baby gears

Hello! After a long break we are Back. We thank the Lord for the safe journey, the abundant blessings through the three weeks into the third trimester.

What have we been up-to? Gathering baby gears. After weeks of shop-denial, I finally got online, starting with comparing strollers & car-seats. We have no more time to loose.

Search for the perfect Travel system: Top concerns were safety, ease to fold & lift, color-combo.

Sifting through reviews upon reviews, multi day store jaunts and browse-a-thons, we narrowed down on a make & model. Oh the choices are plenty. When we were ready to order online, the

inventory of good deals seem to slip away in the last minute. Working through it I plotted the online-store-inventory-depletion-pattern on multi dimensional plane. Anyways we ended up with a deal in a brick-and-mortar store. The only thing left todo: Travel with the baby.

We got up early one saturday, for the legendary IKEA trip. After sifting through the showroom, we build up the theme of ocean and sea creatures for the crib set. I soon figured out the components involved: crib+mattress+protection pad+bumper+fitted sheet+dust ruffle+valence...I still have to figure out the purpose of the valance.

The Glider saga: While taking a break from the walks around the aisles, on a comfortable Glider (rocking chair) boosted with a Ottoman, the priority of the Glider suddenly got bumped up. After carefully dissecting the details, we agreed on the need, but the placement among the house furniture was still open. In store number 2, while taking another of these breaks, we conversed, compared and consulted to agree on a pick. I borrowed the measuring tape for the second time from the store-guy, noted the box dimensions for the brand, went out to see if the box will fit in the car along with other items. After All-Clear was issued, we waited for the store-guy to return, had a bottle of water. At last, he came, I asked, he said, that out of 7 models on display, only one was available. Of course, not the one we picked!

These shopping experience have been intense info gathering, multi-column comparative study, physical and mental energy draining days. Yesterday we counted 31 decision points. Overall this has been a wonderful learning experience, and the hope of parenting ahead, not to mention the shedding of some pounds.

Happy Birthday, America !

The name game

Well, it turns out, picking names when there are unknowns of gender, first name that are easy to pronounce as well, middle name that goes well with the first name, family suggestions to deal delicately, factors, it is quite a challenge.

Vivek sounds wise, but taken; Rohan is to ascend; Vinay is humble; Nathan means 'He gave'; John 'God is gracious'; Johan is a variation but means the same; Steve was a hit but too popular; Tarun is young; Nihar doesn't ring any bells; Timothy was a faithful companion, 'honoring God'; Luke, Joshua, Gabriel are all nice; How would Simon or James Cherian sound; I liked Caleb; She liked Joel, 'the Lord is willing'.

On the other hand, Grace is so good, should it be first or middle; Cloe is verdant; Venus; Stuthi is praise, hard to say; Suma, Linsy , Nanma are all mallu; Meghan is taken; Kripa is grace/blessing/mercy (depending on context); I liked Lydia; She liked Esha; Hanna, Emma , Eva, Divya, Ria, Tina, Vinney Jr are all nice. Mercy can be the middle , but will it go well with Grace or Faith.

You see..

milestone 28

This is captain joe reporting..did you copy , we just passed milestone 28. We have been drifting along.... somedays overcast, backaches; somedays windcast, moodswings; somedays suncast, chirpy. One thing that has been constant is the kick routinue. We thank God for that.

I can't believe that the third leg is already here; 28 weeks zoomed by. On hindsight the second leg was a breeze. We tried Tuesdays-walk-in-the-park, long shopping mall jaunts and even a morning of pilates/yoga.
The load is building up, the thigs are complaining. I think, now we will have to shift gears.
For now, the Word of the week is: Rest & Relax

By the way, baby's skill of the week is supposedly Blinking.

Kick boxing

These are days of kick boxing, strongerNstronger in last two weeks. 

After trying few nights, waiting on the belly, to feel the kick, I got one - the other day. It was Great !  Some of the active days, the kicks are all around the hemisphere, no pattern what-so-ever. Mini must be expert in somersaulting by now. It already seems a long journey, from zygote to a kicking-being. They say, it must be boy, from the kick style, a minijo.

Some days are very quite. Ofcourse, if you don't hear back from the baby, you start the wonder game.. is everything OK with him/her.

If anybody is curious to see kicking, here's a kick-video from the Internet (repeat, Not Ours)  

hanging out with the Belly

With the presence of the baby becoming more tangible with visible movements, we find ourselves talking to mini. Waiting for the kicks are getting rewarding. So hanging out with the belly on the weekend seems like a fun thing to do.

Mom has wakeups during the nights, then listens to music or sermons or even youtube Frasier in the attempt to sleep. Why is there no kicking since morning today, baby must be bored...As you see , lots of anxieties.

The words of wisdom from family: Take walks, it will make a healthy baby. So we are off to a stroll on the minuteman trail.

The six meal solution

Reading through the "six meal solutions" & calcium-protein overlappers (yogurt), makes you feel how little we are thinking or eating healthy. For now, we are loading the lunch bag with triple fruit load, jelly on wheat-wich and the entree itself. Some days I sneak in a zip-load of baby carrots, but they invariably come back home. Apparently it takes too much time to eat them.

The nature's best source of calcium, is thankfully mom's choice drink & cereal base. 1% Milk. The motivation reached its peak when collard-green was suggested in the grocery list. Well, I didn't want to miss the chance, collard-green it was. With great fan-fare we made collard with shredded coconut sprinkles to tone it down. It was just a little more bitter that mustard-greens. So we are back to square one. I tried collard, mixed with tuna for lunch... the lunch box found its way home, half empty, half full.

In its hay days a pint of ice-cream found its way to the freezer, but the cravings took a U-turn 1/3rd of the way. Now the ice-cream finds itself neglected. Same story with pickles, apples & orange-juice

Smoothie are a big hit, so are cranberry juice, pears & oranges (if they are super sweet). So we have checked off protein, carbs, vitamin C, omega+, calcium from the daily dose; with minimal red meat, all the iron has to come from the prenatal pill. phew, Are we missing anything?

Let it sink in

Now the fact has sunken in, we can feel the presence of the little one in our thoughts, talks and recently at the dinner-table.

Initially the thought was that the bulge attracts too much attention. So let us layer it.

No hiding of the belly now, at work, with friends or at church.

Did I mentioned that, mom's T shirt now says "I love my bump"

Mini is perfecting the yawning & hiccups here: