JENNA'S FIRST FRIEND

Jenna's has found a friend and its our friend's son Vedhanth,he is 22 months old and he is such a cutie pie.. he is like my own baby because i used to babysit him before Jenna was born. Though he has seen Jenna from the time she was born,he used to get scared when we asked him to come and have a look at her..he was not interested in looking at her or touching her little hands and feet.I thought that normally toddlers are curious about babies but he was not but viola all of sudden he has been coming and calling her Jennnna.... they were actually playing together... Recently i have found Jenna is not interested in playing with her toys and aims for the toy in Vedhanth s hand and she starts to cry if he doesnt give to her... its nice to see her playing with him but at the same time i feel she is growing too fast too soon.. I hope they get to be the best of friends in future....

REFORMED MOMMY

Im surprised how mommyhood has reformed me... i never knew i could be so patient and emotional,i look back the days when i was so impatient,picking up fights with people in college.. any fight you can count me in...i was not a spoilt brat or bully but people who brush the bad side in me will have to face the consequences...umm but if you enter my good side,i will stand beside you through thick and thin...thats totally me...so whats mommyhood done to me???i have discovered the softer side in me,i laugh and cry at silly things,i have learnt to accept and love others the way they are....my daughter has made the new ''ME'' and i have learnt to love myself.ummm do i sound too boring?? i dunno fridays make me so thoughtful..

SLEEP-DEPRIVED

Its been a long time since i slept continuously for a stretch of 8 hours,since jenna is up every four to five hrs but lately it has become worse... before she used to get up,feed and go back to sleep,now she wants to play in the middle of the night.. last night she woke at 2.3o am and wants to play..she was feeling sleepy but still she wants to play.. im lying on the bed ,not even able to open my eyes... i let her play for sometime and put her back to sleep.The days when she does not sleep properly,are the days when she is not in bed by 9.00 pm,yesterday i was at fault i let her take late evening nap which is a complete no-no, since we had a guest coming and i didnt want her to be cranky.I will not repeat the mistake again for sure.....im hoping for the day when Jenna will sleep for a stretch of 7-8 hours....hope the day is not far away.....

YAY!

Jenna mastered to use the sippy cup in two days ,i should rather say one day.. i got the gerber sippy cup from target last week and i gave her little water in it but was she biting the rubber tip ,so i didnt want to push her and kept it aside. Yesterday i gave it one more try,i poured little water in it and gave it during her cereal feeding...i read a tip from a website about babies who dont know to suck on pacifiers,it said generally when you give a pacifier to a baby and let them suck on it and try to remove the pacifier,they tend to suck more and will eventually learn to suck on it, i did the same, i kept the sippy cup and let her suck on it,when i removed the sippy cup she sucked on it more and she knew when she sucks the water comes out... and now she loves the sippy... she cries when i remove the sippy from her... i never knew it could be so easy,since she does not take the bottle too.. so should i be proud of myself or my daughter?? well, i will be proud of my daughter.. she is a true sweet heart.

FOLLOWING A SCHEDULE

Its important that every parent follows a schedule,be it parent-led or baby- led routine.I follow my baby 's cues..the schedule has been the same for the past one and half months.Her schedule as of now is as follows:
7.30 am- wakes and nurses
8.00 -9.30 am- plays
9.30-10.30am- nurses and ready for nap
11.00am- wakes and i feed her oatmeal with fruit
plays till around 12.30
1.00-3.30pm-nurses and nap time
4.00-6.00pm-nurses and plays,we go out for a stroll
6.00-7.00pm-nurses and naps
8.00pm-i feed her cereal with veggie
plays till around 9.30 nurses and goes to sleep by 10.00pm

she wakes up once or twice to nurse in the night.I have found that if i disturb this schedule by going out during her naptimes,she does not sleep and she becomes super cranky and will not sleep.Once she became so overtired ,it became midnight to put her to sleep. And dont allow them to take late evening cat naps,they will not sleep when its time to go to bed and it messes their whole schedule.This is totally my experience, every baby has a schedule and its best to follow their cues.

STARTING SOLIDS

Its been a month since i started on solids for Jenna... She has started the Gerber baby food and has tasted carrots,sweet potato,squash,applesauce and bananas.As Dr. Rivera said we introduce new food every 3-4 days to look out for allergies.Rice,banana and applesauce had constipated her and thats when the doc said they recommend the BRAT DIET(banana,rice,apple,toast) for kids with diarehhea ,so i have reduced the intake of these foods for her constipation.Her favourite food as of now has been squash and carrots. She didnt like applesauce first time she had but today when i fed oatmeal with apples.. she loved it, she was saying "mmm" in between bites... it so happens one day they hate the food,the next day they seem to love it... i m feeding solids during breakfast and dinner.. im yet to feed her green beans and prunes... i have been pushing these foods last and the reasons is i hate em.. i know im not goin to eat but somehow feeding her that irks me.. ofcourse they are nutritions but somehow im pushing to the last,i will have to feed her those next week... who knows maybe she may like it...

5 MONTH OLD MILESTONES

Jenna has turned 5 months and each day she is learning new things...

1.She can now roll in both directions,from back to tummy and tummy to back.

2.Crawls backwards..(she crawled and went under the bed the other day)

3.She sits up momentarily without support.

4.She supports herself on hands and knees and rocks back and forth.. it is chooo cute...

5.Her favourite songs this month are JAI HO from Slumdog millionare and Kalyani serial title song..she turns her head towards the tv while the song is playing.

MOMMY NEEDS A TIME-OUT

It so happens that some days are so bad , where all i want to do is go and hide inside a closet... yesterday was such a day.Jenna does not want me to go anywhere nowadays not even to the restroom.... if she sees me in the kitchen she screams bloody murder.. phew .. nor do i like being in the kitchen but i have to cook since jamil comes for lunch. So yesterday i put her in the stroller and brought her to watch me cutting onions ,but i was so busy entertaining her i missed the onion and cut my finger... when it was time to fry the onions, she no longer wanted to be in the stroller so i picked her up and forgot to switch off the stove... later when the burnt smell came i realised the onions were still in the stove... but somehow i managed to make the curry with the burnt onions and surprisingly it tasted good,Only then to receive a call from Jamil saying that he has a meeting and will not be for lunch. All my efforts were in vain.When i got down to have my lunch ,Jenna put her hands inside the hot curry in my plate....she wants to eat from our plate nowadays,not much interested in her food... And we got her passport today so now she is officially American... the irony here is we have to get the Indian visa to travel which she receives in a day... whereas in India we have to book an appointment and wait in the queqe to attend the interview for American visa.... which we may receive or may not...anyways God bless America and India too..

Weekend Getaway

Our weekend getaway for the past one and half years has been to raj and viji's house,since my mom and dad were there we never stayed in their house for the weekends.. so after a six month hiatus we are back to staying in their house,this time with a new addition Jenna,we went to an indian restaurant called Kohinoor,the food was good , Jenna got to taste the grilled salmon fish and she loved it.. she loves to taste from our plates now... and i read that babies who get to eat fish before 9 months have reduced risk of developing eczema and fishes have brain-boosting power. Im planning to start giving fishes for jenna from next month,though Dr Rivera has given the go ahead sign for any food except cow's milk,nuts and honey. On sunday,we went to the west lake park,we put Jenna on the swing and she luvd it,i forgot to take the cam with me ,but clicked few on my cell phone. Jamil and Raj were playing soccer with siddhu and vedhanth..it was wonderful to watch the kids playing ,especially vedhu (he is goin to be almost two).on the whole we all had a refreshing evening...