Booked the Tickets !!!

Now its been several times we are taking the little man in the car to doctors, temple and shopping. I think he seems to enjoy the change in scenery. However most times he did exactly what we think he would: sleep. Since the good news on his health is out, and with all the green signals from doctors, we thought it will be best to book the tickets to India for the much awaited trip. So grand parents can finally see the “apple of their eyes”.

Of course, once we booked the ticket, we (specially mommy since she will be traveling alone with him) suddenly got very nervous. Very, very nervous. Like, agoraphobic, never-leave-the-house-again nervous. We’re about to become the people we’ve despised and bitched about for many, many trips. The tides have most certainly turned and I am terrified of the fate that lies ahead. The more she thought about the plane ride and the potential meltdowns, the more she shriveled up inside. I am a foolish, brazen, fate-tempter. What was I thinking: a one hour car ride is like a walk around the block compared to a 18 hour plane ride, with a plane change in Newark, Surrounded by strangers. All looking at That Woman with the Ticking Time Bomb. As the time to finally have that plane ride was approaching she ran through every possible reaction in her head to counter the baby-hating passengers: break the ice by handing out ear plugs. Shrug her shoulders and say “Babies! Whatcha gonna do.”. Throw a little guilt their way – “Far be it from me and my tiny son to interrupt your Zagat-rated meal and the Oscar-winning Scary Movie 4!” And if all else fails, just cry when he cries.

In preparation for her journey, we’ve been online researching travel tips and checklists. The amount of stuff this kid is going to need for his trip to India is ridiculous !! But with a baby, I’ve learned quickly that you can never play it too safe. You really do kind of need EVERYTHING for all WHAT-IF scenarios – because they CAN and WILL happen.

Flyingwithkids.com suggested this travel tip: Wear spunky clothes and dark glasses so that other passengers think you are someone famous enjoying quality time with your kids.

That should be easy, let me see ..there should be a plent of place for a few costume changes for “The Mommy”. They should come right after onesies, sleepers, socks, diapers, bath wash, lotion, medicine, the snot sucker, ear swabs, wipes, the binky, rattle, blankets, sheets, bottles, drop-in refills, bibs, a thermometer, receiving towels, disinfectant, a sun hat, jacket, stoller, the birth certificate, books, nail clippers, wash clothes and toys. And that’s just for baby…DO NOT FORGET 1 TON BABY FORMULA !!

Playing costume, you will be lucky to remember to pack your underwear amist this detailed baby pack-up and these people are suggesting dress-up ??? …. I am sure whoever is writing these tips have no kids or never ever have travelled with Kids.

I am sure you all can’t wait to hear about his first plane ride …keep listening !!!

Postpartum Care

While little chunky-munkey has completely consumed out lives don’t forget that Vi just went through a life time of changes physically. She is still in pain and I am so disappointed to share that the people at the clinic who were so friendly and nice (including doctors) before pregnancy are equally nasty and unpleasant now. So she had this pain for few days and finally decided to give a call at clinic on Thursday afternoon upon which the nurse said she will run it by our doctor and
get back to us as soon as possible. We waited and waited until Friday 3:50 PM (just before the clinic closes for the weekend) and no call back !! Finally I lost it and gave a call to the clinics asking why nobody has gotten back to us so far, I was told that the they could locate the doctor in last two days. Now I have two problem with this, First, the very fact we go to a clinic instead of an individual doctor because we want to make sure that incase a particular doctor is not available the other doctors in the practice can help. Second, even if you couldn’t locate the doctor its naturally expected that the nurse would call back (remember this is 2 days already) telling that she is trying her best to find a doctor. After a moment of realization these two point the nurse called back in few minutes asking that the doctor has asked that we should go for an ultrasound on Monday and gave us the appointment. Vi still think that I shouldn’t have got called but I think its their job to at the least give us the status, that’s their job. God forbid if I were to screw up on my job I am sure to have my a*s kicked !!

In any case, I am reluctant to change my opinion of the practice just because of this one incident and therefore decided against publishing the name of the practice/clinic but incase anybody wants to know I will be happy to send them a mail. After all I strongly feel its my responsibility !!

Postpartum Stay in Hospital

After welcoming the little boy later that night I headed home to catch up on sleep. After coming home I sent an email out informing everybody about little one’s arrival. While trying to sound funny in the email I ended up creating more confusion. GENIUS !! Here is the email I sent out:

Hello,

My name is “Neev Jain”. I was born last night (11:49 PM) at Akron City Hospital. I weigh 6 pounds and 9.75 ounces and am 19 inches tall. I have two arms, two legs, one thumb, and four fingers on each of my two tiny hands. I have two big black eyes, one nose with two large cheeks either side. I have two ears, two feet, one strong heart and two very delighted parents (Nitesh and Vineeta).

Thank you for all your best wishes, I and my mom both are doing great.

Thanks

Anybody guessed what’s wrong with this mail …yeah right ..no body knew whether it was a boy or a girl. Let me just say that that there were some really funny mails were sent back to me, several thousand Google searches were performed to find whether the name belonged to a boy or a girl and My email was flooded with questions of that nature.

I woke up at 5:30, took a shower and made tea. I knew Vi would really like to have a little tea after all she went through last night. I reached hospital at 6:45 and found Vi already awake. To my surprise she looked much better that I expected, I guess it’s the feeling as if you had conquer the world last night against all odds. she already had ordered breakfast for both of us (in fact for me as she was not allowed to eat much still due to the Magnesium). The hospital photographers had left a brochure on various photo packages we can buy and promised to come back at 9. After we both had our tea and breakfast I went to the nursery to get our little prince. As I saw him through the window, my heart went bump, and shivers run all over…I need to take care of him but he is so little…Well let me tell you a little bit about the little guy. First of all he is the most beautiful boy in the world…not that I am partial or anything! He has these dark black hairs and big black eyes. He passed all his tests in the hospital…He’s already holding his head up on pretty well, and his little froggy legs are surprisingly strong. The cutest thing however is the way he hold my finger ever so nicely and tightly …we feel so blessed that all is going well so far. I brought him to our room and handed to Vi..I guess the feelings I saw on her face are hard to write on paper. At 7 AM Dr S Johnson, Neev’s pediatrician, showed up in our room to discuss Neev’s well being. Apparently he had already checked Nee before that, everything was fine and he had lost almost 5 oz that night which seemed normal. for everything and At 9 AM the photographer lady showed up and took a variety of poses. However, the photographer couldn’t be in a great rush that that. Somehow we finished the session and asked her to take few photos with me, which by the way came out great. After the photographs the nurse helped Vi breastfeed Neev and as expected he had tough time. He couldn’t understood what he was suppose to do and kept falling a sleep. After which we undressed him and he was able to latch for a little while. Later I left Neev to the nursery as Vi wanted to take some rest. I ordered lunch at 11:30 and had it at around 12:30. The hospital staff kept checking on Vi once in a while and her blood pressure was getting better with time. The room we were in was small but very comfortable. Later that evening Adi stopped by to see little Nee. At 7:30 when nurse was checking her blood pressure and it came out to be normal they decided to take off the magnesium which was originally supposed to be stopped at 11:30, this was wonderful as she can now eat and drink normally. After a little while Vi started to complain about some abdomen pain so they gave her some pain medicine (initially Motrin and later Percocite). At 8:30 Prash and Mani stopped by, however this was past the visitor hours so we had to sneak them in. By the time they left Vi was getting drowsy due to the drugs and I was sleepy too. We decided that we will request the nursery to keep Little monster there for that night (we kind of felt bad but we both needed a good night sleep) and I will head home. After dropping Neev in the nursery I went home and slept off. Boy I was tired !!!

I came back next day at 6:45 AM, Vin was almost awake. I went and got Nee and Vi tired to breast feed him. He started to get a handle on that part. Later that morning Dr McKnight came to see Nee. He was surprised to find that the little bundle of joy was able to lift his head already. Vi would complain of the pain once in a while and took the pain medicine. However, I could see that she was getting her strength back as she had normal lunch and breakfast today. At around 10:30, the lactation expert came and spent 20 minutes explaining Vi various intricacies of breastfeeding. In the afternoon we filled Neev’s birth certificate paper work. At around 4:30 we found out that we will be discharged today as everything seem to be normal with both Vi and baby. After we had our exit interview we started to pack everything and left hospital at 7:20. We put the baby in the car seat and boy I was nervous !! Infact I was even more nervous-er when I drove to the house with the baby in it. With the grace of God We reached home healthy and safely. As I was parking the car, I saw prash pull over in the drive way. He helped getting all the stuff in the house.

As we entered in the house we both (or at least I) got so scared..I had no idea what we are going to do..we knew noting ..the heat was not on and house was really cold…the baby monitor was not set…the diaper and the diaper disposer was not ready !! I felt so bad that how can we be so unready !! However slowly everything was falling in place the little guy cried for a while but we fed him and he went to sleep. Which gave us some time to keep everything else in place. I made a quick trip to Pharmacy to get Vi’s pain medication. 20 minutes after I came back Prash and Mani brought food ..what a CONCEPT !! As little monster was still sleeping we attacked on food and I swear it was delicious. We were expecting that little Neev would have tough time adjusting to the new home but he got used it fairly quickly, not that he didn’t cry but he was ok.

In hindsight, have we done anything different in last two days ..YES specially “Brining the Baby Home” part but we learned ..

Thanks to everyone for all their love and support through these past 39 weeks. We both are filled with intense feelings of love and joy that I didn’t know existed. There is no way I’ll be able to relay any of it accurately- I’ve been told there aren’t words …so please forgive !!