Five months: New sounds, grasping, and thai chi

I can make a fun new sound, at it goes like this: Bbbbpppp. If you are wondering what that actually sounds like, it is more like the sound of air going through tightly pursed lips, and not the motor lips version (I am sure that is to come). Anyway, I like to make the sound, and when Amma makes it back at me I smile. And my laugh continues to come more frequently, which everyone thinks is fun.

Grabbing Amma's face is one of my pastimes now. I like hearing her name the parts, like cheek, or nose, or eyes. Of course when I get Amma's glasses or hair she doesn't quite love that part.

In the morning, I like to practice thai chi. Right now, its is just with my hand (check out the video), but maybe in the future I will learn to do more of it with my whole body.

I am a pro at holding my head up during tummy time. I am working hard on sitting (but don't leave me alone), though I prefer to stand straight up (while holding on). And you can catch me doing the occasional roll (front to back and back to front), but if I am on my back I really prefer to just play with my toes.

This month we celebrated the birth of Christ. At home that meant some colorful lights, four candles (one lit each week), a tree, time for family and presents, and going to church where there were good songs. I think I will learn more about the celebration as time goes on.
 
Anna Kavi and Appa went to India for a few weeks, so I am just hanging out with Amma. I miss them, but get to see them on a little screen sometimes.

Amma and me at the Sand Dunes National Park

We wrapped up the month with a trip to Crestone, Colorado with good friends and a visit to the Sand Dunes National Park. Amma says that Anna went there when he was little too, though this time it was a lot colder, but still beautiful.

 

My fourth month: toes, a laugh, and Thanksgiving

So I found my toes. It turns out you just lie on your back, reach your hands down, and then use your abs to pull up your feet, and voila! Your toes are right there at the end of your feet. It helps if you enjoy the happy baby yoga pose, or happen to be a happy baby with really open hip flexers. I enjoy doing this on the changing table or right before bath time. This pose also helps with one of the other things I was into this month - starting to roll part way to the side and occasionally all the way over.

This was a good month. I got much stronger I am getting better at sitting with support, and I like to 'stand' (with more support). Many more things make me smile, but especially Amma when she zooms in and makes fun noises. My smiles are getting bigger (even if they are hard to catch on camera). And...I had my first laugh. It isn't a full-belly laugh yet, but it is quite cute.

One of the things I like a lot is my nightly massages after my bedtime bath. Amma sings to me, naming body parts as she goes, and I get moisturized. After a book and nursing, I am off to bed, and on the early side (definitely asleep by 7pm). Of course I still wake up every 3 hours or so to nurse; we will see when those nighttime feedings slow down.

The big event this month was Thanksgiving. I got to meet a lot of Amma's family that I hadn't seen before, wear a fun turkey shirt, and spend some time with grandma and grandpa (including a trip to a nearby cave).

This month I am thankful for family, for hooded bath towels, and for milk.

My third month: smiles, coos, and transition

Amma really enjoyed this month. I became much more interactive. Mostly this is because I can smile (and like to smile), but also because I can coo (and goo and gaa). Appa likes this too, and even my anna Kavi likes to 'goo goo gaa gaa' with me.

I am much better at grabbing rings that are dangling above me. I like to grab them and swing them somewhat aggressively. Sometimes I also grab my shirt for the fun of it. And I can hold on quite well to a finger if offered. I keep getting stronger - holding up my head is pretty easy now.

Ayyamma left mid-month. I will miss her until she comes back in the late spring. But I do get to see her sometimes on the phone.

Amma tells me that I have more hair than my anna had at three months. I weigh a little less than he did, but pretty close. At the end of my third month, I reached 12 lbs.

Amma and Appa took me hiking in the mountains in the snow! I got to wear this pretty darn cute snowsuit that looks like a bear (the polar kind). Mostly I just slept on Amma's front, but she says I kept her nice and warm.

Being October, we went as a family to a few pumpkin patches. And I was a ladybug for Halloween, which of course was quite cute. I suspect that future Halloweens might be more fun when I can walk around. 

We had different gatherings of friends and family and I continued to meet new people. Like the gathering of ladies in the family down in Lakewood, or friends who have moved out of town, or a big group of Appa's friends from his youth who were able to meet up in the mountains of Colorado.

On one beautiful fall day Amma and I met up with her good friends and one little friend for me (G) down in Denver where we saw some stunning sculptures of glass. Amma says it was an artist named Chihuly.

At the end of the month I started at day care since Amma went back to work. This was a pretty big transition. I like Justine and Noeme who look after me. Luckily it is close to Amma's work so she comes sometimes at lunchtime to nurse. Though the first week was pretty rough! I really didn't like my bottle and refused it, so Amma would get a call at lunch to come over so I could nurse. This kept happening. After trying a whole bunch of different bottles, we figured out that I actually just have picky tastes. You see, there is this enzyme that breaks down fat in milk over time and makes it taste different, so if milk is a few hours old then I am okay with drinking it, but if a day that is too long. Luckily (through a combination of another mother at the day care center having this issue, Justine mentioning it to Amma, and Amma trying out the fix), I now get milk that I like! [note from Amma: this website explains well the process of inactivating the lipase via scalding the milk] So now we have all settled into our new routines and life is good.

Thank you God for this month, for middle-of-the-night feeding sessions, and for the joy that can be exchanged with a smile.

My second month: patterns, sounds, and strength

This was a big month. I started to count my age in months now instead of weeks. I am falling into more routines around eating, playing, and sleeping. I am making more sounds. And I am working on my strength to hold my head up. 

As most of my coherts, I like to nurse. Amma enjoys the bonding time as well. For the most part, I have extended the time between sessions to around three hours or so, sometimes shorter in the daytime, definitely shorter right before bedtime, and then a little longer during the night. As a result of this, I reached double digit weight this month (10.5 lbs)! That was a milestone Amma was looking forward to, as it can help with sleeping longer. In fact, the week I pushed into double digits I had a stretch of sleeping around 5 hours, but my usual pattern is still to sleep around 3-4 hours and then wake up to nurse, meaning Amma normally gets up twice in the night.

I started vocalizing a lot more beyond my grunts to have some ahhs and ohhs. This is a fun game with Amma, who calls back to me with my sounds and a bunch of others that I can't yet figure out.

There is that time every day where Amma puts me on my tummy and I work on my strength. While I don't love this, I am able to hold my head up a lot more. At week 6.5 I even rolled over three times from tummy to back (twice in one direction, once in the other), though this skill isn't reliable or common yet. I am starting to grasp rings. Plus I like to push up on my feet (if you hold me).

My favorite positions are as follows: supported on Appa or Amma's legs facing them, being burped over a shoulder (I can fall asleep here too), moving my legs and arms laying on the ground, and nursing (of course).

This month I went on my first hike and second and third. Around Boulder, up near Fairplay at an Ama Dablam reunion with fantastic fall leaves, culminating with a hike up to the top of Sanitas when I was two months old! I also went on a train up in the mountains near Georgetown, though I slept through most of the trip.

One of the sweetest parts of this month was the first appearance of my smile. While still just occasional, it is making an appearance more and more.

Finally, I met more of Amma and Appa's friends (complete with yummy Indian and Ethiopian food). We celebrated grandma's birthday. And I hung out some with my friends Micah and Noah.

Amma still has one more month devoted to me, then she heads back to work. Thank you God for life.

My first month

Hello! I just arrived. And already, time is moving quickly.

In my first month, I went from being born weighing around 6 lbs 10 oz, had my lowest weight of 6 lbs 3 oz, and then have steadily gained about a half pound a week to be over 8 lbs at a month. Amma is excited that this growth is just from breast feeding since with my older brother Kavi she supplemented breast feeding with formula. I like it because Amma feeds me when I cry (usually every few hours, but more frequently in the early evening).

I went from keeping my eyes tightly shut and sleeping most of the time to opening my eyes wide to look around or at you and having stretches of time where I am up.  I went from having a floppy head that you always have to support to sometime holding it up a bit (especially when being burped over a shoulder).

I quickly transitioned from a full swaddle (just one night of it) to a swaddle that is just for my legs and leaves my arms free. Amma says this is pretty different from anna (Kavi), who liked being fully swaddled for months.

Sometimes when I am hanging around, I move my my legs and arms around. My fists are pretty tight and can occasionally grab onto things (like a finger). However, sometimes my hand ends up next to my head and with my full head of hair when I clench my fist I inadvertently end up grabbing my own hair! It doesn't feel very good, but Amma comes to the rescue.

My anna (older brother - Kavi) is pretty nice. I expect I will learn a lot from him throughout my life.

Most of my first month was spent at home. I met lots of Amma's and Appa's family and friends. But I did get out occasionally. Weekly for mom to weigh me at the breastfeeding club. A few times so Amma could go to mommy and me yoga (I especially like the class with the harmonium playing). A few times to Redstone to meet Amma's coworkers. A family reunion up in the mountains and a ride on a carousel. And an excursion downtown Denver where I went on a trolly ride.

Overall Amma says I am a pretty easy going kid. Thank you God for life!

Manohar's arrival!

Babies pick when they are ready to be born. For Mano, this meant making his entrance on Sunday, July 27. This was when he was '37 weeks and 1 day' - babes are considered full term at 37 weeks, so he reached that milestone and was ready to go. Mano arrived one week after I had maternity photos taken. One day after I had installed the second (his) car seat in the car. One day after Ram and I had met with Heather Lyn (who would be our doula). Ideally, we would have had one more week of work to finish up a few things, but Mano picked the date, not us. Luckily he picked a weekend so Ram was in town (and not in Boston).

It began around 4:45 am earlier that day. I was sleeping, but then realized that my water had broken - not with a dramatic gush, but in small amounts. It ended around 17 hours later at 9:58 pm, and was the all natural birth that I had wanted. The best part of labor was that the last 'half' (from around 5 cm dilated to giving birth, which tends to be the most painful part) took place dramatically in the last hour! As a result of this quick movement through transition, I was in the tub when I felt the pushing urge set in, and after stepping out of the tub gave birth to Mano standing up in the bathroom (supported by Ram and Heather Lyn, with my midwife Kala ready to catch him, and after only four pushes). But let me fill you in on the in-between bits as well.

After I realized that my water had broken, I called my doula and the midwives. I hadn't yet begun contractions, but they told me to expect that in the next few hours and advised me to go back to sleep and rest. As soon as I hung up with them the contractions started. Not too painful, but regular (every 4 minutes or so) and not very long yet (just around 30 seconds). I started tracking them with my phone app so I would know their frequency and duration. Ram came over in the early morning and we had breakfast, waiting for the contractions to get stronger and longer (as advised, and doing things like walking to help them along). We even took a trip to Costco for an errand. After lunch, and knowing that second births can be much faster than first ones (my labor with Kavi was 70 hours!), we decided to head to the hospital around 2pm. The bags were already packed (one for me and one for Kavi who would be staying with Ayyamma), so we were ready to go.

At the hospital we checked in and it turns out that we had the same room that I delivered Kavi in! The nurses did their stress test (everything was good and he was a happy baby), I gave my birthing plan to them, and then my midwife came in to check how things were going. While I was only 2 cm dilated at that point, I was 80 effaced, which was more encouraging than the dilation number.

Once your water breaks, you are on somewhat of a time clock (24-36 hours), so I knew that I needed to be more active in helping labor progress than I had with Kavi. So instead of sitting on the bed, we were off to walking! Walking the labyrinth ('laborinth') outside, walking up and down the stairs, walking the halls. Mano loved the walking and being upright - the contractions got stronger and longer progressively. Though they weren't extremely painful yet, so I knew I had more to go. During this time, we had music going (Snatam Kaur) and Kala set up night lights (candle-like) and jasmine throughout the room.

Around 9pm I asked Kala to check me again since the contractions were getting a lot more intense (not transition intense, but approaching). Since lying back on the bed would feel pretty painful, I opted for a check on the birthing stool. Possibly partly because of this different position, she said I was around 5 cm. Only! That was the most discouraging part of labor. I wasn't sure I would be able to do it without pain relief of some sort. So when Kala suggested that we could run a bath, I was up for it!

While the bath was being prepared, I labored on the bed in child's pose - a very effective position! The contractions intensified to the point where I really needed to squeeze Ram's hand hard (I think it was the beginning of transition). In the bath, I continued to stay in child's pose (again, much more effective than when I was on my back with Kavi's labor). The type of contraction felt the same as with Kavi (and the pleas for help from God and use of swear words were both there again), but the number of them was much smaller thankfully. And after just a little time in the bath and feeling the urge to push, Kala checked me to feel Mano's head! I was 10 cm and ready to go. I was so relieved. Kala asked Ram if he was ready to meet his baby.

As described above, after stepping out of the bath it seemed like everyone was rushing in to the bathroom - Kala and the nurse were throwing towels and chucks on the floor, Heather Lyn and Ram were coming around to support me, and after one push out of the bath his head was out, and Kala said one more for his body. So he was born right there, with me standing. We all slowly walked to the bed, and there he gave his first loud cries.

He was small (6 lbs and 10 ounces) and perfect. He was red at first. He cried well. Then he nursed well and for a long time. He was beautiful. We are so blessed.

Loving welcome to our little Manohar. Manohar means beautiful one, beautiful lord, or one who wins over mind. It is an ancestral name and was Ram's father's name. (And in case you are wondering, you pronounce it like Mah-noe-har). We call him Mano for short, and Kavi calls him 'tambi' (little brother in Tamil).