Babies do not hold your finger tight because they like to hold something...but they do so only because they only know to have a closed fist for the first few days...

Babies spend the first few months developing and practising all the expressions that they will use for the rest of their life!

Sanjana spends most of her waking time smiling, smirking, showing expressions of doubt, anger, smart alec-ness, and so on. I amvery positive that she has no idea that she is not doing any of these consciously...it is her uncontrolled muscle movements. But you will have to see it to belive me when I tell you that it is really cute!!!

Baby is growing and she is going to be a month in a couple of days and she is already four weeks old and now weighing at 8 pounds...so she has already added 22 ounces in 29 days...it's all good.

Sanjana has been out for one outing so far and that was for a Diwali dinner at a friends place. She is all darling when she is among people and no one believes us that she keeps us up till one or two every other night crying all the time...but then all babies go through cranky time and Sanjana is cranky only for a max of two hours a day and all at one time. The rest of the day she is a darling!!!

Right now she is taking a nap and it is sooo beautiful to watch her sleep...so let me go and do that while y'all leave me some comments :)

Anu

Babies are like modern art...parents spend most of the time trying to figure what they are saying...

My baby came home on Friday. Till we were in the hospital I was not fully aware of the responsibility it was going to be as the baby spent most of the time in the nursery...but once we got home it all dawned upon me. Thanks to the support of my mother-in-law that it has been easy so far. But to Sanjana's credit, she has been real sweet too...for the past five days she has not been really troublesome either. Maybe that phase is yet to come. She pretty much sleeps, eats, poops and pees and occassionaly cries when she needs something...typically food is all she needs so far...

I am looking forward to following days when I can decipher this beautiful peice of art that we have created...

Today is October 08, 2007 and marks the official end of my pregnancy per the various calendars, my doctor, and my sonograms...but here I am still sitting at work and waiting for the shootings pains to start or some liquid to spill out...and nada...I am still waiting...that is my status update.

Loads of friends and family called over the weekend to see if anything has happened yet and it in a small way has done nothing more than increase my anxiety. Then again they are all well wishers and only want the best for me. At this point I am not sure what to expect in terms of pain or emotions other than the stress of waiting...but since the baby has been moving normally and everything so far has been pretty decent...I guess I will enjoy the wait :)

37th week now! 3 more to go...

Last week I was thinking about my looong life on planet earth...29.6 years. I still remember being a little kid trying to get hold of the next Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys book during summer vacation and fighting for it in the library...I can still remember the train journeys during vacations with my family...I can still remember wondering when I will grow up to be big so that I can join big people's group and listen to their secrets...

Twenty nine and half years later...and I still do not belong to big people's group...because they are all bigger...but then life has changed...I cannot imagine that I am almost there towards having my first child...still sometimes I forget that I am pregnant and only an attempt at trying to lift something from the floor or trying to look at my feet puts my life back in perspective...That this little girl is going to have a little one for herself...

And then I think about how easy it was for my parents to raise me...I was a decently good girl...did not get into too much trouble...school was not my favorite place but was never in the blacklist either...was playful but not mischievous, was a mini-rebel but did not do too many damaging things...and in the end turned out fine and still love my family with all my heart...so I guess it was easy...you look at it our entire generation was easy...too few distractions...drugs were not in fashion (at least for me), and India was still conservative and unaffected by Western influence, sustenance was still dependent on pocket money basis...so had to obey and be nice...I don't think I have ever been able to convincingly say "It's my life, and I will do what I want, don't need you to interfere..." because the very next meal or new tee shirt was from dad's salary...so ya...things were easy!

Look at things now...things are scary...go to a local mall and I will tell you that any respectable parent from our generation will pull his tongue and commit suicide seeing the things kids wear and do...but then we cannot control them any more can we? So raising a child now really scares me...I am always going through the anxiety of parenthood...Will I be able to do it right? At least half as good as my parents? Will I be able to influence my child to do something out of his life? Will I be a good parent? Will my child be obedient and loving and caring like I am towards my family? Gosh!!! How many more "Will I be's..." will there be?

But on the brighter side...a new baby is like fresh clay that is in the hands of a craftsman...and hopefully I am skilled enough to mold it to the best shining vase ever...It is definitely a challenge and a puzzle and I hope I tackle it and figure it out with the correct answer...In the next few weeks my new adventures begin and as much as I looking forward to it, I am also psyched to no boundaries...fun fun fun!

Things I have done or almost done:

1) Getting close to closing my hospital bag...it just needs a few things in it to make it complete.
2) Did a sonogram to figure out if the baby was lying in the right position...and yay! he/she was!
3) Baby clothes are washed and sorted and ready to be used.
4) Two baby showers last week has bought me loads of things that I have sorted out and stored them in our new chest and drawers...I am excited to use them...Thanks to everyone who have helped me...
5) The house is almost clean but for the bathrooms...which will be worked out this weekend...

So I guess things are moving forward in the right direction!