Como Park Zoo

We spent a fun day at the Como Park Zoo today. It was a great outing for reasons more than one. The biggest plus point was there was a lot to see in a very compact space and manner. In other words, we had to walk less and still were able to see quite a lot of all the major animals (ones easily identifiable without having to look at the name plates outside their cages :) .There were monkeys of various shapes and sizes; tortoises, flamingos and seals; lions, tigers and leopards; giraffes; zebras and even a couple of playful polar bears.

An added attraction was the Como Town with the kiddie rides; where fortunately Vansh enjoyed as opposed tohis strange behaviour at the Mall of America rides a couple of weeks back. He had a lot of fun in especially the car rides.

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My Baby Shower

Some of my friends got together today and gave me a cute little baby shower. Its touching as well as so very pleasant to have caring friends who share your joys and go an extra step to make you feel special. It was indeed lovely to enter Shalini's house and see cute decorations spelling out 'Neera's Baby Shower', streamers and balloons and a chair covered with a lovely yellow silk saree.

To begin with, all my friends did a small puja, putting haldi and kumkum on my forehead, put fruits and rice in my lap and prayed for the baby's good health. They also gifted me a Target gift card, which I'll put to good use for baby shopping very soon :) We then had a photo session with all the kids :)



Yummy treats followed thereafter with a mouth watering menu of pav bhaji, pulao, idli sambhar chutney, gajar halwa and gulab jamuns.
Finally the kids had a lot of fun with each other, palying with balloons and toys and generally turning the room into a mess.



Click here for the entire album

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Vansh is getting ready ...

...it seems, for the new baby. Ever since we took the maternity unit tour last Saturday and Vansh saw a couple of tiny new born babies there and quite intently at that, he could probably make the connection with what we had been telling him for the few past weeks. He's been telling us in his own broken language "Baby car लाओ/चाहिऐ" standing for "Lets get the baby from the hospital in the car" I am naturally very glad and relieved to see at least his initial excitement and eagerness to get the baby home. Before this, I had no idea whatsoever on how Vansh is going to react. At times I felt he might be very interested and at others I felt, he just wouldn't care. Jealousy, of course would take over at some times. I got him this book 'I'm a Big Brother' from the library on babycentre.com's recommendation. Its a neat book with nice and appropriate pictures on everyday situations like feeding, changing diapers, going to the park, how the baby needs extra care and how the Big Brother can help, at the same time reinforcing his individuality as well. We have also been working particularly on teaching him the concept of 'taking turns/waiting for his turn' at swings/slides in the park or even while speaking to each other when at home emphasizing when its the elders' turn to talk and when its his. It is sinking in gradually, I feel, as he himself uses words like turn and wait in the appropriate context. I also encourage him to share whatever he is eating with his dad and his grandparents who are also here these days. So much for preparation, ultimately I have my fingers crossed.

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Vansh is upto ...

Just a few quick updates on what Vansh is upto these last few days :

• Counts from 1 through 10 when in a good mood. Doesn't correspond number of things with the correct number though. Counts them randomly - 1, 4, 6, 10.
• Says the स्वर's of the Hindi वर्णमाला - अ, आ, इ , ई, उ, ऊ, ए, ऐ, ओ, औ, अन and then laughs out loud
• loves to sing along the ABC song (just the tune) and fills up at points where there is a stop like G, P, V, Z, etc. Recognises all the alphabets pretty consistently now.
• Still shouts quite a bit when angry, happy, excited.
• Usually just says the last word or the last 2 words when asked to speak say a 4 or 5 letter sentence. eg. 'Papa office गए' would be spoken as simply 'गए'.

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36th week OB appointment

I had my 36th week OB appointment today; they become weekly from now on till my delivery!All was well. I gained 2 pounds since last time which was 2 weeks back (Thank God!! I was expecting that I would have gained at least 5 lbs from having devoured all the goodies recently arrived from India), putting my total weight gain, by far, at 22 lbs. My blood pressure was normal at 110/66. The nurse chose to skip testing my haemoglobin this time as all the previous readings were excellent(according to the nurse) at 12.9. I also had a Group B strep test. The baby's heart beat was normal ranging between 148-152 beats per minute and the uterus measured fine as well.

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Maternity Unit Tour

We took the maternity unit tour today at the Fairview Southdale Hospital where I am scheduled to deliver the baby. Its a tour to familiarise you and your family with the hospital, from things like parking to the floor on which the maternity unit is situated; what to do and whom to approach when you arrive in labor; a peek into the labor and delivery room; the nursery and the post partum unit (which unfortunately the nurse conducting the tour could not take us to because none of the rooms were empty). It prepares you to a good extent so that you are comfortable about knowing all the above when you actually arrive there at the stressful labor hour and know exactly what to do. I couldn't help but draw comparisons between the Sutter Hospital in Sacramento, CA where Vansh was born and this one. The rooms in Sutter were bigger and had more comfortable chairs and recliners for the mom to be and the spouse. I had spent a lot of time on the rocking chair while in labor with Vansh and that is not available in the rooms here. but I guess its okay one because I am almost counting on the fact that I'll have a much much much shorter labor this time (with Vansh it was 53 hours from start to finish ..phew!!) and two because they do have birthing balls which is also helpful. Secondly, the cord attaching you to the screen where they monitor the fetal heart rate and contraction rate is just 6 feet; in other words, that's the radius of your freedom of movement and they do not have cordless monitors for the same. Which means, if they decide to constantly monitor the fetal heart rate (which once again I hope, they don't this time - with Vansh they had to because my water had broken before labor began and that is considered a condition for constant fetal monitoring); I wouldn't have the freedom to take walks in the corridors; again something I had done a lot the last time - kind of took my mind off to see all the nurses and other people bustling in there with activity. Well to be optimistic, lets hope I wouldn't have too much time to do that either :)

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Getting too tiring at 35 weeks!!

I have been telling my friends that pregnancy just should not be as long the second time round. Chasing a two year old 24/7 is a full day task in itself and a physically, mentally and emotionally challenging one at that; top it with cooking, cleaning and the daily household chores and what you have is a totally exhausted me by the end of the day!! Settling down at night is no longer easy either with turning sides seeming like a Herculean task in itself. But I am really thankful to God for giving me the strength and patience; I am not losing my sanity at Vansh's quirky behaviour as much as before; I am indeed proud of myself for still going down on my knees several times in a day while taking him to pee in the restroom or to scrub the kitchen/bathroom floor. I do get shaky legs at the end of the day and had a couple of severe cramps too in the middle of last night but thats something that cannot really be helped with it being almost time for the new addition to the family. And as distinctly as I remember (and somewhat dread!) the sleepless nights, the 'so frequent' feeds, the backaches once the little one arrives; yet once again I am longing for this phase to end soon and just as I write this, wishing for at least 6 more months to fly by so I have a settled, routined, sleeping through the night baby in my arms ..ha ha, wishful thinking :)

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