Baby Sutra: Soothing a crying baby

Mommy, I want to tell you something. All that you do to soothe me and make me stop crying, really really helps. But I am just a little baby, experiencing the biggest change that I would ever encounter in my entire life. One that I didn’t even choose to undertake – that of leaving the cozy warmth of your cushioned  tummy for this unfamiliar, unwobbly and bright outside world.

So please bear with me while I make my best effort to adjust to this change of breathing through my nose, feeding through my mouth, getting my metabolism engine started and pooping it all out.

I do understand that bringing me to this world is no easy task and you are tired and exhausted too. It pains me to see you in tears sometimes, trying to  soothe me down through one of my wailing sessions or my tummy cramps fighting your own fatigue and the guilt and helplessness of not being able to comfort me. Even I  wish I was born with a better vocabulary than a mono rhythmic wail really, so life was a tad bit easier for all of us. But alas, I believe nature has its own reasons for what it does. I am just grateful for it to have let you be my mommy.

I love your undying spirit of making all efforts to comfort me and soothe me. And trust me, I am making an effort every day too, to grow up a bit and be a little less difficult. So today, I wanted to share with you a few Baby Sutras that really really work. Some of these you’ve already tried, others are what my fellow babies (oh yes, we have a secret communication language!) have shared with me.

1. Music: Your heartbeat is the best music for my ears. Actually, my entire body. Your voice, is just next to it. 9 months, I have swung to the rhythm of this heart and nothing ever soothes me more than to be really close to your heart. So if you think I am being cranky, finicky or difficult, just hold me close to you in a silent place with no distractions. Just breathe and hum a little and give me some time. Unless my body is giving me a difficult time, I will quieten down and be peacefully asleep. Try it mommy, it really works, even if I am a toddler and not a little baby anymore. It still works. At least, it soothes me the most.
2. Sleep: You know when I was in your tummy and slept most part of the day while you went about doing your work or exercising for yourself and me? What made me fall asleep was the gentle slushes that rocked me back and forth in that cushioned cocoon of mine. Replicate that mommy. If you want to put me to sleep, hold me in your arms and just sway sideways,as if you are gently walking, shifting your weight from one hip to the other. That’s it. I’ll be asleep in your arms before you get tired of the walk.
3. Food: This food you give me, makes my tummy twist and turn and bloat and sink every day. I don’t know how you eat it with such relish. For me, it is quite unnerving, specially the small pockets of air that pinch my insides. You call me colicky but all I am trying to do is get over the pain pockets. You know mommy, what you eat makes a huge difference. The days when you take that magic potion of saunf (fennel), methi (fenugreek) and ajwain (carrom seeds) water, I feel less ‘gassy’and when you eat your fruits. And that spot of heeng (asafoetida) that you wiggle on my belly button does wonders. Also, when you make me lie on my tummy, with my legs folded under me and stroke me from my back to the neck…. i just love it. When the air leaves my little mouth with a pop, I burp off to a peaceful sleep.
4. Stress: Last, but not the least, while you may think I am too little to understand, I have super sharp antennas that can pick up signals to your stress even in my sleep. Mommy, take a deep breath or two, or 3.4.5.6. Take as many as needed. And realize that you are just stressed. Do yoga or cardio or whatever. Pause. Relax. Make arrangements around you that support you. Speak up and let people know what you need. This is a special year for you, as is for me. So make things work for you. It will get better. And while right now, you way be wanting to run away sometimes , I know it is momentary. Take those breaths, de-stress and bring back your strength of that unending love to the surface again.

You and I are an awesome team! Together, we can and we will have a whale of a time!

WorldPeace the newborn way!

 

When you hold a newborn in your hands, the perspective about life goes through a major change.

The baby itself is a big miracle. One single cell progressed into this miniature angel just keeps you in awe. Along with that comes the realisation that everyone around you, including yourself, steered life the same way -being completely dependent on others.
A highly successful individual or a complete failure, a domineering person or a weak one, a happy-go-lucky person or a perpetually depressed one – they were all born as these miniature angels and started life crying for milk, poop, pee, gas, cold, hot, loneliness, comfort, everything.
They all were born dependent on their mothers and with their world restricted to their milk factories.
A random thought as I hold my new born dearly and dream up a happy future for him – wouldn’t it be absolutely wonderful if everyone, in the moment of getting affronted by someone at being taken over by their egos, greed, power could just remember this perspective, just then.

How, the other person who seems so over powering or so beaten down, was at the beginning, just a new born wailing away for his/her mother’s attention.
Then, maybe all the differences would vanish.
Then,maybe most (if not all) of the strife in the world may just end even before it begins.

Then,maybe the world would manage to be the beautiful place where all of us would want to welcome our newborns.

 

The Journey back from the turning pages!

Heard these rants and some other quite similar from a few friends recently. Some are not avid readers and hence not too privy to the world of spending time with books, but some are, surprisingly, book lovers themselves. Most common of the rants are to the tune of –

“He never listens to me. I call out his name, I give clear instructions and he just ignores. This is not acceptable.”

” She is right here in the room and I am loud enough, why do I have to call her out 6 times before she even acknowledges me?”

Valid questions and to some extent, valid frustration because, you are, truly, in that room. However, he (or she) is not. Unknown to you, he may be a thousand miles away, or millions or just somewhere deep down close to the earth’s core. It all depends on the current book in his hand!

Yes! A book makes us travel, far & beyond or deep and within. And both these distances are difficult to traverse when asked to return to the current physical world.

Difficult because one, people in the current physical world seldom realise that a reader, while in the room, is really on a journey. Two, as a reader, the person seldom wants to make that journey back to the current physical world, till his desire of that day’s journey is fulfilled. Its as simple as that.

So next time when you dote over your kid being a voracious reader but fail to give him time to come back and respond to your call out, treat him like he is far away & allow him the time needed to make that journey back.

Cravings of an expectant mommy!

Cravings during pregnancy are common, at least they begin somewhere in the second trimester. Usually, these cravings are for food – sour, sweet, bitter, burnt, lime, chocolates, ice creams, spices and the works. Some mommies have a wardrobe craving too – fits right, shows my bump & not the flab, color – oh yes, that’s a big one. And then, there are some mommies, like me, who get the toughest of them all – the travel craving!

Oh, I can’t tell you how itchy & bitchy this craving is. It makes me drool over travel maps & brochures. It makes me make prospective itineraries like a crazy treasure hunter. It makes me dream & dream & wake up craving, even more.

Travelogues have been banned from my FB feed by my very-harrased-husband but the Friday paper can’t get banned, and that becomes my gourmet meal to whet the craving.

Everybody waits for the first trimester to end, to be assured that the ‘delicate’ time is over, the bun-in-the-oven news can be shared between giggles & a long desired bye-bye to the nausea & the frills is doled out. For me, I waited for the day just to hear the golden words from my doc, “All’s well & you can get on the road now….. for a couple of months that is”. Spoil sport and an angel, all rolled into one.

Lo & behold, a month long travel plan materialized in a day’s time. A rather safe travel plan actually, as it was all around visiting family in quaint little cities (which turned out to be a big boon after all) and a very convincingly negotiated mountain road-trip at the end!

The experience was surreal, the love & pampering absolutely nurturing & the conversations with nature at the really slow pace of this travel, very soothing.It did make me feel I had done well to satiate the craving and I could now get back to discovering the other mundane ones.

I did manage to find a couple – craving for ripe & taut pears (not babugosha or an overripe one, please!) and for cookies (ended up baking a batch of almond biscottis at 11 in the night, when I have never had a teeny weeny sweet-tooth in my body, ever).

I was just about settling in, to move on with the trimesters when the craving to visit Prague (no idea where it came from, but very specific& very clear – just like someone craving for a dark Belgian chocolate sundae) hit me very strongly this morning…..

So much for the easy to find pears & easy to bake biscottis….. 😀

I am sure you would have had you share of funny, whacky cravings too. I would love to hear the stories..