Night-time Woes

 Lately Kup seems off color. She is getting more irritable and cries inconsolably at the drop of a hat.
The poor thing tries so hard to sleep and that too for hours..the cute night time routine which had her zonked in about 45 minutes now stretches to a murderous 3 -4 hours.. SN and I are at our wits ends..these days we
barely talk coherently..Trying to find the right words can be so difficult sometimes.And since he knows what I mean anyway, why bother?It s so nice when chemistry works that way.(sigh..)Do I sound mushy? I think it must be sleep deprivation..Being blessed with oodles of patience and goodwill, SN
is taking it much better than I. It also might be due to the fact he gets to be with Kup only at night.
 I think it might be because she is teething and the inflammation of her gums generally gets worse at night. SN comes home at around 8pm at which time, I and Kup go to meet him at the bus stop and walk back home..He loves carrying her , so I usually end up pushing the empty pram..But this has been stopped for a couple of days because of the early night falls and Kup's woes..By this time I would already have supper
ready and after a cuppa by about 8: 30pm, we'd start on baby bath time..
 This one is papa's speciality and she loves him make a song and dance routine with it. In fact you wouldn't
believe the number of funny songs he has come up so far..Sometimes it is quite hard for me to keep a straight face. Bath time is always fun. She tries to grab the shower head , so to distract her we keep a small
violet ball in the water which sometimes she keeps in her fist even after towelling.
 I have been trying to get her a rubber ducky that squeaks when squeezed but so far with no luck. I thought it was such a funny simple little thing. I have searched  in the toy sections of various supermarkets as well as in toy shops. The sales persons sometimes don't even understand what I want. I admit my French is not the best, but still it should not be this difficult..They either give me an assortment of 20 toys complete with a bath book(whatever that means) or some soft toy that is battery operated. Exasperated, I searched online only to find it is a collector's item; you can get a collection of 25 ducks for $16 on Amazon.Or you could order them custom-made. Even Queen Elizabeth is supposed to have one in her tub; one wearing a crown..Which makes me wonder about the amount of totally unnecessary information we are exposed to on the net daily.

But enough of that. I am digressing again.
  Meanwhile comes the argument about what to wear. This involves checking the forecast for night temperature, the availability of
various pieces of clothing which at that very moment decide to go into hiding,..By the time Kup's clothes are on the correct parts of her anatomy, the room resembles the Battlefield of Helms Deep(Lord Of The Rings)
 Next comes the feeding. Till about a week ago, Kup loved to eat and would finish whatever was spooned into her mouth. But these days Kup takes any attempt to feed her as a personal insult.She used to love fruits
a lot but now when it comes near her she just tries to get away..it seems the 23 paternal chromosomes are finally winning the battle..Not that there was much chance for the maternal ones in the first place. On top of it, she has episodes of spit-up ; again something new. At least she is getting some of her nutrition as I am still nursing her.Though this is not enough for her, some days she wont have anything else. Time trickles by like molasses and dinner is waiting
on the stove. To quote Salimkumar in 'Kalyanaraman' "Enthinovendi thilakkunna sambar..."
 For some time, we tried the Baby Einstein videos and various lullabies on YouTube..Previously they had
worked like a charm, but lately all they do is make both of us more sleepy while Kup is actually getting more active..We tried rocking and walking her around, again no go..Altering the time schedule didn't help either..
Breastfeeding at regular intervals was our only hope..Each time hoping this would do the trick..In spite of my
b...s feeling like they are about to come off, it still continues like this. The funny part is that her day time naps haven't
changed at all. By about eleven thirty or later, she finally drops off. By this time,we either forget about dinner
Sometimes we sneak off one at a time to gobble the food. Once asleep also, she wakes up more than once
to nurse, and sometimes has difficulty going back to sleep. By around 5: 30; she usually ends up between us.
But she magically senses when I get up to go into the kitchen and starts crying immediately.. So by the time she looks something like this : we look something like this :

 That black thing she's clutching used to be a jacket of mine.We kept it in her bed for her to cuddle but now she seems not to like it any more...occasional drops of Pmol help to some extent..Sunday she fell asleep at nine o clock..Congratulating ourselves on our luck, we immediately sat down for dinner and poured a glass of wine for afterwards. The first decision turned out to be good, the second one not so. By the time we finished our meal, Kup woke up and started crying. I fed her, thinking she would go back to sleep.We were planning to catch some movie.Well, to make a very long story short...the movie still in the box, at 12 :30
since we could not pour the wine back into the bottle, we gulped it down, at one o clock, I told SN to sleep since he had to work on Monday, till 1 :30 am, I sat with Kup in my lap looking at parenting sites
learning nothing new..At around 2 o clock she slept.. Morning 7: 30 she was fresh again...while we stumbled around trying to follow our routine.
 We did console ourselves by thinking about our friends who recently had twins...By the time they reach 7 months..well I am not finishing that thought...Bonne Nuit Amigos..those lucky amongst you, enjoy your sleep
while you can...

Ummmmmmmah

 No, this is not exactly the post I was intending to write. What can I say! I am the queen of unfinished posts.
But something happened yesterday that made me want to post about it immediately but was not able to do
so.Well here I am now. Despite the build up, it is nothing humongous but rather sweet and cute. If you have
not guessed it from the title, yes it is about a kiss..My very first..baby kiss.(What did you think I was going to write?) After all beti ki ma hum so... err..never mind..
 After months of being at the receiving end of kisses, hugs and every other external expressions of affection
showered upon her little self, yesterday my darling little baby girl reciprocated. Kup kissed me. But being rather dim at times, I didn't realise she had. Probably understanding her mum's slow response, she repeated the gesture..That 's when my brain lighted up.
 She always puts her arms around the neck whenever I or her papa pick her up. She'd squeeze too once
 in a while but I always thought it was to get a good grip on me. Especially since this often happens when I am a few minutes late in picking her up, like if I am cooking or in the bathroom. Then if I pick her up, she puts her arms and legs tightly around me as if afraid to let go. I just never thought about it as much.With SN she never does this, probably because of scratchy cheeks. His nieces also complain about the 'mullu" ie thorns in Malayalam. I'm probably the only advocate of the two days-growth which I think is really cool even for a nerdy geek..However his parents thinks he looks like a homeless delinquent instead of a respectable bacha ka baap. But coming back to Kup, I've seen her holding on to his shoulders or his collars; whichever is available when he's holding her. She also loves to bite our noses but here papa is the clear favorite. Probably because there is so much more of his nose in the first place. Since she is teething, she bites down quite hard at times.
 We had got off on a pretty normal start to our day..getting up, changing, diapering, the routine. After the
mid-morning nap, we were video-chatting with my parents and my sis(Kup"s Auntie Jo) who is home for
a change.. After some crawling and playing around from two sides of the globe, I began to feed her lunch.
After the doc's recommendation, once a day I give her baby food. Though I would've preferred avoiding the commercial stuff as far as possible, the fact remains that Kup is a bit underweight. I prefer the brand called Bleding. They have their products labelled for each month and most of them are complete meals. Kup used to love their spinach, but now we've moved onto the combo meals. The feeding was going on well with Jo,
Appacha and Ammachi acting as cheerleaders. I was having her on my lap and she finished it quickly enough. After cleaning the remains, we were in the same position, when without warning, she reached up
and nuzzled my cheek, holding my right cheek with her other hand. It was over fast and her audience of three witnessed it too. In fact they told me it was meant as a kiss. And then she did it again. This time I could
really appreciate it too.
 It made me feel quite warm inside. Of course I know my baby loves me and needs me and all that stuff. But

it is so special to have the little one express it herself..For all I know she might have been wiping her mouth.  

Still I like to think of it as my first baby kiss. My Kupkiss. I wish I'd been able to take a picture. As it is, this one will have to do. It took quite some time to wipe the idiotic grin off my face. Next time must get her to do it while he is there.

Speaking of SN, he tried to act all non chalant while I excitedly told him of this.( Will I never learn?) But

later that night, I got immense satisfaction hearing him ask Kup to give papa a kiss as well since mama

already had got one. So much for non-chalance he he. So on this note let me end this learned discourse.

Good-night folks.

Kup's Anatomy

  We had a great weekend..First of all there was Kup's doctor visit. Her first one since coming to France.
Visits in India were to the hospital where I had worked (and lived) previously. Since the day she was
born, she's been a big star there (thank you, ma'am and sir). I am one of the blessed few, who are lucky to have their own teacher conduct their delivery..She was the one who taught me to conduct a labour in the
first place.
  Kup's vaccinations were all up to date so far but she had not taken the pneumococcus vaccine, since it is
not mandatory in India. However, it is compulsory in Europe, so I was a bit apprehensive. Also Kup has
recently started showing signs of separation anxiety. Previously she used to smile widely at any given stranger, thus gathering a large fan -following among the little old ladies in our neighbourhood. This is
probably the reason no one has complained so far when Kup has one of her 5 o clock tantrums when
I start cooking. I'm digressing again. Sorry.
  It's pretty cold here these days, so we bundled up and headed outside.We had got appointment for
12:45, hence we started at 12. Little miss had to be roused from sleep and was a little less than happy
about it. But she brightened up once we were outdoors. She loves riding in her pram and watching things
go by, especially cars and bikes. As always, I had packed some food, water and  a spare changing kit for her. As usual the papa had forgotten to recharge the bus ticket, so we had to walk the extra distance
 instead of comfortably waiting on our doorstep..Well, I guess we both need the exercise..One thing I

love about France is that coz of Google Maps, we can exactly find the right place without asking anybody, something which is definitely not possible where I come from.And since we still have problems

with the language,this is a great relief.
  We were ushered in by the doctor herself, another scenario unthinkable in India; but then, in India the patient load would hardly enable us to do so. But still, it was a nice touch,don't you think so? The doc
herself was a tall elegant lady with short light blonde hair, rimless glasses, cool watch and 2 funky
bracelets with french manicured nails..No, I dont take in details ;thank you very much. But she was
 really friendly and down to earth. Come to think of it, she is probably the first doctor in a long time
whom I didn't personally know before ..
  The super spacious office..huge window, nice view, large desk with 2 phones, scanner, thin screen computer, fax machine, 3 credit card scanning thingies,(what are they called anyway?)
Yeah, I too could get used to this. Shot a dirty look at SN to show him what all I am giving up for his
 and Kup's sake. Though I am not entirely sure he got the message. It does not matter.
I keep reminding him every few days anyway. There are no paper or files or books. Everything is diectly entered into the system..Hmm need to brush up on my typing skills. The SN said that I was a doctor and
himself a scientist. I think she was relieved not to have to deal with complete dorks who don't even
 know the language in the first place. Jus kiddin; she was really professional.. Asked me what
I specialised and if I'm working here.
 About Kup.Since it was pretty cold, we had swathed her in several layers. After removing all those,
our poor little mouse looked so tin and fragile. Took her length(67..cm) While examining,she was
pretty quiet but when the doc tried to put a spatula in her mouth, Kup grabbed it right out of her hand.
and put it into her other little fist ie, hand to hand transfer...7 months baby stuff she's been doing
 this since about 2 months ago.. So far she has not sat up but she crawls around. We were never worried about this and never tried to make her sit up on her own. She does love to sit in our lap especially if we are

using the laptop. So it was a surprise when the doctor made her sit, she actually did sit on her own for a few seconds..Her muscle tone is all right. I could have told her that, judging from the way she tries to crush my neck when we hug or she clamps her gums on her daddy's nose.
  But the poor thing turned out to be a kilo underweight..I had been suspecting this but not so much. Doc reassured us and said it was because of the big journey and climate change. We give her 3 meals a day cereal/rice /crushed rusk mixed with either apple/banana /pearsor potato/spinach. Along with multiple nursings, this would be enough except for proteins. So we are to start her on chicken, ham etc. No complaints there,I am sure. If she understood, she'd have hugged the doctor. As it is, I'm sure I heard a tiny laddu popping in her mind.
  She kept playing with the spatula during the whole of the visit. I had expected her to have pooped as I removed the diaper but it didn't happen. Instead as we put her on the weighing machine, she peed all over it..Well, at least not on the doctor's dress(which could have been used in an ad for ujala.. ) Anyway the mess was cleaned up..Doc told us she had 4 boys herself,so was very much used to this. SN struggled to put Kup back into her cocoon (let him sweat it out)At the end he was carrying one shoe and the tiny scarf separate.
Meanwhile doc prescribed some vit D drops which are necessary for the coming winter months where
sunlight is a spare commodity. 4 drops a day. I knew there was some connection with ujala -char bundo
wallah.
 Kup was still holding the spatula tight. In the end, doc exchanged it for a lovely red, silicone teething ring
from Nestle. Vanilla-flavoured too, no less. She loved it and was a perfect little lady..Vaccination was due
only next visit(Phew). The whole episode took about half an hour and we left as 3 happy people.

 Ichayan happy about the professionalism and efficiency(yawn); Me fantasising about a future career in likewise surroundings(dream on) And tiny tot happy about the whole outing(little pleasures-sigh) quickly resumed her trip to zzzzzzzland..sweet dreams ummmmmmmmma