Record!!!!!!!

This is the first time that I have written more than 10 posts in a month. I know it is very insignificant for people who are very much into blogging. For people who rarely open their blogs, it is a feat. My earlier record in my other blog stands at a maximum of 7 posts per month. It is 12 posts in this month here. This is my 13th.

Way to go Annu. This is kind of self motivation for me. I will have to beat my own record in future.

By the way, my dear kanna thalli, amma has cleared a big exam related to her profession. She has scored a good 82%. She is very happy ra.

All about kicks and movements

I have felt my baby's movements first during the beginning of my 18th week. It was a very faint movement. I was not even sure if it was THAT movement or if it was due to some flatulence inside. After that did not feel its movements for quite sometime. And now I started feeling , not regularly though, the movements. But surprisingly, without anybody confirming it, i am sure that its the baby.

I have read in some baby site about kick counts. These are usually recommended for high risk pregnancies but all pregnant women may benefit from counting their baby’s movements. Kick counts are done every day, starting in the 28th week or sixth month of pregnancy. Being attentive to the baby’s movements will help us notice any significant changes, identify potential problems, and prevent stillbirth.

I do not really know if it is going to help, but I feel there is nothing wrong in doing so. I am going to do it myself probably form my 26th week. I will keep track of it in one post itself.

I am writing about how to do kick counts and all in this post itself so that I might come back and refer to it in future. This is purely a copy paste thing from a baby site.

When to do kick counts

Choose the same time each day to do kick counts. This should be a time of the day when your baby is very active. You may find that your baby is more active:

*after you have exercised
*after you have eaten
*after you have drank something cold
*sometimes, between the hours of 9 pm and 1 pm, when your blood sugar is decreasing

How to do kick counts

Begin by finding a comfortable position, perhaps sitting with a good back rest, or lying on your side. Lying on your left side allows for good circulation, which could lead to your baby becoming more active.

Record your start time in a notebook. Make a checkmark or "X" for each time your baby kicks, swishes, rolls, or jabs. After recording 10 such movements, write down the time again. Ideally, you should feel at least 10 movements in two hours. Most likely, you will feel 10 movements in a shorter time period. Look out for any significant changes in your baby’s movement pattern over a few days. Continue to record kick counts daily for the rest of your pregnancy.

When to call your health care provider

If you do not feel 10 movements within a two-hour time period, wait a few hours and try again. If you still do not feel 10 movements in two hours, call your health care provider.

Also, if you notice a significant change from your baby’s kick count pattern over three to four days, call your health care provider. An example of a significant change is as follows:

*Monday 10:00 am XXXXXXXXXX 10:45 am, total 45 minutes
*Tuesday 10:00 am XXXXXXXXXX 11:00 am, total 1 hour
*Wednesday 10:00 am XXXXXXXXXX 11:10 am, total 1 hour 10 minutes
*Thursday 10:00 am XXXXXXXXXX 12:30 pm, total 2 hours 30 minutes

You know your body best. If you feel something is wrong, call your health care provider.

First letter to baby Anu

You are still lying happily inside my tummy and you already has a visitor / caretaker. Your ammumma has come yesterday to be with us for at least a month. All this is just to take care of yet-to-be-born you. We will stay with her for a good amount of time after you will be born.

Me and your naanna went to the railway station to pick her up. As such i got late to office. It was around 8pm that i could make it to home. By that time, I was totally exhausted. My feet were swollen and numb. I could barely walk. I could not speak much with ammumma. She only prepared the dinner.

She has got saris for me and atha. She showed me those saris. After that we had a long discussion on where to deliver you. I would be seeing 2 to 3 hospitals for that purpose when we go to thaatha's place in June. You have a wonderful thaatha in Hyderabad.

These days I feel totally enervated by the time i hit the sack and i am not talking to you at all. Sorry kanna.

By the way, did i tell you about your two aunties. You have two aunties, Debu auntie and Div auntie. Debu auntie commented that you are my puppy. She seems to be very eager to see you. You will like both of them alot. They are my best friends. It was Div aunty's birthday three days ago. I could not even wish her. That was partly because of my laziness and partly because of my non-functioning mobile. But, i would like to blame myself entirely for that. Hope she has had a great time.

Do you know something? There is not even a single day when i do not feel like seeing you and thinking about you. As I cannot see you now, I keep watching many baby sites to visualize you. You are 20weeks and 4 days old in my tummy as per doctors dates. As per my calculation, you are 18weeks and 3 days old. You are about 7inches long. Your heart is properly formed and is functioning really well. I heard your heart beat during my last scan. You can now hear all the sounds inside my body. You started swallowing things around you. You are constantly swimming in the water. I cannot tell you how happy I am and how eager I am to see you. Love you loads ra chitti thalli.

Dreams -2

I do not remember last night’s dream. I had a good playback of it as soon as I woke up. It kind of evaporated form my mind. I vaguely remember it in bits and pieces.

First thing I an recollect from my dream........I was in so much pain that I could not sleep. I almost thought that the dream was real. I was bleeding profusely. I do not know how my baby is doing. It is still in my stomach. I desperately want to see it but no one is helping me.

Next shot I can recollect is that I am constipating and struggling hard to poop. Mom is shouting from somewhere not to strain myself. Even the baby started crying and told me that I am putting so much pressure on her that it is getting difficult for her to breathe. I did not know what to do.

Next shot, I am playing in the air with my baby. We are levitating and are flowing with the wind.


This does not make much sense. Does not make any sense in fact. But I just wanted to make a note of it in my blog.

Appointment problem

I have faced all the trouble I can in getting an appointment(in my convenient time) in Bangalore corporate hospitals. I have had enough of it till now. I am exhausted.

The very purpose of the existence of these corporate hospitals is to provide world class facilities to the patients and be patient friendly.

When I first knew I am expecting, me and S wanted to visit the best of the hospitals for our baby’s sake. We freezed upon Wockhard hospital as that being the best and closest hospital to my house. We actually were thinking about a long term relationship with it. I mean I wanted to deliver my baby there itself. We, at that time, did not know the troubles that awaited us there.

I being working women never managed to come out of office before 5pm. So I wanted an appointment sometime after 6pm. Another constraint I had was that I wanted to meet only one doctor for every visit.
The constraints they had from their side was that the doctor will be there only 3 days a week and that too from 4 -6pm. Weekends, when it is the most convenient for working women, are a holiday to all the doctors and staff. They do not care even if its an emergency. And one more drawback is that your doctor will not be seeing you in your every visit. There will be few subordinates to her, fresh out of college house surgeon students, who see you and decide if you can see the doctor or not(in which case you will end up not seeing your doctor most of the times).

I am ill for the past 5 days and desperately in need of a doctor. I did not want to turn to any corporate hospitals this time. One of my friend suggested me that I go to Gunasheela hospital which is a very famous maternity hospital here. When I called up to take the appointment, the receptionist told me that there are no slots vacant today and the nearest possible slot is JUST 1 WEEK away from now. This is in spite of my hinting her that I am not well and is expecting. What are these hospitals for? What is their motto? Do they ever think about the very purpose of their existence? Do they care about the patients? What would they do if there is an emergency case? All these questions were flooding my mind to which I guess there is none to answer.

I finally decided to go to a small clinic where doctor is available everyday. Hope this experience turns out to be good. More on this in my next post.

Feelings - 2

I just came face to face with a colleague of mine. She too happens to be in her fifth month of pregnancy. Just a look at her bump made me worry about my baby.

All the scans results indicate that the baby is doing really fine. But i cannot notice any visible change in my tummy size. So many people keep asking me about this. They will put a puckered face when they come to know that i am in last week of my fifth month. This is causing a lot of worry.

Mom says that i need not take it to heart but i just cant help doing it. She says there are people whose tummy just does not show up even during their 8th month. But they deliver healthy babies. I don't really know if she tells me this just for solace but i hope it is true.

I did not even start feeling the movements of the baby:(

Baby dear.............please just show up to me if not to the world. Love you loads.

Stats just for record

This is just to keep track of every possible detail for future reference.

	Month 1	Month 5
Vital Stats	32 – 26 - 34	34 – 30 - 34
Weight	46	48.2

Feelings - 1

I am around 18 weeks pregnant by now. I have been experiencing different kinds of stomach aches in different areas of my stomach off late. I have told this to a gynaec during my last visit. She did not do any internal examination but has said that this could lead to preterm labor (which actually sounded weird) She did not even tell me why it is happening. Though i told mom that i took this casually, every time i get the pain i am cringing with fear.

I sometimes feel a pulling sensation around my navel. Sometimes it would be a sharp pain in any of the sides of the stomach. It is a pinching sensation low in my stomach. It is not excruciating but painful enough that I cant help noticing it. I feel a stretching sensation many times.

I have still not decided upon my local gyneac and am very eager to share this with someone who can help me. All the docs i have encountered till date have not been satisfactory. I feel quite helpless.
Mom takes things very seriously especially when it comes to me. S can not empathize with me. I cannot share it with anyone. I am in a unhappy mood today and feel like crying.

I wonder if i am becoming a hypochondriac. But i think almost 90% of the first-time-mothers with no family around will have the same feelings. Even with the slightest of the change in your body, you will be frightened and worried. It is more of a worry about the baby's well being than yours.

I just keep wishing that this painful phase would pass off as early as it can. I just hope everything is fine with me and my baby.

Eureka........one problem solved

I visited a gynaecologist during my Hyd trip as i did not see a doctor after my 1st month checkup. One more reason was that we were trying to zero in on one doctor and hospital where i can deliver the baby. The delivery rooms were a put off. I spoke to the doctor about all the doubts i had. Her answers were not satisfactory. It took no time for me to realize that she is not the one.

I had this problem of stuffy nose right from my first month. She replied like a deadpan and said that pregnancy is not the reason for this. Recently, as i was going through baby sites, i came to know few interesting facts about stuffy nose.

A runny or stuffed-up nose without any other cold symptoms is a common condition during pregnancy. Some women feel as if they have a cold throughout the whole nine months. This condition has a name -- allergic rhinitis of pregnancy. Unfortunately there is no cure. But we can do certain things for relief. Something like inhaling steam, having a hot shower before bed may help relieve congestion and sooth us. I started having showers before sleep. Its working.

One more problem i encountered is "Dry Skin". I have an oily skin and usually use very little moisturizer. Since my second month it has become the opposite. I am finding it extremely difficult to tackle this problem.

I already started getting stretch marks on my tummy and thighs. I will have to think about this as well.


***********This post is yet to be eidted and more to be written

Cat is out of the bag now!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been to Hyderabad over this weekend. That was a hectic trip but an important one i must say.

We have visited all the important persons there. Though we took some time to purchase what mom wanted to buy for me, i could not do any of my shopping. And i was not happy about it.

We made our official trip to B pinni's clinic and got my scan done. She has got a 3D scan machine this time and gave me the privilege of having my scan on it first.

I always doubt if i am pregnant at all until i get the scan done and see the baby. I was very happy this time that everyone (mom, sis, FIL and even S). I could see that glow on S's face. Everybody present there were stuck to the monitor and watched each and every moment of the baby with utmost concentration. Everything in the sonogram would be meaningless to the untrained eye. But B pinni was very patient to explain every part of the baby.

"Wow! Is that its fingers?"

"No, that's its legs."

"Oh. Is that its face?"

"No, that's its bum."

"Oh. The baby has got a round face. It must be resembling its mom"

"Oh what a long feet!!!!!"

We could clearly see its spinal cord, heart, face, hands, legs, fingers and stomach.

(Though the sonogram was showing that i am 17weeks and 2 days pregnant, B pinni told me that baby must have completed approximately 17 weeks.)

We did not want to know the sex of our baby. But it was out after a day. We were happy and at the same time disappointed as the excitement burst out so early.
No..........i am not going to let the cat out of the bag here. You people will have to wait for some more time. I was surprised to know the result. Surprised because the dream i have got few weeks before came true. And i am still not able to believe it.

I have already started searching for names for my little one. I want it to have a Japanese name as the nick name. It would be great if S agrees to make that name its official one. I have stated talking to my "bump" though it may sound stupid for some people. S wants his baby to be an astronaut. I want it to learn dance, music, tennis, painting martial arts. I do not want to rub our feelings on to it. It should have its own vision.

I have bought books on vedic maths. S has started collecting comics already :)

Dreams.............weird

I have had this weird dream sometime back. I wanted to record it somehow.

I was sleeping innocently. Suddenly in the middle of the night i woke up for no reason and after sometime i got labour pains. No one was there around. I opened my stomach and took out the baby. It was a baby girl. I showed it S first. He sneered and did not come forward to take the baby just because it was a girl. The baby was quite disappointed at this. I told the baby that even if no one loves it, i love it more than anybody else in this world. After sometime, S too felt the same love for her and came forward and caressed the baby.

I do not know what this dream meant, but it occurred very unnatural to me. I immediately woke up my husband and told him all about this. He placated me saying that he does not care about the gender and will be happy with any child we get. I slept peacefully after that.

My First Trimester

By the time i came to know about my pregnancy, i was half way through my first trimester. This is the case with most of the ladies. In this nuclear age no female has got time to take care about herself. I feel its better if we get to know a little early as we can start taking all the care we should for the well being of the baby.

We are not actually pregnant the first week or two of the time allotted to our pregnancy. Conception begins approximately 2 weeks of our periods begin. Strange it may seem, but I did not know about this initially. Only after my first visit to the doctor i knew this fact.

During the first month, i had severe nausea. I sometimes used to vomit during nights also. I used to feel dizzy very often. My breasts have become swollen, tender and heavy. I used to urinate at the rate of once an hour. I used to get tired very easily and used to feel exhaustive almost throughout the day. I experienced very bad headaches which alleviated my vomiting. That was a torture.These were the physical changes in me.

I started taking Folic acid and Zincovit pills which i continue till now. Though i could not eat heavy meals because of my nausea, i included fruit, leafy vegetables and dry fruits in my diet as much as i can. I made it a habit to have coconut water daily. There are countless benefits of coconut water. Coconut water acts as effective oral re hydration, keeps the body cool, mitigates the risk of urinary infections, Contains organic compounds possessing growth-promoting properties.............and the list goes on. I drank lots of water. One more advice is to drink lots and lots of milk. (This should be low fat skimmed milk. Otherwise it leads to weight gain) On an average you are required to consume 1200mg of calcium. Some of this can be substituted by yogurt, kidney beans, oatmeal and leafy vegetables. I personally do not like Kidney beans. So i ate Muesli, leafy vegetables and Yogurt. Calcium intake reduces the risk of tooth decay and osteoporosis in future.

I was 46kgs (approximately 101 pounds) during my first visit. I am --------------now. Right from the beginning, my intention was to gain as much weight as is good for the baby and not a pound more. I thought it would be difficult to lose this weight post delivery. I even intend to join Lamaze and Yoga classes. I am in search of them now. I intend to take my husband also to those Lamaze sessions. I guess this would help make him feel a part of this whole process of birth. He says he still does not have that feeling of fatherhood though he is happy about my pregnancy. He empathizes with me always, but does not understand my physical and emotional state. This might be a problem faced by many a woman. It is our responsibility to make them understand everything.

By the time i started taking proper diet regularly and got used to it, i entered my second trimester. All the above mentioned feelings i had, have disappeared. (Though i occasionally have bouts of nausea.)

Hurray......i am a mommy soon

Today, I just want to think about my baby and do all things concerning it. I want to share all my experiences from the day I got pregnant till date. They deserve 5 to 6 posts all together. I will just tell you how and when I got to know about this good news. How I broke it to every one etc and things like that…….

January 7th was supposed to be my periods date. When I did not get it, I grew concerned the first time itself. I had a strange feeling that it is going to be my baby. I waited for 4days and tried home pregnancy test. It showed positive within seconds. I was happy but at the same time little doubtful. I have read in many blogs that we can never rely on this home test. But i could not keep this news within me and woke up my husband. (It was 4 am) He too was happy but was unconvinced like me.

After that i travelled to my mom's place on the same day. Once i told this to mom she took me to a doctor. She did not examine me and said that was too early to decide. We were not happy with the news and visited another doctor. She too said the same but gave me few tips to be careful.

Me n S did not want to disclose this news then itself. On Jan 23rd, i went to Wockhardt and got a scan done. The monitor was showing my baby inside the womb. It has travelled through the fallopian tubes and reached my womb. Doctor said that i was 6weeks pregnant already. To be honest i could not make out anything from what i saw on the monitor. It was just few mm long. But i could clearly listen to its heart beat. And it was the first time that i saw my baby, be it a thing with such an atomic size. For the first time after my home pregnancy test, my joy knew no bounds. I just felt like jumping and wanted to tell this news to every one in the world. I just could not hide my happiness. Unfortunately S was busy with his phone calls as usual and could not make it to see the scanning done. Both of us felt bad about that.

My morning sickness period has already begun 2 weeks before and there were days when i literally used to puke anything i ate or drank. Unable to cope up with this, i used to cry in isolation. In spite of all this i never had any hatred towards the baby. I do not really know when that mother in me has born. I used to browse every day and tried to know as many things about pregnancy as possible. I was very shy to discuss these things even with my mom. I used to count days after days and weeks after weeks. I used to look at the scanned pictures of babies and imagine how my baby looked. There was not even a single day that i did not see those pictures.

We divulged this news to our friends and relatives once i entered my 4th month.

Even at the slightest of the discomfort, i was afraid and used to run from pillar to post to know about these symptoms. I plan to write a blog myself which would help all the would be mothers cope up with their pregnancy blues. I still need to know many things about this. I even want to keep track of all the changes that are happening in my body and would like to show these to my baby one day.

I just entered my 5th month. I am happy that i passed successfully out of my first trimester. My morning sickness has disappeared and I am comparatively feeling a lot better. Right now.........I am eagerly waiting to get the next scan done so that i can see my baby.

Am I a bad Mom

This is my first post on this blog. This blog was long pending. I wanted to start posting the day i knew i am expecting. Today is not any auspicious day but i was rather peeved. The reason being...........i have skidded on a slippery floor this morning. I feel that was partly due to my stupidity. Fortunately, i got badly hurt on my feet and knee cap, but did not fall on my stomach. I bled all over my feet but i did not feel any pain. The only thing on my mind was my baby. Did it get hurt? How is it doing? Am i going to loose it? Suddenly a wave of sadness swept over me. I just sat there and bawled. (After that i got ready for work though i was not bent upon going.) S was not at home that time and i was all alone. When he was back i did not dare to tell him what has happened but he sensed that something was wrong with me. I could not hide it from him and told him everything that has happened. He consoled me for a moment but then i knew how he felt. He was more worried about the baby than me though he did not express it. He even skipped his breakfast and lied that he did not feel like eating today.

This incident today made me wonder if i am a bad mother. Dont i care for my baby even before it came into this world???

Whatever has happened has happened. I am just praying god for the well being of my baby. Oh god!!! please keep it safe inside.