Ma cow speaks

Well the pointers to “breastfeed successfully” is (now that I can look back relaxed about it) is .. well relaxing. The moment you tax yourself with whether or not my baby is getting enough, along with other worries of domestic and office life, you start producing more.
I think the worst period of time for a breast feeding mom is 3-6 months. Usually doctors prefer you only breastfeed for first 6 months and baby starts demanding more from end of 2nd month. Add to the fact that, probably now the extra help you were getting from mom/mom-in-law/nurse is gone and you are worrying yourself to death how the hell are you going to manage office on top of this, and you are in trouble.
It was during this period, I started taking advice on breastfeeding from anyone and everyone, for the first time in my life, without checking any logic behind it, I followed them all. My baby was not gaining enough weight, and my adrenaline did NOT have the flight option. So it was fight all the way for me. So I pretty much tried everything, sabu and milk, suji and milk, methi, daal and even some ayurvedic medicine called lactare. Well the last one definitely works. So does sabur payesh, of course it also make you gain like a kilo every other day, but when your baby does not gain enough, you tend to forget everything else. I don’t know whether methi leaves or the spice makes you lactate more or not, but they taste very well, so I used to consume them like mad. Same true with Suji-r payesh.
The hardest part is I think consuming enough milk. With lactare 3 glasses of milk you have to drink, then there is additional protinex powdered milk so that you have enough omega 3 fatty acid to help baby grow brain (really just eat a load of fish, thats the tasty way of making a brainy offspring), then there is sabu/suji and what not payesh. And i didnt like milk to begin with. I was drinking one and half liter of milk everyday. It was a pain.
But at the end of it, now that my baby is on solids and my feed is just supplement, I have realized the only thing that matters is that one has to relax. Let go of things. Let the cook maintain the kitchen, let the maid dirty up the house, mother should just sit back, relax whenever the baby permits. Cause when baby wakes up thrice in the middle of the night, so will the mom. There is no escaping that. Of course it’s much easier said than done. When one says "managing just the baby" they don’t realize it’s not a semantically correct statement, there is no "JUST" the baby. Its hard work, very hard work "doing just the baby".
So end of the day my opinion is relax, grab any sleep you can, try lying down every time baby takes a nap. In fact it’s very stressful trying to relax that way, your body clock is not accustomed to wake up at 4:30 in the morning and go back to sleep at 9, but if your baby does that, unfortunately you would have to at least try doing the same.
And to give yourself strength to go through such rigorous routine of relaxing, just keep chanting, just for few months... just for few months. Cause trust me, babies do fall into a more humane routine soon enough. Till then ...best of luck. ;)

ma-cow sez

Since my baby didn’t gain enough weight one month, I got obsessed with breastfeeding and baby weight. Every time I would get online I would look for diets, techniques, exercise, and lifestyle in general to increase milk flow. Pointers to make sure when my baby is sucking, she is actually getting milk. I went ahead and did the unthinkable. I went ahead looked for all the old wives tales on breastfeeding diets and tried all of them without finding out why and how they would work. This is probably the first time I followed something without finding out the logic behind it.
Anyway, my obsession kind of pushed me so far, that I would call up and talk to all moms, old or new or would be, and start comparing their experiences, babies weight, how long do they sleep, how much poop they. It was kind of like the old board exam days, where meeting of two friends would always mean questions like “how many hours everyday day are you studying? 9 or 10?” “Did you read the whole mogul history from the reference too!! But that’s 563 pages!”
Anyway, during one of these calls, I was talking to a friend of mine who was expecting at that point of time. After badgering her with all the details on medicines, diet and exercises good for breast milk, when I started on details of breast pump, my friend could not stop herself from asking “But don’t you feel like a cow!! I mean not only you are taking medicines for more milk, you are actually pumping it out of you ….”
Only then I realized, I don’t really feel like a cow, I feel like an overly ambitious, eager to succeed, totally stressed out cow. Thing is whole bunch of my friends had babies around the same time I did, and they went through the same phase. I don’t know what causes it to women like me in this age. I have heard during my mothers’ time, lots of women chose not to breastfeed so that they don’t lose their figure. But us … we get so much information on how breast milk is good for the baby, for her digestion, growth later immunity to disease and then how good it is for the mother also, less chance of breast cancer, more chance of weight loss (might not work by the way … I will explain later) etc etc. That we take it to heart that any use of formula for baby is kind of like a defeat. A failure to be a good mother.
Well the first thing I learnt about breast feeding later is you should be relaxed, and to achieve that if you need to take help of formula once in a while, it wont hurt the baby, in fact, it might just help her. Many such tried and tested experiences I had and still having I will jot down in this section. A request to all reading, in case you guys know something that I don’t, please leave a note.

kid speaks

Kids often do quite odd things some times. It is a cause of confusion, much scratching of head and complete frustration in progression. To understand that, your baby is not really trying to make your life hell by screaming at 2 am in the morning requires fair bit of faith in humanity. But keep the faith; she is just trying to communicate some simple discomfort that needs your attention. Of course all the subtle differences aside, one must understand they are very new at this. All the fuss is usually about the two things they managed to learn, eat and poop. At least 90% of the time it’s not that scary baby disease whose symptom just match your babies cries. It’s not colic/cooties/fever/diarrhea, it’s just that either something needs to go in or something needs to come out, or it’s already is out.
For example, I have (unfortunately), the most finicky baby in the block. She is always in extreme discomfort if her nappy is least bit wet. I didn’t really get it the first month, caused us quite a few sleepless night.
Finally after almost 4 months I am slowly figuring out a code … deciphering “the baby lingo”.

Superwoman to not-so-supermom

As we, "the today’s superwomen" progress towards motherhood, we are apprehensive, but fairly confident. I mean, we are the batch of women who manage 12 hr jobs, and still manage to pursue family, friends, hobbies, exercise, movies, coffee breaks, eating outs, cooking ins and even that 4 minutes everyday to apply some makeup! Anyway we got that three whole months of maternity leave. Obviously take the job out of equation for “THREE WHOLE MONTHS” it can be easily done, right? After that the baby is practically an adult and your mother or mother-in-law can take over the quite easy job of baby sitting and you can resume your life … oh alright, so you will drop may be an occasional outings or two, to accommodate spending time with the cute lil angel you have at home now. I mean that French minister joined back at work after 5 days of delivery right? And you have 3 whole months!
Bang you have the baby and you realize and keep on realizing, it’s an impossible task … and you thought impossible is not a word that exists in your superwoman dictionary J
Well the only thing correct in all your assumption about motherhood turns out to be the fact that, it is, in fact, 100%, a cute little angel. Which will bode not too well for you, as the cuteness is a sure shot weapon to completely enslave you.
Do I hear you say, hey what all do you have to do to manage feeding and cleaning up after an infant? I mean the thing is not even half a dozen kilos, how much can it eat (and the food by the way is not something you have to make, your body is making it automatically) and how much can it poop? And anyway it sleeps most of the time, right?
J I don’t know the answer to it. I am not sure what I do all day. All I know is I always go to bed sleep deprived and back broken and completely utterly satisfied. The baby taking care part leaves you too exhausted to do anything else and the satisfaction part keep you addicted for more. Of course if the recent recession just left you jobless (like me ;) ) the understanding of previously unknown concepts like single income family and budget is again another thing to add in your exhausting list of chores and worries … but then this blog is not about that. It’s about me and my recently parent friends, our experiences. The things we learnt the hard way. Hoping it would help the yet to be parents and may be put a smile of recognition to the already parents.