Take it or leave it

I want to do many things in the near future. A lot of constraints on the way. A lot of things which are not under my control. Yeah that is life.

Besides, I want to buy a cool cell phone, a video camera, a car and a flat. I have been struggling to prioritise the list.

A lot of books lying around craving for attention. ‘Avenger’ by Fredrick Forsyth, Jeffery Archer’s ‘The collected short stories’, The Sunday Times’ ‘Undercover Economist’, Sujatha’s ‘Pirivom Santhipom’.

A lot of movies to catch up. A few blog drafts to complete and publish.

A few decisions to take …

Is someone reading my blogs ?

I – Hey da .. Happy returns of the day !!

She – Happy returns to you too …

I – Nandri Hai ..

She – Hello .. Where is my gift ?

I – Yeah … Here it is ..

She – Wow … I love donuts …

(After eating a couple ..)

She – Yummy da ..

I – Good ..

She – What else have you got me ?

I – Well … I didn’t have time to go out and you know that

She – Yeah … but only donuts is a little too much ..

I – Think of the people who don’t get donuts also ..

She (eating her third) – Who ?

I – Well, that is a tough question …

(After a while)

I – Those on Orkut …

She – What ?

I – Orkut used to say “No donuts for you …” he he

She – What nonsense ..

I – (still laughing) It was a joke ..

She – Shut up ..

I – It is a guy’s thing …  am not surprised that you didn’t get iyt

She – Shut up ..

I – Well … Actually …

She – I told you to shut up ..

I – ok

She – You don’t seem to learn .. grow up …

I – Ok … Happy 3rd wedding anniversary .. Love you

She – Me too da. But I want my gift …

I have been on a discovery mission in the last three weeks on how to put a baby to sleep. Thus far, I have been very successful and infact better than the misus, but definitely not without help.

After 20 to 25 minutes of feeding your baby is ready to sleep. Count yourself the luckiest couple if your baby sleeps immediately after feeding. You may choose to skip this post, comment if you have to and move on. If you don’t have a baby yet, you should go till the end of this post and also make notes.

For those unlucky folks whose baby does not sleep right after feeding, welcome to parenthood. Now for the preachy bit.

First thing you do is to make her feel comfortable. Babies like to be warm. So wrap her to make her warm. You would see an adorable smile once you do this. Don’t think that she is smiling at you. She is happy about the situation. Some babies sleep immediately. But most don’t.

The next thing is to get her into the zone. Babies are least bothered about the toys you wave infront of them. But they like when you talk. Atleast mine does. So i talk to her about anything and everything. The point is not to stop inbetween. Keep talking. She would have stopped crying at this point and would be listening to whatever you talk.

The next item on the list is to start singing a lullaby. Lullaby need not exactly be a lullaby but some kind of soothing music. It is important for the parents to sing because the baby feels happy when she hears her parents. I have started to force Illayaraja on her. In her first week she liked whenever I sang “Ilaya Nila” song. Now she has evolved and wants me to sing “Pala Palakura Pagala Nee” from Ayan. The idea is to try and sing a lot of songs till you find what she likes. The song plus a gently swaying movement is heaven and she sleeps in a while. Keep holding her for a few more minutes. 10 to 15 may be. Keep singing, keep talking and there she is sleeping beautifully in your hands.

The last and final item is hope. Hope that she continues to sleep for the next couple of hours ateast. Even if she doesn’t, hope that there is a vacant bed in the dorm in your office the next morning. This is very important as we all know that hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies

At the end of the session, you would have spoken to the baby more than what you have to your spouse till date, you would have sung 100 songs and songs that you thought you never knew, you would have wrote a song for your baby. Yeah she brings out the creative best in you.

Happy parenting

I have been very busy recently. Been singing lullabies, changing nappies and all that stuff. Yeah, parenthood embraced us during the early hours on the 5th of June. We have named her Nethra.

All the tension during my wife’s relatively short labour (*touchwood*) of a little over 2 hours multiplied a million times when the hospital staff took over 30 minutes to tell us that both mother and baby are fine. So when the doctor wrapped her in a pink towel and said “Look at your beautiful daughter” and when she looked right into my eyes, it was a great feeling.

I have been off  most of the things that are a part of my routine. No reading, No blogging, no emailing, no chatting, no Orkut, no Facebook. Infact it took me a few days to send the pics of Nethra to the near and dear. The learning curve has already begun for us. Don’t be surprised when you read my next post on how to put a 3 week old to sleep.

Nothing much has happened on the job front. But now that Paapa has come, I have made myself available for any work. Besides, I have started blogging more frequently at work. Nothing serious types though. I will definitely cross post a few of my interesting posts.

6 months of food at Mom’s and MIL’s mean that my waist size has increased again. I have never been a big fan of the Gym. With the commute to work ruling out any time for exercise or cycling in the mornings, I am planning to attack the swimming pool in my office. Let me see for how long I go there.

Another thing To Do in my list is to popularise this blog. I am a fame monger and my erstwhile Vetti Payan blog was so famous. It is a shame that my gmail account was hacked and blogspot decided to delete that blog. I promptly renewed this domain and the next step is to write regularly.

My next post is already ready. Will post it tomorrow. See ya …