Life Experiences

Lakeside Camping!

2018-05-08T09:48:00.001+05:30

Hello Blog,
Glad that I could make it back to you. Here is a narration of an adventurous experience of ours!
This weekend we camped at Lake Chelan State Park for two nights. It was our first camping for the year and surely had lot of learning from the trip!! We started planning as we wanted to test our new bike rack with a short road trip. Lake Chelan won the lottery and we immediately booked our camp site and got the only remaining popular tent site.

Journey
We chose to travel by US-2 for two reasons, shorter distance and lower speed limits than I-90. Remember, we are testing the bike racks! Added bonus was the halt at Leavenworth, both ways!

Our car with the bike rack!

Day 1:
We stopped at Leavenworth for lunch. Leavenworth is beautiful in the Spring too! We had always seen Leavenworth in December, when it is covered in snow. It was nice to see without the snow cover!!

We had lunch at Munchin Haus as this place has the best bratwurst hot dogs! True to its fame, the hot dogs were nothing like I have ever eaten! They even have vegetarian options, for those who are feeling left out.
Alongwith the hot dogs, we had a big pretzel bread with cheesy dip. The dip was delicious!

Finally, we reached our campground and checked in. There are a flight of stairs to take us down to our site. We had to park the car up and bring our stuff down by stairs. When we reached our campsite, Lake Chelan and the serene mountains welcomed us!!

Panaromic view from our campsite

Since we were still early in the season, we had to go to a nearby store 3-4 miles away for firewood. Park store opens on Memorial Day.
Photos of our tent site...

Relaxing in the evening!

From the water board

Day 2:
In the morning, we were woken up by the chirping birds literally on our head and a beautiful sunrise!

Sunrise from our tent window

Enjoyed our morning cup of Joe on the water board.

Followed by breakfast.....

What is that Rudransh???

Oh! forgot to mention, we used to have regular visitors, squirrels and marmots with families from the rocks!

Post breakfast relaxing and chatting...

As it started getting warmer, Rudransh decided to get into the water wearing his wet suit! After entering and swimming for a while, he came out and we decided to do some rock hiking and finally head back to our tent.

Then we got ready for our boat and jet ski rides. We got dressed in our swimwear and wore a jacket on top and headed for our drive. It was pretty windy and cold. We rented the boat and jet ski from Jet Ski Ahoy. We took the boat first, our first time driving a boat!! Wow, it was an adventurous experience!
It is not the same as a car on road. If you turn the steering, boat will turn after a while. Brakes will not immediately stop the boat. We had to be so careful while docking so we not hit the boat.
Here we are all excited...

Shourya driving the boat

My turn to drive the boat...

Rudransh enjoyed the whole time!

Then Rudransh also drove with Shourya as his supervisor!

Our campsite from the middle of the lake!

We stopped the engine in the middle and floated peacefully! All you could hear was the wind and waves and of course, other boats zooming past! We had snacks floating in the middle of the lake!

And relax too!

After 2 hours of boat ride, we hopped onto our jet skis!

I was driving at 11 mph most times, max I hit was 25 mph. But Shourya was just zooming past at 40 mph!! Unfortunately, we did not plan about vidoes and photos. I did not carry a camera so could not take videos of the boys' jet ski! At one point, Shourya was faster than a racer....yes there was boat racing happening!

Then, we returned home, and settled for dinner.

We prepared the food looking at the Lake and boats passing by.

At dusk, the reflection from the city lights on the water formed a necklace, Necklace road in Mumbai and Hyderabad!

And then, Shourya and Rudransh were telling wild stories, each trying to one up in creativity!

After the perky stories, we retired to bed.

Day 3:

Woke up to the beautiful sunrise, enjoyed our morning coffee. I relaxed on the mat for a long time, reading a book having coffee while the boys were sleeping. Blissful!

We leisurely had breakfast, packed and then left for home. On our way, we stopped at Leavenworth for lunch. Before heading for lunch, we stopped at Waterfront next to river Wenatchee! It was breathtaking even without the snow! We took out our bikes and explored the trails!

After our bike ride, headed to Rudloof's pizza and relished the pizza. The toppings were local flavours, like bratwurst. The breadsticks and the dip was delicious too!

Sadly, our trip came to a conclusion, but hey, we did plan our Memorial Day trip!

Here is Bhattacharya family wishing everybody a fantastic summer!

Grand Canyons - Nature's Marvel

2016-12-28T14:53:00.001+05:30

Grand!! Grand!! Grand!!
This Christmas we visited one of the natural wonders of the world, the Grand Canyons! Oh! They are truly grand!!! 277-mile long, 18-mile wide and a mile deep, one can hardly fathom the dimensions.
I have to start my blog with this panaromic photo I took from South Rim, opposite to El Tovar Lodge Parking lot.

Our first view of the canyons at South Rim

Believe you me, the photographs just do not do justice to what one witnesses while the wide deep gorges stare at you! They look inert but look at them for a while and you will find that different colored rocks have stories to tell. If only we could understand them........

Preparation for the winter at Canyons
We were constantly following the weather in Grand Canyons (from now on GC) and knew for sure that end of December is extremely cold there. Following were the few things which we packed alongwith our clothes from home:

a) Flashlight (very helpful during the night walk)
b) Hand warmers
c) Gloves (layers)
d) Snotrax crampons for shoes while walking on ice (bought them at Costco)
e) Ear mittens (for the windy weather)
f) Weatherproof layered jackets
g) Thermal tops and pants
h) Woollen caps
i) Sun-glasses (snow can be very reflective)
j) Thermal blankets (very compact to pack)

These were the ones which we packed in our luggage from Seattle.

k) Water bottles - bought it at Las Vegas (henceforth LV) before leaving for GC.

Reservations
Remember!!!
Arizona is Mountain Time Zone so it is ahead of PST by 1 hour. This information must be kept in mind while booking your flights so you can maximize your time at GC.

Booked our room at Kachina Lodge, canyon-facing room. It was worth it as in the morning had a fantastic view from the window. Higher floor would have been even better! I know, desire has no bounds!

Journey starts
Day 1:
Captured some nice aerial views of Mt. Rainier and Mt. Hood with the sun rising during our flight to LV.

Mt. Rainier

Mt. Hood

Aerial view of Las Vegas rocky mountains and the famous LV strip.

We landed in LV and picked up our rental car from Enterprise rentals. We got a Chevy Traverse LT AWD(All Wheel Drive). It was a fantastic car and being an AWD was very steady on snow and black ice while we were on the South rim.

Our Route
I-515 --> I-93 --> Enter I-40 at Kingman --> Enter I-64 at Williams after Kaibab Forest
Journey time: 10:45 am(PST) to 3:40 pm (PST) [4:40 pm MT] (about 5 hours with a halt of 45 minutes at Seligman for gas)

We bought water bottles and soda at 7-Eleven and started for GC.

We had packed lot of sandwiches from home so practically we were taken care of till dinner. This way reduced our halt time for food. It being so cold, they were fresh the whole day!!

There is the historic Route 66 (made famous by CARS movie) we wanted to venture but it was another 60 miles addition to our original distance so we decided to stick to the regular route, I-40.

We did halt at Seligman at the intersection of I-40 and Route 66. We filled up gas, bought some souvenirs as a memory that we touched this historical town, built around 1880s. It had that vintage look.

En route, found this interesting Restroom stop option!! Sign points to open fields! ;)

At around 4:40 pm, we reached GC South rim and parked at El Tovar parking. As we walked towards the canyon from the parking, the revelation was breathtaking! I surely must have skipped a beat or two...... just have no words to describe the exhilaration. We were about 7,000 feet above sea level. Here are some pics of what we witnessed.

We spent around 1 hour and then there was the drizzle, dampener! So basically, even though the sun did set that day, we did not see its effect on the rocks. :(

At night, we walked along the trail for some time but it being a no-moon day there was no moonlight either. :( Trees on the sides, lights of the hotels, and pitch dark in the vast center....something the effect as seen in the photo.

Check-in process
Kachina Lodge check-in needs to be done at El Tovar Lodge. Considering the parking problem (discussed below), one must plan about stoppages.

Parking lots of the lodges facing the canyon
The lodges have limited parking, there were times when one of us(my husband or myself) would drop off my mom and our 6-year old son at the lodge and then park it on a street little far away.
It made us wonder if in winter this is what happens, we cannot imagine the problem in summer.
The streets are one way so if you exit from the parking lots, then make a mile loop back to your lodge again!!
Parking is a problem here, so you have to get a hang of the place.

Shuttle Buses
There are shuttle buses that ply between various view points from the lodges. It is a nice way of avoiding the parking hassle and driving. But we preferred driving as wanted to be independent.
But, shuttle buses are definitely a good option.

Day 2:
We drove in the morning around 7:45 am to Yuka point but when we reached there, it was closed for private cars, only shuttle buses were permitted, guess because of the snow.

We did stop at a view point on our return.

Canyons from 7500 feet above sea level

Parking lot at the view point

From here we headed to Mather Point and Yavapai Geological Center. Views from Mather Point:

There is a snack bar here so we had breakfast here and then finally returned to Kachina Lodge to checkout. Meandering through various parking lots, finally we checked out.

One mention about Bright Angel Lodge, it is the oldest one there, probably since 1920s. They have maintained the vintage look and neatly merged the present technology. We had dinner there and really enjoyed the service, food and the ambience. If at the south rim, then one must plan for a meal over there.

My husband's research added Desert View Drive and Watch Tower to our itinerary. It is the best place to get a panoramic view of the Canyons, provided the day is clear, but all we could see was clouds and snow. The drive was beautiful and the tower itself was designed and built as an ancient Indian tower. Icing on the cake would have been a clear view, which didn't happen for us! :(

Desert View Drive

Watch Tower

Icicle

Watch Tower paintings

If you squint, probably you can see the canyon in the photo below.....hmmmm.... Well no I could not....that was a disappointment, but the drive and watch tower was still beautiful.

Grand Canyon IMAX Theater
We booked the movie tickets online. Tickets are good for any show for a year. On our return to LV, we stopped at the National Geographic visitor center for the movie. Movie was very informational and definitely amazing on that big screen. The movie depicts the power of Colorado river and human settlements starting from the first Indians, thousands of years ago.

The Pizza Hut café inside the center had winding queue so we went to We Can Cook Pizza and Pasta restaurant right across the road. The food was good and helped us last till we reached LV.

Grand Canyon IMAX Theater

After a 4-hour drive we finally checked in our hotel The Venetian at Las Vegas.

The trip to GC was a memorable one, memories to last forever! It is a geological wonder and researchers are constantly trying to figure out how such a river could carve such fabulous canyons out of a huge land mass! Mystical force of nature!!!

Yurt Camping on the Pacific Coast

2016-06-21T07:24:00.000+05:30

Hello to everybody! After a year long sabbatical for lots of reasons, am back with the photo blogs.

Last weekend which is mid-june, made a trip through the Pacific Coast along US-101 and experienced Yurt camping for the first time. Our yurt was in Grayland Beach state park.

In the morning, we headed straight for Fort Stevens State park in Oregon . We stopped at Raymond in between for brunch.

It is about 200 miles from Redmond. Following was our route to Fort Stevens.

Redmond to Fort Stevens

We stopped at the viewpoint before entering Astoria Bridge and enjoyed the view. Bridge really looked majestic.

Astoria Bridge

Fort Stevens state park still maintains the ruins of a ship, Peter Iredalw, which unfortunately was pushed to the coast by strong gusts of wind. The whole place is beautiful. There are 4 or 5 lots which are sequenced as Lot A - E. Each lot offers a different view of the Columbia river and the Pacific. Viewpoints are strategically placed.

View of the Pacific from one of the viewpoints.

After soaking all the ocean beauty we headed for Grayland Beach State park to settle in our Yurt. It is a nice tarp tent with a nice bunk bed, futon, electric charging points, electric light, even a heater! That was something in a campground. It was a very luxurious camping experience when compared with tent camping.

Our campsite - Yurt behind our picnic table

Evening, we fired our charcoal grill and had some snacks and then headed for the beach for a beautiful sunset. This is the first time where we drove our car on the beach close to the water. Our 4-wheel drive got tested nicely and had a new-found respect for our car!! :)

Ummm......the taste of food mixed with charcoal flavor is something that is beyond description.

Sausages

Yummy paneer tikka

Our car with sunset beyond the horizon! The beach is so vast with no vertical intrusion in the view that one can truly feel the curvature of the Earth being spherical. All you can hear is the waves, it is so peaceful.

Sun set at the beach

There are well-maintained beach trails from the campsites to the beach. Once you are approaching the beach from the trail, you get a breathtaking view of the vast beach and the pacific.

After spending an hour or so at the beach we prepared our lunch and packed our stuff to return home.

In just two and a half hours from Redmond, this is a very beautiful place for camping and even for day picnic.

I shall try and add more photo blogs of our visits to places with novel experiences. It feels great to be back with the vast world of the internet web!

Concept Map - Why Math is hated by the majority?

2016-06-10T02:18:00.001+05:30

For How to Learn Math: For Teachers and Parents (2)

Our father's first death anniversary

2016-04-12T05:29:00.000+05:30

It was this day last year when I received the message about my father's passage from this material world to the ethereal world. We (my mother, myself, my brother and sister) learnt in our own way to deal with our grief and cope with his loss. We all were left with two choices - either remember him with tears or smile on our happy memories! Our mother has shown amazing strength in making us see the bigger picture and always usher us into a happy and peaceful place.

It was like predestined when we all had a family reunion in December 2014, four months earlier to his passing. My parents enjoyed the company of all their children alongwith their families. With everybody literally spread out across the globe, we felt lucky to have spent quality time with our parents.

My father's loss has taught us the bigger meaning of life. Be in the present and enjoy the moment! At the end, we leave everything here in this world. So, do we want to reach the end with peace and happiness or with negative feelings of any kind? During this one year, we have continued to remove negative feelings from our heart and mind and make more room for only positive energy. The more positive is our mind, the stronger we are to face anything in life. Like our bank balance, we yearn for more credits(happiness) than debits(sorrows).

The date is just a mere time tracker, but we remember our father every day of our life. Dates and times may fade but memories never fade. The memories are what makes our lives worthwhile. When you flashback and scour for happy moments, you'd be surprised at the limitless numbers.

We pray for his peaceful soul and urge all of you to send happy waves to the cosmos!

We all love you daddy, wishing for your happiness wherever you are in the Universe!

Some of the many happy moments together!

December 2014

When the whole family was together

With all the daughters of the family

2nd March 2006

June 2004 in Kashmir

2015-04-17T07:01:00.000+05:30

Eulogy for my dear father

Dr. A.V.S.S.Sambamurty
09.01.1944 - 12.04.2015

When I had started my blog seven years ago, I never thought that one day I will be writing an eulogy for one of my parents. I have heard often that Death is the only truth of life but I understand the import of that statement now, after facing with the truth of my father. Here I make a humble effort to write a tribute to him.

My father was a scientist in heart and Genetics was his favourite topic of all. It was also the subject of his Ph.D. thesis. He loved to read books on Geography, History, Astronomy and Literature. Though Botanist by profession, he had colossal collection of many old sonnets, original works of Shakespeare and Critics' view of many literary works. Philosophy was another subject that captivated his interest. Plato and Socrates were beyond all of us but he would quote them so seamlessly and would explain the relevance too. Besides books on various subjects ranging from science to philosophy to religion, his home library also comprises of all of the twenty-two books he had written.

My father was a quiet person and was at ease with his own company. The only people he yearned to be around were his wife and his three children with their respective families. He would wait for our phone calls and a talk lasting a minute or two was enough to satisfy his emotional needs. He always ensured that we were safe and doing well. He kept track of the progress of his grandchildren too. Whenever we used to visit my parents, he would sit at the dining table and enjoy watching them play.

My father was very loving person and very protective towards his family. He devoted his time ferrying us from class to class and waiting upon us while we were learning classical music or giving our board exams or preparatory classes, so that we receive the all-round development he missed in his childhood. He ensured that we get a solid foundation to grow as confident, self-reliant and successful individuals. My parents worked as a great team for the success of our family.

My father complemented my mother in most ways and both worked as a successful team for our success. He always provided support to my mother for her growth in the career by sharing the load in the domestic front. When we were kids, I remember, they would prepare laddoos and other snacks at home for a fortnight or so together. We have lasting memories of them working together on household projects which taught us that a family is built strong when everybody contributes their best to support and nurture it.

My father was always straight in his talks with minimal tact. He cared less for rules which hindered progress of anyone and generally took decisions which were right and truthful to his conscience rather than to please anyone. A trait which can hardly make you popular with your seniors but very popular with students and juniors!! He always maintained that Silence is Golden. Well, there were times when we would encourage him to express himself and he simply said, "I do not have to change anyone or their opinion and it is not my business!"

My father had great amount of will-power and endurance power that helped him get on his feet after many professional and medical setbacks. He would jump up on the saddle recovering soon from the previous set-back. With the strong pillar support from my mother, the recovery was always more easy.

My father's favourite phrase was "antha mana manchike.." which means "whatever happens is for our good..." Most times it was relevant but many times, we just could not find the goodness but he was always sure that it is hidden. We have to find the bigger good in what happened with him in the course of time.

On behalf of my father and family, I thank everyone who have provided us great support during our testing times and help us through this time when we are trying to recalibrate our lives without him. We will always miss his physical presence and have to gradually learn to live with that but he is in our hearts forever.

We send happy waves to the world from where he is overseeing our lives and pray for his soul to rest in peace.

Love you dad!

Mt Rainier at Sunrise - White River Campground

2014-08-20T04:45:00.002+05:30

If we can call anything as perfect camping, it was our camping at White River Campground, right at the foothills of Mt. Rainier. The perfect site, perfect timing for everything, and perfect relaxation.

We knew that the camp is first-cum-first basis, so we left early in the morning and beat the traffic on the freeway and reached the camp at 8:00 am. At the entrance we found the CAMP FULL board. Soon our friends also joined us. Considering that there is no network available, we had decided to meet at the entrance. It was after 30 minutes that we observed that few people were vacating their sites. So we kept looping in Loop D, right next to White River and successfully found a good site.

Bugs
We had read that there were lot of bugs, so we carried our bug repellant. We reached there but did not really feel the need of using the repellant though there were some bugs around.

Restrooms
There were flush toilets there, pretty clean. Of course at night you need to carry your flashlight or lantern to the restrooms. Tap water was very cold in the morning but few minutes under that water and you will not feel that cold!

Activities

Ranger program
This was interesting part of the campground.
They have ranger program for kids to help them understand the wilderness. In the evening they had a one hour presentation about the geology of the Cascades by a geologist.

Hike to Frozen Lake
We had our breakfast and then left for Sunrise point, hiked on Frozen Lake trail and returned by the Wonderland Trail. It was an amazing 2.4 miles hike, took us 2.5 hours. We returned to our camp and had lunch. Since we knew that we will be spending time on the hike, we had prepared food from home so we just warmed it up and ate.

Some of the hike trail photos to Frozen Lake.

Mt. Rainier visible from everywhere on the trail

Beautiful valleys everywhere

Dusty trail, supposedly the most steep part

Mt. Rainier, we are getting close and below Wonderland Trail

Shadow Lake from above

Trail gets rocky and there at a distance is Frozen Lake

Mt. Rainier, sky and above, if that is not heaven!

Frozen Lake

After a short siesta, we went on the Wonderland trail and took some photos at the White River. The river had strong currents and Mt. Rainier treated us with fantastic view.

Conifers

White River

Bridge on the wonderland Trail

Mt. Rainier right before the sun was moving behind the hill

Sun-rays from behind the hill in the evening

Majestic at all times!

We tried firing up the coal without the lighter fuel with the help of just papers acting as wick and were glad that it worked. So our grilled food had a great flavour from just the coal and no lighter fuel smell. The camp fire was also fun and enjoyed it till nearly midnight. We even enjoyed the Supermoon and caught a meteor or a shooting star too!

Mt. Rainier at Sunrise
Next day morning woke up early to catch Mt. Rainier in its best colour! :) We were in no mood to travel again to Sunrise Point so stationed ourselves with our tripod in the middle of the white river next to our camp.
Well, even the photos do not do justice to what we witnessed that morning! It was breathtaking and we were awestruck!

Gradually changing from white

Slight hue of orange

Orange peak of Mt. Rainier

View from White river adjacent to the camp

It lasted like this for some 15 minutes before fading away to snow white again

This view of Mt. Rainier just completed our camping holistically! Nature at its best, we feel lucky to have witnessed this phenomena and hope to come back here again and explore the other trails which must be equally breathtaking!

This trip was a perfect blend of hiking and camping!! Wish to come back soon! :)

River Side Camping - Hause Creek Campground

2014-07-29T00:31:00.005+05:30

As promised here I am with experiences to share regarding river side camping.

This weekend we went to Hause Creek Campground, very close to Rimrock lake. It is located along the Tieton River and comes under Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in Washington. From Redmond, it took us 3 hours to reach the place. Best is to start early in the morning to beat the traffic. After crossing Snookum Falls viewpoint on 410, the roads were more winding and it became more edge-driving once we entered the Yakima County towards Rimrock Lake. The scenery was so impressive that one can easily get distracted. We kept reminding ourselves to look at the road.

One reminder for those travelling with kids that the roads get too winding at places and causes churning in the stomach leading to nausea and at times puke sessions as well. Hunger, heat and the constant winding can leave even adults nauseated. So take necessary precautions and to drive between 35-45 mph on those roads to have a smooth drive for everyone. It surely may increase your travel time but atleast will reach your destination in better stomach condition.

We finally reached our campground and straightaway headed for our campsite. Funnily in the reservation map, the site was shown behind the restrooms, but the restrooms were like 300 meters away from our site. Guess, it was good we booked despite the site shown behind a restroom.

As soon as we alighted from our car, we were welcomed by a short green snake slithering through the bushes! So this is going to be wildly adventurous camping for us! We surely alerted our son who was careful enough and would inform us where he would go and try to remain in our line of sight always. We surveyed our whole site and were wonderfully surprised to find so close to the Tieton River. Water had strong currents and absolutely cold!

As we were checking out our site, we found the fire restriction notice on our campsite grill that charcoal grill and campfires are prohibited due to high fire risk!!! OUCH....! Thankfully, we had our propane gas with the stove so quickly changed our menu and form of cooking!! Also, we had brought cooked chicken Biryani in a box for emergency which lasted us for two meals!! Lesson learnt, always have something ready-to-eat in case of unexpected restrictions!

Here is a short video showing our campsite:

First thing, we finished our lunch and then set up our tent close to the river on a ground with minimal bushes.

Adjacent campsites.

Tieton River next to our site.

Panoramic View from our site.

Tall conifers in and surrounding the campground. If you look up, you will feel like they may fall on you!

Coming to the restrooms, they were good and neat flush toilets. But one should remember to get their own hand wash as there is only provision for water which is icy cold! But you do not mind when the toilets are clean and hygienic.

After lunch, we visited the only store around in 6 mile radius, RimRock Grocery for propane gas and some snacks and cooking oil. Next one is at Rimrock Resort along US 12.

After the purchases, we took the road which is an off-shoot from US12 marked as RimRock Recreation Area. There we can find elks and deers walking on the road. We found one elk in the middle of the road looking at us. But by the time we could click a photo, it ran into the woods. It was really exciting for our 4-year old son who has never seen in the middle of the road!!

The road led us to Peninsula Campground along side Rimrock Lake which is a walk-in campground and had $8 charge.

It also had an air strip and we found one small plane near the ground and the family set a tent next to their plane!! So, you can come by air as well!!! :)

Airstrip from the other side of the lake.

Few more photos from the road.

We turned back from here and returned to our camp for dinner. We had the picnic table just next to the river which was so amazing. I remember, how much we search for oceanside view or river view or some water-body view for our dinners while searching in hotels and here we are right in the middle of nature with so much of privacy. It is just us and the sounds and visuals of nature!!! What else can one ask for when on a nature trip!

There I am cooking on the stove frying the hashbrown patties. We came prepared for grilled menu but then everything changed due to fire restrictions.

It was a bright sunny day and an equally starry night! Although we could not enjoy campfire under the stars but just had fun sitting in our chairs and gazing at stars munching chips.

Next day morning, enjoyed the best cup of coffee ever with the river in front and my novel in hand with no one to disturb!! Only visitors were squirrels and butterflies! So peaceful and refreshing.

We had great breakfast - eggs, cup noodles, bread-and-cheese, coffee.

All of the items needed only boiled water so managed with the gas again.

Coffee on rocks!!

Mother-son chat session!

There we are enjoying our cup noodles!

The best camping ever. We packed peacefully and then headed home for lunch.

We are happy that we are able to experience so much wilderness and learning lot of new things of how to manage while in nature, out of our comfort zones. One may think why go through all this when you can stay in a hotel. But for those nature lovers, no hotel stay can beat this experience of camping. It is such an enriching experience for adults as well as for kids. They learn and respect the power of nature early in their life. Also, these outings make us more open to live away from luxuries and help us adjust in most conditions. Broadens up our minds and attitude to a whole new dimension.

Wish everyone gets a chance and experiences nature in close proximity within safety limits!

Have a great week ahead everybody!

Beach camping at First Beach in La Push

2014-07-26T02:17:00.003+05:30

Having experienced a nice cosy site for camping at San Juan Islands in June, we booked ourselves a campsite at Quileute Oceanside Resort sites at First Beach La Push near Fork, Olympic National Park. We went with a warm and friendly couple who are our good friends.

The weather was bright and sunny so we were excited for a great sunset and sunrise view at the beach!! We were informed that we could check-in anytime after 1 pm. So we stopped at Dungeness Bay to have our breakfast and hike till the beach. With a short stopover at Port Angeles for lunch we left for Lake Crescent and spent an hour there and finally reached First Beach around 2:30 pm.

On arrival

No sooner had we crossed Second beach, there was a dense cloud cover and it was all grey! When we asked at the check-in counter, the lady said that it is always like this at First Beach.....guess no sunset and sunrise how we imagined. Second bummer was when we were told that it is beach campsite so we cannot take the cars till the site. Great, we had to carry all our camping stuff to the site on our shoulders crossing through logs of wood and ground of pebbles!!! So you see, we were little taken aback since we were still expecting it to be something like regular campsites where we take the car till our site. Anyway, we got out of the shock and after scouting we chose a supposedly sweet spot for view, we realised the next hurdle, WIND!!! It was so windy that if your jackets are not zipped, they will look like wings alongside your body and if your hair is let loose, soon you will look like someone who got an electric shock!!

After we had shipped most of our stuff to the site, we chose the location to hoist our tent. The pebble-ground actually was easier to nail the stakes and the big pebbles acted as good support over them. But the tent took us 45 minutes to install which would have taken us just 10 minutes, thanks to the WIND!! Successfully we put out the tent and gradually set things inside to make it cosy incase anyone wished to relax. This is how our site looked after we inhabited the place!! :)

View of the other campsites and the beach from our site.

Our son was very excited with the pebbles, then sand and ooooh, cold water! :)

Only bit of sunlight we saw for 10 minutes in the evening during our whole stay.

Settlers having their grub! :)

Restrooms

There were the huneybuckets installed near the RV sites behind the beach camps and the flush toilets were some 300 meters away from the beach camps. So it used to be an ordeal reaching there walking through the pebbles. We all had a nice acupressure therapy thanks to the pebbles! :) All our acupressure points in our feet surely got activated!! Coming to the restrooms, the flush toilets had warm water which was a saver. There were coin-operated showers too, but we did not use them.

Fuel and fire

We had bought Sterno starter fuel and in a hurry did not read that it was a gel and not in liquid form. It would have been great had it not been so windy that the gel hardly could sustain any heat to burn the charcoal. So we purchased the Duraflame charcoal liquid firestarter from the only store on the site, Lonesome Creek. It was stocked with all the essentials for fire and snacks.

Gel-based Liquid form

It was our first time starting our own grill and campfire so quite an experience. Learnt lot of things and remembered many of the science lessons during childhood.

Charcoal having a higher calorific value(the amount of heat released during combustion of a specific amount) and being compact than wood, really is great for grills. We did not use pure charcoal, instead we used charcoal briquettes.

There are lot of debates regarding coal lumps and briquettes, but personally, did not find briquettes that bad and surely added a nice taste to the food! One can google more and finally make their own personal choice.

Anyway, it took 20-25 minutes for the briquettes to acquire the white colour which is an indicator that we can start cooking. Again the wind factor played a big role in controlling the fire and the heat!

Campfire was a different ballgame altogether. We had to shovel around a bit to get a good pit and then arranged the wood, added the lighter fuel and lit it. It was windy so we had to take care of our seating. But it was so enlivening sitting on the beach next to our campfire watching the waves in the Pacific! :) No words can describe what we experienced that night, it was heavenly.
Soon a ranger came and inquired for our fire permit and that is when we realised that we should have taken the fire-permit at the time of check-in. Anyway, the ranger was a nice friendly guy and asked us to pay him the fees of $5 and gave us his name incase anyone comes and inquires. Lesson for next time, always inquire about campfire policy of the campground.

We had dinner alongside the campfire and then made s'mores, our son's favourite. Personally, even I enjoy putting the marshmallows on fire!! My son learnt that it melts when heated! :)

Here we are near our campfire.

Family pose with the campfire!

Owing to the high-velocity winds, the campfires were not allowed near the tents. There was a designated placed where we could have our campfires. So we had to carry our chairs and food stuff to that place. Basically, if you do not mind all this carrying then you will surely enjoy this beach camping.

Morning walk

While everyone else was sleeping, I woke up in the morning and finished my morning ablutions. No rush near the restrooms as well. Then prepared my coffee and enjoyed the morning view of the waves. We were totally covered with clouds so no chance of any ray of sunlight that time. But it was peaceful with just the sound of the waves. We had early visitors, seagulls who tried searching for some food but we had all packed it and disposed the garbage at night.

After my coffee, picked up my camera and left for morning walk on the beach till the rocks. An amazing 1.5 hours to myself where I had no thoughts except that I was storing everything that I was seeing in my memory for life! It was so beautiful...:)

Here are few of the morning clicks:

Morning coffee and oceanside view!

Place where we had our campfire

Moving away from our tent, faint sunlight at the back!

At night, the tides were high (it was full moon day) and reached till the pebbles and kind of touched that first red tent!

Panoramic view from the rocks on the other end of the beach.

Small islands visible at the Second Beach.

Caught a glimpse of these shells and collected colourful pebbles.

Back to our tent site!

One can see the darkened pebbles telling us the waters reached this far at night. No wonder the sounded thunderous inside the tent while sleeping! :)

Around 8:30 am we started our breakfast preparations and packed our stuff and loaded the car and checked out by 12 noon.

We halted at Port Angeles for lunch and then headed to Kingston for the ferry and were home by evening.

Few things that we learnt for camping:

a) be as compact as possible if going to a specific campground for the first time.
b) always keep warm clothes a plenty as weather can make a 180 degree turn unexpectedly.
c) things packed in backpacks help the tent-site being less cluttered. We had many small bags which were obviously spread out near the tent.
d) keep phones in airplane mode as anyway the network is not available in the campgrounds. That saves the battery and can be used as a camera if you have one. I use my Lumia 1020 as a camera.
e) include ferry wait-time in the whole trip
f) if it is pure camping that one needs to enjoy then must reach the campsite first, leisurely put up the tent enjoy the grilled food hot and then plan hiking or fishing nearby.
g) if planning to visit other places before reaching the campsite, then best is to carry cooked food so that you do not reach all famished and have no energy to set up your camp.

I am sure more can be added to the list but I will keep it open for readers to extend the list.

Each camping experience is a revelation about nature and its power. This weekend we are trying riverside camping at Hause Creek Campgrounds. I shall soon add a post with new experiences there!

Till then, have a lovely weekend everybody! :)

A night with nature - Camping at San Juan Islands

2014-06-10T06:12:00.002+05:30

Finally understood the real meaning of living in nature, albeit with all the supplies loaded in our car and at a site with excellent restrooms! It really made me wonder if I was a castaway on an island what will be my survivor instincts, and found out that I am not even at ground zero level and way below the level!
This weekend we planned camping at San Juan Islands, Friday Harbor, north-western of Washington from where we could see the Canadian land.

We started early in the morning to make it for the 8:30 am ferry from Anacortes for 9:30 am ferry has lot of waiting time since after that the next ferry is at 2:40 pm. We made it on time and were on the 8:30 am ferry and reached San Juan Islands at 9:30 am.

We had already checked out on tripadvisor for good local eating places and went straight to Rocky Bay Cafe which is very popular amongst the localiites for get-together coupled with good food. We were famished and surely enjoyed our breakfast there.

After our breakfast, we headed straight for Cattle Point Lighthouse. En route, we stopped at view station and were just awestruck with the beauty. On the map, it is marked opposite Jakle's Lagoon. Also, marked is the trail ahead. You may have to park it a little before and then walk down the trail. It is always better to get the Discovery permit which you can hang on the rear view mirror without worrying for parking fees. Also, I must mention that the network is very poor in many parts of the island and found that we went in roaming mode as it entered Canadian network! Guess, be alert when you enter the island lest you may end up paying roaming charges unknowingly!

View from the viewpoint station. All we heard was wind and waves. If you have the time, then you can go down till the beach. There is parking below or else just trek down.

From there, we headed to Cattlepoint Lighthouse and found that we needed to hike through a field. Then went ahead straight for the cattle point trail and realised we should have parked and the hiked down the trail. Well, something for next trip.

Having completed the Southern tip, we headed to Lime Kiln State Park. We hiked till the shore and then to the Lighthouse. It is again a great place to picnic and spend time.

From here we headed to San Juan County Park to our campsite. We registered ourselves at the kiosk and got the car permit to be hung inside. The ranger, Kevin, explained many things about racoon. He advised us to keep all our food inside the car and not to even touch our tents with food on our hands as the racoon can rip off the tent if it gets the smell! He was a very warm and friendly guy. Anyway, we being first-timers took his advice pretty seriously and were always alert about the caveat.

After reaching our site, we installed our tent and set up all the gear inside the tent and chilled out with some cans from our cooler. Our son was very excited with his first camp and just could not wait to make s'mores for which he had to wait till dinner ofcourse! :)

Here is the list of food items we packed and which moreorless got consumed completely: (Shall post our checklist in another post which helped us a lot)

a) filled our cooler with ice just before leaving for the trip/

b) we marinated the chicken drumsticks, chicken patties, veggies and cottage cheese(paneer cubes) and packed them in ziplock packets and kept them in our cooler.

c) cans of coke, beer

d) cheese singles, butter in cooler

e) bread, cakes, chips

f) fruits

g) marshmallows, chocolates, graham crackers

h) cup noodles

i) boiled eggs in egg case which was in the cooler again

The grill was hot and we started with chicken and veggies and cottage cheese on barbecue sticks. The lunch was great and the charcoal just added a nice aroma to the food. After lunch, went to the day use area for whale watching and were lucky to catch glimpses of the pods around 8 pm near the Canada border. We could see the whales swimming across in a line. By the time camera could click, we could capture only their fins. But we were lucky to have seen them in their natural habitat, free and independent and not confined in a museum! Probably next time will go for the whale watching tour to get closer look at them.

Then again dinner grill was already running and we had loads of variety to hog on coupled with drinks. It was an amazing night. Then we settled for s'mores which came out really well. Awesome dessert!

Soon, we realised that as hot it was during the day, it has now become very chilly. The fire had to be put out at 10:30 pm so we snuggled inside the sleeping bag and were in our dream world within minutes. With all the action, we never realised the body fatigue till we lied down.

Early in the morning, woke up and again the morning view was amazing again. It was my first time where I was brushing my teeth in the woods looking at the ocean!! Wow! Just so you know, the restrooms in San Juan County park were really clean and hygiene was maintained and all the campers respected and kept it clean.

Then we had morning coffee, and you need to just experience it to enjoy the aroma of the coffee at the beach!! Soon breakfast preparations were on the way. We had some overnight grilled stuff which we reheated and put it in the bread and had sandwiches. Kids had eggs and sandwiches.

The check-out time was noon so we changed our clothes and packed up the tent and cleared the camp site. Enjoyed at the beach for some more time and left for British Camp which had a history of the pig battle. They have a beautiful trail to the Bell Point.

Then we left for Roche Harbor which is the northern tip of the island. After going there, we felt that it is more for boating and people with boats. We just enjoyed seeing the boats but except that not much to do. If not much of a boating person, then you can traverse the Cattle Point Road again and see American Camp, Jakle Lagoon and the beach.

We had lunch at Cask and Schooner Restaurant right opposite the Friday Harbor. We found the place little pricey for the food served and the service surely could have been better. We were a group of eight and she forgot one of our orders and mixed up the billing. They charge you 20% gratuity for a group of 8 and above, by the way! There are more places outside where you can get your favorites for a lower cost at a faster rate!

We were aiming for the 4:15 ferry and soon found out that by 2:50 pm the queue was full for the ferry and now were lined up for 6:25 pm. The person told us that there was a graduation ceremony for which purpose the ferry got full so quickly. We were following the WSDOT vessel watch which showed 130 spaces and scheduled ourselves. Soon found out that since they do not issue tickets at Friday Harbor, the numbers on the website from Friday Harbor to Anacortes are not the real-time numbers!

For those who have covered the loop and done camping, park your car in the queue some 2-3 hours before your ferry time and then explore the island on foot or bikes or mopeds. We found Susie's mopeds a novelty and thought we could have ridden the moped.

Our luck had it and the 6:25 pm ferry got cancelled and now we had to wait additional 2 hours for the 7:45 pm ferry! We reached home by 11 pm all tired and exhausted. In the morning when we saw the photos, we were recharged and remembered each moment of our trip and how much we enjoyed the camping experience!

Geological paradise - Crater Lake

2014-05-30T00:24:00.000+05:30

I am out of hibernation after my visit to Crater Lake and decided to blog my experiences for it deserves one.

We chose the Memorial Day weekend and planned our trip to Crater Lake. We read all about its formation and its biological activity below the lake, but it was an altogether different experience when we reached there. It will take your breath away for sure and you just will not want to leave the place. Below I have pasted photos of its formation and photos of the lake on 26th May 2014!

We had stayed in Eugene and then next day morning left for Crater lake which is 3 hours drive from there with breaks. There were viewpoints on the way and if you halt at each view point area then it may take you longer. Our route was from freeway 58 then to US97 and then freeway 138 to the North entrance. If you continue on US97 it will lead you to the South entrance. We could not go down or the hiking trails were not open when we went. Surely in Summer it is going to be a great hike to the water!

At the entrance, we were welcomed by a ranger. Fees was $10 which we paid in cash. Credit cards are also accepted but we were told that cash is quicker. The lady handed us a map, information brochure like a newspaper and a warm smile to enjoy the view.

Here are a few general tips which will prove helpful while planning for Crater lake:

a) stay a night before at Roseburg as it is 1.5 hours from Crater Lake. Even better option is Chemult which is just 40 minutes away from CL but there are no decent inns to stay there after a long drive.

b) carry your snow boots and gloves to enjoy the snow and avoid renting it at the cafe. Sun-screen lotion as sun in snow makes you completely red.

c) carry food from your pitstop to avoid standing in long queue at the Rim Village cafe which is the only cafe catering to all the visitors! Annie Creek restaurant is down below so everyone prefers Rim Village from where you get excellent view.

d) carry water to keep yourself hydrated.

e) if not in a mood to drive the loop, just stop at the viewing stations and enjoy the view. We enjoyed that way as while driving you have to keep your eye on the road so cannot really enjoy the beauty.

Few of the activities besides many that can be explored:

a) Loop around the lake
The eastern side was closed. Check before the loop.

b) Hiking
Check with the office about the trails that are open.

c) Boating

Check with the office if the boating has commenced.

Rest of the things depend on what kind of activities you wish to do.

Here are a few pictures of the place to inspire you to plan a trip.

World Environment Day - How Ironical!

2011-06-08T00:12:00.000+05:30

Lion grabbing a coke bottle at Hyderabad Zoo

Is it not an irony that a lion grabbed a coke-filled bottle in the Nehru Zoological Park at Hyderabad just a day before the World Environment Day?

This weekend our family planned a visit to the Nehru Zoological Park or the Hyderabad zoo on Saturday, 4^th of June 2011. It was sort of an educational tour for our 16-month old son too. He was all excited seeing the animals and birds we have shown him in his board books and DVDs. Besides recognizing the animals and the birds, we also taught him not to throw plastic wrappers of the chips.

Around 4 p.m., we went to the area of lions and found lot of shouts and cries of excitement. After reaching there we found that someone had thrown the “coke-filled plastic bottle” in the water to get the attention of the lions. Well, the audience did succeed in getting their part of the fun but no one ever thought of the hazards of the action.

The zoo authorities have been making all attempts to keep the animals safe. At numerous places, it is written that feeding the animals is prohibited and to throw waste in the dustbins. It is also mentioned in bold letters that plastic is hazardous to animals for it can cause choking in them. Along with the authorities, it becomes our responsibility as well to keep the animals safe which provide us the entertainment we seek during holidays.

After coming home I was admiring my photographic skills in capturing some rare poses of wild animals in the zoo but this photo reminded me of the reason why I clicked it. It is to bring to public attention that not everything is fun and that we must be cautious of our actions.

The incident caused much pain and anxiety to us and we appeal to the future visitors to be more cautious of their actions in the zoo. Teach our children to take care of the animals like our own. On World Environment Day, let us take a pledge to conserve the animals and the zoo ecology to ensure that the respective animal enclosures remain filled with healthy and happy animals.

Commencement of solids at 6.5 months

2010-10-20T08:51:00.000+05:30

Hi, I am back with some experiences to share, regarding feeding solids to our son. There were initial hiccups, then rejects, insecurities, throw-ups and many more emotions to be handled, when we started giving solids to our son.

We were, again, poured in with innumerable advice as to when to start solids. Despite lot of pressure from relatives and friends to start early, we started solids for our son not before he was 6.5 months, as he fell ill. Sometimes, they are no longer advice but more of repeated instructions in every conversation, like the FOR LOOP with infinite bounds! Heart in hearts, we know that no one means any harm, just want to give their best input. All we need to do is filter the important information rather than rejecting everything.

Anyway, coming to the main topic, we observed a few signs before we decided on solids.

Signs

he started attacking the food in our plates, which was not seen until he completed 6 months.
he made chewing motion. Initially we thought he has put some object in his mouth, but on inspection found that his mouth was empty. Thus, a sign that he was ready for solids.
frequency of desire for breastfeeding increased, guess he was feeling more hungry.
he was able to sit upright with back support without losing balance for more than 1 minute. We were not exactly waiting but he somehow was sitting at the same time he was doing the above mentioned things too. Guess, am unsure whether this is a sure sign.
he started using his thumb and index finger to pick up things. This started much at the same time that he started sitting. Again not sure if this is to be taken as sure sign.

Few pointers:

After reading about the nutritional requirements of infants when starting solids, following were our conclusions:

Iron intake needs to be taken care of as iron supplies start depleting in an infant who is exclusively breastfed for 6 months.
Iron absorption increases when iron-rich food is supplemented with vit-C rich food items.
Common sources of constipation: (based on our observation of our son)

rice
banana
excessive milk products
apples
potatoes

Consumption of fluids needs to be monitored to avoid constipation.
Space every new food introduction by 3-4 days to observe reactions.
Always try the food before giving it to the baby.
Choose the right time to feed. If the baby is cranky or sleepy or busy playing, then s/he will rarely eat in such moods.
Lastly, be confident and experiment with various foods without fear of reactions. If at all there are reactions, then stop the allergen food item.

First foods (6.5 to 7.2 months)

Fluids

We started with fruit juices and purees like:

squeeze the juice out of grated apple. Dilute the juice in the ratio of 1:8.
sweetened mosambi (sweet-lime) juice. Dilute the juice in the ratio of 1:10.
diluted tomato puree with little salt and ghee.

The first week we fed him once a day. Generally fruit juice or puree. As he got used to this, we started with semi-solid food.

Semi-solid

Semi-solid food comprised of:

mashed boiled apple and raisin. (Raisin for iron)
mashed banana. We observed that he had loose motions the next day, 3-4 times, so we discontinued banana.
mashed boiled carrot.
mashed boiled red pumpkin.
cerelac Stage 1

First two weeks, I used to mix breastmilk(BM) to the mashed fruits or veggies and feed. Later on, once he got used to them, stopped the BM addition. After one month, he stopped cerelac completely. He just did not relish the taste, which means urgent modification in his foods.

Transition to complex foods

By the time our son completed 7 months, he was eating mashed fruits and veggies. So, then we started rice.

Rice khichri

Boil rice with one vegetable.
Grind it in a mixer to make it pasty like cerelac. This is for easy swallowing considering that he did not have any teeth.
After two days, I started adding ghee and little salt. He did not show any reactions to any of the above mixture.

We started dals for him when he was 7.1 month. He readily accepted moong (split green gram) and masoor dal (split red lentils). His body got all rashes when he consumed tur/arhar dal (split red gram).

Presently, he is having moong dal and masoor dal.

Khichri with dals

Add little ghee in the pressure cooker.
Saute little freshly ground jeera powder
Add rice and dal (either moong or masoor)
Add 3 times the water and little salt.
Make the khichri as soft as possible for easy swallowing and digestion.

Khichri with vegetables and dal

Add little ghee in the pressure cooker.
Saute little freshly ground jeera powder
Add chopped vegetables (e.g. potato, tomato, carrot, sweet potato)
Add rice and dal (either moong or masoor)
Add 3 times the water and little salt.
Make the khichri as soft as possible for easy swallowing and digestion.

Ghee adds a very good flavor to the khichri and our son loves khichri with ghee. I guess, putting them on bland food is little tortuous. Guess, upgradation from bland to salty to spicy food should be maintained but to feed them bland food for months together and then complain that they do not eat well, is a little unfair!! Our son hates anything that is bland, he prefers a little tangy flavor.

By the time he completed 7.5 months, he was eating three times a day. Its the same time he started teething. Now, we feed him more lumpy food and use the grinder sparingly. Also, we do not boil the fruits anymore.

We generally keep the following sequence while preparing his daily menu.

Morning (anytime between 9-11 am)

Any one or two of the items below:

1. Fruit punch -

1/2 apple
1/2 pear
1 small sapota
2 soaked raisins
1 soaked almond
little sweet-lime juice

Grind them all (or some) together to a fine paste.
2. Mashed fruits
3. Idly with curd

Noon (12:30 pm)

Vegetable soup or home-made chichen soup.

Afternoon (anytime between 2 - 4 pm)
Any one or two of the items below:

Khichri
boiled veggies with little ghee
boiled rice with veggies or purees
oats with veggies

And curd or curd with little rice. Curd is his favorite and it has helped him in regulating the texture of his stools.

Evening (5:30 pm - 7 pm)

fruit punch
raagi boiled in jaggery water with little cardamom powder added for flavor. He loves this preparation.

Night (8:30 pm - 9:30 pm)

Generally, the same as lunch. Once in a while, menu may vary from lunch.

Feeding issues

After choosing the right time and menu, next problem to be tackled is the various tantrums-drama of the baby. Also, besides the tantrums, we also learnt the various signs of his being full.
Initially, they take everything served as they are always exploring new things. But after a spoon or two starts the woes!

Food not liked
In case he did not like the food, he would either purse his lips or move his face away or lately started spitting.
Generally, at such times, we stop for sometime and try distracting him and then feed him. He eats most times.

Separation anxiety
As his tummy was getting full with solids and need for breastfeeding reduced, he started getting cranky during meal times. His breastfeeding frequency increased. As soon as he would see the spoon, he just turned his face away and start crying and try put his arms around my neck. That was the reason why we started with solids once a day, and then gradually increased the solid feeds to help him adjust to the solids.

Anyway, whenever he would start crying, I used to take him in my arms and comfort him and then play some of his favorite music and then he used to take the solids. Distraction works pretty well. Also, I tried feeding him with my finger instead of the spoon. That worked too.

This behaviour lasted for some 20 odd days. Gradually, as his solid feeds increased he got adjusted. And now he readily opens his mouth whenever he sees the spoon.

Family eating together
Around the time he completed 8 months, he started getting more involved in his games that he did not like spending time on eating.

Earlier we would feed him first and then have our meals at a later time, but now we make it sure to eat alongwith him. This worked really well as he copies our actions of eating and moreover he knows all are here at the table so no one is free to play!! :) Whatever be the reason it surely works. In a way, this has disciplined us also!!

Copying actions
During those testing times when he would just not open his mouth to anything, then we tried another technique.

I would feed or pretend to feed my husband and then looking him eat, our son would copy him too. So every 3-4 spoons, we would repeat the action. It worked wonders!! :) To inspire him, my husband would exclaim as to how yummy the food is and that he is enjoying. Its fun watching our son eating without any fuss with eyes fixated on his dear daddy!

Alternating foods
Now in his 9th month, he is having two courses per meal. In case he does not like one item, we would generally alternate the sequence. 2 spoons of the item that he liked, then wait and then followed by 2-3 spoons of the less liked item.

If he is not taking both items, then he is either full or not in a mood or wants something else to eat. So got to try the other methods mentioned above.

These were few of our experiences, and lessons learnt. Surely, there will be many more such stories or helpful tips. It will be great if readers shared the same for the benefit of all.

A kid of our own literally fires our creative engines to their maximum! My God! have to devise ways to just get them through a meal with minimum fuss!!

All the best!

Common cold to 6-month old

2010-08-31T00:41:00.000+05:30

I am posting this for the benefit of all the parents who go through this experience the first time.

Our son fell ill with common cold just after a week he completed 6 months. It was due to weather change.

Symptoms and his general behavior:

running nose
cough, made a sound like something is stuck in his throat. Guess its the phlegm which he either used to vomit or pass it in stools.
was active and playing normally.
no fever
At night, his nose got blocked due to which he found it difficult to breathe.

Treatment

First we took him to our nearby paediatrician, he prescribed some syrup for cough and nose and nebuliser sessions twice a day for three days. For 10 years, I have been a chronic asthma patient and was on inhalers and nebulisers. Therefore, I was totally against it for a small child who is still in his developmental stages. But considering that it will take a few hours before we could talk to our family homoeo doc and get the medicine we put our son through the ordeal of the nebuliser. And what a way he cried those 10 minutes, my God!!! After that, we never took him back for another session.

Later that evening our homoeo doc prescribed us BC-6, 2 globules with breastmilk three times a day. By the third dose, we could see marked improvement. Beside the medicine, we were giving him home-made chicken soup and tulsi ka kadha or basil-leaves decoction. He enjoyed drinking both and it gave him relief too.

At nights, we used to elevate his head a little so that he can breathe seamlessly till the nose blockage got alright. Also, we put nasoclear drops in his nose at night before sleeping for further relief.

Since it was monsoon, there was large variation in temperatures. At times, it will be humid and lead to perspiration and other days it will be very cold. So, we took constant care that he was properly clothed. Always watched out for sweating as sweating can aggravate the problem. So, I used to put a thin cotton undershirt and then hosiery full hands tee shirt and thick pyjamas. If there was sweating I would take off the top layer shirt, powder him a little and put on a fresh one.

Thankfully, we do not have an air-conditioner. Closed rooms are catalysts for common cold, thus, we kept the room well-ventilated.

CAVEAT - Whoever is taking care of the baby, will invariably catch the cold. If the baby is on breastfeeding, then mother can take care by putting on a scarf on her face while feeding. But, still probability is high that mother will get it. Thus, better if father remains a little away from the baby so that in case mother is unwell, atleast father is healthy enough to take care of both the baby and the mother! We did not anticipate it and both of us caught cold and realised our folly.

Medicines, soups, aerated rooms, proper clothing, are all the physical aspects of nursing. The most important thing that the baby seeks during this time is lot of cuddling and hugging to provide that warmth and security.

This was our experience and how we managed it. There are many other ways and will be glad if readers share their experiences too! :)

Developmental stages - 0 to 7 months

2010-08-27T19:18:00.001+05:30

Congratulations to you if you have your new-born infant in your arms and best wishes to those who are expecting in a few months.

Allow me to share some of our experiences.
Having delivered the baby, when we saw our child the first time, we had many concerns about his forehead(which was not visible at all), eyes which were partially closed, shape of the head and many similar ones. But then our parents and the doctor assured that there is no need to worry as you will observe lot of changes in the coming months and surely we did. And as time passed, we were surprised ourselves how our son has been evolving mentally and physically. Now he is 6 months old and thus, thought of sharing these developments in this post.

0 Month

Physical development

Shape of the head:

Our son's head gradually started changing its shape from egg-like to more circular. My mom-in-law had gifted us a pillow with a depression in the middle for the head. This probably helped in changing the shape.

Some traditional ideas:

a) Fill a cloth with Rai or mustard seeds and stitch it in the shape of a pillow. This helps in shaping the head. We did not try it as mustard is very heaty and were unsure of its effects.

b) Wound little firmly, a soft cotton cloth around the head in circular shape. Tried this for a while, but our son seemed irritated by it so did not try after a week.

Exposure to light:

Initial 2 weeks, he was aversed to bright light like the light of a tube so we generally used 0-bulb in his room and used dark curtains in his room to reduce the intensity of sun-light. Gradually, my mom used to take him into the balcony in early morning to help get adjusted to brighter light. It helped him.

Sneezing:

He would always sneeze whenever under direct fan or breeze from the window. The first 2 months he used to sneeze pretty frequently. But Our worries were kept at bay by the doctor who said that sneezing is normal in infants as their nostrils are getting stimulated by air and any small particle can cause irritation and lead to sneezing. So not to worry, unless of course, if it is coupled with cough and running nose.

Swaddling:

All infants like to be swaddled tightly in soft blankets as that is how they are used to inside the mother's womb. We used to swaddle him pretty nicely but our son always wanted his hands out to spread near his head and sleep, guess most infants do that too.

Sleep patterns

All he used to do was sleep. Guess, if I remember, he used to sleep some 16-18 hours a day. Get up only when passed urine or stools or hungry. Get cleaned up, take feed and sleep again. Luckily, he followed a pattern pretty soon and used to sleep through the night and get up for feeds every 3-4 hours. That way, we got good sleep.

On days when there was a change in temperature, our son, like all infants, found it difficult getting adjusted to the weather change. Those were some miserable nights. All we used to do was take him in our arms, rock him, swaddle him and take him for outdoor walks, at times for car rides and finally he would go to sleep. Car rides had become a regular feature! :)

We have heard that the first one year or till the infant goes through all the seasons once, it is a hard time for the parents or more for the baby who has to learn to adjust to these changing seasons and increase their body immunity to various illnesses.

Checking his sight and hearing

Well, all these vitals are already tested in the hospital right after birth, yet for our own satisfaction, every once in a while, we would check whether he can hear or see properly. We would clap our hands really hard or make loud sounds from mobile, or speakers etc and observe him move his head in the direction of the sound.

We used to take red handkerchief or some big colored object and keep it in front of his eyes. He would fixate his sight on the object. Gradually move the object from one side to another and observe his reactions. Initial weeks he hardly moved his head sideways, but by third week he started following the objects movements gradually.

Cord stub

Somewhere around the 3rd week, his umbilical cord stub fell off. We did not eve know when it happened. Initially, it looks macaroni like while as days pass it turns to brown as it dries and falls off on its own. We would dry that area well after his bath and sprinkle little powder which we used to clean it again in the evening so that no infection occurs. That area needed to be dry always.
We were briefed about the cord blood banking, but we decided not to go for it as we were not sure about its preservation techniques. So we are just relying on God that our son is protected! :)

Bathing

We started his bathing sessions after 11-12 days as by that time he will get little acclimatised to the environment. Till then we used to give him oil massage and sponge bath so that he does not much exposed to the outside air.

Before bathing, we would give him oil massage followed by warm water bath. He used to love it. Somehow he loved water from day one. Good for us.

Since parents and grandparents are too possessive about their child/grandchild and consider their baby to be the cutest, so they indulge in practises like applying kajal as an evil-eye warder. Thus, we also used to put a small tikka or a dot on his forehead. Then my husband and myself read about the harmful effects about lead, which is a major ingredient in kajal. So we decided to gradually get out of the practice.

Guess, after a month or so, we stopped putting that kajal anywhere on our son's body and believe me, he is fine. To my mind, these evil-eye warders just give mental piece that now no one will can harm the child. Elders in our house explain that the reason we put this is because when someone sees the baby, they will first see the black dot and then gradually focus on the baby, so negative energies are warded off. Kind of distraction technique! Well, it is funny though how can anyone harm someone just by seeing. No offence to those who are staunch believers of this but my belief is that good people will never wish ill for someone and bad people are anyway bad so they have no powers to harm us. Guess, world is divided into two sections good and bad people so there we are, totally safe. So, we do not need these distractors.

I will admit though that the fact that we used to put that kajal explains my fears as a mother. But as days passed and I regained my strength and started my meditation. I got control over my possessiveness and get over my fears and that is when decided not to put kajal again on our son. So, you see, although I have preached a lot against this practice, yet I followed as I fell prey to my inner fears for whatever little time it was.

Anyway, soon he turned one-month old.

One-month old

By the time he had completed his first month, he had started giving us small smiles. He found the ceiling fan the most attractive object and used to keep his sight glued to it for most time of the day. Well, obviously, when he cannot sit and turn all he can do is watch the ceiling!! :)

His forehead was getting visible and head was getting its circular or to say, normal shape. It was no longer the egg shape.

He had become more magnanimous in giving us smiles when we would make funny sounds! :) Real fun when you see your baby smile at you.

He was sleeping less during the day. Night time sleep was still the same.

The 6-week check-up approached and the doctor checked his breathing, stomach, head circumference and shape, ears, nose, etc and gave a well-baby chit. Then we were briefed about the vaccinations, mandatory as well as the optional ones. The DPT, H1B, IPV were given the same day after the consultation. The optional ones were the Rota virus and pneumococcal vaccine. Rota virus for stomach infection while pneumococcal was for pneumonia which had like 90% chances of immunising the body. Anyway, we decided not to go for the optional ones. Later during my delhi visit, went to see our family homoeo doctor for my piles treatment. He advised us strongly to allow the body immunity to develop naturally and not to over-vaccinate the child. They may have side-effects. So we are strictly sticking to the mandatory ones.

And the scene of vaccination is horrible. The babies literally cry their hearts, lungs and everything out at the time of injection! It is really painful to see them in that pain. But they calm down as quickly as they had started crying. I guess the vaccines induce sleep, as our son slept for like 3-4 hours uninterrupted and took feed and went back to sleep again.

By the time, he was completing 2nd month, he had started turning to his left side. That was his first movement of the body, besides of course, cycling of legs and hand movements. He was still not aware of the presence of his hands and feet thus, would move in random directions.

Now, he had started taking out some sounds like ooohs and aahs! My dad would keep him on the dining table in the morning and play with him while he is making all these sounds. It was fun.

When we used to keep on his stomach for a little while he would attempt to lift his head. By the time he was completing two months, he was able to lift his head 45 degrees.

His neck was still very delicate so we used to lift him by giving support to his head and and back. It was scary at times, his head would jerk back if the hand is removed even for a while.

Two months old

Wow! already two months over. Believe me, at times, I used to feel when will he start walking and my mom would just pat me and say do not worry that time will come and then you would wonder why has he started walking so soon!!! :D

His arm and leg movements were still very random. It seems babies get familiar with their arms and legs somewhere mid-2nd or 3rd month onwards.

If we would keep our finger between his palm and fingers, he used to hold it with a tight grip. Guess, that also he was not aware. It was more an instinctive action to close the fist as soon as something is in the palm.

I had observed one very interesting action of his. He used to keep both his arms on his left side as if holding on to something and pull both arms to his body. I feel probably he was still in state of inertia, guess, inside the womb he would be pulling the umbilical cord towards his body in the same fashion. This action was observed till he completed 3 months. Most times, his arms were closer to his body.

Still his major attraction was the fan. Although, we had hung some jingles from the bed so he could see them while lying down. Initially we did not see him following the circular movement but then after a day or two, we observed him following the objects in circular motion. It was fun watching him giggle at the music.

He used to take out girgling sounds and at times, wait for us to repeat his sounds. He would giggle when we would take out funny sounds, specifically whistling. We observed that he used to focus at our lips while we were conversing as if he will speak right after we will stop. Guess, that is how they learn language skills.

He used to drool a lot. We thought that he is teething, got never any tooth in his 2nd month. Anyway, we do not know the exact reason but we took extra care while wiping as every few seconds we were wiping his chin and lips. Hard or repeated wiping may cause rashes at times. Thankfully he never developed any.

He had started recognising me as the milk-provider and the arms to fall asleep if being cranky. When cranky he would not get quietened by anyone except the mother, i.e. me. Although it feels great to be so important in someone's life yet scary at the same time.

First air travel

He experienced his first flight travel when he was 2 months 5 days old. My husband and myself read all that we could about baby air travel dos and donts, made a mental note of what all to carry and what to do during the travel. We had packed based on the stuff that we would require in the cabin and rest stuffed in the check-in luggage. I had kept the feeding pillow(looks like a doughnut), nursing cloak, change of clothes for the baby, diapers, wipes, covers to keep dirty diapers, changing plastic blanket, talcum, napkins, in the diaper bag.

We chose kingfisher first because of its excellent service for mothers with infants. I was travelling with my mom-in-law. We inquired for on-board facility of any stroller but were informed that in domestic travel no such facility is available. We had our own stroller which came handy in the airport. Before boarding the flight, the crew gave us a card with our seat number and details written and kept the stroller with them. The air-hostess briefed us about precautions during take-off and landing. I purposefully chose the aisle seat for more space. During the flight I realised, window seat would have been better.
Reason: While the air-hostess serves the food and beverages, she is moving with a trolley which at times hits our hands and elbows. At that time, I was careful that it should not hit my son. Window seat is safer that way and offers more privacy too while feeding, although, I used the nursing cloak which was a great saver.
I had plugged his ears with little cotton.

At take-off time, I fed him and he slept off while feeding and got up only after landing at delhi. The feeding pillow was awesome help as he rested well on it like a bed and I did not have to literally carry him in my arms the whole time so I got some rest.

As soon as the plane landed he got up and started crying. Guess, the body was in state of inertia, for him still moving! He just did not like it. Anyway, I tried feeding him, he did not take the feed as he just wanted to get out of the seat. Well, thanks to his wailing we got easy pathway to the door! :)

But over all, the trip was great with no hiccups. The kingfisher folks were helpful throughout till we sat in our car. So that was our son's first air travel!

Even before we knew, he completed three months.

Three months old

His forehead was getting more prominent.
Head getting its shape
He could lift his head and shoulders for a short while when he is lying on his stomach.
He was able to keep his head straight for some 30 and odd seconds when held him vertically.
He had started laughing loudly and shouting at the pitch of his voice. He kept experimenting with his pitch by shouting whenever he could and got better and better in the volume.
We found that if he would quieten immediately when taken to the bathroom. He loved it for that was the place to play with water.
He could bring his hands up together, but still seemed that he was not aware that they are part of his body. Occassional random movements were still there.
He would lift his legs and cycle in the air. At times, he would stretch his legs and straight and arms above his head and take out grunting noises. We thought he is pooing but it was just grunting!
He was able to lie on his side for some 10 or odd seconds and then again come on his back.
Whenever sleepy or tired, he would rub his eyes and nose.
He used to keep all his fingers inside his mouth. As he was completing his 4th month, he learnt to keep his thumb in his mouth.
He would occassionally show signs of recognition to me and the family members.
If he is not hungry and slept well, then he would just love being with other people. He seemed to be social with everyone. He was pretty magnanimous in giving broad smiles and laughs to our friends who would visit our house to see him. It was their treat! :)
He developed a different style of crying by the time he was completing his 4th month. The voice changed a little.
He would still pee like 10-15 times a day and poo like 2 times a day. Many-a-times, he skipped his stools for 3-4 days. I read that it is normal for breastfed babies to skip stools for days. So I was relaxed.
Although, advised by elders to start giving him water, yet we decided to wait till he is 6 months. Breastfed infants do not need water until they are dehydrated due to diarrhoea or they are introduced to solids. Excess water at times may cause more harm than benefit the infant. It interferes with the absorption of nutrients. Therefore, always check with your doc and observe your baby's signals.
His next vaccination was done during this month. Again a horrendous experience seeing him cry so much. But again, he calmed down instantly.
He was able to stand for sometime if you held him on your laps. His legs were able to bear his weight. But after a while he would bend his knees and lose balance.

Use of diapers
We used to put him on cotton nappies most of the time. Diapers generally at night so that he can sleep peacefully. Since knew his pattern so used to change his diapers at night every 2-3 hours.

Also, when we used to go out, we put on his diapers. That way, we minimised his diaper-rash occurrences. Infact, it never happened.

On 28th may, he completed four months and the same day we were returning to hyd. This time it was my husband, myself and our son, again by KFF. At take-off I fed him and expected him to sleep like last time. But this time he was active and did not sleep the whole travel time. We had a poo session and then diaper changing session in the small restroom of the plane. Anyway, this time the travel had more activities than the last time. In two months, things change so much!! :)

Four months old

He was able to keep his head straight for longer time. He could neatly fit in our baby sling without any problem to his back or neck.
He was able to stand on his legs when we held him.
He rolled over on 4th of june at night while playing in playgym. It was a fun experience. The initial rolling was with lot of effort and he could roll only on one side. He would roll and we would bring him back to back. This will go on for some 4-5 times and then the next time he rolls he would start crying. By the time he was completing 5 months, he would roll in our arms or in air while we are putting him on the bed or floor.
Rolling was a new-found skill. When a baby learns a new skill, he or she keeps practising the skills learnt every time, even while they are asleep. Our son would involuntarily roll over while in his sleep and then wake up crying as he was not able to come back to the original position! We had sleepless nights thanks to his rolling! :)
By the time he was completing 5 months, he was able to roll over seamlessly.
He had started girgling loudly and laugh aloud.
He loved being in the company of others. He used to play with them and shout and laugh and girgle and gain the attention of others in a group.
Flipping of fingers was another fun game he loved watching during this time.
He was able to sit if we kept him upright and cushioned his sides. He had actually started loving this posture rather than lying all the time! :)
During his evening walks, he loved observing the trees, the kids playing and at times doze off in the sling.
Till his 3rd month, he was gaining weight 1.2 kg per month. But the gain dipped to only 250 gms during the fourth month. But later in the fifth month, he gained 500 gms. It seems baby weight gain decreases after 3rd month and stabilises at 400-500 gms per month.

And he completed five months.

Five months old

He was able to rollback by now. So, it was fun, he would rollover from back to tummy and then tummy to back. Thus, he was more peaceful at night and we started getting good night sleep.
He started exploring our faces with his hands.
He tried lifting his body on his fours but immediately fell on his tummy. By the end of five months, he was able to balance himself for some 30 seconds before falling on his tummy.
He learnt to crawl backwards. If there is a target in his front, poor guy, would crawl backwards! :)
He would pick up anything and put it in his mouth.
He learnt that if items are thrown on the floor they make sound. So, instead of putting his toys in his mouth, he started throwing them on the floor and watch them make sound. He would swim on his tummy in excitement! Do not ask how much bashing my mobile had to bear!
We used to occassionally give him little water to drink. But he would play with the bottle more than drink anything. Anyway, we were not worried of less intake of water presently as he was breastfed.
He would raise his both hands in air to indicate that he wants to be lifted in our arms. He would tightly wrap our neck with his arms.
He would occassionally clap his hands in the air.
He had started recognising faces of our neighbors who visit us regularly. Also, our cook aunty and the lady for domestic help. As soon as he would see them, he will start clapping his hands and laugh aloud.
He started attacking our plates while we used to have our food.
He started responding to his name. We used to constantly call his name and look at him. During the day, I used to play games like call his name repeatedly and whenever he would look at me I used to clap my hands and say "Very good!" He kind of liked my excited reaction so he used to look away from me and when I repeated his name several times, once he would turn and again I would shower him with hugs and kisses. A week long exercise of this name calling, helped him learn the keyword, i.e. his name. So, now if we are talking to someone else and his name comes up, he would look at us! :)
By the time he was completing six months, he started making chewing motion. Initially we thought he had something in his mouth, but when examined his mouth was empty. Guess, these were signals that he was getting ready for solids.

And he completed six months. We had celebrated his half birthday. We took a video where he is attacking his cake, although did not give him anything to eat. Considering it is too sweet for an infant who has not started any solids. We thought he can wait for sometime.

Six months old

His face changed a lot since his birth.
He learnt to crawl forward and by mid-six month, he learnt to crawl on his fours and creep as well.
He was attempting to stand on his legs using the furniture or our bodies as support. By the end of six months, he was able to stand but would fall after 10 sec or so. Guess, his legs still need to gain more strength.
He would try to jump over us or any other barrier in his way. It was scary if he was on the bed.
Our bed is 1.5 feet from the ground. One day, in his 3rd week, he fell from the bed while attempting to hold something that caught his attention. I was in the other room and suddenly I heard "THUD!!" and my heart sank. I ran and took him in my arms. He was wailing so badly, I wanted to cry myself. But composed myself, immediately rushed to the washbasin and dabbed some cool water on his head which soothed him a little. He cried for almost 2 minutes, the longest 2 minutes of my life! Anyway, I performed the following checks:

Eyes - They were white. When kept his favorite objects(which generally we tell him not to touch) like phone, he was following them. Later on I read on the net that if the eyes get pink or red, immediately rush to the doc.
Ears - I played his favorite music, title song of "F.R.I.E.N.D.S." and he quietened for sometime and smiled as he does always. Then did all the noisy actions that he generally does and found that he was following the sounds. It is said that if the baby behaves the same way as earlier, no need to worry.
Nose - checked if any bleeding there. Thankfully, no bleeding.
Mouth - checked his gums, tongue, everything normal.
Arms - checked if they were normal, as in no disfiguring.
Legs - rotated his toes and feet, normal.
Actions - I left him on the floor and he crawled to his toys as he always does. So his legs and hands were normal. He was standing the same way, using my body as support, as he always does.
Feeding - He took his feed normally.
Bumps - He had no bumps that day, but at night I observed a small pinkish bump which went by the end of next day. On touching the bump he did not cry which means it was not paining him.
It took him 30 minutes to finally normalise and play as always. I guess it took me 2 days to come out of the shock. Worst is that being the mother I could not cry as he should feel comforted and secure with me rather than cry more seeing me cry. I was unable to enter the room till my husband came home as I always visualised him flat on the floor. It was a nightmare.
From now on, we keep on the bed only if we are with him otherwise, he spends the whole time on the floor in the computer room or in the walker or in our arms.

He runs the risk of falling even while trying to stand using support of furniture, thus, we are always vigilant. We do not stand behind him but are in hands reach. In case, he is about to fall, we can help him out. We do not want him to develop the fear of standing, if he observes that we are always protecting him. It is like babies will learn if left free but under silent supervision.
We started his solids. He has tried idly, mashed/boiled fruits and veggies, cooked raagi with little ghee and salt, softened dal with ghee and salt, dal+rice khichdi, tomato puree, home made chicken soup(which he relished a lot). He developed loose motions the day after eating banana, so we have discontinued it for sometime. Probably we will start after a week or two. At tea time, he will eat whatever cookies we are eating.
He babbles words like ma ma or da da. More when he is crying. While crying he will take out all kinds of sounds, guess, desparation to tell something brings out the speech from their mouths! :)
Earlier he used to be very patient while changing his clothes or diapers, but in the 4th week, he had become very impatient. As soon his clothes are touched, he would rollover and push our hands away, but not allow us to change. It is not like that he is sleepy or feeling cold or anything, just does not want to be tied down in one position! It is a war-like situation after bath when he is to be worn clothes! And as soon as he has worn his clothes, he will behave as if nothing happened, all smiling and playing again!! Gosh!!
During this month, he started showing signs that he understands our instructions. e.g. if we tell him not to touch a book, he will touch it once and see us again if we still persist not touching then he would move away from it. He also acknowledges our applauds when he does something good, like crawled and held some toy, or stood on his legs successfully or followed our instructions.
I have observed him look at me while he will go near the edge of the bed for he knows he will get a NO from me, and then he will look one more time and then crawl back!! It is so much fun seeing him respond that way. So now he understands many words.
At times, he gets scolds too and then he would try pacifying us giving his sweet toothless grin. I have to really try hard not to smile back or else he will not take the instruction seriously. I have to face away and smile!
We were surprised when one day he started caressing our cheeks and smile. He did that for a long time at night. Now he repeats it quite often. He was expressing his affection, I guess. It made us feel so good.
He has started rubbing his ears recently and gets a little cranky. Checked for ear infection, nothing was there. Guess, teething has started. It seems during teething their cheek and ear nerves feel itching. So now we understand the origin of the term "teething problems" better.

In a day's time he will complete 7 months. I will post the remaining developments after a lapse of two or three months. But having written all these developments, my life just got rewound to the time when he was born and then played till date! :)

Wish you all a happy parenting time! Enjoy the moments! :)

Postpartum issues

2010-08-04T13:38:00.001+05:30

Hi
This is in continuation of the child-birth series that I started in july. After my delivery, I understood that I have entered another process. Infact, the transition started as soon as the baby is delivered. It took me 2 weeks to get emotionally attached to my son. I mean it was not like as soon as I saw my baby my heart was flooded with bonding emotions for him. All those F.R.I.E.N.D.S. fans, it was not at all like Rachel crying seeing her daughter!! My complete focus was in understanding each and every task that needs to be done, starting from feeding to cleaning poops to bathing to.......awww.......the list is just endless.

Now when I reflect in the past 6 months, I realise there were so many phases and aspects to be taken care of postpartum. I am discussing my experiences taking each aspect at a time.

Mother's Health

The moment I stood up and started walking, which was 2 hours after my delivery, I felt as if all my abdominal organs are hanging loose and my tummy is falling down and down! It was an awful feeling. Not to mention the excessive bleeding which was causing more discomfort. Anyway, a good 6-hour night sleep helped me come back to this world and realise that I am a mother now.

Since there was so much of blood loss, the body loses lot of its heat. Thus, my mom used to feed me with heaty food items. Considering that it was winter months and was pretty cold here, I had to wear a sweater and scarf too, lest I would get common cold. And if I am down with cold, it will very easily be passed on to the baby while feeding. Hence, I had to be very careful not to catch cold. I guess, in that sense, the Indian concept of confinement to new mothers seems logical. Of course, we tend to go overboard at times while being cautious.

We had hired a lady who used to give hot-oil massages to my son and me and then give us hot water bath. For my son, we used olive oil and for me, some Ayurvedic oil which helped relieve me from the aches in various body parts, like back, arms, shoulders. Since we are not used to carrying the baby all the time, it affects our shoulders and arms too. I had developed a muscular catch which lasted for first 15 days.

At that time, you are so drained out (thanks to sleepless nights, feeding) that it really feels great some one giving you a massage and a bath. The lady would then tie two soft-cotton sarees around my waist pretty tightly with a warning that I must not remove it during the day!! Well, one can also purchase waist-bands from the chemist. Well, I must say, the tying did help in pushing the tummy back. I am not sure about those who have c-section as there are stitches on the abdomen, in any case, the doctor will advise you.

I used to do abdominal exercises that helped in toning the abdominal muscles. It surely helped although, I never liked doing them at that time as all I wanted to do was sleep, which was like a distant dream. I developed dark circles under my eyes!! Anyway, at that time you cannot be much bothered about your looks, first you want to be physically fit.

Diet

My regular diet used to comprise of lots of green-leafy vegetables, bottle-gourd, ridge-gourd, bitter-gourd, salads, mostly rice, pulses(generally moong or masoor, arhar and chana used to cause acidity). I used to drink lots of water(warm water), juices, and coconut water.

In order to have quick healing of my wounds, I used to take little sonth powder(just a pinch) with ghee and rice. At night, used to take garlic roasted in ghee with rice or roti. Garlic adds a little smell to the breast-milk and also helps improve milk production. For Omega-3 fatty acids, I used to eat flak seeds since I am a eggetarian. Fish eaters have a benefit there.

There are some foods that are helpful in production of milk. Of course, the best method is nursing. The more the baby takes the feed, better will be the production (demand increases, supply increases!).
Anyway, these I had read at many sites and our lactation nurse also told, besides the ones that mom used at her time.
Jeera water, saunf water, sesame seeds(prepare til powder and can sprinkle on your curries), garlic cloves, coccinea(kundru), telaga pindi (Telaga pindi is the remains of sesame after removing the oil), sago.

http://www.ammas.com/topics/Recipes/a131383.html

For strength, mom had prepared dry-fruits mixture with ghee, jaggery, wheat-flour. It really used to act as energy-punch at that time. I could feel the difference while I used to eat it. Do not worry about calories at this time as mothers need more calories for recovery and for nursing the baby. With regular breast-feeding coupled with exercises, your weight will reduce.

I never used to like drinking milk so mom used to prepare sago-sevia-kheer and at night of course, had to have one cup of milk. It surely gave me some energy.

Nursing

This is the most important part besides taking care of your own health. I mean mother's health and baby's nourishment goes simultaneously.

There are so many things to be taken care of while feeding the baby. Latching, the first and the most important aspect of healthy feeding. If the baby is properly latched on to the breast then the milk flow is proper, baby can suck easily, less occurrence of sore-nipples, and improves milk production.

I know a few of my friends, who said that their baby had problem latching on although milk was there in the breasts. So, they had to express the milk and feed them in bottles. One of them said that after a month with constant trying her baby finally learnt the trick and she could feed him normally from the breast. Thus, if there are problems latching the first few times, do not get upset and keep trying, taking the necessary steps to keep the baby satisfied.

Our paediatrician had advised that at times the milk flow is less, at that time, we must allow the baby to keep sucking. This action, kind of signals the mother's body that there is demand for more milk and consequently improve milk supply. From my personal experience I am telling it works wonderfully. Initial 2 weeks, the supply was less compared to the frequency of my son's feed but later on it improved.

I could not help but admire the engineering marvel that is our body. Once a nursing schedule is formed, you will not believe, that later on the milk will ooze out of the nipples at that exact time whether you are feeding or not. Well, obviously if you are not feeding then it wets your clothes. It was so exact, I just was in awe. It holds true still, now that 6 months have passed.

For those who have issues with milk-production must not get depressed firstly. It will improve as weeks pass-by. Just be positive and follow the instructions of your doctor.

I know many mothers in our neighborhood who had less milk and had to feed their babies formula-milk and I see that the children are pretty healthy. Thus, formula milk is not all that bad, just that breast-milk has its own benefits thats all. The most important being that it is unadulterated and has no hassle of sterilising feed bottles and other associated tasks.

Oh yes, in case of sore nipples, try rubbing little of your own milk on them, it will heal. I tried it and heals pretty quickly.

Emotional sinewave

One goes through so many changes all at a time that the mother experiences a lot affecting her psychologically.

Firstly, the body is not fit hence, the weakness causes a lot of depression. Depression is more because that with the nursing, which cannot be compromised, drains you out besides the existing weakness on account of delivery. Depression manifests in many ways and, sorry husbands, but you are the victims of these mood swings!! Believe me, she will be hating her being a woman as she has to bear so much while you men are free and no worries!! But fairly speaking, I sympathise with the husbands too. It is as much a change for him as for you, dear mommy! Try having heart-to-heart talks and both of you will feel much better and closer.

Due to feeding and the recovery process that generally lasts for 4-6 weeks, there is no urge of having sex and this distances the husband and wife. This causes many silent wars between couples, unknowingly! Best is talk it out and have more of cuddling and hugging sesisons!!

Secondly, the baby cries more frequently as s/he is getting adjusted to the new environment, which is nothing like the womb of a mother! :) At times, its not just crying, they literally bowl their lungs out which makes many mothers anxious and the doubt creeps in "Am I going to be a good mother?" Well, do not worry you will be. As days pass by, you will be more alert and observant of the reactions of your baby to different stimuli and identify the irritants pretty soon!! But till the mother does not gain that confidence, her psychological health takes a beating.

Thirdly, none of the earlier clothes fit you well. Gosh!! That is the worst that affects any female. It cannot be categorised under vanity, its just the feel-good factor. We are not aspiring for 0-size figures here. Well, those who are ambitious, just keep some hold on your targets of reducing weights and waistlines, priority is the health of your baby and you.

Anyway, husbands be more liberal in complimenting your wives, and please let them be genuine rather than sound artificial, that hurts more u know!

Last but not the least, once the mother and baby are settled with the latching and feeding then comes the next phase of weaning, which is equally difficult. Its not all with the adjustments in the first few months. Once the baby starts solids, his or her demands for the mother's milk keeps reducing and many mothers go through emotional stress due to this weaning too. But, I guess this process has a subtle import to all we parents, specifically mothers. Children will gain independence level by level and thus, their dependence on us keeps reducing. We need to take it positively as the child grows. It is for the betterment of both the child and the parents.

Well, these were few of my experiences, many personal and few shared by friends. Surely, there will be many more, and will be happy if readers contribute their experiences for the benefit of all.

Dear mommies, stay happy and healthy, rest will follow!! :)

Pregnancy and associated problems

2010-07-24T11:27:00.000+05:30

Pregnancy brings in a mix of happiness and its set of problems too. Of course, with a little bit of precautions many problems can be averted. Based on our experience, the following post lists a few of the problems that needs to be taken care of well within time. Precaution is better than cure!! :)

Gestational Diabetes

I did not encounter this word until I was warned about it by my gynaec, all thanks to my sudden 4-kg weight gain from my 5th to 6th month!! A steady gain of 2 kgs per month is considered healthy gain during pregnancy. Since I had regained my appetite as I entered my 4th month and the 5th I was hogging at food. The food included pizza with extra cheese, puris, McD burgers, McD fries(ummm....yummy they are the best!), pastries, ice-creams, and all the fatty and fried food that you can think of!!! How can I be spared then??

In my next visit, our doc saw the readings and immediately have my diet changed. The hospital dietician obviously, excluded all of the above from the list of healthy food items!!!

According to our scan, the baby had a little bigger head than normal and thus she was worried that we will have a big baby which may cause problems during delivery. And generally big babies are attributed to many factors, one of which is GD. But, she also said that since both my husband and myself are tall, that is a bigger factor of the baby being a little big. Still, why to take chances and asked me to be more careful about GD, specifically, since my dad is a diabetic too.

Coming to GD, it has some serious effects to the baby.

Now our dietician explained as to why the moms-to-be are prone to diabetes. Generally, the insulin produced in our body regulates the sugar level in the blood stream. During pregnancy, due to our high food take (thanks to hunger pangs), more insulin is produced by the pancreas which will keep the sugar level again regulated. As pregnancy progresses, the usual 4-hour digestion period extends by 4-5 hours which leads to more sugar level in the blood leading to GD.
This unmetabolised sugar gets passed on to the baby hence the baby gets high sugar in his diet inside the womb. The increase in sugar level makes the baby's pancreas produce more insulin to metabolise the sugar.

Few of the effects on the baby are
a) large body-size leading to difficult delivery
b) low sugar level as body is still producing high insulin although the food supply is cut off once delivered.
c) high risk for jaundice

There is nothing to worry even if someone is diagnosed for GD, all one needs is management by way of healthy diet and exercises then.

One can refer to the following sites for more information.
http://www.babycenter.com/0_gestational-diabetes_2058.bc
http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/women/pregnancy/complications/075.html

Hemorrhoids or Piles

This is something that I suffered from over a month after my delivery. I tell you one is better off without them and wish I had been more careful in the first weeks after my delivery.

Post-delivery, when I used to walk I felt that all the organs inside are moving loosely. It was really difficult with all those loose organs, and weak body. And the frequency of feeding the baby besides all the nappy-changes, just took a toll on my body. Over and above, the hemorrhoids. They just pulled me down as was unable to sit and feed my baby after passing stools as I had to lie down for sometime before the veins move back into position.

So what are hemorrhoids?
Hemorrhoids involve the blood vessels that line the anus. Pressure on the walls of the rectum weakens the muscles that support the hemorrhoidal vessels.

During pregnancy, pressure increases on the blood vessels in the anus for obvious reasons. As soon as the baby is delivered, the veins are still in inertia and takes a while to get back to normalcy. That is the reason that pelvic floor exercises done pre and post delivery help in toning the anular muscles and aiding veins to be back to normal.

It is said that piles happen due to eating foods that produce more heat. Well, the reason one advises to eat bland, non-spicy and non-oily food supplemented with lots of fluids, when diagnosed with piles, is that the stools are loose and do not burn the already affected area. This gives the body recover quickly.

My homoeopathy doctor advised me to apply one ointment besides the food restrictions. It proved beneficial to me. Those suffering from the piles can try it. Its called Aesculus gel, one can get it from any homoeo store. Besides this gel, he gave me internal medicines which of course, he knows. The third thing that one needs to do apart from the medicines and the gel application is Sitz bath.

Sitz Bath
Take a shallow vessel or tub and sprinkle some potassium permanganate granules in the vessel. Pour warm water in it and move it a little for the grains to dissolve.
Sit in this mix after passing stools. KMnO4 acts as a disinfectant and help in the recovery process.

These were two problems faced by me and thought of sharing them with you all. It will be great if readers can share similar stories and add to the list for the benefit of the expectant mothers.

Wishing you a happy and smooth delivery and quick post-delivery recovery! :)

Checklist for hospital-bag when having a baby

2010-07-19T08:11:00.001+05:30

Now, about the checklist that we formulated that we may need when we get admitted at the hospital for delivery. It took us lot of search and thought-process and finally we came up with our custom-made list some 3 months before the due date.

Initially the list got all mixed up, so we categorized for ease and it ensures that we do not miss any thing.

Hospital-related

a) Case file, which includes all the reports of various tests, ultrasounds etc.
b) Registration papers, in case the hospital gives in advance. Fernandez Hospital(FH) said that its given the same day.
c) Cash - smaller denomination to be used in canteen.
d) Credit/Debit card
e) Health insurance card, if there is cashless facility.
FH does not have cashless facility, but they provide itemised bill at the time of discharge or after a day or two of discharge that is sufficient for reimbursement.
f) Camera, batteries, battery-charger
g) Additional bag

Mother-to-be

a) Loose comfortable attire while in labor.
b) Slippers
c) Toiletteries - tooth-brush, paste, soap, face-wash, towels, etc
d) Cosmetics - we do not need make-up kit here! Just that stuff that will make you feel more refreshed after the delivery.
e) Four or five sets of underclothing, including nursing bra, nursing pads.
f) Feeding gown - required post delivery while at the hospital. Preferably, dark shades as the first few days, generally heavy bleeding is experienced. For those choosing Fernandez Hospital, there are very good baby stores just opposite and adjacent to the hospital where you get these gowns besides plethora of other stuff at fantastic prices.
g) Sanitary pads - These can be purchased from the pharmacy though, but if you have some preference always better to carry those.
h) Reading material
i) Music resources - e.g. CDs or players(ipod, walkman, etc)
j) One or two comfortable outfits to be worn at the time of discharge while coming home.

For the baby

a) Diapers - Purchase size "S" of any brand, the pack of 5 or 10. We found Huggies Dry Comfort pretty good.
b) Clothes for the baby - weather dependent. But considering that the babies are all so buzzed out in the first month getting adjusted to the new environment, a little warm clothes will not harm him or her. They are most vulnerable to infections during this time.
c) Cap that can cover the baby's ears and head well.
d) Mittens
(Since our son was born in January in hyderabad, when it is pretty cool so we had warm wears for the baby. Babies cry if they feel cold and generally are tolerant to little extra warmth.)
e) Keep 4-5 sets of clothing, depending upon the stay in the hospital.
f) Receiving blankets
g) Car seat or carry-cot style
h) Soothing music, preferably instrumentals, for drive back home.

For the father-to-be

a) Change of clothes - Three to four sets
b) Reading material
c) Toiletteries
d) Slippers

This was our list. The list helps you exploring various things which you may never think of, if you are going to be the first-time parents. Remember pack your bags atleast 2 months in advance. You can keep adding to the items as and when something comes to your mind. But the essentials must always be packed so that you are ready to be admitted anytime after the completion of 34 weeks.

Wishing all first-time parents-to-be a happy parenthood! :)

Some tips for natural delivery

2010-07-13T12:51:00.009+05:30

Having heard so many stories of recovery problems and other side effects of a caesarian, that when I conceived, I had started collecting all the information that would help me to a natural delivery.

Although, it is a known fact, that whatever we do, nick of the moment things may take a different turn and alter what you had planned. Well, in my case, things worked out well and I could avoid a caesarian. Also, a lot depends on the doctor as to how s/he is handling the case.

In earlier days, women were so active and used to do most of the household chores, that they never required these special exercises as they were doing as part of the chores! But with today's sedentary lifestyles, we need to make extra effort to do these exercises if we aspire for a natural delivery.

Following are few things that I used to do to tone my body for a natural delivery and for a healthy post-delivery recovery:

a) Pelvic Exercises

I used to do pelvic floor exercises very regularly. Few sites that helped me besides the birth classes that I joined in my hospital are listed below.
Pelvic floor exercises will prove beneficial pre and post delivery.

Pre-delivery - it will tone and strengthen the muscles giving flexibility required for natural birth.

Post-delivery - it helps in regulating the blood flow to the muscles helping in the healing process of the area between the anus and the vagina. It also helps in avoiding urine stress incontinence, i.e. urine leakage when you sneeze or cough. This happens as the hormones during pregnancy stretch these muscles and lead to such leakages.

If not done, then it may lead to haemorrhoids at times. I was pretty regular with my exercises post-delivery for the first 2 weeks and later on, just could not continue due to the stress taking a toll on me. I suffered later (nearly after a month)with external piles for 1 month. I took homoeopathy treatment for the piles and have recovered. Well, the point is to avoid them, be regular with the pelvic floor exercises, no matter how tired you are during the day.

http://www.babyworld.co.uk/information/pregnancy/health/exercise/pelvic_floor.asp
http://www.ehow.com/way_5175662_pelvic-floor-exercises-during-pregnancy.html
http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/fitness/pelvicfloor/

Yoga

Praanayam helped me in regulating my breathing patterns, helps you during contractions.

Besides the breathing exercises, do stretching exercises of your arms and and legs. Also, back exercises to cope with the stress on the back.

Walking

This formed the most important and regular exercise during my pregnancy. I would go for atleast 30 minutes walk daily, twice a day. Generally evening and at night. I was too lazy for morning walks.

It helped me in many ways:
a) perfect exercise for hips and thigh muscles.
b) kept me fit mentally
c) gravity helps in baby moving down.
d) best time for my husband and myself to have heart-to-heart talks, as he used to be busy during the day.

Post-delivery - I am still going for walks as it is a form of outing for my son and excellent form of exercise for me to keep a check on my weight gain.

Acupressure

My mom is an ardent believer of acupressure thus, she had already got all information about it when she came to hyderabad to stay with us. She showed my husband too and they both used to take turns to stimulate those points for natural induction of labor. I do not know whether they can assist in natural delivery. Even in the hospital while I would get tired of walking and take rest, she would either take a comb, or a pen with a broad edge or use her thumb and press the pressure points.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnEcLSHTI0s
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/pressure-points-to-induce-labor.html

In fact, after delivery, she used to softly activate pressure points of my son in order to induce sleep when he is cranky. It used to work many times!! :)

Positive Inputs

This is the most important thing. Remember, mind is the strongest tool in our body and that the body reacts based on signals sent by the mind. Therefore, give yourself positive inputs that your body is healthy enough to go through the delivery naturally. The effect is so powerful, yet intangible that one does not really perceive it to appreciate it much.

Just sit calmly in a silent place in your house or a park, in general a peaceful location. Close your eyes and tell yourself that you have the power to do it. You do not have to focus on any idol of God or in between the eyebrows and all, just sit with your eyes closed. If nothing else your nerves will calm down and that itself is good enough. You do not have to time it as well. Sit or lie down for as long as you can and then gradually open your eyes.

Infact, if you can go one step further, then visualise yourself successfully delivering a healthy baby normally, on a regular basis and that itself will act as a positive input.

Well, it can be done in many ways, choose what suits you the best.

These are few things that I used to do religiously and proved to be beneficial, thus, thought of sharing with you all.

All the best to all those expecting and wish you a happy motherhood!! :)

Childbirth - Our Experience - Delivery

2010-07-12T18:41:00.009+05:30

......Contd from previous post

So after our check up on 23rd Jan, we were hopeful that something will happen on 24th, my husband's birthday. It would have been great both father and son sharing the same date, guess baby had other plans!! :)

26th Jan:
We went to the hospital. In the scan the abdominal fluid level dropped to 7. Generally if it is more than 8, then one can wait. Since it had dropped and I had no pains yet, Dr. Tara explained us that the labor will be induced artificially. She explained the whole process. There are 8 doses with a gap of 4 hours between each dose. Dose means insertion of a small tablet through the vagina. Within these 32 hours, if I go in labor then there will be another wait of 6-8 hours for the dilation of the cervix to 10 cms. So, we got admitted in the afternoon at 1:30 PM and informed my parents.

After 1 hour of having lunch, the doctor said the first dose will be given. Each dose will precede with a scan of 20 minutes, called as NST.
This generally graphs the contractions and the baby heart rate(BHR). Generally, the contractions and BHR are directly proportional. With contractions if BHR dips then things are a little worrisome.

3 p.m. - first dose inserted and we waited nothing happened. My parents packed their stuff and came to the hospital.

7 p.m. - NST done

7:30 p.m.- 2nd dose

...........This continued the whole night of 26th. At night, Dr. Tara came and met us before leaving and reassured us that everything is going fine. Also, said that we will wait till 28th night and conduct C-Sec if no labor sets in. It was such a relief just hear her voice that I was calmed and waited. My mom's elder sister stays just 15 minutes away from FH, so my parents spent the night at her place. Anyway.....

27th Jan - Morning the doctor gave us some good news that I have dilated 2 cms!! Some progress. ....Same procedure continued....nothing happened.

28th Jan 3:00 AM - I had severe shivering and fever and then the labor pain started. And this time pretty regular. Every 5 minutes, I got one. Immediately the duty doctor came and examined the NST graph. My contractions and BHR were inversely proportional. Immediately Dr. Tara was informed and she asked the examination to continue. Wooo...phh! Exactly after 36 hours the pains started!! One dose was skipped when 2 cm dilation was observed as they wanted natural dilation to happen. So kind of 4 hours gap there. Guess our baby was too lazy to do anything on his own!!

Finally, graph showed direct relation.

8 A.M. - I was shifted to labor room and Dr. Tara conducted an internal examination and found that there was no fluid. So guess, the fluid got emptied somewhere after 3 AM and I did not know. She asked me to freshen up, and be on liquid diet thereafter.

9 A.M.- Finally, I was in the labor room, all set. NST was still going on. An epidural was given and around 12 PM syntocin was injected through IV. Epidural was really helpful for most part of the labor. Every 1.5 hours epidural dose was injected.

8 PM - DR. Tara gave us the news that it is 10 cm dilated. By then, pain had increased in intensity and I do not know whether the epidural was discontinued thereafter. But I would say, the sensation of pain worked well for me as it gave me an idea as to how much I must push. With epidural the sensation of pain is not there, and makes you dependent on the nurses and the doctors who guide you when to push. Boss! the pain was definitely that I have never experienced in my life, and will not lie that it was terrible. But, as Mary told us during the birth classes, pain is just to guide us out of the delivery better. She also encouraged us for natural delivery saying that we are not the only ones going through this, many have done in the past and they are all doing normal now!! So we must fight our fears.

If it is of any help, remember to put pressure the way you would pass stools when having constipation. Initial few pushes I was putting more pressure on the abdomen which was not helping me except tiring me. Do not worry, the pains will actually make you feel like passing stools, just follow those signals and use your might to pass them, and lo! your baby will be out!!! :)

Anyway, I cannot thank Shourya and my mom enough. Both provided constant support. My mom gave me the instructions that I understood the best and pushed that way. In between Shourya would hydrate me by helping me drink water. Finally, after a while, everyone could see the head but it did not come out. The doc said that it is not rotating and suddenly found the heart rate dip. Immediately, she asked the OT be prepared and within minutes, I was wheeled over to the OT. During the journey to the OT, I was still pushing as advised.

Shourya and my parents were apprised of the situation by the doc that probably a C-Sec may be done. Once everything was set, they would ask Shourya to come inside. After a lot of shouting and pushing from my side, the docs guiding me through out, with the help of forceps our son, Rudransh, was delivered at 9:26 PM. The doc announced loudly "its a baby boy, its a baby boy" and rushed out of the room. Did not know why? Later Shourya told me the reason.

By the way, wonder how I know the exact time, is it? Well right in front of me on the wall was a digital clock that showed time to milliseconds!!! :D

As soon as the baby was out, I felt as if I was floating in air! Well it was not yet over as I had to push further to get the placenta out. Since there was tearing, a few stitches were put and after a while I was wheeled out to the post-op room. Dr. Tara kept caressing my arms and my forehead explaining me that they are putting the stitches. It was really comforting having her on my side. Since 8 AM in the morning that day till our baby was delivered she was there with us.

Dr. Tara came and showed me the baby after a while. I remembered him all funny looking and nothing like what he looks now though! :)

Scene outside the OT:
Shourya was waiting with the camera and mom had gone to get dad from the room. At around 9:30 PM, the nurse went out and informed Shourya that it is a baby boy. He could not believe it for a second as he was still under the impression that he would be called inside for a c-section!! hee!hee!

Anyway, hugs exchanged between my parents and Shourya and then I was wheeled out to meet them.

In the post-op room, I was to be kept for 1 hour observation. I was getting fidgety as I wanted to hold my baby desperately. Finally, after 1 hour, I was wheeled to our room where I found the crib is empty.

Shourya and my parents told that during delivery Rudransh swallowed some of his stools just before coming out. Thus, he was immediately rushed to the paediatrician waiting who did whatever was necessary and then later on showed the baby to them. After showing them the baby, he was taken to the nursery for observation. Some fluids were intravenously given to him. And only parents could go and see him in the nursery. So Shourya had made two rounds already and found him doing well.

Since it was already 2 AM and while I was walking I felt everything pretty loose inside me, decided to go to the nursery in the morning. I felt as if all the organs are strewn across in the empty space created by the exit of the baby!! Since I was on liquid diet the whole day, half-n-hour after the delivery, I passed loose stools 3-4 times. I was feeling so hungry. Had some juice and slept off. Shourya checked on Rudransh once again and then slept.

Next morning after breakfast, Shourya and myself, went and saw our son. It was an awesome feeling, cannot even describe it in words. He was not that puny as I was expecting but still he was all soft. I was so scared to even touch him in the beginning. Immediately the nurse put him for his first feeding session with me. Thankfully, he had no problem latching, about which I read a lot that first-time it mostly never happens successfully and all. But luckily nothing of that sort happened.

After the feed, he slept off and then the nurse again put him in the incubator or whatever it is called in the nursery. The paediatrician told us that his breathing is absolutely fine now and all vitals doing good. After an hour he would be shifted to the room.

As soon as he was shifted to the room, we were all excited. My maasi had also come. My mom gave a demo as to how to hold him properly so that his head does not hang out. It was amusing holding him and feeding him.

During the day, lactation expert came and gave a 30-minute lecture on latching, feeding, position to hold the baby, lactation-facilitating diet etc. It seems sesame seeds increase milk-production. Luckily, since it was winter, sesame seeds did not do much harm. Otherwise, they are pretty heat-producing.

Then the head of the nursing deptt came and took a feedback. Dietician came and explained us what to eat and what to avoid. Very methodical. We had certain problem with the food and it was immediately rectified. She mentioned having read our comment the previous day. Then came from the administration side to take feedback of the overall experience in Fernandez.

It was definitely a lot of information in one day!! I was all lost and did not know how to prioritize things once I reach home.

That night, Rudransh was all cranky. I did not know why was he not able to sleep. He just kept crying. SHourya and myself took him out for a walk in the corridor and it helped a little. The nurses helped us out in feeding and swaddling him. He had his first stool-passing incident and we did not check that. The nurse checked his diaper and cleaned him and changed him into a new diaper.

Our first few lessons -

If he is crying, then check whether
a) he is hungry
b) diaper full
c) passed stools
d) feeling cold
e) and if just plain cranky, take him out for a walk. He needs a change!

Next day we were to take discharge. After feeding Rudransh, we took leave. Dr. Tara visited us and congratulated us with a warm hug.

While we were driving back home, Rudransh was sleeping most of the journey. But just before we were to reach home, he started crying, I must say wailing. Finally we stopped on kerb and fed him first.

Second lesson -
When he is hungry, feed him first and then do anything else.

Anyway in the course of 5.5 months now, learnt a lot and pass on our acquired wisdom to those who need it. :)

CAVEAT - All relatives including grandparents
As new parents, we both felt so possessive about our son, that we just could not handle many suggestions or advice given by even our mothers well. We wanted to raise our son our way and not their way and such other feelings.

Later on, we both talked it out and sorted our minds and changed our outlook in a more positive direction.

Probably, the people surrounding the new parents can empathise with them if they act funny or different!! :)

It is a beautiful feeling being a mother and I am enjoying every moment of it. I observe every movement Rudransh makes and it looks so cute. I mean e.g., we also sleep on our side but the first time when he slept on his side, I could not help but keep looking at him. There are many such actions. Thanks to digital camera, we can savor all these moments in the form of photos and videos.

By God's Grace and the assistance of my dear husband Shourya, my dear parents, Dr. Tara and the nurses and the hospital staff, I could deliver by natural method, recover quickly to enjoy each moment with our precious possession, i.e. our son Rudransh.

Childbirth - Our experience - Pregnancy

2010-07-06T10:33:00.019+05:30

In every couple's life, this is the most memorable and cherished time, that is, news of being parents and birth of their child. When we(my husband, Shourya and myself) got to know that we are going to be parents in 9 months' time, our excitement had no ends. It took us a while to sink in the happy news.

Since, we had been trying for sometime, so we had already subscribed to babycenter.in and were pretty familiar with the terms like trimester, morning/evening sickness, labor, contractions, etc etc.

I remember how much comforting it used to be to read narration of other couples. Thus, I thought of sharing our experience through this journey of pregnancy, and delivery with the readers. I hope it does comfort most readers rather than scare or cause anxiety.

CAVEAT TO ALL EXPECTANT PARENTS - Beat your fears
Get ready for advice from all nooks and corners and the whole time. At first, due to anxiety, you may like to hear them all and follow the advise blindly. As time passes, you will gain confidence and irritation may set in. Remember, activate your ear filters now so that useful information does not get rejected.

No offence to elders, but the advise they give is generally based on their experience when they were expecting some 25-30 years ago. Thus, always check the validity of the advice and the scientific basis of it. Research over the years have proved many of the beliefs as myths and many scientifically correct.

Any new advice given to us, we would first read about it on various websites, medical sites and then take an informed decision. My mom would add a line right after giving any suggestion, "Go and confirm with your faceless guide!!" Most of what she used to tell me was helpful, only that I wanted to understand why we are doing it, that is all. Thus, do not get scared of anything. If you understand the science behind baby-formation in the womb, then you can be more confident and take rational decisions.

Our Journey starts.......

Hospital search
Once our home pregnancy test was positive, our minds started racing as to which hospital and which doctor to consult. My husband had already done some spade work about the good hospitals, and doctors. So we had two options, Rainbow hospital(RH) in Banjara Hills and Fernandez hospital(FH) in Abids. We decided to visit both and then make a call to stick to one. Apollo never figured on our list of choices as we had bad experience there, so that was out.

RH has good team of doctors but we found that there was a parking problem and the tests there cost more than FH. Besides, billing counter had problems with the credit card reader many times. During the first blood test, the OPD nurse could not take out blood from either hand and after poking me so many times I put my foot down. Shourya went and fought with the receptionist then they arranged for the blood retrieval upstairs with some anesthetist. I mean, except for the interaction with the doctor in RH, rest all was fussy over there and did not really beckon us with warmth.

In FH, we did not have to worry about parking. One may find it trivial but on our second visit to RH, we had to literally fight for parking and ultimately parked in some residential lane and wasted 20 mins there. During that time, I found that my BP went high and during pregnancy already one experiences heightened emotional swings! That was the last time we went there. Finally, we stuck to FH for which we will always be thankful to God for guiding us there.

Our consulting doctor was Dr. S. Tarakeswari. The first day we met her, it was such a warm meeting. She made us so comfortable and explained us everything that is going through my body, by way of diagrams. And patiently answered each of our queries. We had gone with a notepad, pen and list of queries. The first thing Shourya asked was about the window we will have from the time labor kicking in till delivery as our travel time to the hospital would vary between 45 mins to 1.5 hours. She told us that once the labor kicks in, you have some 5-8 hours for 3 cm dilation. So had lot of time. Only thing she said was that I will have to bear the pain for that long for which she offered solutions of using cushions and back support.

I guess we spent some 30 minutes inside and she never hastened at any stage just because there were many more patients waiting. We both instantly felt connected to her and decided to stick to FH and Dr. Tara.

The FH staff showed us the labor rooms, the UV glass case where the baby is kept in case of jaundice. We finally decided to go for 3rd Floor room and registered for it during our 3rd trimester, i.e. took a slip from them. The staff is so helpful and warm. They had shown us the rooms atleast 3-4 times on different visits with the same diligence. No sign of vexation. Really friendly staff. Another good reason to stick to FH.

First Trimester

The first ultrasound was done in the 7th week and advised to be careful till the completion of 12th week. Its the time when the baby's brain, heart, spinal cord is getting developed. It is not that as soon as the fertilization of the egg takes place, we come to know that we are pregnant. Generally 4 weeks past, the chemical marker hCG(human chorionic gonadotropin) is released which can be detected in the home pregnancy tests. This is because hCG is released only after implantation of the egg to the uterus.

But believe me, when the morning sickness takes over, you can hardly remember what is happening inside your uterus!! :) It was the month of may and I could hardly eat anything. My most favorite dish, "hyderabadi biryani and tandoori chicken", I hated the most!!! awww.....All my body could tolerate was milk+cornflakes and water-melon. Practically, till I entered the second trimester, I was on this diet. Obviously lost weight due to such a healthy diet!! ;) Shourya was really worried and thought that the baby will not be well-nourished, besides my weakness.

Then the doc told us that it is very normal to lose weight during the first trimester due to very high hormonal changes causing sickness. As for the baby's nourishment, it will not matter that much now.

We often wonder what a fantastic engineering marvel is our body with accurate timing cycles!! Of course the pre-requisite is that the body is healthy with no illnesses.

Morning/ evening sickness is not all, I had terrible mood swings and terrible hunger-pangs!! No I did not cry hysterically or something. But, would suddenly feel low, no spirits and go into silence and at other times, will be energetic that I would want to go for driving at middle of the night.

Here, I must mention the side of the husbands. It is pretty difficult for them to adjust as well, to these changes. I remember, in my hunger, I lashed out on Shourya once. He looked at me in disbelief and then after cooling me down, he sat with me and we discussed at length all the changes I was experiencing. He went to the extent of getting documentaries of NGC, "In the womb" and get acquainted with the whole process. Understood the science behind every small thing happening and realised that at this time I need more care, attention, patience!! :)
In return, he asked me to give him heads up of any new changes so that he is prepared for it. After that, we had a smooth sailing and worked in synchrony.

I realised that it is not that husbands do not care, but it is just that they do not understand what is going on and how do they help. Thus, they need to be apprised of the complete situation and explain their role clearly. Do not keep silent expectations!! :) If you want a hug, tell them directly. If you want an ice-cream, tell them directly. If you want to take time off from cooking, tell them directly. This way a lot of problems get solved amicably and both you and your husband can enjoy the period. :)

Second Trimester

Bodily changes
By the time I entered my 13th week, my any-time sickness started wearing off and was able to eat better food now. I am one of the lucky ones who experienced no puking sessions after the 13th week. It felt great. I regained my appetite for most food items and would literally shriek at seeing mangoes!! :D

Tummy started to show now little by little. By 5th month, tummy was pretty visible. A slight line started developing right at the center of the tummy which grew darker as the pregnancy progressed. Pressure on bladder increased so frequent trips to the restroom. By 6th month, the movements of the baby inside grew more strong. It was great and found that at most times my right side of the tummy was more bulging than the left side. Baby was most active at nights, guess that explains why he chose night time to come out in this world!! :)

Anyway, our 2nd ultrasound was scheduled in my 14th week. It was great to see the baby for the first time in its form, moving. Believe me, till then it never hit us that we are going to be parents for real!! Felt all mushy-mushy about it!! :)

Diet care

Generally, it is said that 2 kgs weight gain every month is a good sign. During the 2nd tri I had started hogging on food as my appetite and taste-buds helped me. Foods like pizza, McD burgers, finger-fries, biryani, pooris, sweets etc had become my favorite foods.

Effect was that I gained 4 kgs from 4th to 5th month and the doc immediately put a stop to everything. She did not even ask what was my diet, just listed all the above ones as the banned items and I was sent to a dietician in the hospital. Then onwards I was very careful about my diet as did not want GD(Gestational Diabetes) After that, weight gain was at its normal rate.

Hobbies to soothe

Whenever felt a little low, I would take the car and go for a drive with music on. It used to soothe me down. Since reading is my hobby, my online orders for books increased!! My dear hubby got me a walkman, which was the best companion during my walks and during labor. Watched lots of movies, all kinds.

Now, well-meaning elders and friends advised me to stick to only spiritual or religious stuff(books or movies), but I never read or watched any. I found them too boring and just could not relate to them. Already I was sleeping more than usual, these would act as catalysts to doze me off!! So kept away from them!

My favorite pics were Dark Knight, Avatar, 3-Idiots, Independence Day, KungFu Panda, IceAge (all parts), Apollo 13, and comedy series F.R.I.E.N.D.S., Dilbert and Everybody Loves Raymond.

But if we examine scientifically, the baby can hear only muffled sound. Basically, any soft sound is good for the baby. The only benefit I see in watching less violent movies is that the mind of the mother is relaxed which will help in healthy baby growth. Mother must always be in a happy mood as that will keep her vitals normal which means that the blood supply to the baby is normal. Guess, individual can make a choice of entertainment that will keep one calm and happy!! :) If reading or watching religious movies is what works for you, then go for it. But do not indulge in them expecting your child to born with a tilak like a swamiji!!

I used to sit for long hours of meditation that helped me a lot all through. It definitely improved my breathing and attuned my mind to bear the pain. Daily, I would give positive input to myself, that I will deliver a healthy baby by natural method. I wanted to avoid C-section as far as possible. Shourya was a great support and helped me to be open to everything or else nick of the moment things may not go that well. And my mom, who had been a constant support to me and gave me rational advise.

Anyway, second trimester went off without much trouble, infact, I enjoyed it all.

Third Trimester

Bodily changes
Due to heavy tummy, my feet used to ache a lot after my walks. My speed had reduced a lot and walk become a little clumsy. At nights, experienced leg cramps. That time, Shourya would massage my calf-muscles and that would ease off my pain. Used to drink lot of water and juices just to avoid cramps. It had helped too.

I did not have back-ache as such, but obviously could not sleep on my back. Well, nature has its own timing cycle and one must listen to the body signals. It is advised to sleep on the side during pregnancy, preferably left side as heart is on the left side thus baby has adequate blood supply.

My due date was 23rd Jan 2010, and I did not experience any kinds of contractions, as in the Braxton Hicks Contractions, till 2nd week of Jan. Those were also very mild ones and were like one or two every 4-5 days. I have heard many mothers experiencing as early as in the 6th month itself.

Breasts grew in size and became tender. So had to be careful of my choice of clothes.

Sweating increased during walks so used to carry water and take rest.

Exercises
In FH, birth classes are conducted. We joined the one-month long session. It was so useful. More than me, Shourya wanted to join them so as to be absolutely prepared during delivery. Ms. Mary-Signe Kelly took the classes and took us through each and every aspect with lot of patience and expertise. We were prescribed to breathing and pelvic exercises. Also, trained for breathing during contractions and delivery. Besides, given training for holding a baby, diaper changing, swaddling the baby, etc. It was so helpful.

With informative sessions, we made good friends with the other two couples whose due dates were also pretty close.

Note to all expectant mothers, do Kegel exercises, whether you do others or not.

My parents had come in december itself. And my mom is a known disciplinarian in our house!! Believe me, it helped me a lot. Whenever I would show lethargy for the exercises, she would make me do them of course, with a bribe of her tasty cup of coffee! She prepares wonderful coffee. She would accompany me for evening walks and night walks. Shourya got some breather!!

To remember
We had made a checklist of things that will be needed in case I am in labor. We had packed our bags 2 months in advance and used to keep it in our car whenever we used to go out. Those who need help with the checklist, will be happy to pass on ours.

Now, we entered January......the month of the baby!!

January

Nothing much happened in the first week. Second week, felt the first contraction in the middle of the night. Shourya sat with his watch just to time the next, and the next never came!!! My parents said no need to worry, lets go back to sleep.

2nd week passed. 3rd week same story. By the way, in Jan, the doctor visits were weekly.

Nothing happened. Finally its the due date, 23rd jan, the scan showed everything is normal and the head is fixed. So any time labor can kick in. Dr. Tara asked us to come again on 26th Jan and if things still remain the same, again on 29th Jan and still same story, then induction.

Delivery to be continued in the next post...........:)

Kalakand at Home!

2010-07-02T17:58:00.004+05:30

Hi to all!

It feels so nice to be back writing a post after a long time. Thus, thought of sharing a recipe of a sweet dish, one of my favorites, Kalakand. Now, why did I choose this sweet?

Well, it so happened that a few days ago, the milk went sour while I put it for boil. So immediately I removed it from the stove and added some lemon juice and allowed further coagulation. After a minute, I filtered the water out and mashed the solid filtrate, which is called as the home-made paneer (HMP). And then decided to prepare Kalakand with it. And that is how it all started.

Before writing this post, I thought of learning the origin of this delicious sweet-meat. It always feels good to know something more about the dish you are eating besides enjoying its taste!

Origin

Kalakand is originally from Braj in Uttar Pradesh. In Urdu, it is actually called Qalaqand. "Qand" in Arabic means Sweet. It is a very popular sweet in Northern and Eastern India.

Following is the method to prepare this very easy dish at home.

Ingredients

a) Home-made paneer, HMP (explained above) - prepared from 1 liter milk
b) saffron strands
c) Milk - 1/2 liter
d) Sugar
e) Ghee or home-made cream
f) Elaichi or Cardamom
g) Badam or Almonds (cut them into long thin pieces)
h) Pista or Pistachio (cut them into long thin pieces)

Method

a) Add saffron strands to the HMP and keep it separately.
b) In a thick-bottomed pan, add ghee or cream, milk. Add sugar in equal proportion to milk or according to your taste. Generally, kalakand need not be too sweet.
c) Allow the above to boil on low flame till the milk comes together.
d) Once, the milk volume reduces to half, add the saffronised HMP to it and allow it to boil further.
e) Once the mixture is thickened enough, add powdered elaichi to it.
f) Take a smaller circumference plate with high sides. Grease it a little and then pour the mixture in it.
(Small circumference ensures the kalakand to get its height as compared to larger plate that will spread the mixture more, hence, leading to thin pieces

g) After spreading the mixture, sprinkle the pieces of badam and pista over the mixture and allow it to cool down.
h) Once the mixture cools down, cut small cubical pieces and our sweet dish is ready.

Alternatively use condensed milk

Above in the method section, points (b and c) is actually the preparation of condensed milk. If you have a can of condensed milk already, you can directly add the HMP and the condensed milk according to the sweetness you want and then add powdered elaichi.

Condensed milk reduces your preparation time. Anyway, since I did not have condensed milk, I prepared it first.

Either way, the end product is really delicious!

Those readers who tried it at home, please share your experience!! :)

Have a sweet weekend!! :)

Aesop's Fables

2009-11-18T20:07:00.003+05:30

I recently happened to get hands on Aesop's fables. It was fun to read them, then I saw the commonness in all of the stories which had mostly animals of all kinds as characters to impart moral education.

Intrigued, I searched the meaning of a FABLE and found it was pretty close to the above mentioned observation. I found the following meaning of Fable:

A fable is a succinct story, in prose or verse, that features animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized (given human qualities), and that illustrates a moral lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.

Characteristics of a fable
* Its purpose is to impart a lesson or value, or to give sage advice.

* It also provide opportunities to laugh at human folly, when they supply
examples of behaviors to be avoided rather than emulated.

* It frequently have as their central characters animals that are given
anthropomorphic characteristics such as the ability to reason and speak.

Who is Aesop?

Coming to Aesop's Fables, we must answer the question, who is/was Aesop?
Aesop was a slave and a story-teller in ancient Greece during 5th century BC.
So these fables were told by Aesop and known as the Aesop's Fables.

Although, there is a lot of doubt about his existence, yet many of the stories do throw you into a pensive mood. Guess, after reading the stories I felt the emphasis must be laid upon the morals that can be derived from these stories.

I wonder why we always relate moral stories only children. I think even adults need these stories to assist in self-introspection! After all, its the adults who have to derive these morals from the stories and explain to the children!

Albeit, all stories are worth reading and contemplating upon, yet I chose a few of them to post here. Its not that there are no such stories elsewhere, but these being full of fancy animals and all, may appeal better to the children.

STORY - 1

The man and the lion

A man and a lion traveled together through the forest. They soon began to boast of their respective superiority to each other in strength and prowess. As they were disputing, they passed a statue carved in stone, which represented "A lion strangled by a man." The traveler pointed to it and said: "See there! How strong we are, and how we prevail over even the king of beasts." The Lion replied: "This statue was made by one of you men. If we lions knew how to erect statues, you would see the Man placed under the paw of the Lion."

Moral
One story is good, till another is told.

STORY - 2

The dog in the manger

A dog lay in a manger, and by his growling and snapping prevented the oxen from eating the hay which had been placed for them. "What a selfish Dog!" said one of them to his companions; "he cannot eat the hay himself, and yet refuses to allow those who can eat."

Moral
In the last statement itself!

STORY - 3

The Miser

A MISER sold all that he had and bought a lump of gold, which he buried in a hole in the ground by the side of an old wall and went to look at daily. One of his workmen observed his frequent visits to the spot and decided to watch his movements. He soon discovered the secret of the hidden treasure, and digging down, came to the lump of gold, and stole it. The Miser, on his next visit, found the hole empty and began to tear his hair and to make loud lamentations. A neighbor, seeing him overcome with grief and learning the cause, said, "Pray do not grieve so; but go and take a stone, and place it in the hole, and fancy that the gold is still lying there. It will do you quite the same service; for when the gold was there, you had it not, as you did not make the slightest use of it."

Moral
In the last statement itself!!

Do you still think that these stories should be restricted only to children as we find the adults indulging in such behavior. Learning process is never bound by age and life is a continual learning process.

Guess, will post few more stories in the next post after a fortnight giving time to readers to contemplate and even better, contribute too!! :)

Egg Nargisi Kofta (For Eggetarians!)

2009-10-08T08:31:00.010+05:30

Guess, most of us must have heard of Nargisi Kofta, surely the non-vegetarians. In its original form, kofta is made from meat/chicken and eggs. Being an eggetarian, this was not a dish for me.

Enters ma (my mom-in-law) who modified it so that I also join the family to relish the dish. By the way, we both address each other without the in-law part, so will be addressing her as ma. She is a fantastic cook and has exquisite culinary skills!!

As ma was meticulously preparing the dish, I noted down the recipe and took photos of the intermediary steps, which are shown below along with the recipe. The way the koftas came out just intrigued me to read more about the origin of the dish.

ORIGIN
Nargisi means Narcissus-like eyes(Nargisi Aankein). It is a dish from Awadhi cuisine(from the city of Lucknow). The cuisine consists of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. Awadh has been greatly influenced by Mughal cooking techniques, and the cuisine of Lucknow bears similarities to those of Kashmir, Punjab and Hyderabad; and the city is famous for its Nawabi foods. If you see the koftas below, guess the name justifies itself!

This also lead me to read about Narcissus, Greek hero who was known for his unmatched beauty. Those interested in reading about how the name of the flower Narcissus came into existence, may visit this link and read the short story at http://www.echo.me.uk/legend.htm. There are many versions though, this being one.

Having understood its origin, let us go to the recipe. It tastes best when served with matar pulav, or jeera rice, or phulkas/tandoori rotis.

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

a) Boiled Eggs
b) Boiled potatoes (probably one can try with other boiled vegetables too)
c) Onions - (i) finely chopped (ii) in paste form
d) Finely chopped coriandar and mint leaves
e) Corn flour
f) Red chilli powder
g) Ginger-garlic paste
h) Green chillies
i) Tomatoes in paste form
j) Ground masala - elaichi + jaiphal + dalchini

METHOD

Covering for the eggs:

a) Mash the boiled potatoes.
b) Add finely chopped coriander, mint leaves and onions.
c) Add red chilli powder, ground masala(see j above), corn flour, ginger-garlic paste and salt.
d) Mix all the ingredients well into a dough.

We had utilised the red chilli flakes from the previous night's order of pizza!!:D It did give a good look to the koftas, which you can see in the photo below!

Kofta:

a) Peel the boiled eggs and with a knife make slits on the eggs.
b) Make small cups out of the dough prepared above and place the an egg in the cup and cover it completely with the dough.
Remember: Covering on the egg must be thick to avoid breakages while frying.

c) Then roll the kofta ball in corn flour.

d) Deep fry the balls, preferably one or two at a time depending upon the size of the frying pan you use.

e) After frying the koftas, cut them into half. Be careful while making the cut to avoid breakage of the covering. Best way is to use a sharp knife and make a cut in a single stroke rather than starting from one end reaching to the other.

Gravy Preparation

a) Heat oil in a pan and add the ground powder(from j) and green chillies
b) After 30 seconds, add onion paste
c) Once the onion starts leaving water, add ginger-garlic paste and tomato paste or tomato puree.
d) Then add turmeric powder, garam masala, mint and coriander leaves, water, and if any of the potato dough (prepared above) is left.
e) Cook it on slow fire till the gravy is well prepared.

f) Now place the koftas in a wide-mouthed container and pour the gravy on the koftas from the top.

g) Serve hot with rice or roti.

After all the efforts, the taste was awesome! A little cumbersome preparation, but the end results are excellent.

All those kids/husbands who want to savor this dish, may prefer giving a helping hand to their mothers/wives in the kitchen for even her to relish the dish after a long ordeal in the kitchen! :) She deserves it! (Its not a feministic remark, just encouraging load-sharing!)

To shine silverware at home

2009-09-30T16:19:00.013+05:30

Happy Dussera to all! Last week must have set in the festive mood! Now we all await Diwali, the festival of lights! Of course, its a festival of sound too, thanks to all the firecrackers!!

Preparing for Diwali, took out silver diya and found that it was all oxidised and got tarnished. First thought that came to mind was search for a jeweller who would polish the diya and make it shine again. Finally searched a few and found that they do not polish and that they only sell silverware.

My work was still not done. Casually, I called my friend to ask for some nearby jeweller who would do the job and then she told me some home remedy. Since she was unsure, she called her mother and then confirmed the remedy. Guess what? I tried them at home and it worked wonders!!

BEFORE

AFTER

Method 1: With baking soda

Materials required:

a) Aluminium foil
b) Boiling water
c) Baking soda

Steps:

a) Take a wide-mouthed and a deep container so that the tarnished silver item can be immersed completely.
b) Cover the the container with aluminium foil.
c) Based on the size of the silver item, pour baking soda inside the container.
d) Pour the boiled water in the container. Be careful while pouring as you will observe fizz due to soda and hot water mixing.
e) Then immerse the silver item inside this water mixture and leave it for 3-5 minutes.

f) After 5 minutes, remove the item and wipe with a clean cotton cloth or tissue paper.
g) Depending upon the amount of tarnish, you may have to repeat the wash 3-4 times and the silver item will be free from tarnish and shine as before.

Method 2: With toothpaste

Materials required:

a) Toothpaste
b) Cotton

Steps:

a) Squeeze out some toothpaste on to the cotton swab.
b) Rub the silver item with the paste on the swab.
c) As the rubbing progresses, you will find the tarnished portion getting back to its shiny silvery surface.
d) Once done, rinse in warm water and wipe the silver item with clean cotton cloth or tissue paper.
e) Be careful while rubbing. If you observe scratching, immediately stop and rinse off the paste. Its best to use a plain white toothpaste rather than the gel or the ones with all those new salt flakes etc.

I had done a mix of both the methods. First 3-4 minutes immersed the silverware in the water-baking soda mix. If any more tarnish was remaining, I used the toothpaste to remove it from the grooves.

CAVEAT --> Baking soda or paste is said to be a little abrasive on silver. Thus, be careful of any scratches. Handle the items gently and remember it is not a steel utensil that you are washing but delicate silverware!

For those who understand simple chemistry, the methods use the principle of electrochemistry, the REDOX(reduction-oxidation) reaction. Silver tarnish means that the silver atom is oxidised to silver ion. The baking soda mixture provides the lost electrons so that silver ion gets converted back or reduced to silver atom.

It also seems like a good home teaching tool for kids to show the application of the principle they learnt at school! :)

Anyway, wishing you all a Happy Shiny Silvery Deepavali! :)