m. Traffic conditions permitting, I should be home for his evening feed by 5.30-6.00 p.m. I also tried to feed him a bit of mashed banana yesterday which he spat up promptly. I am planning to replace the formula milk with a puree of rice, dal and vegetables next month. Fingers crossed, it should all work out well.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed feeding the baby and all the warm, fuzzy feelings it generated. Literally as well, it was all warm and cosy to cuddle in December. It was great fun watching him grow like a weed on nothing but milk. Magic Potion ! Also, power! I am the Master of your Universe kiddo! Definitely going to miss this phase when it is over.

Back to Work

I am planning to start working from April 1^st. Originally, I had planned to join back by March 1^st, but as the hospital has retained the doctor who completed her fellowship in October till April, I extended my maternity leave by another month. The official maternity leave given by the hospital I work for is 82 days. This is way more than the six weeks paid leave given in the U.S. and way less than the six months paid leave which government employees in India are entitled to. I went on leave two weeks before my delivery, so my leave expired in Jan and I have been on unpaid leave since then. I think the hospital was also happy to have me join back in April because then they wouldn’t have to pay two people in March. Yes, the legacy of monsieur Scrooge is alive and well in the medical profession in India.

I am an Ophthalmologist specializing in Paediatric eye disorders and squint. I mostly treat children with defective vision, the most common cause of which is refractive errors or glasses. I also commonly treat conditions like lazy eye, squint, infections of the eye, cataract ( Yes, it happens in children ), trauma to the eye and Nystagmus (shaking of eyes by birth ). I perform surgery on both children and adults with cataract and squint.

Eye Doctor Speaketh – Any eye disorder in a child needs immediate and appropriate treatment as it can lead to permanent, devastating  blindness. Most disorders can be rectified if treated as early as possible.

I enjoy my clinical work because I mostly treat young children with not much wrong with them ( He got paint in his eye when his brother tried to paint his face! ) which makes for a cheerful atmosphere. There are aspects of my job which I definitely don’t enjoy mostly involving numbers and graphs and revenue generation. In a charitable hospital ! A curse upon you, corporate culture ! May a swarm of locusts devour any MBA who crosses my path ! I won’t delve into the topic in any more detail because open forum and libel suites and the rest.

Anyway, just to emphasize the positive. I went on a screening eye camp to Mandla which is a backward, tribal district  near Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh last year.

Children diving for coins at Marble Rocks in Jabalpur

We stayed for five days and treated about six hundred children. We also identified children who needed surgery and brought them back to Delhi for the same. They stayed in the hospital for a week, most had surgery in both eyes,were given glasses and then transported back home.Below is pictured the happy result of that effort.

 The most gratifying case was of  a 4 month old baby with congenital glaucoma in both eyes. This is a condition where increase in pressure inside the eye causes the main nerve responsible for vision to atrophy and leads to permanent blindness. We counselled the parents and rushed this baby to Delhi immediately.One year hence, this baby is completely cured thanks to a delicate surgery performed in both eyes.

  Unknown to me I was four weeks pregnant during  this trip. If I had known I obviously would not have undertaken the strenuous journey and I can’t go this year because duh, the baby. Now that my baby is out and has ten fingers and ten toes, I am really glad I went. Would I like to be a corporate suit with a Blackberry and spa vacations in Bali? Probably yes, the grass is always greener on the other side  but maybe the highs we enjoy aren’t too bad.  

Holy Smoke

Woke up on Wednesday morning to find that the pavement in front of our house was converted into a tiny market. Closer inspection revealed that these enterprising urchins were making a tidy profit selling cannabis leaves on Shivratri ! These leaves are placed as offerings to Lord Shiva besides being used to manufacture bhang. It is also magical how the numbers of children multiply in a space of a few seconds when a camera appears.

Fly like an eagle

I am truly ashamed for the prolonged absence of posts . On the flip side I need not bother about making excuses because I have no readers. So onward. I decided to go home to my parents house in Chennai for two weeks to escape from the freezing weather in Delhi. Vishal had a conference to attend in Chennai in January , so we combined our plans.Both of us would be available to handle Vihaans first flight but I would have to tackle the return flight alone. In preparation, I bought a baby sling from Mothercare. I figured Vihaan was ready for a sling now as he has good neck control and it would help keep my hands free at the airport. We took him in it for a trial run to the mall and it went well. He seemed comfortable and looked at the world goggle eyed for about ten minutes before falling asleep. I was even able to eat pizza over his head although I wound up dropping some crumbs on him.

We took an evening flight on Indigo airlines. . Fun fact- infants on your lap travel for free but have to be mentioned when booking the ticket. They also get a separate boarding pass.  Vihaan was drowsy in the sling during airport formalities.I had a coffee and doughnut at the Cafe Coffee Day ( I know, I know. No hot fluids over the baby, but I was careful ) which delayed us for boarding. The new Terminal 3 is awesome but I hadn’t realized how far you had to walk to reach the boarding gates. I have new respect for the kangaroos jumping around nonchalantly with a joey in their pouch. Vishal had called the airline in advance to request for seats in the first row as we thought that would give us more leg room and be easier to manoeuvre around with the baby. I plugged Vihaans ears with cotton and decided to feed Vihaan during take off and landing to prevent his ears from getting painfully blocked. I carried formula in a bottle and pacifiers so I wouldn’t have to feed him in front of hypothetical lecherous old men. I took him out of his sling and settled him on my lap. Then I gave my baby 1 ml of Phenargan syrup to SEDATE him. I know this is a controversial move and will invite lots of ‘What kind of mother are you’ hisses. I think a sleeping , comfortable baby is better than an inconsolable wailing baby who gets cursed at by the entire passenger contingent. I have done more than my fair share of silent baby voodoo to not want to subject my son to the same.  I started feeding him the formula once the plane started moving on the runway. However,there were so many false starts and stops that the bottle was empty long before take off. Then, I tried to make him suck on the pacifier to induce him to swallow. He loathed the pacifier and spat it out. I kept trying to repeatedly force the pacifier in his mouth which finally made him throw up all the milk he had just ingested. We frantically cleaned him up and now I had a slightly damp, hungry and sleepy baby to deal with. Oh, I forgot to mention that Vishal and I didn’t get adjoining seats. There was an elderly TamBram sitting in the window seat adjoining mine who point blank refused to shift to Vishals aisle seat as he wanted a window seat ! People, not cool to refuse a lady with an infant anything. Because what happened next was that I practically ordered him out of his seat, shifted to his seat and fed the baby. I fed him during the descent as well, so the rest of the flight was pretty uneventful. We even got complimented by a couple of passengers on Vihaans model behaviour!

On the return flight, it was just me and Vihaan because Vishal had left after his conference. Vishal in his infinite wisdom booked us on Indian Airlines instead of Kingfisher Airlines because the former had a refundable ticket. Following the same system detailed above, I called Indian Airlines a day before the flight and they noted that I needed extra assistance. They also said that seats could only be allotted  on check in but I would automatically get a seat with a provision for a bassinet as I was travelling alone with an infant. I was pleasantly surprised by this thoughtful gesture and my misgivings regarding travelling by IA were quelled for the moment. I reached the airport early and reported to the IA office. They immediately sent someone to help with my luggage. The trouble began at the check in counter. I was informed that I could not get a window seat in the first row as they had already been allotted and that bassinetts were available only on international flights. When I protested that I had called in advance to request for a seat, the lady rudely told me that it had been noted that I needed assistance and had been provided the same. If I had any further issues I could talk to the manager. Stunned into silence, I looked around to realize that my baggage handler had meanwhile disappeared. So, lugging both the baby and my carry on luggage I made my way to the security check. I politely stood at the end of a long, winding queue and waited for someone to wave me ahead. Since nobody seemed inclined to do so, I just walked ahead. The security personnel were very helpful and I finished the formalities rapidly. As an aside, have the rules regarding carrying fluids on board changed because I passed through unremarked with a bottle of infant formula and a vial of Phenargan ) When waiting for boarding, it was announced that the flight was delayed by twenty minutes. The IA counter was unmanned till the last minute so I had to rely on the announcements for any updates. Upon entering the flight, the cabin crew seemed to consist of a portly middle aged gentleman who I requested for help in settling down in my seat. An air hostess was conjured up and soon we were settled in our seat. I requested for a pillow and a blanket. The pillow when it eventually made an appearance consisted of a rolled up sheet in a disposable cover. I was also told to request my co-passengers when they appeared for a change of seat. I finally lost my cool, bullied the nice man in a Rajnikant get up out of his window seat and indeed managed to keep the other two seats in my row empty as well. I administered the sedative dose to my baby and fed him during take off. The couple seated in my row appeared to be senior beaurecrats judging by the number of cronies flitting around them. Soon, the cabin host with much bowing and scraping ushered them off to be seated in business class. The upgrade was not offered to anybody else on the flight despite the number of empty seats.  Throughout the flight, no staff member ventured to enquire whether I required any help. Upon landing there was a fifteen minute delay for deplaning as no passage was available. I stood up to call for an air hostess to assist me in gathering the baby and my luggage but other than the anonymous  voice assuring us that we would be able to get off the plane soon, there was no one in sight. Due to the delay, many passengers missed a connecting IA flight to Chandigarh.The ground staff were busy attending to these passengers so it took another half hour before I got a baggage handler to help me collect my luggage and finally made my way out.

If our national airlines has a reputation as an overstaffed, inefficient, loss making behemoth then it is well deserved. Later, I conducted an unofficial poll among other young mothers and the staff of Kingfisher Airlines was voted as being the most helpful. My top tips for travelling by air with infants-

1.       Book in an airline where your seat can be confirmed in advance. A window seat in the first row offers the advantage of some privacy for feeding the baby, ample leg room and being able to get up without disturbing the other passengers to go to the bathroom or to walk the baby.

2.       Carry minimal cabin luggage preferably in a back pack so that you can carry it by yourself when required. Just carry your phone, wallet, diapers, wipes, plastic packets for disposal of waste, a change of clothes for the baby, changing mat, any essential medications, bottles, soothers and  a shawl or a warm blanket.

3.       Travel at a time when your baby is usually sleepy so that there is minimal disturbance of his routine.

4.       Avoid long flights and connecting flights when possible

At Chennai airport

5.    Be aggressive about enlisting help where and when you can from airline staff and helpful co-passengers. Now is not the time to be squeamish about jumping the line or rude comments from other passengers. 

The Diapers – They are here !

Introducing my son – he gets his nose from Vishal and the frown from me ! And he was born on my birthday, 27.10.2010.

Happy B’day in advance !

My birthday is coming up in a couple of days. I don’t know if its my advanced state of pregnancy or enforced house arrest but apparently my family feels sorry enough to shower me with gifts ! We were thinking about getting a 40’’ LCD T.V. for the bedroom but it was stretching our budget a bit.  As Vishal and I are both sitcom junkies and  I am going to be watching a lot of T.V. in the next couple of months, it was a good idea. However, we balked at the price and didn’t feel like settling for either a smaller size or a Plasma screen instead and decided to postpone the purchase by a few months. My other options were to change my phone or get a new camera. All gift ideas are electronic heavy due  to my distorted physical state. I am due a major shopping blowout once I can bear to look at myself in the mirror again, having survived the last six months in three pairs of XL Fab India kurtas and a bunch of T – shirts Rahul left behind. Talk about maternity fashion.

The phone was of course being pushed by Vishal in a big way. You’d think he was on Nokias  payroll, the rate at which he tries to convince people to change phones. I decided against getting a new phone on two counts. First, my current phone is perfectly adequate for texting and making calls ( that is what phones are for, people ) I considered upgrading to a phone with a good camera as I have to carry a digital camera now for taking photos and video clips in the opd. However, I am still not really convinced that the clarity of the pictures taken on any phone equals that of the camera.( I was considering the newly launched Nokia N8 with a 12 MP camera, I currently use a 7.2 MP Sony Cybershot) But again the  Rs 25,000 price tag proved an effective deterrent. How hard is it to lug around a digital camera anyway ? Also, as I am going to be at home for the next three months, there doesn’t seem to be much point in changing my phone now.

The camera idea came up because I know the kid is going to wind up getting photographed  to within an inch of its life in the first few months. Oh look, he/she is blinking ! Let us document it for posterity ! Click, click ! We were planning to get it in January as a birthday gift for my father-in-law but in view of the imminent arrival of the photo-subject decided to prepone the purchase. After much googling and multiple consultations, we bought the Nikon D3100, an entry level SLR camera with HD video capability as well. Those are all the specs  you get from me, what is this, a tech blog ?

We took the camera out for a trial run to Lodi Gardens today and I am rather pleased with the results. The weather was lovely and I got my daily recommended dose of Vitamin D.

38  weeks today

Now coming to my actual B’day gift. Vishal ordered me a Kindle 3 from Amazon which arrived yesterday ! He has a pretty bad track record with gifts, ranging from the banal to the truly bizarre. Case in point- this wooden snake which he picked up in Kodaikanal.

But the Kindle, that is a stroke of genius ! I have obviously kept an eye on Kindle since it was launched but was never too enthusiastic because of the cost of purchasing e- books on Amazon.( This entire entry seems to be a dirge on the cost of this and that, just reflects on the poverty of my soul )They cost about 10$ each, at which price I can buy a paperback. Also, I don’t like reading books on my laptop so I was not too sure about an e-book reader.

Anyway, to come back to the Kindle, I just finished reading Andre Agassi’s autobiography “Open” on it and I have to declare it an unqualified success. It is really light and portable , does not feel too delicate, the absence of backlighting ensures almost zero strain on the eyes and you can read on the loo. You can also read in any position like a paperback, holding it in either hand as the buttons for clicking back and forth are available on both the left and right edge. Mine is the basic Wi-Fi model sans 3G. The only drawback I can see till now is that it requires a case to transport it around. The original Kindle cases cost almost half as much as the device and cheaper versions don’t seem to be  available in Delhi. e-bay.in is selling one but doesn’t have a photo available. I may buy that or ask Rahul to pick one up in Hong Kong.

As should be obvious, I wouldn’t be this thrilled with it if I hadn’t solved the problem of getting cheap e-books. In the interest of not getting jailed for piracy, I refuse to elaborate further but Torrent Zindabad !        

The curse of the symptomatically-pregnant

I was planning a blog entry listing the top five pregnancy symptoms I didn’t have. It was supposed to be very smug and ha-ha and I-am-wonder-pregnant-woman  and intended to rub all pregnant womens noses in it. Of course, I was just begging for divine retribution and God obliged. But more about that later.

Lets do the top five pregnancy symptoms that never were first and get to the divine thunder and lightning part later.

1.       Morning Sickness – All these years I’d always thought I was a very pukey kind of person with an overactive gag reflex. I puke before exams, I puke at bad smells, I puke on giant wheels, I puke on mountain roads and I even puke after a prolonged bout of coughing. So, I obviously assumed that my first trimester would be one long puke fest. And as I took a pregnancy test prompted by a prolonged bout of nausea and diarrhoea, it seemed the prophecies would come true. However, the nausea turned out to be as a result of a bout of food poisoning and soon settled down. Then came a lull where I waited for the dreaded morning sickness to set in armed with all the information that my aunt and the internet could provide. But as I neared the end of my first trimester with nary a puke in sight, I had to admit that I’d managed to beat the odds. Whoopee !

2.       Mood Swings – I greeted the two purple lines on my pregnancy test with a flood of tears and six hours of raving and ranting. My chief grouse was of course that the much planned for Italy trip was now postponed indefinitely. Once I got over the initial shock , I’ve been surprisingly calm and balanced. Of course, the fact that Vishal wasn’t around for the first six months and I really couldn’t snap at his parents probably helped. Barring a couple of episodes of snapping at my sister ( which may not be hormonal ) its been remarkably smooth sailing.

3.       Food Cravings – Generally my diet is extremely craving based. I have four designated stops on my commute home when I can stop to pick up aloo tikki ( the thela next to the hospital ), bhel puri ( at Sunder Nagar ), coconut water ( outside the park before Chirag Delhi flyover ) or  Shawarma ( at PVR Saket ). I invariably make a stop at one of these joints everyday depending on my mood and level of hunger. I also stop to pick up a bhutta almost everyday when in season. Sometimes I’ll stop off at two or even three of these places. But this is my regular routine pre, intra and hopefully, post pregnancy. Maybe, my eating habits are so governed by my cravings that I had no room for adding anymore pregnancy induced ones. So, no midnight ice cream trips. I have been obsessively consuming bananas and sprouts. But that is more my obsession with eating healthy than any craving per se.

4.       Skin and hair changes – There has been almost no change in my complexion. I am genuinely glad to have been spared the horrifying acne which I’ve seen on some colleagues. My dark circles are as prevalent as before and I have a noticeable lack of any glow. My hair has become even more frizzy and dry and unmanageable. I’ve probably also sprouted a few dozen more white strands than before. But if you encountered my tricoloured ( black, white and  mehendi – orange ) shaggy mane you’d agree that any pregnancy damage is trivial.

5.       Constipation or Diarrhoea – I am blessed with bowel movements as regular as clockwork. Just to rub it in, I also had no heartburn, no headaches, no varicose veins etc.

I’ve been having this nagging back pain for the last week, but I just assumed it was a sprain because of bad posture. A couple of days back, it suddenly got worse and I was in too much pain to even finish my opd. Then I realized that I had a new shooting pain radiating to my left leg which didn’t improve in any position. By the time, I got home I was in bad shape. Even a tiny movement of my spine would send teeth rattling jolts of pain down my leg. I was sweating and crying trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in. I finally managed to get to sleep lying on my side on a hard mattress on the floor. I can’t even describe the agony of trying to turn over. The next morning, my spinal muscles had developed a painful spasm limiting all movement. Anyway, I’ve taken leave and am gradually improving. I spent a couple of days resembling Frankensteins aunt,  walking with my right hip stuck out and dragging my left leg around. But my spinal mobility is improving gradually and hopefully I shall be as good as new by the time labour hits. The big question is - do I go back to work for a week or just kick back and relax and enjoy the last couple of weeks of uninterrupted sleep before the storm hits ?

By the way, 37 weeks tomorrow so no more Proleuton injections. Who-hoooo !