Personification of peace & quiet..

Yes !

that is what Anya is once she is well fed and has had a reasonable share of burps. The interesting thing that we have seen is that until the burp cycle is complete, she is very uneasy but the very moment she is satisfied with that , she manages to close her eyes and fall right asleep in whichever position she is !!

Sometimes though, she is very fresh, for example in the mornings or even afternoons and then she does not fall asleep, but gives a very peaceful look, which remains peaceful until ofcourse the parents end up doing something stupid !

( As you might see towards the end of the video clip !)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5506637881957515612&pr=goog-sl

The art of burping !

Well, when the grown ups resort to it openly, it is even considered a bad etiquette, but in the context of a newborn baby, this changes totally. Parents want a baby that burps away to glory and creates space for more food inside, eats, does not have stomach problems and sleeps well !

In our case, Little Anya has been reasonably successful in burping so far. Although we must confess, it is still more of an empirical science rather than an art for us ! We have learnt a few techniques/positions at the hospital that facilitate the process. Despite that, sometimes we are often seen helpless trying our best !

However, being able to predict how well will it work is still beyond any complex Bayesian probability theorem..It is still a trial and error for us on many occassions. Thankfully, it almost always works for us. Infact you could see ( the photo above ) how Anya some times falls asleep on us while still being in the burping position !

Gallons of milk inside the tummy and one single big burp could give us a snoring Anya !!

Sometimes, it is a challenge to have her awake for further feeding. Anyway, as they say, it is the baby that is supposed to decide if the feeding is enough and is supposed to cry and ask for it if it needs more.

So, with this thinking, the concerned first-time-parents like us sometimes have to reconcile with a bottle still half full ..

Infact, we would also like to share with you some of the funny episodes that we have seen while taking Anya through some of the burping routines...

The videos could be seen below through the following two links

1. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9080200137556030098&pr=goog-sl
   
   
2. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4029183855970936983&pr=goog-sl
   

As parents, it is quite an indescribably special feeling to see the total dependence of the newborn on them. We get the same feeling when we look at her or when we hold her. Mother nature after all does have her ways of inculcating the required attributes into the parents that enable them to nurture babies..

Winds of change

It is interesting to see how wonderful it is to observe the small day to day changes in the baby. Clearly, every day is spent in trying to improve upon the art of reading baby's signals..in the process everything that the baby does is carefully made a note of only to be to realised the next day that it was just a single day phenomenon. It takes a while, but one realises very soon that change is the constant thing with babies so planning things to the last dot is perhaps even stupidity ! So much so, that we see that even in the choice of diapers ..last week Pampers ( 3 - 6 kgs ) was fine, this week somehow Libero MINI feels better and more comfortable !

Eyes full of wonder...

It is very interesting to see her stare endlessly at things ( or even ceiling for that matter !) with a look of wonder in her eyes..they say babies have a clean slate and they are always busy reading data from their senses. They say, it is this quality of the child to be amazed at its surroundings that enables it to learn/grasp a lot.This look of amazement on her face is something that is priceless for us.

Moments of peace on the changing table

Once the 'job' is done and the diaper is changed, Anya is once again the personification of tranquility..her eyes open and close like a lazy beacon and she can be lying on the nursing table for a while before the need to make a move from there is promptly communicated to us !

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6019641397950856139

The incredible suction device..

Talking about learning to read her signals, every now and then when she is hungry, she has this habit of converting her mouth into a smartly designed suction device. This is followed by a lunge towards any object that even remotely looks like a device capable of giving milk. Clever as I am, after having made this meticulous observation, I use my nose as a feeler to decide whether she is hungry. If my nose is greeted by a similar lunge, ofcourse we know for sure !...but since this almost borders on non-acceptable behaviour towards a baby, I let Lakshmi decide if Anya is hungry.. thank God mothers have more refined ways of finding out !

One fine Sunday morning with her father - III

But as we have been telling you, Anya is unbelievably quiet and appears quite satisfied with herself most of the times when she is awake. It is ofcourse within her rights to holler when there is a 'code brown situation' or when the hunger pangs strike..and it is good to see that these days she makes use of her fundamental rights quite often !!

One fine Sunday morning with her father - II

Well, as you can see it is not easy to put her to sleep even after feeding her up to the brink ! There was a time when she could sleep for hours after feeding, but now things have changed, she seems to have realised the joy of keeping the eyes open..She could be asleep one moment and wide awake the next ..that is life !

One fine Sunday morning with her father - I

Oh yes, that is when the mother had to finish her routines and Anya found herself in her father's hands..Ofcourse that was a perfect opportunity for him to shoot a few nice extreme closeups. It feels good that Anya is not grown up enough yet to resist that ! very soon one will see her tiny arms stretched out in protest.

The hunger pangs !

Yes, she is getting bigger and not just her eyes. Her hunger pangs are heard and her cry is getting more of a gut wrenching effect to it ! With a lot from the mother and the rest from the formula, she can still be hungry in just two hours..

The good thing is that we see her awake and bright more often.

Eyes wide open

These days, little Anya has started to be awake more often during the day. Her parents are desperately trying to get her interested in feeding. While our girl appears to be pretty adept at the 'suckling technology', it appears that she has some aristocracy in her blood..just does not want to work hard !

The hapless parents are ofcourse trying all kinds of tricks and are getting some success in getting her interested in mothers milk..however steady the progress might be, the underlying emphasis is on the word 'slow' ! The eyes ofcourse are open more often and when they are open, and when they are staring at you, it feels like a search light has zeroed in on you ..what transpires in the little mind while all the staring is being done is still a point of debate amongst the scholars...

A few snaps

Generally asleep, but when awake surprises us with her big eyes and these days she has started to show some co-ordination with her eye movement..She can actually be staring at you silently for minutes together..one wonders what does their small processor do with so much information !

Operation "Wake up"

That is something that time has helped me specialise in. When it is time to wake up Little Anya for a meal, I have to spring into action..one has to carass her and do many things before one gets to see her throw her tiny fists in the air and give a king size yawn. That does not promise anything, she could still fall asleep right away, so one might have to work harder for her to get her eyes open and for her to keep them open for a while ! I have taken a video clipping of this operation, let me see if I can attach that here !

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7024960525477161029&pr=goog-sl

Sleeping Beauty

So far, she is more of a sleeping beauty. We have to work hard to wake her up for feeding. Many people say that she is a satisfied and peaceful baby and then they also add that often the babies change their character totally within a few weeks. So as of now, we have not fully made up our minds yet whether we should be happy and thankful for her peaceful disposition or should we be scared of what the immediate future might be !..

Arrival

She arrived on the 25th of Jan 2007, at 1926 CET, and that was almost a week in advance. Looks like she had sensed that the winters were not so bad afterall this year in Sweden..and she did not cry even a bit when she 'emerged' from within.

It was a normal delivery and Lakshmi and team did a good job of getting her out !

Anya

We have thought of a few names, we like "Anya" the best, but there is another contender "Ananya" which also has a good meaning and is a nice name.

We somehow found Anya to be shorter & easier . What do you say ?

The little princess

We thought it would be easier with a blog to keep a log of events at our end and post photos of the little princess..