Childbirth, Breastfeeding and the journey

I am a mom and to two kids at that. Becoming a mom was a choice not a compulsion, so was breastfeeding to me.

But did you know the stress that new moms, second time moms go through when it comes to breastfeeding. They are loaded with information from all sources on what to eat, what not to eat, how to feed the baby and how not to feed the baby and the judgmental comments that come along when the mom is unable to breastfeed be it right after delivery or through the journey of infancy and toddler hood. The experience is different from woman to woman and with consecutive deliveries for a woman.

Much like my birth experiences. my breastfeeding experiences were different both the times. Now that I am wiser I know what is right and what is not. I wish I had this strong notion of birthing being a natural process, I wish I had made informed decisions with the doctor of waiting for labour to kick in on its own than rush before due date, I wish I could experience the breathing techniques, shifting positions, massage and pain management during labour, of having the baby given to me for skin to skin contact, of having the baby start on breast feeding in the first hour of birth rather than formula.
An informed decision is a beautiful birthing experience. Safe Birthing is every child's and mom's right.

I as a mother would like to share about this wonderful initiative that a bunch of beautiful souls have begun to give to be mothers a soulful and happy birthing experiences with just the right information and right birthing practices

@Bangalorebirthnetwork is a support and information network that brings you evidence based information you can take back to your doctor and have a happy pregnancy.

A selfie that brings back a lot of memories, self assurance and confidence.

Baby wearing and trekking over Ramanagara!

As a kid I was brought up being very active with way too many acrobatic stunts to my credit. I  was never into professional athletics or acrobats. But can you imagine being hung on the parapets of the yest year homes? That was just another sport for my dad. If I was not hanging there , I used to be tossed into the air and then caught. I do not have much memory of those days but these are passed over memories by mom and dad.

To say the least I was the last person in the group to be called in for any sports or cultural activities at school. I was always considered to be in the studious group. Guess I lost out to many a good opportunity as a kid this way. But all this changed once I entered a girls college for my engineering.

Cut back to my professional life I got into active sports, trekking, cultural programs and what not. It was a blessing in disguise to be have worked in one of the big IT giants and still had chances to indulge in all outdoor activities. I was surprised at my own strength and interests. They say when life gives you lemons make lemonade and that is exactly what I did.  Marriage, kids followed but my interests remained. As time went by fitness, gym came into play and it was all the more good.

We never missed a chance to step out to trek or tour. People wondered how we would manage with kids in tow. But hey we did our first tour post kid when the elder kid was just 6 months old. There was nothing stopping us. In between all this madness in life I got injured with an ACL tear. Fear gripped in if that would put a full stop to all my outdoor activities. Thankfully the injury wasn't much damaging at that point and there was nothing stopping me or my kids.

As you can see from the selfie which I would like to term as selfie experience, I was into baby wearing when the second one came by and that is how we ended up trekking the Ramanagara. It was a day outing from Bangalore on the Bangalore- Mysore Highway. All four of us trekked up the other small hill closer to Ramadevara Betta Hill. It was a surreal experience to trek with a chance of damaging my legs more, two year old on the back but I did it. The only damage that occurred was the carrier snapping away half way down the climb. This place is known for Sholay movie being shot here way back in the 70's.

That reminds me I clicked quite a lot of selfies with my second one because we were into baby wearing. A selfie camera definitely helps in those moments that we want to preserve life long. The Mobiistar's front , dual selfie camera would have that can capture a 120 degree wide angle shot should have definitely captured more of the surrounding beauty atop that cliff in Ramanagara.

A selfie is definitely a way for us to get the precious memories etched in our hearts for ever. What if we were to want those memories saved and had no company to shoot those moments. That is how selfies help us. Wait for no one and just be true to your desires and needs.
This post goes in for the contest from IndiBlogger in association with Mobiistar. Check them out here and if you would like to lay your hands on them, they are on Flipkart.

Life!

To be able to love,
To be able to live,
To be able to smile,
To be able to sacrifice,
To be able to appreciate,
To be able to learn,
To be able to forget,
To be able to forgive,
To be able to give,
To be able to receive....

 

The real essence of life.

Sailing Together

                           How often do we take our spouse for granted? Quite an everyday affair isn't it? There could be something wrong in that notion, don't you think. But how far do we go to change this? Do we sit back and relish the assumptions or do we make an effort to try and understand the real emotions that underlay in the relationship? One fine day,everything changed in my life.

 A little intro on how it all began:
                        Thanks to my association with a mother's group on Face Book, my whole notion of relationships has changed, be it either with children, with the spouse or with anyone in particular. We talk about everything under the sun, we share our sorrows as much as we share our joy on the group. It was on this group, we spoke about a book "The Happiness Project". The ultimate aim of every human is to find that eternal bliss of happiness isn't it? So I began to survey the book only to find a chapter specifically dealing with Marriage,Spouse and everything related to it. Not that one needs to read books to understand marriage but a reminder once a while is a good thing, right?

The changes I brought about:
                       First on first, I decided to startanewlife.And how you may ask? I decided to have a heart to heart conversation with the spouse about what was bothering him, about what was bothering me, and anything and everything related to our life's. This did the job for me. I have been married for 7 years. We started out as friends, then a couple and now parents and this one task of open talk has never happened. Or has it and the nuisances of life has made me forget things?
                      Whatever be it, I decided to start afresh at the way I look at things in our life's. I don't take him for granted anymore, I don't nag him anymore for small things. I would not claim it to be a 100% success route but I am getting there. The relation is getting it due importance. It feels good to know that anything and everything can  be discussed

                      And why do I say this, because there's hell lot of changes I see in my spouse, once I changed my assumptions. He is more forthcoming helping with things at home. He takes over the responsibility's of child rearing with ease.
                     Not to forget, I am a lot  calmer when handling kids at home, a bit more mature when handling delicate situations. The entire point of talking it out and staying together helps the relation stay strong. Yes there's always a give and take in any kind of  relation and the bond between husband and wife is no different. Today we are looking forward to stay together and sail towards a happier life ahead combating all challenges with equal determination.

TEA for the soul

This theme took me days to write. I had no clue on how to go about this theme. The theme was for the Thursday that has already seen its sunset. But here I am scribbling thoughts on it. I believe in the saying 'Better late than never'

Well hailing from God's own country, TEA is very much part and parcel of my life to this day. TEA began its charm in my life somewhere from the age of 14 or 15. The slow transition from milk to tea happens at this age isn't it and then you get hitched for life to this soul awakening drink. 

Oh I am addicted to TEA, I need to have my hot cup of tea first thing in the morning. Damn, I cannot see myself sail through the morning chores without tea. And the same at around 3.30 - 4.00 PM in the evening. My husband on the other hand can survive mornings without tea, well TEA is for people who wake up early at the first place I guess ;)

It would be a shame to reveal that I haven't yet mastered the art of making the perfect tea. The taste varies every other day, I just cant seem to get perfect at this. Thank goodness for the availability of "BrookeBonds Nature Care" for I would have spent all my time desperate not able to crack it up. My most favourite tea would be the tea from the "chayakada's" at Kerala. Then comes the Green Tea bags and Ice Tea in that order.

Sadly, I don't own a tea set yet. Someday I hope to own one , until then sipping away in the multi \-coloured /multi-sized mugs.

This post is in response to the event Feb Challenge : A story for every picture, a picture for every story on the Marathon Bloggers group on FB.

DATE

This time around, there's nothing happy to share. Aug 15 is a day the whole nation celebrates happily. But for me and my sister (I doubt if she would even remember )the date has turned to one that we can never forget.

It was when I was in the V standard, my parents went out to meet a specialist leaving us under the care of a family friend. We hardly knew what was in store for us. My dad came back with ten stitches behind his ear lobes and my mom with a shattered confidence to get on to the Chetak.

On the way back, my parents met with an accident. I would not want to get into details here. Its just by sheer luck I have my parents alive and kicking today is all that I want to let you all know.

But did that make me a doting obedient daughter? No, never until this day. I have been a brat all my life and still am a brat to my husband and daughter.

This post is in response to the event Feb Challenge : A story for every picture, a picture for every story on the Marathon Bloggers group on FB.

RED is to Celebrate

Oh yes, we have seen this everywhere, the colour RED in synonym with celebrations, a movie premiere, a wedding celebrations, an anniversary and likes. Oh did I forget, our own director Karan Johar. His fascination to portray his leading ladies in RED in every possible shot can never be matched.

So why should we miss a chance to paint the city RED. That was our thoughts when we wanted to celebrate our one year completion at Infosys. I am sure everyone's read about how tough it is to stride through the training period. For the record, I had to appear for the final twice too.Sigh!

So here we are posing in front of the pool at Mangalore Infy in RED. We were a batch of 100 posted to Hyderabad in April 2005 for our ES trainings and a mere 20 of us landed in a silent peaceful beautiful city called Mangalore. Oh, that wasn't exactly our first opinions about the place ;)

Please please excuse my obsession with memories from work days. I just feel so happy to share them here on my blog posts. 

This post is in response to the event Feb Challenge : A story for every picture, a picture for every story on the Marathon Bloggers group on FB.