Niya 4 months

Dear Niya,

You are 4 months old now. I am actually struggling to come to terms with the fact that you are already 4 months old! You are 13 lb 11 oz at your well visit yesterday and 24 inches tall. You are right in the 50th percentile. For my tiny, SFGA baby, you are doing great! You also got your first cold. Thankfully, it has not become an ear infection yet.

It was a fun last two months for you! I never did write your 3 month letter, but we were out of town and I didn't have my laptop with me. But you had your first beach trip to Miami, went to the pool and had a blast. You are always smiling and laughing. I am thinking you are going to be a social butterfly. You love everyone, but you think your brother is the BEST. You reserve your best smiles and laughs for him. When he comes to you in the morning, your face lights up like nothing else. Neil loves to sit next to you and "read" you his favorite books.

This month Appacha came to visit and he calls you the princess of FL. Neil calls you Plinty Plincess. I call you a string of gibberish as the Spirit moves me. Appacha and Ammachy loves to carry you around all the time. If you show as much as the smallest pout, you are immediately picked up. You are well loved (and well spoilt). When someone plays with you, you show a shy face and roll your entire fist inside your mouth. You already show separation anxiety. People who see you say I will never be able to do anything as you wont let me be away from you. It is amazing to everyone (including your pediatrician) how fast you have recognized me. You already cry when I take you to the doctor. I have no idea how you know. Are you supposed to know already?

I love how intently you look at the books Neil reads to you. I hope you would love to read. You love the swing, the gym mat, and the mei tai. If someone can carry you close to them all day long, you are supremely happy.

Dada is not supposed to say you are cute because if he did, I get to ask for another baby. This is just a game we play. But he says that all the time unawares, because you are just that cute. I know, I set him up for something I know he will fail miserably. You are a bit of a drama queen some times. You cry like you are getting murdered, and I come flying from the ends of the earth, and all you wanted was to be held. And once you are held, it is like a switch turned off. Neil gets very upset if he hears you cry. He empathizes a little too well.

You bring so much sunshine and joy into our lives. I just wish the days went a little slower.

Love,
Mama

Letter to Neil 3 year old

Dear Neil,

It says 10:53 on the laptop now. It has been EXACTLY 3 years since you were born. I didn't plan to start a letter at 10:53. I wish I were able to plan things that well, it just happened.

I look at you today and I am not sure what happened. I got you home from the hospital, blinked and now here you are 3 years old. I remember crying when I held you for the first time. And then you looked at me. I might forget many daily things like where my keys are and call your sister by your name or fail to wish people Happy Birthday, but I can never forget that. I was thinking so much of you today all day.

You got many gifts today, a trike, flash cards, clothes, tag reader books, play food. But I think the thing that made you the happiest was some undivided attention from me. You had a bubble bath which you loved, lots of reading, ipad time, great food, payasam, and fun at your little party. It was just your Dad, me Ammachy, and Niya, but it was nice.

You are such a loving little boy. You are completely missing that thing called jealousy. Even with a lot of my time going towards your little sister, you have not shown a spark of resentment. You love her to bits (literally) and get up every morning and ask for her the first thing. Cuddles are so few these days, but bedtime is the best. I put you in the crib and you make your lovie into a pillow and say "Mama go to sleep" (which means mama, sleep with me) and when I get up and go after some time, you say "Stay" That is when I get to shower you with kisses.

You love reading, playing in the water, piano, music and your current love, the ipad. You love doing laundry, and thanks to you, I am on top of laundry now. You are very persistent and I love that. On the same note, you are quite stubborn. We are trying to help you best to do things without crushing your feisty personality. You have a fantastic memory and a sense of humor which is coming out now. It is hilarious to hear you come up with things. You are 100% boy, you love "toot" jokes. I think at this point you love your Ammachy best. Maybe it is because you get your own way with her the most. You love being with her and I think you are going to miss her once she goes back to India in 2 months. You love your preschool and is now happy to go there. We took some cupcakes there to share with your friends.

You bring so much joy into our lives. Although it has only been 3 years, it is hard to imagine a time when you were not there. (What did I do all day?) I am realizing that the time before I got pregnant with you is starting to become hazy. Sometimes when I look at you, my heart gets so full that my eyes fill up. And your heavenly Father loves you even more than that. Imagine! Neil, I hope you always remember that you can do nothing to make us love you any more or any less. We know you are struggling with some things. We are trying to help you the best we can. Sometimes, it just hurts to watch you struggle and I want to come in and take it all away. But I know I can't. I can hold your hand so far and then let go and let you work it out and have my prayers follow you. Just as it will the rest of my life.

Love,
Mama

Niya 2 months

Sweet Niya,

You are 2 months old. Well, you turned two months old yesterday, but I just got around to writing today. Mommy was sick for a week and now Daddy is sick, so things have been busy. I just hope you stay healthy. You have your 2 month appointment tomorrow and we will find out your stats. I don't need to know any stats though to know that you are growing fast. Today you sat alert at church and was just playing by yourself. You have blossomed out so much and have outgrown all your newborn clothes. I feel a little sad you are growing so fast. I have the most fun putting you in all your adorable clothes and getting you ready.

You are the most content baby ever. I was looking at the milestone chart the other day and you have achieved all the advanced milestones for your age. Smiling, laughing, putting weight on feet, doing push ups for tummy time, cooing and gurgling, you are just at it. Yesterday you even slept for 8 hours through the night! You still sleep with us and although your room has been ready before you were born, I don't think you are going to be there any time soon. Sometimes I feel a little bad I don't get to spend as much time with you as I'd like, but you get a lot of love and attention all the same from all of us. Our time is when you wake up in the morning and I feed you and then while I am pumping milk for you, you lay awake and we talk and laugh. By the time I am done pumping, you are asleep and you don't know it, but that is when I kiss your chubby little hands and feet. I can't get over how sweet you are!

Neil is completely in love with you, getting you diapers, clothes, lying down next to you. I think he would be happiest if I leave you with him all day. You love being snuggled and carried and I love carrying you in the mei tai.

I am glad God saw it fit to send you to us. You are such a blessing and joy to all of us.

Love,
Mama

Niya 1 Month

Dear Niya,

You are one month old today!

How fast the time went! You were born so fast and the whole process was so great that I smile every time I think of it. It has been a great time after that too, you are such an easy baby. But I will tell you one thing. When you were born and even for like a week after, I was terrified of you. You were such a tiny thing I was afraid to handle you at all. And for two weeks you remained like that. Then you started putting on weight and  now you have blossomed.

Today you gave us all big smiles with mouth wide open, looking right at our faces. These interactions are the best. When you wake up in the morning and after you have had your milk, that is when you are the happiest. You sleep with us (of course!) and you love to cuddle close to mama every night. Even if you have the pacifier and is wrapped, you will still complain until you are close and cuddled to one of us.

You have a closet full of clothes and one of my favorite things to do is dress you up. You don't really fit into anything other than newborn clothes. You have outgrown your preemie clothes and the 3 month clothes are too big, so my choices are a bit limited.

Neilu loves you a lot and wants to be with you all the time. At preschool he tells everyone proudly he is a big brother. You are very blessed to have him as a big brother.

You love car rides, made up songs and you tolerate the swing.

You are quite a happy, fun baby and thoroughly spoiled by your Ammachy who holds you all the time.

I love you precious baby, and can't get enough of kissing, and cuddling you every day.

SUYL: Kitchen

If you are coming from Kellys Korner, a hearty welcome to you. If you are a regular reader, then thanks for stopping by again. Today is my favorite SUYL topic. Kitchens. Kitchen is my favorite place in the house. It is a  love born out of familiarity. I spend the majority of my day there. As does my kids. It is the hub of our home. As I have mentioned probably 15 times here in this blog, Indian cooking is very time consuming. Not that I am complaining about the results, but it takes a lot of effort nonetheless. We recently moved to a new home. The kitchen was a source of despair in the older house. My main criteria in the new house was that the kitchen should be spacious.

Before I show pictures, here is my disclaimer: Don't hate me because of my mad photography skills.

This is the view from the family room.

This is the view from the entrance through the family room. This is our breakfast area and the pantry is behind it.

I think it is funny that although it is a "breakfast area', breakfast is the only meal we don't have here. My breakfast is usually a piece of bread and butter which I try to eat between feeding my son and daughter at the same time. But we love sitting here just for the view. In a rare while (more often before Niya was born), I sit there in the mornings with my Bible and read and pray. Sometimes, I just sit and watch the sunshine slowly chasing the mist away. Kind of like how quiet moments with God can chase the fears away. 

These are some lovely canisters I got at a garage sale for a princely sum of $2. These are my second favorite thing in the kitchen. My favorite thing would be the blue and yellow cookie jar bought at the same garage sale for $1. It is there in the first picture. In my stellar photo shoot, I forgot to get a close up of that.

This is the view towards the dining room. And I love, love the backs plash. I think it made a huge difference in how the kitchen looks.

Some oranges in the jar. We prefer real fruits and fake flowers over here :)

This is the view from the dining room. I realized later that I should have put on the light, that would have made for some better pictures.

Now the walls are kind of bare. I had taken off all the stuff for painting and never got around to putting anything back. It is one of my goals this summer.

I am giving myself a free pass as it has not even been 4 weeks since baby #2.

Hope you enjoyed the tour.

Niya's Nursery

I love looking at kids' rooms. So I am linking up with Kelly's Korner SUYL.

When Neil was born, we were living in a small 2 br house with a den. We bought the house when we were just the two of us and thought it was plenty big. At that time, I was working outside the home and hardly spent any time in there. Soon, with the birth of Neil and both sets of (our) parents staying long term, plus R working from home full time, we outgrew it. To top it all, I became a SAHM. Not only was it a smallish house, it was very quirky. It has the worst use of space I have seen in a house. Anyway, this year we moved to another house and I was able to put a nursery together for our daughter. Right now, she is hanging out with us, so it is looking great, so I wanted to put a post and pictures together to remember how it once was :) Soon enough, it will be like the rest of the house.

I didn't want an all pink super girly room. I love soft green and white so I wanted to do something along that lines. Then again, I couldn't help but throw some pink in the mix.

The crib is my absolute favorite brand, Baby's dream (Neil has the same one). It is quite pricey as far as cribs go, but this one was from a garage sale and it was in excellent condition.

These are the canvas art I custom ordered hanging above the crib.

The one on the far left is a favorite verse from Zephaniah 3:17, middle is the initial of her name and the third are the different meanings of her name.

This is how it looks from the door. I love the crocheted blanket hanging over the rocking chair that a lovely lady at the chapel made for the baby. Above the changing table is the Feltman Brothers dress that she came home from the hospital in. She was so tiny that it was a mercy that those dresses run a little small so she could fit into it without looking ridiculous.

The changing table is Neil's old one which I also painted white and green to match the dresser and night stand.

Her closet, which frankly I think are way too many clothes, but in my defense I must have bought her 3 outfits, all the rest are gifts.

When I was pregnant with her, we asked Neil what we should name her, he said Button. Pressing the buttons around the house is his favorite thing to do. So, for fun, I made this little craft with buttons and scrapbook paper and put it in a white photo frame from Ikea. I loved how it turned out!

The dresser and night stand were two pieces I bought for a song from craigslist and painted white and pale green and changed the knobs. It looks nice and different and I love the lines on it.

The milky way on the ceiling and it looks great when it is pitch dark.

I loved working on the nursery as it was a labor of love for me. With a toddler, and work, and a hundred other things clamoring for my attention, it was hard to spend a lot of time thinking about the baby inside. But when I was painting, and ordering fabric, it really was a sweet time thinking about her. (usually late at night when I get a minute to myself)

It really is a very peaceful room, much like the personality of our baby girl who is a week old today. Finally, a picture of our precious Niya.

Niya's birth story

I have not updated this blog in forever, so I am not even sure I had mentioned I was pregnant with baby #2. Well, 40 weeks and 2 days passed and I gave birth to our beautiful baby girl Niya in the year of our Lord 2012. I want to remember how she was born so I am recording it here. I am not even sure anyone other than myself reads this blog anymore so really it is just for myself.

This whole pregnancy was so different from when I was pregnant with Neil. One of the main reasons for the absence on the blog is that we were super busy with a house move, and I had a horrible first trimester. I was hit with migraines which I have never had before in my life. Then they found I had a thyroid issue. I lost a lot of weight and the morning sickness was horrible. I gained my first pound at 21 weeks. Anyway, all this to say that I should not have been so surprised that the birth went the way it did. At close to 38 weeks, I started having contractions and while it was not too bad, it really scared me into thinking that I was going into labor. That really sped up things from my end of getting ready for the baby. I got everything ready for the nursery and got the hospital bag ready and even washed her clothes. Since my mom was not planning to come until the 28th, I even arranged with a friend to watch Neil. So, all was in readiness. After all the getting ready, she then decided to stay awhile after all. At my 37 week check, I was 1cm dilated and 25% effaced. Every week after that, I was 1 more cm dilated. So, at my due date I was 60% effaced and close to 4 cm.

My due date fell on a Saturday and my last check up was on Tuesday. We scheduled an induction on Tuesday if baby was not planning on coming before that. I was not super thrilled about the induction, to be completely honest, but I was happy that at least I was able to have my favorite doctor there that day. When I was praying, I prayed I would be able to go naturally on Tuesday. Saturday came and went, and so did Sunday. We all went to church and went out to eat. We came back and I was seized with a desire to clean house. My mom was baffled and kept insisting that I should rest. I was on a roll and cleaned the kitchen and living room and even cleaned the leather sofa with a conditioner that I had bought a while ago which was not opened until that day. Should that have been a clue? I had been having Braxton hicks for pretty much every day until Sunday, but that day, I had no pain, and was very much energized. My mom and I talked late into the night, then I felt hungry around 1 am. I ate some noodles, had water melon, and finally at around 2 am went upstairs to sleep. I was tired and woke up at 2:45 with a contraction. This felt different, but I decided I won't disturb anyone until I felt it more intense and more frequent. I continued to try and sleep. I got the next one at 3:10 and it felt about the same. I didn't really go back to sleep and at 3:22 am my water broke. I immediately woke up my husband, transferred Neil to mom, grabbed the hospital bag, and was out the door and in the car by 3:32 am.

It was a 30 minute drive to the hospital and the contractions at first were every 10 minutes. Then it became every 4 minutes and were getting very intense. I kept praying over and over, Lord, please let me get to the hospital. We got there and since it was in the wee hours of the morning, the door was locked and R had already driven away, I started panicking. Thankfully, there was a phone and I managed to call in and get in. I went to the reception, and she asked me for the SSN. I could barely talk and gave her my number and then started kneeling on the floor. At this point, I really felt like I wanted to poop. They took me to triage, checked me, and almost immediately wheeled me out to labor and delivery. I kept saying, it hurts, it hurts. I felt like I kept asking for epidural, but hubby says that I only asked for it twice. It was 4:20, I remember everyone asking me to breathe and I was not listening. Nothing was helping. I vaguely remember wondering why they were not giving me IV for epidural. There was a haze of faces and the pain was intense and I know I wanted to push so bad. My whole body was telling me to push and the nurses told me no pushing as the doctor was not there. R told me lat that I bit him and that I kicked one of the nurses. I don't remember any of that. One thing I do remember. R looked straight into my eye and said, Annie, she is almost here, you are going to have to do it without an epidural. What stood out to me is that the called me Annie. He has called me Annie twice before in our married life. Once when saying the wedding vows, second when Neil was born. I then knew things were serious. I calmed down then as I knew I had to do whatever it took to bring her out. I heard the nurse say, she is full term and she can push with the next contraction whether the doctor is here or not. God bless her! Thankfully, the doctor came then and when the next contraction came, I pushed her out.

Niya Kalpana was born at 4:32 am perfect and beautiful at 5 lb 11 oz, 18 inches long. Yes, she is tiny. But not a lot tinier than how her mama was. It was a very short labor by any standard and all things considered, it was perfect. I had a minor tear which the doctor stitched with a local anesthesia. It was not too bad actually. I never had a birth plan, and an all natural delivery was certainly not in any plan of mine. But God orchestrated the details perfectly, he gave me the grace to undergo the pain (albeit the kicking and biting) and it worked out so well that the pain came in the night so we could get to the hospital in time with no traffic. I don't know if it has anything to do with the fact that I had a drug free delivery, but my recovery was much better and faster. I personally think it was because of the fast labor so it was not very exhausting. We feel very blessed and are back home from the hospital now. There is a Jewish prayer I posted when Neil was born and I can't find anything more appropriate than that.

Blessed art thou O Lord Our God, King of the Universe
who has kept me alive and sustained me
and brought me to this wonderful moment.