Sleep Like a Baby?

Well, well...whoever coined that one has definitely not met many babies in his/her lifetime; at least not many like mine. And, thereby I finally get down to writing a post I was putting off for the longest time ever, because just writing this brings out all my pent up emotions and normally has me going on a rampage:

"The Tale of the Elusive Sleep".

From the day Sid arrived at my side, some motherly intuition told me to be very careful with his sleep. I used to whisper and tiptoe around him, only to be scolded by one and all that thats all too silly and babies don't wake up that soon. Even when everyone noticed him waking up every half hour, (after a  marathon 2 hour effort to make him sleep) no one would agree it was due to the sound of the pressure cooker whistle from the ground floor at the other end of the house! So, I was all alone trying to ensure that he slept beyond 45 mins, at least once in the day time as well as the night time.

Over a period of time though, everyone had to agree (extremely reluctantly) that he was a cat-napper who would wake up at the tiniest possible sounds, even some that only he and Danny (our Dog) could here! We even asked a few paediatricians if it was ok that such a tiny baby wouldn't sleep at all and they all said the same thing - that if the baby is happy, active, playing normally and so forth, there is no point in interfering, it will all shape up just fine. What no one seemed to get was that mama was tired, sleep-deprived and had become a zombie.

Then there were people giving me time lines by when babies start sleeping normally, like 3 months, which later become 4 and then 6, though I am yet to see any change whatsoever.

I went around doing a lot of online research on baby sleep patterns but could not figure out anything wrong with what I was doing. Whats worse is other parents who complained about there baby "not sleeping through the night" complained about having to wake up every 3-4 hours. and this had me even more depressed; what I wouldn't give for even 2 hours of undisturbed sleep.

To top it all came a thousand different advice from all quarters, out of which my least favorite was when people asked me not to be especially quiet so as to make him "used-to" sleeping through noise. Yeah! you can say that since you didn't walk aorund, singing and swinging a sleepy crying baby for the last 2 hours, only to have him wake up in 15 mins cos of some sound you made, esecially when you yourselves are sleep deprived and practically fainting!!!

People even ask me how I went back to my post pregnancy weight so quickly. I am sure all these walks have hepled me (lose) a ton.

Anyhow this state of things continued, and then we shifted from Trivandrum to Pathanamthitta, And then it got worse (like I had imagined THAT possible!!!). But thankfully that seemed to be only due to a change of place and he  went back to his half an hour routine soon enough. 

Mama's half hour break time



Whats really puzzling us these day is that whenever we go back to trivandrum he manages to sleep through 4-5 hours without any disturbance at all and as soon as we come back he goes back to 30-45 mins routines. We are all racking our brains trying to find out what might be missing here cos it can't be the "new place" phenomenon anymore; He lived in trivandrum for about 3 months and has been here for almost 3 months now. Only if I could get that missing link.

So, here we are still struggling and living by the motto "Wake Up Sid". (Yea yea bad one, but sleep deprivation can do that to ones brain!)

P.S (on a serious note) all those out there asking me not to be quiet, please note that docs advice to do whatever it takes to ensure your baby sleeps at a particular time everyday. Eventually he will be habituated to fall asleep at that time whatever be the conditions. (I am working really hard towards it) On the other hand if you keep making noises (to make him used to it), his system will just get used to not sleeping at that time. We all have these internal clocks.

The Beginning of My Ri"c"e

The advice these days is to give the baby only breast milk for the first 6 months and to introduce supplements and/or normal diet elements only after the 6th month.

Among us malayalees the initiation to "grown-up" food is marked by a small function called the chor oonu (chor meaning rice (not surprisingly) and oonu meaning meal/to eat).

Sid had his chor oonu on 18th Sept, 2010 at the Pathmanabha Swami Temple in Trivandrum and the best part about the function was that his Dada could attend, purely unexpectedly.

For this function the priests bring some rice, salted pickled raw mango, one sabzi and some payasam (a malayali sweet preparation) on a banana leaf. The function is organised near the entrance to the main shrine next to the 'kodimaram' (the golden flag post) where the area to be seated at is earmarked by a different carved stone. Sid sat on his paternal grandpa's lap, facing the direction of the idol and his grandpa was asked to take a little of rice, mango and sabzi, paste them together and touch this paste to Sids tongue thrice. This was followed by giving him the payasam. The intention is to introduce him to all the tastes - salty, sour, bitter, hot and finally sweet.

Though normally kids are known to holler at this first taste of sour/bitter, Sid in his usual style, managed a pretty cool exterior during most of it. There was a little whimpering to the mango pickle which vanished when he got the payasam. I think of the two little teeth he got, atleast one is definitely sweet.

Then we had a long queue to wait in before we could get a darshan and finally home. Though this is normally a small close knit function only attended by the parents and grandparents, Dada's folks decided to throw a small family get-together and hence we all had lunch at P's place. It was, of course, more rice for us.

P.S Dada had also ordered a liter of "paal" (milk) payasam from the temple, and let me tell you, it is really one of the best payasams I have had. For someone who is not very fond of payasams, I had multiple helpings that day. So if you get a chance, do try to have some from there. 

I Scream, U Scream, V All Scream for...NOTHING

As on around 20th Sept, we have learnt a new form of communication, and that is to scream at the top of our lungs. It is not the angry scream or the one that is used when crying. It is just a "closed eye, full of purpose, ear shattering, earth moving" scream that is followed by a calm serene serious expression that means I just did/said something very natural. A high pitched, shrill, shrieky sound followed by regular carrying on of business.Initially, it left everyone around bewildered, now it just has everyone shaking their heads and rubbing their ears to get the ringing out.
The previous phase of communication was a constant gurgling/gargling sound and everyone was waiting for that to get over. That eventually stopped to every ones relief only to be followed by this.


The best thing is the timing. Sid's scream time is around 0100pm to 0400pm when his grandpa has just finished lunch n lies down to sleep before waking up again and going to work. Hey grandpa, don't mind, I am just growing up.

When Your'e Happy and U Know It, Turn Around

As of yesterday Sid discovered that turning from his back to tummy and then back again in the same direction can help him travel some distances. His delight on being able to go back from his tummy to his back by himself was amazing. Earlier once on his tummy, he would lie there for  some time and then start hollering till he was put back on his back. But now when he managed it himself, he keeps rolling from his tummy to his back and vice versa as soon as he is laid down .

The thing is he only rolls to his right side, always. He just does not roll to his other side at all. This means once he starts turning he is just rolling and rolling till he is off the mat to the floor. Though its all fun to look at the scary part now is that he just CANNOT be left unattended on the bed for even a second.

And can someone please tell me if its OK that he only rolls to one side and eventually will pick up the skill for the other side too?

3, 4, There is So Much More...

In this article I'd like to recollect and relive the third and 4th months of our lives together...

June 06th through July 06th

•  The Smile that Lights Up My Life: The best part about the third month was the emergence of the most beautiful smile I have ever seen. And, how the world revolved around Sid, doing funny stuff to make him smile...
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  I Scream...I Scream...I Scream...However, along with the smile came the temper too. The couple of time that I have seen Sid scream (not cry, but simply scream) is a good idea of the temper shows to come ahead...
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  Impossible, But True: Though sleep was always a rare phenomenon with my baby, the move from trivandrum to pathanamthitta has decreased even the little there was!!! Even after he falls asleep in our arms, he totally refuses to lie on the bed or his cradle and wakes up wide eyed the moment he is laid down! A slightly scary and worrying event...Doc says it might be due to change of place. Hope he gets used to the place real soon or mama will just wither away.
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  To Turn or Not to Turn?: For a couple of days this month, Sid would turn to his side, put one leg in the front and looked like he was trying very hard to turn over to his tummy. And, when he couldn't do it he would shriek and shriek in anger and frustration. This was so hard to watch! We were all stuck in the confusion to whether let him try or to pick him u an soothe him down. However, looks like after 2 days of this, he has decided to give it some rest now.
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  Pick Me: Somewhere around end of June, Sid started communicating his desire to be picked up by spreading his hands u and raising his back towards us.
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  Or I Shall Cry: Usually this effort was made more irresistible by pulling u a scrunchy face and making crying noises in a very funny imitation of crying...

 July 06th Through Aug 06th  

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   Hey! I can talk too:Now I can say yaaa yeee yooo and gaa gee goo...full conversations in great Lengths we had for a few days and stopped. Guess, Sid got disappointed at our failure to grasp!
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  Holding Things is Fun Though it takes him some time to get his hands exactly where he wants it before he can close his fists around it. Reaching out to get the rattles from our hands this month though cant hold them right, yet.
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  Yoo Hoo! I play with toys now! The first time this month, Sid found the ding dong toy (a plastic spherical heavy bottomed toy with a teddy on top that makes a lovely watery ding ding sound wen moved from side to side)lying on his side and in the way of grasping it hit it making the noise. He loved it so much that for a long time then he kept hitting the toy and making the noise...
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  Worlds more Interesting Around Me: There was a time when having milk was a tedious job that took almost an hour making moms arms hurt from carrying Sid for so long and took a lot of sitting still in one place, something mama has never done much! Now, all it takes is a slightly different sound of the fan, the barking dog, granny's voice or some movement to stop drinking and inspect these more interesting sights and sounds.

These were some of the most important developments of these 2 months. However what is really precious are the tons of moments we share cooing and cuddling, laughing and smiling, holding on and hugging and just being...US...U n Me...