Sleep Deprivation

I haven't had a shut eye in the last 24 hours... Shriya kept me up. (I know that's really not much given that I've done longer hours without sleep at work; but then I had weekends to doze off then! ) These are signs of her getting back on road, which makes me happy... but I do wish mommy-hood dint involve loosing sleep so often!

Flashback the first night at the hospital: Shriya was born at 14:04 hours on a crisp Tuesday afternoon. (All noons are pretty much crisp here.. I live in Singapore!!!) The duty nurse confirmed that I wished to breastfeed my baby all through the night ... and I wondered why she would want to confirm that? Dint everyone breastfeed their babies! Mommies feed babies! The nurse woke me up each time ...
... I guess the adrenalin rush was still high up since pushing her out... I happily woke up every couple of hours to breastfeed her. As does every mother, I marvelled at Shriya's perfection each time I took her from the nurse. Her pink mouth... long fingers etc etc. And she bit me.... NO ONE tells you how your nipples hurt when your little one sucks and nibbles to get that milk out of you. Lesson learnt: hold on to the nipple cream the moment you know you are gonna deliver. (In any case, once they learn to suckle, breastfeeding your baby is painless and full of joy. :) Try getting your baby's focus onto you and make them smile... Shriya held on to my nipple and would give a beautiful gummy smile!)

Back to my no-sleep-crib-story: The novelty wears off rather quickly and within the week, I wondered how long before I get her off breast milk and get some good sleep. Getting her off breastfeeding hasn't exactly got me my 8 hour sleep.

The lady in the bed next to mine at the hospital... she slept through the nights, while I was shaken awake by the nurse to feed Shriya. Well, Shriya was usually asleep and in my half-waken state I tried to rouse her up to feed. She would either chew at my nipple or holler at being awakened. The nurses named her 'the singing baby' ... Shriya would go on a high note every now and then and would only go quiet once I summoned the nurse in! The point here is, the lady in the bed next to mine, slept through it all. The next day I noticed a whole bunch of people come in to visit her...different shapes and sizes (2 ft - 6 ft). She had had her 5th 'bundle of joy'... Although I dint understand it then, I now appreciate her judgement in choosing to bottle feed her baby at nights while she rested those 2-3 days in the hospital. Imagine getting back home with children ranging 2-10 yrs and a new born in your arms! Boy, did she need those hours of sleep! Why not simply choose bottle-feeds at nights and breast-feeds during the day for any child? (mmm... wonder how I will handle that for my next baby! I think I will most probably succumb to emotions - the mommy-baby-bonding via breast-feeding fundas that I hear from my mom...in-laws...etc etc)

The truth, as I've heard from all my counterparts.. forget sleep for the first 2 years of having a baby! (I'm nearly at the half-way mark! yippee!)

Baby Fevers

Today is day 4 of Shriya's first fever. Her pediatrician assures me that its all a part of her growing up. But its so hard to watch her get fevers as high as 104F every 3-4 hours.

It's true that babies just develop fevers rather suddenly. Shriya was her usual playful self all day, and just after her noon nap she wakes up and clings on to me. Totally refused her food/favorite snacks/milk and just wanted me to carry her around. Her body temperature slowly rose up and she started to go weak and rested her head on my shoulder. Its so hard to watch her slow down.

Just a couple of days earlier she learnt to pout when I say 'mouth' and stick her tongue out as well when I say tongue! I was quite thrilled to see her identify parts of her body and took pictures and videos and shared them with my family.

Coming back to her fever, the doc believes its probably a simple viral fever (Roseola) and will need to wait out 4-5 days for it to subside. Until then, her appetite is low ...less playful... wants me to carry her around... and needs medication nearly every 3-4 hours!

As always there's always a lot of advice that comes from my mom and in-laws! Give her milk ...don't her give her milk... blah blah. And the doc says give her anything she wants! I just wish Shriya can clearly spell out what she wants or the least I understand her babble!

In any case, Shriya is at my mercy now...and I give her a bit of everything and she eats 'a bit' of everything. I try giving her a lot of freshly strained juices (cranberry, raisins, prunes, apple, pear), vegetable clear soups, plain rice cereal (without milk) mixed in juices, plain wheat cereal (without milk) and her formula. She hates water, but I do try and feed her a couple of spoons now and then. She needs food almost every hour...n I guess that's coz I feed her in small portions. Tried feeding her a usual portion and it all came right out in a short while! I am amazed on her clear refusal of taking food that she doesn't like or if shes full... simply swings her arms all around until she successfully topples the bowl and spoon I'm clutching.

Another change in the last 4 days has been sleep deprivation.. I know that comes along with being a mommy, but now I loose almost all sleep at night (and day!). Besides monitoring her temperature every few hours and getting her feed every couple of hours, she gets listless as the fever increases and starts to toss and turn and wake up... and needs comforting or sponge baths. Ofcourse there are sessions of food coming right out on your face... so that's more cleaning up while everyones asleep, I roam around with a mop & cloth in hand. I just finished one session of feeding, diaper change & mopping.. while my husband and Shriya are asleep, I needed a good cup of coffee and here I am at the computer.

Managed to steal some time out to make this entry... I'm hoping Shriya feels better today.

First Chapter

Shriya was born 19 June 2007, after a good long 38 weeks. It always seems a good long pregnancy right? Although I know I am lucky to have had her 2 weeks ahead!

The first drama that happened post her birth - I quit my job - a good one - and decided to stay home. All after good number of emotional highs and lows and a fabulous farewell party at work.

The next - I took off for a good month of 'stay-away-from-hubby' vacation with my parents back in India and met up a good buncha family and friends and reinforced the feeling of I being 'me'.

Its been 4 months now, time does go by quickly. Shriya insists on walking. She does a good bit of crawling, but she insists on me hunching down and holding her arms and back and head and.. while she tromps wobbly steps up and down any mall I visit!

Now that I've got a hang of how to balance home management (read 'getting food to mouth') and baby management ('how does one manage babies!!!'), and since I need a destress outlet .. here I am. As does everyone else, I would like to put up those pent up emotions and wonderful experiences of having Shriya with me on these posts.

Those were my few moments of getting online and adding in my first post... I hear Shriya screaming for me from her crib - just up from her evening nap. Need to change diaper.. get her vegetable snack ready and put her in her pram and walk around our apartment!

Cheers and see ya arnd...