We are back from our trip to Dallas, which was really fun. Paras, in particular, had a blast. His aunt's house had so many toys -- not to mention a piano and swimming pool -- that he had no idea what to do with himself. Andy and I were very proud of him on a number of fronts. First, he did great on the plane, i.e., he didn't freak out about flying and we didn't have to drug him out on Benadryl. We did, of course, close the window for most of the flight, and when Paras said, "I don't want to go in the air," we totally lied to him and told him we were just driving on a slightly bumpy road. I think he bought it (though he did open the window at some point and saw the clouds outside). Of course, he had is normal share of standard tantrums, etc. so it wasn't an A+ effort, but it was better than I expected so I'm happy.
He also made headway on his fear of water. On his first two days he had to be dragged into the pool (literally) screaming, and cried for about half an hour. However, by the third day he was asking to go into the pool and stood on the first step on his own. By the end of week he was down to the third step (with the water right under his chin) by himself and was having a great time.
His final frontier was the big boy bed. We put him in his cousin Abhi's "Cars" (as in the Disney movie) bed with a bed rail on the side, and he did great! Not only did he not complain or get out of bed at all at night, but he stayed in his bed after he woke up the next morning until we came to get him. I think after sleeping in a crib for almost 3 years it didn't occur to him that he can get out of bed in the mornings by himself (which is fine with us). So, Andy and I are thinking that we're ready to make the plunge to a big bed and are planning a trip to IKEA next weekend.
Sahana, for her part, did pretty well also. She was great on the plane, though she didn't sleep like any normal baby would. She is very aware of her surroundings and just wanted to look around the plane and at the people. Her first few nights were a little rough, since even a one hour time difference threw her schedule off, but within a few days she was sleeping all night again. In fact, she made progress since for a while she's been sleeping all night, but with some on and off crying starting around 5:30 am. Starting about a week ago, though, she's been sleeping till we wake her at 7am without a peep. I'm hoping this is permanent since I'm going back to work starting next week.
Unfortunately, Operation Unswaddle is not going so well -- last night I tried to "half swaddle" (under the arms) Sahana when she went down for the night, and she was having none of it. She screamed for half an hour, and then when I swaddled her completely she zonked out immediately. I suppose having a baby that needs to be swaddled but sleeps all night isn't the worst thing, but I just got scared because I went online to see when most people unswaddle their babies, and read posts by people who were still swaddling their kids at 1 year old. I hope she doesn't become one of those kids. But for now, I'll go along...she is, after all, only 2 1/2 months old.
Anyway, here's some footage of the fun the kids had in Dallas:
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Beach Bugs
It turns out that we didn't have to do a "test run" of the Benadryl -- we had a true medical reason to give Paras the drug after we went to the beach last Saturday and he broke out in hives all over his body, we think from the sand. Very strange because it wasn't his first time at the beach, or at the particular beach that we visited. I really hope that Paras isn't allergic to beaches generally, that would really suck as a kid. Especially because he had so much fun. Andy I were so relieved -- we thought he wold be scared of the water, but he went right up to the water and even dipped his toes in a bit. Mostly, though, he played in the sand, as you can see from the following video:
Sahana had a pretty good day at the beach also, though it was hard to get her in a comfortable position because it was so hot and sunny and I was trying to keep her in the shade. She was also a little bit cranky because of her shots he day before. We've noticed that Sahana is very picky about when and where she eats and naps. Paras was like a robot and would take his naps wherever we were, and wolf down his bottles. Sahana can't seem to take good naps in the carseat (isn't that what they're for?) and eats very poorly f we try to feed her outside the house. So she didn't feed well at the beach and basically didn't nap all day, but thankfully she still slept all night so it was good.
Tomorrow we leave to visit my sister in Dallas. Paras is excited to see his cousins, who are 11, 7, and 4 1/2 years old. He'll have good company. I'm hoping that Sahana can adjust to the one-hour time change and the new sleeping arrangements for a week. We'll have more pictures when we get back!
Sahana had a pretty good day at the beach also, though it was hard to get her in a comfortable position because it was so hot and sunny and I was trying to keep her in the shade. She was also a little bit cranky because of her shots he day before. We've noticed that Sahana is very picky about when and where she eats and naps. Paras was like a robot and would take his naps wherever we were, and wolf down his bottles. Sahana can't seem to take good naps in the carseat (isn't that what they're for?) and eats very poorly f we try to feed her outside the house. So she didn't feed well at the beach and basically didn't nap all day, but thankfully she still slept all night so it was good.
Tomorrow we leave to visit my sister in Dallas. Paras is excited to see his cousins, who are 11, 7, and 4 1/2 years old. He'll have good company. I'm hoping that Sahana can adjust to the one-hour time change and the new sleeping arrangements for a week. We'll have more pictures when we get back!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Two Months
Sahana had her two-month doctor visit today. She weighs 12 lbs 2 oz and is 23 1/2 in tall. She's as tall as Paras was at 2 months. She was great during the visit except when she got the first round of vaccines, when she realized that Mommy and Daddy had totally forsaken her. Here's a comparison of her from 2 weeks till now (with the same flowered pants for perspective):
Sahana's a total sleeper cell and we're proud of her. Paras, meanwhile, has started waking up from nightmares, which is not surprising since he is scared of everything. Birds, bugs, lawnmowers, water, you name it. I thought it was normal but when we told the pediatrician he was surprised that Paras was so fearful at such a young age, so now I'm a little worried. We're dreading the plane trip to Dallas next week, because I'm positive that is going to set off a panic attack. We're going to try a test dose of Benadryl tomorrow to see whether that has an, uh, calming effect on the guy. The teachers at school think that it's a sign of an active imagination -- which is possible, since he is a really smart kid. Here he is, "reading" one of his books (Sorry his head is cut off, for some reason the published video makes the screen smaller):
Sahana's a total sleeper cell and we're proud of her. Paras, meanwhile, has started waking up from nightmares, which is not surprising since he is scared of everything. Birds, bugs, lawnmowers, water, you name it. I thought it was normal but when we told the pediatrician he was surprised that Paras was so fearful at such a young age, so now I'm a little worried. We're dreading the plane trip to Dallas next week, because I'm positive that is going to set off a panic attack. We're going to try a test dose of Benadryl tomorrow to see whether that has an, uh, calming effect on the guy. The teachers at school think that it's a sign of an active imagination -- which is possible, since he is a really smart kid. Here he is, "reading" one of his books (Sorry his head is cut off, for some reason the published video makes the screen smaller):
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
You Are Getting Very Sleepy...
Today I put Sahana in her crib awake for her afternoon nap, and after a little whimpering, she went to sleep on her own! This is the second time -- I put her down awake last night also and she went to sleep without a peep and slept till her 10:30 feeding. I hope this sticks. I think this is a result of Andy and me letting her "cry it out" two nights ago, when she began to do her starting-to-become a habit of waking up at 7:30 after going to sleep at 7. We felt like we should nip that in the bud, and she cried for about 20 minutes, was quiet for 10 minutes, cried for another 5, and went to sleep. Getting her to fall sleep on her own is Step 2 of my master plan, after getting her to sleep through the night. Step 3 will be to gradually remove her swaddle for her various naps and ultimately, all night, though I probably won't begin that operation until we get back from our trip to Dallas in a couple of weeks.
Sahana is very alert these days. She's a serious kid, though: she does smile and laugh, but usually she's got this very concerned look on her face like she's trying to figure out what the heck is going on. She's very calm, though. Even after she wakes up in the morning, she's not screaming for food, and will (mostly) wait patiently until Andy or I are done brushing our teeth, fixing her bottle, and getting our own tea/coffee to feed her (interestingly, her name means "patience" in Sanskrit). Our au pair taught herself some basic shantala massage (baby massage), which perhaps helps to keep Sahana in her relaxed state. Here is a photo of Sahana getting her daily massage:
Meanwhile, we have new tensions on the Paras front. He is deathly afraid of our cat, Chakli. He used to be fine with Chakli, until an incident that happened about a week ago. I was in the living room feeding Sahana, and Paras was with our au pair in the kitchen, getting breakfast. Suddenly I heard this piercing, terrified scream. It was so loud that I thought that Paras got burned with hot water or something. When I got into the kitchen, I saw that Chakli had brought in a bird. A LIVE bird. So the bird was crashing against the window trying to get out, Chakli was jumping all over the place trying to kill the bird, Paras was screaming his head off, and the au pair was using a broom to get Chakli away from the bird and figuring out how to get the window open (Sahana was still in the living room, happily playing with the monkey on her play gym). I was able to separate all parties and get the window open, and the bird was clearly not too injured as he flew away. I then had to clean up the resulting mess, which was a disgusting mix of feathers and bird poop.
Anyway, that was Paras' first encounter with killing/death, and all he could talk about all day was how Chakli had a bird in his mouth and spit it out. He was very upset about it. And now he is terrified of Chakli and screams whenever the cat is in the house. I really think he's scarred for life, and is going to be a cat-hater.
Poor Chakli is starved for attention, and I think the bird was his way of telling us that he feels like he is still a valuable contributor to the household. He has since brought in another live bird (fortunately we heard him come in and Andy booted both Chakli and the bird outside before they came into the kitchen), and today he left a decapitated mouse on the porch steps. Geez, my house is like National Geographic.
Sahana is very alert these days. She's a serious kid, though: she does smile and laugh, but usually she's got this very concerned look on her face like she's trying to figure out what the heck is going on. She's very calm, though. Even after she wakes up in the morning, she's not screaming for food, and will (mostly) wait patiently until Andy or I are done brushing our teeth, fixing her bottle, and getting our own tea/coffee to feed her (interestingly, her name means "patience" in Sanskrit). Our au pair taught herself some basic shantala massage (baby massage), which perhaps helps to keep Sahana in her relaxed state. Here is a photo of Sahana getting her daily massage:
Meanwhile, we have new tensions on the Paras front. He is deathly afraid of our cat, Chakli. He used to be fine with Chakli, until an incident that happened about a week ago. I was in the living room feeding Sahana, and Paras was with our au pair in the kitchen, getting breakfast. Suddenly I heard this piercing, terrified scream. It was so loud that I thought that Paras got burned with hot water or something. When I got into the kitchen, I saw that Chakli had brought in a bird. A LIVE bird. So the bird was crashing against the window trying to get out, Chakli was jumping all over the place trying to kill the bird, Paras was screaming his head off, and the au pair was using a broom to get Chakli away from the bird and figuring out how to get the window open (Sahana was still in the living room, happily playing with the monkey on her play gym). I was able to separate all parties and get the window open, and the bird was clearly not too injured as he flew away. I then had to clean up the resulting mess, which was a disgusting mix of feathers and bird poop.
Anyway, that was Paras' first encounter with killing/death, and all he could talk about all day was how Chakli had a bird in his mouth and spit it out. He was very upset about it. And now he is terrified of Chakli and screams whenever the cat is in the house. I really think he's scarred for life, and is going to be a cat-hater.
Poor Chakli is starved for attention, and I think the bird was his way of telling us that he feels like he is still a valuable contributor to the household. He has since brought in another live bird (fortunately we heard him come in and Andy booted both Chakli and the bird outside before they came into the kitchen), and today he left a decapitated mouse on the porch steps. Geez, my house is like National Geographic.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
The Good Luck Continues
It looks like the sleeping at night stretch is not a fluke -- Sahana slept till 6-7am all week, with a brief hiccup on Thursday, when she woke up at 4 but was able to go back to sleep after about 30 minutes without a feeding. In fact, today she was still sleeping at 7am when we woke her up! It was the first time in months (including during my pregnancy) that I was able to sleep a solid 6+ hour stretch.
We had a fun weekend, beginning with a trip to the Farmers' Market yesterday. It's sort of the place to see and be seen in New Haven, so a lot of Paras' former friends from the Law School daycare were around and Paras got to play with them, as shown in the video. You can see the two older bossy girls who were making the rules (which were, as far as I could tell, arbitrary -- "you can't touch the frisbee unless we say so," being one example) of the frisbee game. But Paras, like the other little kids, paid attention and just did whatever they said.
Today the plan was to go to the beach with my friend Lauren and her family. But, despite the weather forecasts for the weekend, it rained. So instead we did a playdate at our house which, while not any less chaotic than our other mornings, gave me and Andy some pleasant adult conversation.
Meanwhile, my physical ailments continue. I went to the doctor last week for my achilles' heel tendonitis. I mentioned that I had a baby, and the doctor just looked at me like I was crazy. She asked me when, and I told her in June. She said, "You look really skinny." It didn't come out in a complimentary tone, but I of course just shrugged, like, "Yeah, I'm just one of those lucky people." The doctor didn't seem convinced, and ordered me to take blood test. Her "hunch" was right, and it turns out that I have hyperthyroidism, which apparently happens to 10% of women postpartum. The worst part is that after a few months it becomes hypothyroidism, which means that I'll be fat and exhausted right as I go back to work. Yay! It supposedly sorts itself out eventually, but I have to say that I'm a little frustrated -- this pregnancy is apparently the gift that keeps on giving.
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