Out of sight - Snippets for a lil boy!

Dear V,
Now that your Ammamma is here, I have been leaving you with her everyday for a while - 2-3 hours. Today, I left in the morning for some work in the bank and came a while later to see you cozily sleeping, snuggled against her. Mom says you were good - happily playing with her, enjoying your bath and even sleeping without nursing. (No! I am not leaving you and getting back to work anytime soon)While I am happy that you could manage so well without me, it also made me realize that letting go is easy for children. It is us parents that struggle with it.

Love Amma,

P.S - When you see people throwing trash anywhere, go and pick it up, and put it in the bin in front of them. I have realized that it might be one of the ways they learn.

The curious face - Snippet of the day

V,

You had your curious face on the entire time we were in the mall - it was quite an effort to restrain your little hands from pulling stuff off the aisle. You also had your first auto ride today.

I do not mean to be preachy here, but then there are small pieces of advice that I feel I should share. Of course, you can choose to take it or leave it - but I will put in effort to instill them in you.

Say your 'Thank Yous' - not just to the people who help you, but even to people who are doing their job - like the courier guys, the housekeeping staff, the auto driver, the security bhaiyyas.

Love,
Amma

A year old - Snippet of the day

Realized that I do not do great with blogging after repeated failures. Here I am again with a snippet series. Hope I do better.

Dear V,
You just had your first pirannal (the star birthday, mallu birthday or as we call it - the payasam wala birthday). We have gone through a lot together this year, glued to each other. Now, when you are almost a year old, I understand that you will slowly drift away - when you take your first steps, when you discover a new toy/object, when you jump away from my lap! Letting go is hard, but that is how it is, though I will always lurk around and watch you.

Love,
Amma

How I spent my New Year’s Eve - 31 Dec 2013

While the whole world was partying hard, getting drunk, having fun or generally busy in bringing in 2014, I was in the surgical ICU of a hospital, post an emergency caesarean section. Our little boy (who will be called Peanut on the blog) was born at 2:23 pm and he was also in the NICU for observation because he arrived in style (gate crashing our non-existent New Year’s Eve plans) about a month earlier than expected. His birth and my pregnancy stories deserve separate posts which I hope to document soon.

As it was the New Year’s Eve, the surgical ICU was almost empty, baring me, another girl who also underwent a c-sec and the nurses. It felt very strange to bring in the New Year with a bunch of complete strangers, confined to the bed as I could not move an inch without feeling immense pain. Many women define the happiest moment of their lives as the ones where they delivered their kids. How did I feel? It was a mixed bag of emotions. I was definitely super-excited but I was worried about Peanut being in the NICU, apprehensive about the pain that I would have to go through post surgery and anxious about the next few days. I made the nurses call the NICU time and again to check status, and they kept telling me there is nothing to worry. 

Come New Year’s 2014, and finally I was sent to the room and pretty soon, Peanut was also released from the NICU. Have things been super smooth post that – oh, definitely not, with all the feeding challenges, recovery from surgery, sleepless nights, nappy changes, Peanut being on antibiotics and so on. But yes of course, it has been the most adventurous and exciting event in our lives so far.