Visitors

Deepti's had a flood of visitors, with the news of her and Naina's imminent departure to Perth for a month.

Most interestingly, the Australian mother's group dropped in today. Side point, Indian mum's (apart from Deepti of course) are a bit weak kneed. On the slightest hint of a breeze or too much sun, they tend to cancel things. The Australian mother's group, there very different breed.

It was literally the stormiest day in Melbourne in months. Four brave mum's and their prams all came over.

Anyway, Naina gets very excited around other babies. She starts screaming a long and continuous scream. We have footage of today; Naina and another baby on the bed looking at each other. Naina gets excited realising there's someone else as immovable next to her and starts screaming. Well, a sort of squealing actually.

About five seconds into the squealing, the other baby starts screaming. Apparently this happened twice today. Something in the water I think.

You know the phrase
"Separated at sometime-five-months-ago"

Perth trip

Rolls closer. The flight anxiety increases and decreases. Prams - do we take them do we not. Food - breast or bottle. Wipes and nappies. Ahhhh. I just want to get on the damn flight!

Otherwise, we're all good. We're keenly awaiting news of Anna's # 3 and Andrew and Kate's #1. And seeing all the babies too. Oh and their parents as well.

Sleep

Baby sleep. Naina's not a good sleeper, yet. I'd be interested to hear when Max, Isobelle, Hamish, Eva, Jinu are good sleepers yet and if so, when they became good sleepers.

Naina has been up and down; some nights she's great in bed at 830 and peaceful until 7 am with occasional food nibbles. This contrasts with her crappy nights, where no rest till 11 or 12 and then up every hour or so. Still can't complain too much. Or can I?

We've just entered a bad sleep phase. N started falling asleep at about 830pm for an hour each night then waking up screaming, miserable, sniffling, her whole body shaking. This would happen night after night and no consoling seemed to work except turning on the light, standing in front of the heater and talking and laughing and making faces and noises. By the time she stopped screaming, sniffling and weeping, she'd be wide awake and unable to go back to sleep for an hour or so. This actually happened twice in one night, which meant that we were so exhausted we slept till 11 am (all three of us) totally ruining Miss N's sleep pattern that whole weekend.

So, being a scientician, and as Homer would say (trying to be understanding) is it gas?

Well, we've assumed it is and have tried dosing N at about 800pm with her last feed with Infacol. It seems to be working well, no wake up screamings since. A relief. Except tonight. We cut the dose; she woke up again, but not as intensely unhappy. Some water and a feed and she settled again. Back to the drawing board I think.

Perth trip

We're coming to Perth - clan Shrivastava. This should be interesting. This is a test run for a big India trip next year.

I'm trying to convince myself that N won't be like those other kids and will only cry on take off and landing and sleep peacefully in between. Considering it is a four hour flight to Perth, I'm not all that confident.

I'm also nervous when I consider how much stuff is required for a trip to the local Chinese Indian (300 metres away), not to mention a trip to Perth. Baby bag. Check. Milk. Check. Diapers. Check. Wipes. Check. Infacol. Check. Toys. Check. Pram. Check. Baby. Check. Gzzz.

I booked day flights. Someone will no doubt say that was the cause of all the problems (after we get to Perth and say how terrible the flight was). Maybe I shouldn't complain and just say it was fantastic!

There's things happening 2

We've been quiet on the blog for a while now.

We don't lead a very exciting life (looking at you, people getting married soon, people recently travelling to Korea, or people giving birth about now), so the blog is often just photo updates.

I work like a dog 11 days out of 14 and spend hours on public transport. Deepti seems to spend a lot of time dancing a jig trying to get N to sleep during the day or sitting on benches in shop centres. There's the usual routine:

730am: AS wakes ups.
820am: AS wishes DS and NS a good day. Drives to tram stop.
840am: AS on tram. Pressed up against window because Melbourne public transport is a dog.
905am - 530pm: AS Work like a dog
900am - 630pm: DS awakes with NS. Routine of wake eat play sleep. Dance jig.
630pm: AS Gets home, eat watch news and play with N
830pm: N in bed. DS follows out of exhaustion
930pm: AS follows DS and NS to bed.

Repeat on a theme 11 days out of 14. Except the eleventh day, the dog works even harder. No witty banter am afraid there either. Oh wait hang on: look daddy, one dog's sick and the other is pushing it to hospital (Graham Kennedy...).

Naina seems to enjoy stuff. Like lying at the front door looking outside on to the lawn and at the sky. Going for walks in the pram. Playing with mum and dad. Her reflexes are getting better and I am sure I saw her lifting her head today. She grabs things quite quickly (and of course puts them in her mouth) and finds somethings more funny than others.

Over the weeks and months, an essentially blank look has become more and more awake. She recognises me quicker and quicker when I come home at the end of the day. What uses to take 10 to 15 seconds of look, daddy, is now 1 to 2 seconds and then big smiles. Lots of laughing and smiling and lots of giggles. Just how we love her to be!

There's things happening

Miss N is exploring the world via her mouth. According to what i have read they do this because they're bored, they like the taste of human flesh (I made that one up), they enjoy tasting new things, and it helps them calm down. At least that's the internet for ya.

She's managed my hand:


Deepti's chin (checking camera's still on her of course)


Her own fist (whole fist can fit, with some gagging noise)


And her foot, her beloved foot:

Naina, 2, MCHN, Nil....

Breaking news, Naina got weighed today. Over the 12 days since her last weigh in, she's put on nearly 250 g.

I got a little triumphant there. I think having a baby under the microscope is an intensely stressful time, like my parents probably had for me. As some of my previous posts suggested, I do get defensive about her, probably more so than I should. It is hard not to. So many emotions are tied up with her, many things in our life that make us happy and make us sad.

I'm really glad our little Miss N is putting in the occasional big stride in weight terms (wow mixing metaphors or what). She's taking it one day at a time, not looking too far ahead, not getting too far ahead of herself, she can only concentrate on her own game and not others, she'll play the ball, not the man, it's a big ask. Phew, eight metaphors in one paragraph. She's kicking goals now. Nine, nine I tell's ya.