The past fours days have been very weird. We can't figure out if it is apart of his growing up or if he is not keeping well. His activities seem quite normal. He crawls up and down a zillion times. From a totally non-fussy eater, he has turned into one cranky monster. He just refuses to take any food - no milk, no water, no solids. He just finishes about half his bottle and maybe 2 spoons of carrot. I can't quite recollect the last time he had proper dinner in the past week. I find it hard to believe that a kid who would crawl quickly to me at the sight of his bottle or cup now has such a huge aversion to food. He tries toppling it or starts beating me once I feed him. Its been impossible to hold him. He goes to bed at 7:00 p.m. which makes him wake up at 4:30 a.m. Quite tiring to keep up to his schedule now.
Suspecting a stomach bug, my mom suggested I give him 2 spoons of omam (ajwain) water with a little sugar. This seems to have helped for now.
No sleep, no hunger
The cover story
There is a bedtime ritual the family has been following religiously for over 5 years now. I have recently come to calling The Seniol, the "Dakkan man". He tucks the family into bed every night.
Before LG came in to our lives, The Seniol did night duty, no not like the diaper duty of his now. He would wake up 2 or 3 times in the night to drink water and then see to it the mosquito mat is on, the windows are closed and that the room is neither too hot nor too cold. And then he would arrange the sheet on me properly tucking me in properly and it would stay that way for what, maybe a maximum of 5 mins. Five years is a long time to do that night after night. Sometimes, I felt like a child and not a grown up to be pampered so much. I could manage the show impeccably well when he was traveling but when it came to the nights, I was horrible at that, sleeping under the cot out of fear, forgetting to put on the mat or close the windows and forget about the sheets on top.
With the arrival of LG in our lives, the privilege has gone to him. The Seniol makes his bed every time when he is at home and it is LG's sleep time. The finesse with which he executes this is remarkable. The rubber mat goes first. On top of it, a big enough cotton cloth so that he doesn't feel too cold. And then a fortress of pillows form a boundary around his sleep area. There is a designated spot for each of the 6 pillows, the round ones at the foot and just above his head with the four flat ones on his side. The two small pillows are laid horizontally to each other. He checks his clothing every time before putting him to bed. And then the fan is regulated. It is funny because after such an elaborate arrangement which in itself takes 5-10 mins, when he puts LG in this inviting comfortable sleep area, he kneels hits the pillows, removes the covers and the area looks a mess in no time. Not amusing any more and feeling bad for The Seniol, I asked him "why do you do this when you know he is just going to disturb the whole setting within seconds? wouldn't it be nice to do this after he goes to sleep?" For which The Seniol replied, "It just makes me happy. So what if he creates a mess. I just want him to feel good when he goes to bed." A nice thought but I don't know if the crawling machine really understands this :) This exercise has sure done one thing - it makes me feel he at times is a much better parent than I.
A day in the life of LG's chaddi and potty training
LG's shorts stay on him shorter than what it takes to get it cleaned. Sometimes for less than 60 seconds. I prefer wearing him cotton shorts when at home as it is comfortable for him than using nappy pads or diapers, which also means I've to be on my toes to see if susu aunty visited him. His friendship with susu aunty goes a long way back and the bond is only growing stronger by the day with the rains and cool weather not helping :)
The process of getting a clean chaddi on an average takes about 1 day - the washing cycle happening every night followed by drying which takes anywhere between 8 to 10 hours depending on the weather, then folding and finally it makes to his basket. Finally, when it reaches its intended destination, all it stays is for a good 1 hour at the most and least for 60 seconds.
I don't know if there is an ideal age to potty train a baby. I've begun it for LG a week back. His potty sessions go by the clock anywhere between 6:45 a.m. - 7:30 a.m., immediately after his morning feed. The predictable nature of it worked well for us. I was so happy on day 1 when I placed him on the potty chair and lo, he was done within 5 minutes and seemed so comfortable playing with this new toy :) The Seniol took a picture of his, wonder what LG might have to say when he grows up to see this one :)
I'm going bonkers trying to Lil General to sleep. I spend way too much time trying LG to get to sleep. If it takes 45 mins to put him to sleep, he gets up in 20 mins making me go crazy. I can't get anything done around the house. cooking has become round the clock activity because nothing is done in one sitting.
It is not LG's fault that he can't sleep while he wants to. The noise levels at home are way beyond tolerant levels for any sane human being. The wood work downstairs at our owner's place has been going on for a goddamn 60 days. Just when its almost done, some water proofing work has started on the terrace. And our dear neighbour next door has started putting asbestos sheet over his sidewalk which has been on for a week now. From 7:00 a.m. until 9:30 p.m., the only sound I can hear is that of drilling, chipping off concrete, hammering, welding and carpentry. A few more days of this insanity and we will go deaf.
LG's tolerance for noise was high since the bedroom he spent the first four months was by a busy roadside. So he slept through this noise when we came here. He really slept like a baby. But now, I guess its proving too much for him too. He is just a 8 month old baby after all....
If you are a male who is not a father yet and are scared of holding small babies, then don't worry, you are not alone!
A friend of ours delivered a year before we came parents and two hours later after this kid was born, we went to see her at the hospital which is just around the corner from where we live. It was well past 9:00 p.m. and she was so tiny wrapped all around with heads covered and just the face visible. As the kids granny handed her in my arms, I was apprehensive to hold someone so small, scared if I would hold her right and it wouldn't hurt her. yet I did a good job and held her for 2-3 mins. Having grown in a family teeming with young cousins, I had seen a lot of newborns so it came as a surprise about my not being confident.
The Seniol on the other hand stood at a hand's distance and looked at the baby and marveled at how small the hands and feet were. A year later. 19th December, 2006. 7:30 a.m. The Seniol was looking over LG's crib scared of picking him up for fear of hurting his teeny-weeny body. He just sat on the bed opposite me admiring his product touching his little limbs, awed at how long his nails were, those small eyes that refused to open up, while my brother picked up LG and held him in his arms. He couldn't stop saying how babies are small and that their fingers were small. The whole family was behind him to make him carry LG. And he did finally but the fear didn't go away for a week. Once we were home, there was such a huge transformation. For a fortnight after that, Lil General slept only on The Seniol's shoulders. When he left for Pune again, his shoulders were much missed at 3 a.m.
We were seeing the movie Pyar ... ke side effects yesterday and the scene were Rahul Bose is scared of holding his sister's baby reminded me of The Seniol's fear of holding the most fragile thing this world.
