Valaikappu for Baby Reddiar

Like last time, this time also I had 3 parties generously hosted by colleagues at work, friends and by Anand. Had fun in all these parties. The most special was at home hosted by Anand as he has prepared all (well, most) of the food items and planned everything.

Usually for the second baby we dont have Seemantham. But we do celebrate Valaikappu. My parents were here like last time. Here is last years celebration: http://aboutyouwithyou.blogspot.ca/2011/09/seemantham-and-valaikappu-31aug2011.html

Unlike last time, we woke up fairly; I at 5:30, mom around 6:30 and Anand around 4 AM. By then Anand started cooking and was already mid way through. I started helping clean up, make coffee and do small things around. Majority of the cooking was taken over by Anand.

Here is the Puja table that we set up.

one more:

We had quite a few guests and I am glad to note that everyone whom we invited showed up.

Anand and I...

With mom and Dad

Blessings time for the little bun.

Everyone loved the food, i cant blame them. It really was yum.
We also had a little get together from the girls from my college days. 

Day before Jr Anand's arrival

Bags are packed, room is ready and pre-op registration done. Only thing remaining is for me to actually be prepared. I thought 9 months is a long time, I will be prepared but no. I am only getting more and more anxious. I guess its normal, considering a C section is quite a big deal, quite a life changing event.

We prepared Megha as much as we can, that she will be with my mom and dad for 2 nights. I am a little worried. This is the first time since she was born that I will be away from her during nights.

I hope and pray everything goes well.

As of now, nothing is more important than the well being of the baby. For that to happen, I play a major role. I intend to remain positive, push out all the negativity and concentrate only on the baby. 

Jr Reddiar's Nursery

Baby's room has been ready for over a month now. It has come a very long way from being a guest room first, then as a room where everything gets 'stored' to finally being a baby's room. It has come together quite beautifully. Anand moved quite a bit of furniture around to make it more roomy. I am very happy with the results. All the baby big furniture (crib/ changing station/ glider) is from Megha's time with the exception of a few things like bouncer, art work around etc

Its an animal themed room. The colors seem a bit muted in the pictures as the paint in the room is beige but when you really walk into the room, you can feel the warmth.

Here are the pictures! This is how it looks like towards the entrance. The glider and the ottoman for perfect.

Then comes the crib...I wonder if the baby will sleep OK or he would like Megha who would rather sleep with mommy and daddy. This time I did not buy any crib bumpers etc. As such, we needed to take them away to let the air flow for Megha.

Right beside the crib is the bed where we are planning on sleeping. Baby's bouncer is right beside the bed, for now. Some books to read as well.

Here is the changing station that sits right beside the ottoman. New mattress and cover are bought and I love the Noah's arch sticker that I found. The musical mobile is from Megha's time.

one more:

Here is the entrance towards the room. It looks a bit eerie (bad lighting) in this picture but its actually quite nice in reality :)

The chest...I have put all the baby cloths in these drawers as Anand and I are using the closet for now (we made room for my parents in the master bedroom). I made a diaper cake :)

Here was Megha's room back in those baby days.

http://aboutyouwithyou.blogspot.ca/2011/11/nursery.html

Good days and Bad days

As the due date is coming closer, everyday I seem to experience a new thing. Last couple of weeks, I had been craving raw rice. I eat a little just to get my mind off it. Yesterday I felt like eating a little dirt. This obviously means that I lack some vitamin and its body's way to tell me to get more blood work done. I left a message at my doctors office, lets see what he says.
I also feel extremely breathless when I lie down. Last night was really bad. Taking deep rapid breaths even with mouth didnt help. Sometime past 2 AM is finally when I fell asleep only to wake up again to use the washroom.

I guess this is all very normal part of pregnancy. Cant wait for the little guy to be born. Love him to bits already. 

One more month to go for Jr A Reddiar

I am 34 weeks as of today. Since the date has been scheduled for 21st Aug at 8 AM, I know I have to prepare myself for that. With exactly a month to go from now, I started feeling a lot more nervous than before. As such, since the beginning I was a bit-off but as the days come closer I feel a lot more nervous. I guess thats all normal for everyone. I am constantly worried about so many things, financial, emotional, whether I would do OK at all etc.

We started looking into baby names, as we already know the date and time of birth. The baby nursery is also coming along very nicely. One more change to be done to the room and I will be ready to take pictures and show off to the whole world!

Health is OK. As OK as it can get when someone is at 34 weeks. I feel tired a lot and I wan to lie down all the time. I dont, rather I cannot sleep but I just want to lie down.
It takes me full 20 seconds to turn positions from left to right when sleeping!! Ha ha
Had a little scare as the first blood showed signs of gestational diabetics. But when re-did the test, it came back normal. Phew.

Baby is active. He loves it when Megha sits close to me, he is always moving around when she is sitting too close to me (in my lap i mean). She talks to the baby and she is excited about the baby. She helped Anand a little (as much as she was allowed for safety reasons) assemble the crib, helped me clean up afterwards and is already displaying a great love for her baby brother.

She was mesmerized by the musical mobile that I hung over the baby's changing station. We used that for Megha until she was about a year old. After that I had to put it away as she was able to reach the moving animals and was dragging them towards her; was afraid it will break and she will get hurt. She probably remembers the music distinctively as she heard it for several months until she was a year. She told me she will wind the mobile for her brother when we are changing his bum :)

29 weeks

As of today I am exactly 29 weeks with the baby boy. Now that I am in my third trimester, the fatigue hit me real hard. It's a good thing I took off from work; I don't think I would have been able to continue much longer if I hadn't. The tiniest of chores is wearing me out. I feel sad that I have to leave Megha at the day care between 10 and 5. When will I ever get to spend this time alone with her again? Never!

I also plunged into cleaning. Probably the nesting instincts. I want the baby room ready NOW. I really am getting stresse over the room now. I cleaned out a bit but there's still so much to do. I am trying to take things slowly and do one small thing a day but I really wish the baby room is ready. And the hospital bag! I still have 2 months plus, so I guess that can wait. Don't know.
Well, at least Megha's room is de-cluttered and it's looking much nicer now.

I feel very anxious lately. Especially when Anand is away on night shifts or is with friends late nights... I no longer feel safe at nights.
Many nights I am up until 2 or 3 AM simply thinking. I guess that's where the good old Indian joint family support system played a key role. Someone assuring that it will be ok. It maynot really work out the way I planned it wanted but it will work out.

And not to mention, I am so bored of Indian restaurants here. I feel like eating something really spicy, even at the cost of heart burns! Ha ha! 

Updates

I have taken a few weeks off from my work. I hope I will be able to concentrate on myself and the baby in the next few weeks. I had written a bunch of things to do when I am off and I hope to get to them. One day at a time.

I have some ideas for the baby room. I really want deep blue elephants and polka dots theme :)
Not sure if I can really pull this off but lets see. Still have to make cozy space for the baby, like I did for megha.

This baby sure is more active lately. He likes to move about a lot in the evenings. His movements are kicks are much more prominent than Megha. Sometimes its really bad that I cry out loud, quite literally. I have to hang in there, tell myself to hang in there, it will pass. It does pass, eventually but not without a lot of tears. At times, because of all this, I feel a little resentful. Not towards the baby but towards the pregnancy. I feel why am I the one to go through this. Why doesnt a man's life change as much; why should I get to be the one curled up in fetal position waiting for the pain to pass. Why cant I simply be. Those moments pass but not like I said, not without some resentful-ness. Then I remind myself, is this not what I wanted. Was this what I wanted?
The baby, yes. Everything else. No.

Back to the baby room. I am really excited. 

Little guy loves to move....

Baby Anand loves to move a lot. He is especially active between 6:30 and 7:30...the time when I am in the train on the way to work. Like clock work he wakes up 6:25 and makes sure I know that he is up! I only hope he sticks with this schedule when he is born.
He also loves to move a lot when everything is quite in the nights. He doesn't usually stick with schedule at nights. When everything is quite, he loves to love around. I talk to him sometime and at other times when I am too tired, I just put my hand on my tummy and massage him.

This afternoon Megu and I spoke to him for along time. Megha loved interacting with him. She asked him if he wants milk or water and thought that pouring water on my tummy would give the baby water :)!
She even read Mickey Mouse club house Farmer Mickey stories to him. He seemed to enjoy all this attention quite a bit. He moved around for a while and fell asleep after about 30 minutes. Megha sure will make an awesome big sister. She even said he poked him :)

He is almost pound now and is as big as a spaghetti squash. Needless to say, I am more tired than normal. The carpal tunnel syndrome kicked in a lot sooner this time, compared to the last time. 

Baby movement!

Today I felt the baby move for the very first time! It's a wonder how nature works.
I am so guilty. I hardly write anything anymore.

Updates (or is it?)

Things are so different with this pregnancy. So very different compared to my last pregnancy. They say each pregnancy is different and while I was partially prepared for that, I just wasnt prepared for the intensity of change.

With my first pregnancy, I gradually put on weight. This one seems so different. I started with 130 lb (60 ks), lost some weight and at 15 weeks, I am still 130 lb. By now I should have gained at least 8 lb. Oh well, there is still time. History shows I have no problem putting on weight. ha ha

The major downside is the sleep deprivation. Since day 1 of the pregnancy I had trouble staying asleep and I thought come second trimester, it will get better. But no. its getting worse. For example this morning (or night, i must say), i woke up at 2 AM and thats it for the night. I simply cannot go back to sleep. Its funny though, all day I wait for bed time (which is not a good sign at all) and when it finally does come, i cannot sleep and when I do sleep, I cannot stay asleep.

I think about Megha, about baby, about how life will change again, my parents visit, my work, bills, C-section, whether or not I will be OK....mostly I worry. Some of the popular pregnancy books say its normal to feel this way, this way of not being happy, that it will be OK in the end. One can only hope. I want to cry most of the time. Its an effort to get past a single day without crying.

I havent even started looking into baby names yet. With the first one, by now Anand and I had a list made. Oh well. I wish to fall asleep and when I wake up, it is time delivery. I keep telling myself and i know it that baby is more important than anything right now, so, I try to stay positive, which is not very easy these days to me.
I hope the baby understands that to hate being pregnant does not mean I hate the baby itself. I feel guilty for feeling this way. I had a happy pregnancy with Megha. How I wish this time around its the same. It is not right or even appropriate to feel this way, but this is what i feel right now and I just cannot help it.

So as you can now see, why I hardly write anything in this space anymore.

P.S: I dragged myself to get a couple of baby things last night. In an attempt to feel more positive. One step at a time and one day at a time. 

12 Weeks Already!

As of today, the bundle is 12 weeks in my tummy. How time flies? Somedays it only feels like yesterday that I found out and somedays it feels like I can't wait for the baby to be born. I wish I write more about this journey. I guess so many things are going through my mind right now that at times I have to stop to catch my breath.

12 weeks. 12 full weeks.

Nausea is getting better and I only hope that it goes away eventually. I have not lost anymore weight since 2 weeks which is a good sign. My appetite seems to return too. So, I guess I will catch up with my lost weight soon enough.
I still sleep well only on alternate days. I wonder why.

People keep askng me if I want a boy or a girl. At this point, I honestly can say that it doesn't matter. That's the truth. Megha and I keep talking about the baby. This morning she said, "your tummy is big momma. You have a baby". So sweet :)

I spent so much time with her this long weekend that I dread how I am going to balance between the new baby and Megha. I hope I will find the answer soon enough.
This baby is already loved to bits and pieces. Can't wait for the arrival!

No cravings per se. Only thing is, I seem to get lot of heart burns with outside food. 

BIG Announcement!!

Very happy to announce that Anand, Megha and I are expecting our second addition to our family! Baby Reddiar Two, cant wait to meet You.
As of today, I am exactly 10 weeks pregnant. below Early Dating ultra sound scan was done on January 26th, 2015.

Expected due date is 1st Sept 2015 but my doctor thinks it will be last week of August for sure and I will not go beyond 25th Aug. Megha and I are in December and Anand and Baby would in Aug!

Some things to note:
1. Morning sickness has been pretty bad, unlike when I was with Megha. I cannot stand my morning prenatals. My doctor says, skip that morning one and take just the folic acid pill so that at least I can function in the morning. Tried taking the pill, with food, after food, before food, after 30 mins, before 30 mins...all sorts of combinations and nothing works. I almost choke.

2. I am tired ALL the time. But I am almost dead close to 4 PM in the evening, whether I rest in the afternoon or not. It gets better around 6 PM but gets bad again at 7:30 PM.

3. Weight, 58 Kgs, for now.

4. We found out about this pregnancy on 26th Dec 2104. I wanted to wait until after the first scan to announce.

Very Happy. Megha will have a sibling and our family will be complete.