Introducing Nandini Kiran

Born on March 14, 2011 at 8:13 pm.  She weighed 6lbs and 4 ounces and was 19 inches long. 

I started pushing about an hour after this, but had to stop and wait for the doctor to get there!  Once she was ready it was only a matter of minutes.  I already got to feel her head, and the nurse could see hair sticking out from the top of her head even.  I had an amazing nurse how made the process of pushing so calm and relaxing.  She talked me through everything without any screaming or gross analogies.  I loved that.  (Much better than the day shift nurse who left a huge bruise on my arm from the IV that is still there a week later..)   I think the nurse did most of the work and I honestly don't really remember the doctor doing much at all.  She caught the baby and massaged my stomach for five seconds, that was about it. 

I was in such a daze by the time the doctor got there.  I could feel my contractions a little bit, but not much.  I knew my anesthesiologist, so he decided to give me the higher dose of medicine "because she's a tall girl" ha!  I totally could not feel any more sharp pain anymore.  I only felt a little pressure after that but even that went away quickly.   When the night shift nurse came on, she said I was ready to push right away.  I kept telling my mom and Ryan to call Dad and Anuj to make sure they were on their way to the hospital.  Before I had a chance to think about it we started doing 'practice pushes' with my mom on one side and Ryan on the other.  He was too freaked out to look at the head, but I really wanted to!  They didn't have a mirror though, oh well.  Probably for the best.  The nurse kept telling me I was doing a great job pushing, which I loved.  Then I had to slow down and wait for the doctor.  She got there, the head was out, the doctor checked for cord, and one second later Nandini was out.  She was crying and I just kept saying, 'Oh my god.'  They placed her on my chest for me to hold and I just tried to take it all in.   We got to do skin to skin contact. 

Outside it sounded like someone was trying to break down the door. They let Avinash inside and I tried to show him the baby. He couldn't really tell what was going on and ran back outside to be with Anuj. After a little while, they took the baby to be measured and the rest of my family came in.




Outside it sounded like someone was trying to break down the door.  They let Avinash inside and I tried to show him the baby.  He couldn't really tell what was going on and ran back outside to be with Anuj.  After a little while, they took the baby to be measured and the rest of my family came in.

 Dad of course wanted to hold the baby,

 Anuj was beaming from ear to ear and

Avinash first realized that the new baby was here.  He was incredibly fascinated with her, but got shy a little bit after. 

Everyone came back out to the big room and Avinash was still hanging around the anteroom, sitting under the scale and just generally looking all cute and vulnerable. He was really happy to sit in my lap and hold the new baby though.

He also wanted to take a cheese of the baby just like everyone else!

We stayed a total of two nights in the hospital.  The second day the hospital photographer came to take her picture.  She did a nice job and got pictures of Nandini in lots of different poses.



My family came back and forth from the apartment to the hospital with Avinash a lot.  He was so excited to hold her and loved giving her kisses.  My mom taught him how she would grab on to his finger and stick her tongue out to lick him!  He loved it!

We debated about her name the entire time we were in the hospital and only settled on one at the last minute.  We have loved the name Nandini for a long time and her middle name is in honor of my Dadi (dad's mother).

Baby girl Hecker

She cried right away and then quieted down when they put her on my tummy. She nursed like a champ before she even got her first bath. Her face was so squished but she still looked beautiful. And she smells that amazing way only newborns do. Her skin is pink and turns red when she cries. She has been nursing like crazy all night. Every three hours for an hour or so and then wants to be held for the next hour. She loves listening to her daddy talk and already likes sticking her tongue out at him.

She has peach fuzz all over her little legs. And still keeps her legs curled up.

Her fingers and fingernails are so long. And she loves keeping her hands on her face just like in her ultrasound photos. She opened her eyes a little but mostly slept all day. We are so in love with her. I think we have finally chosen a name as well. Will post it here once it is official.

Well I went for it and got the epidural.  Hence my ability to update here now.  The contractions started to get pretty brutal after my water broke.  I dont know why I didn't want one.  I was worried about being tooo numb.   But, apparently I love being numb.    Mmmm....so numb right now. 
Also, I think being born on pi day is so cool.  Too bad it is way past 1:59 already.

New baby!!!

We are in the hospital!  At my routine check this morning it turned out that I was 7cm already.  The doctor was amazed that I wasn't feeling anything yet.  I begged off the wheelchair they tried to get me and rushed home for a quick shower before coming to the hospital instead.
It is so funny to me that we were supposed to get induced tomorrow but ended up in the hospital today anyway!
I was feeling so weird about being 3cm ever since I was 35 weeks and guilty for having my mom here but not being in labor.  Well, here we are! My dad got here Saturday so this is even better. 
Still, we had everything planned out for tomorrow but the baby decided to do things on its own schedule. It just reminds me that no matter what we try to plan or organize we are not in control, God is.  I take so much solace in that right now. 

DOUBLE RAINBOW!! (entrelac rainbow baby blanket pattern)

I am so psyched to have two sets of rainbows done on the new baby blanket.  This pattern has been so much fun to knit. 
It's amazing, I can literally feel the stress melt away when I pick up my knitting after even a short hiatus.

This pattern is available for purchase in PDF format at my Etsy Shop here. 

{update: new photos. pattern is available for purchase here.}

I love this entrelac (interlace) knitting pattern too.  I knew that I wanted to make a rainbow blanket (I think it's unisex, but Ryan disagrees...), but I wanted to make sure the rows looked distinct and not too sloppy.  I suppose I could have alternated stockinette and seed stitch or something, but I don't like that look much anyway.


I tried going to the fancy knitting shop, but the lady basically scoffed at me for wanting to do anything other than basic stockinette stitching.  Gee, thanks.  I know that knitting is a skill, but let's face it...it's not rocket surgery.  I'm pretty sure with a decent pattern that there are a lot of different things I could do.  So, I just ended up buying a book at the craft store that caught my eye.  The book turned out to be not that helpful overall, other than looking at pictures.  Once I got the idea though, I pretty easily put a simple pattern together for myself.  I used merino/acrylic caron yarns in


DEEP TAUPE

CLARET

CORAL LIPSTICK

SOFT SUNSHINE




GREEN SHEEN

OCEAN SPRAY/ROBIN'S EGG

PEACOCK/OCEAN

BERRY FRAPPE/LAVENDER

  
DEEP PURPLE/ORCHID.

It was hard finding orange and yellow yarn.  I ended up replacing orange with coral anyway.  I really love the taupe. It adds a nice neutral base. I would do a yellow/gray blanket or scarf if I could find a strong enough yellow for it. 



This project took me about a month, I would do one row (one color) a day, working mostly at night while watching TV and a little during the day while Avi runs around the playground.  The diamond pattern was easy to memorize and you don't really need to count stitches, because the other color lets you know where your edges are.  The only thing I wrote down on a small piece of paper for repeated reference was the pattern for the triangles.  Easy! 


I am technically not totally done with this project, but I get tons of compliments on it every time I knit out in public. 

And, look! even at the double rainbow stage it fits Avinash already!

{update: new photos. pattern is available for purchase here.}

37 weeks..

I love being pregnant, I really do.  I pretty much eat whatever I want anyway, but at least I can feel a tiny bit less guilty when I eat a dozen of these. 

I even found a dress (on sale!) in the regular section of Banana Republic to wear at the Houston Science Musuem Benefit Gala Saturday night.  And yes, there was a dessert tent there.  And it was awesome. 

It is just that I am starting to get a little on edge (ahem).  Well, I've been at 3 cm for over two weeks now!  I can't sneeze without worrying about my water breaking.  I have contractions on and off every few days with no discernible progress.  I'm so glad that real labor didn't start before this week, but now that I'm full term I feel so ready! 

So, I've been trying whatever I can think of to jump start labor.  I mean, I'm not running marathons or anything.  But, why start now?  I love the new feeling to freedom.  Spicy foods, exercise ball, yoga, aerobics, coffee (not sure if that is a real thing, but I like it).  I've also heard that keeping the gas tank on empty and unpacking the hospital bag helps, ha!  Ryan is doing his part by keeping his cellphone uncharged...What else can I do?  Any ideas!??

They say that physical changes in the fetus itself trigger hormonal changes in the mother to get labor started.  All I can assume is that this baby is smarter than I am and knows when the right time is!

Avinash, only child

Only not much longer.  What a big change we are in for, him especially.  He loves babies though, and loves practicing wrapping up his stuffed animals in blankets.  He likes a lot of attention though.  Luckily, my family is so being so generous with their time.  That should help him adjust while we are preoccupied with the new baby. 

My brain has been in a fog lately.  I am so looking forward to recording all of our memories as our family grows.  But I want to remember this time too.

Avinash is so precious and sweet every day.  He loves to laugh and play.  He is such a busy boy all the time.  Climbing, running, spinning in circles, coloring, sliding off the couch, throwing things.

He is a pro at singing the alphabet, counting to ten in multiple languages (excuse the seven), recognizing all written letters and numbers, and writing out a few letters (O, U, V, J, I and sometimes A, M and N).   He can name a lot of shapes as well, triangle ('angle), square (bare), circle, oval, octagon (bop sign), and star ('tar).  He is pretty bad with colors.  Ryan thinks he's color blind, but I just think we haven't really taught him any.  Not that we taught him shapes either.  Must have been Elmo...

He still loves to color and likes this little work book we got him.  Mostly he just draws circles around everything, but he enjoys the activity.  His favorite books right now are 'Welcome to the Zoo', 'Brown bear, brown bear', and 'Dumbo'.

He loves absolutely anything elephant related actually.

His favorite shows are Sesame Street, Ponyo, Dumbo and Robin Hood.  I just started showing him this hindi Hanuman cartoon which he enjoys as well.

He is loud and full of energy.

He is still not a great eater, but usually like pancakes, macaroni and cheese, dosa, pasta (especially swiss chard ravioli in sage butter sauce), maggi, string cheese, grapes, pistachios, namkeen, yogurt, rice krispies, watermelon. He loves cookies, candy and any nummies.

He sometimes likes apples, bananas, kiwi, strawberries, salad, fried tofu, broccoli or potatoes.

His favorite thing to do is "See babies!"  He loves hanging out with other kids.  Still asks about his cousin Lily all the time.  He knows that we are seeing her in April and was practicing songs to sing with her (ah ah you you!) when he sees her.  His still really bad about sharing.  Lately, he just grabs any toy that other kids are playing with and shouts 'Mine!'  He is quite the bully with younger children.  I'm really not sure how to handle this.  I try to redirect, remove him from the situation, make him apologize or threaten him with no more playdates.  Not much has really worked, in fact I think he has been worse the past few weeks.  Blech.  I hate to be a hovering mom, but I don't know how much to allow and when to step in.  Sigh.  Anyway..

Avinash is the only other person who really likes looking at all the albums I have put together, and often asks to look at pictures.  He loves pointing out all of his family members, reading the letters and pointing out any animal stickers.

He loves doing prayers and aarti.  He loves to 'help' light the lamp and incense (not really but he waves his hand around).  He has to be the one to put tikka on me and Ryan, and is even starting to get more accurate with placement.  I hope we get to take him to Holi this year, he is going to seriously LOVE it!!

He naps once a day and has been going to sleep super late at night. We still can't get him to sleep by himself at n ight ever since the D O G incident. So sad.

He is very affectionate and honors most requests for hugs and kisses. Even when my friend Rachel visited (who he hasn't seen very much lately), he had no problem giving her a hug and kiss at Little Gyms.

Avinash---I love you so much!  I am having such a fabulous time watching you grow up and getting to be there everyday right now!  You are so adorable and precious and you just make me so proud all the time!

Baby prep.

I am done with one set of the rainbow on the new baby blanket.  I love working on it so much, all the color changes make it alot of fun actually.  It is already big enough to hold EO.  Avinash was so excited to try it on him last night. 

EO fweep in dere!  Cheese!

We started asking Avinash about the new baby more and more.  He likes playing with the baby dolls at the museum and wrapping them up in blankets.  We asked him if he would like to get a new baby and he always say yes.  So, we told him that he'll be able to go to the hospital and pick one out soon!  I showed him a video from his birth (it was all shot after he was completely delivered and while he was being placed in my arms).  He still asked if the baby came from the legs...how did he figure that? Ha!  I have high hopes that he will do well with the transition.  Luckily, we have so many family members coming to help out that I think all the extra attention will help!



Project Life

I have gotten behind a bit with project life the past two weeks. This is more of an overview of February than a daily look at the past week. I figure it is better than nothing! I guess it is expected given everything that has been going on lately!

Friday, February 11

Avinash loves splashing in the bath.  He is diligently filling the big bottle up using the smaller bottle and alternately taking swigs from it himself, ha!


Saturday, February 12

We went to sweet little Nisha's second birthday party at Gymboree.  She and Avi played really well together and loved riding around this thing together.  Her baby brother was born only a few hours later, wow!

Sunday, February 13

We took Avi to the zoo, he expecially wanted to visit the baby mms. I love that the zoo has two baby elephants right now.  He is climbing all over the elephant statue Tikka here.

Thursday, February 17
We went out tonight (instead of Valentine's Day) to Hugo's for dinner and Marks for another blueberry marscapone tart. Soo delicious.


When we got home Captain Avinash was going for a ride in his boat.  ('wide in dere! boat!')

Friday, February 18

Avi grabbed two stuffed animals for our walk tonight.  EO Lala!!  This was also the night of the huge full moon.  He loved spotting as we walked.

Sunday, February 20

We took another trip to the zoo today because Avi had been begging to go see the EO's.  This is a picture of me at 35 weeks.  Whoa, getting bigger..

One more from Sunday... Avinash eating sugar at Shri Balaji Bhavan's before dinner.  Part of his pre-dinner routine here now.  He still wolfed down dosa (without subji) and gol guppa.  He loves trying to crack them open and stuff chickpeas inside them.  The chaat here is so good, it is like comfort food to me.  Sunday was a great night, we went to babies r' us first and did some baby shopping and then watched a dvd when we got home.  Overall, very fun and relaxing.

My rainbow entrelac baby blanket

{UPDATE: PLEASE CHECK OUT THE PATTERN HERE.}

Just thought I would share my latest work in progress.  It is a baby blanket done in using a basic interlace pattern.  I will post the pattern later in case anyone is curious.  I decided to make it rainbow colored and the interlace pattern seemed like a perfect fit for that since it really highlights color changes well.  I added a gray border as well to help it look more polished.  I bought the yarn on Monday and am almost finished with purple, but I need to do at least two or three rainbows before it is done.  Ryan and I were joking about how i'll have to knit through labor if new baby comes early!