A's Blend Of Emotions

Been a while since Piya visited her family back in India. On one hand, she was happy to plan a trip back home, whereas on the other hand, she could already realize how miserable the trip was gonna be without Jay and Jill. But, the very thought of seeing that "million dollar smile coupled with tears" on her father's face gave her the strength to cross the seas. (The nine posts for May 2016 are sequential, kinda chapter-wise!)

Unconditional affection and hugs and lots of love through those "hot and delicious" food on the table while you're wondering if you "may" be hungry -- yes, Piya is indeed at home in India with her "awesome" mom, dad and grandmother. The trip was even more exciting when her sister and her little niece also decided to fly to India around the same time. Nevertheless, most of Piya's mornings and evenings were spent on "FaceTime" -- she couldn't wait to see her hubby and Jill. With family and best friends around, the trip was moving along fairly well. But, often she was reminded of her husband when she drove around the places they used to drive around when they last visited India together. Piya travelled a bit, spending time with her in-laws as well -- once again, ate tummy full. While in Kerala at her in-laws', she also visited a few beautiful temples, of which an ancient temple of Lord Shiva was a noteworthy one. There was this beau

Hugs, kisses as Piya got back home.  Ofcourse, Piya missed mama, dada and grandma.  "Oh well, let's get to business", Piya said turning to Jay. 174bpm..loud and clear! Definitely not "butterflies" in Piya's tummy :)

Piya heard from several couples that there always seems to be a debate when they pick their baby's names. But, for Piya and Jay..it was pretty simple and straightforward with a few filters that they applied. Piya: Jay, remember the Shiva temple I had been to with your mom and dad? I had a tiny feeling I may be pregnant and made a secret wish that the baby will be named after Lord Shiva. Jay:Whatever you like., but the first alphabet be the letter "A". Piya also wanted the name to not be too long. With the three major filters passed to the function returnBabyName(..), there was just one result per gender :) Voila, job made easy. The rest of the post continues narrating Piya's story, while also providing a few symptoms and tips for the mothers to-be. But, very importantly note that every woman/labor/baby is different!

The first trimester of pregnancy is week 1 through week 12, or about 3 months. Jay and Piya decided to wait until atleast 20 weeks to let their good friends know. But, Piya and Jay let their parents and siblings know of this great news. The reactions from Piya's parents (dad especially) were splendid. Her dad was literally singing and dancing. "Thanks to faceTime", she said. Her sister and sister-in-law's reactions were cute and funny too.  Piya's grandmother was super forward-thinking and she was excited and in fact she may have been the only one to not have had even a bit of a preference for either a boy or a girl baby! Few of the dialogue exchanges below-- Mom -- Aaaaaa.. kannu kutti pattu kutti..  (translate: words used to pamper a baby, but addressed to me;) Ofcourse Piya is still a baby to her) Dad -- Great Great.. this is enough for my health issues to disappear (dances and sings), I'm gonna have a grandson or a granddaughter :) Sis -- Hey,

The second trimester is from week 13 to week 27. During the early onset of second trimester, Piya's in-laws visited them for a very short period and luckily that was the time frame when Piya's appetite was building up and her mother-in-law's help and cooking was quite a savior. But, everytime she got that hot breakfast from her MIL, she only wondered "Oh well, may be just for two more weeks :( ". Oh, Piya also seemed to have an affinity towards sweets around this time.. Mutter Paneer Sooji Kesari The family also planned on a short trip to somewhere and Piya couldn't join for health reasons and Jill (ofcourse, she is still the baby of the household). But, that's when she felt all the hormones surging in. She missed her hubby so much those two nights. Jay comforted Piya his best though. When he was back home, Piya's joy knew no bounds and she said "I can't be separated any more!" and Jay sparkled his magic smile immediately.

The third trimester of pregnancy spans from week 28 to the birth of the baby. Tip: About 5% of Morning sickness sort of returns in third trimester for most women! Balance nutrition, go low on spices to help. And, walk! The third trimester kicked in and Piya learnt that the baby's size was gonna triple the current size. She has been putting on the right number of lbs thus far. The baby's movements were becoming more evident, and it was a joy to experience it. She figured the baby also responded to our voices. The baby usually paused a bit when Jay spoke, or even when Jill barked. Even when Jay places his hand to feel the movement, he would have to wait until after the pause to feel the movement. Once, Jay tried to feel the movement, but the baby was pretty stationary at that time. So, he said to the baby "Dei, wake up..how long are you gonna sleep" -- At once, they both felt a pretty strong kick and a move. That was pretty funny and memorable! Piya wanted to

GD testing It was about week 29 and the scary blood work was right before then -- tests for gestational diabetes and RBC/WBC count, etc. Cutting short this part of the story, Piya failed the screening test and had to fast for about 15 hours with a 100gm sugary-disgusting-drink and took a 3hr test, and she failed it by 4 points! She was scheduled to see a dietician to figure out a diet schedule, being a vegetarian. Piya couldn't believe she had GD. She was pretty good at cooking healthy food and eating herself. Jay was supportive and said it's for the best so we give her and the baby great nutrition, coming from a dietician.  Piya agreed, except she just had to spend more time figuring out the her diet every single meal of the day. Throughout the pregnancy, Piya had been writing from a book "Sai Satcharitha", praying for the wellness of the baby. When the tests were being performed, coincidentally the chapter she was writing was about the saint Sai Baba who took th

Beautiful December December was very special for Piya and family-- Piya's birthday, her sister's birthday and her parents' wedding anniversary all fell in December. And, need I say it's the beautiful,cold yet cozy part of the year with Christmas lights all o'er and the little ones awaiting for gifts from Santa. It was Piya's birthday and Jay took her and his in-laws to one of Piya's favorite Thai restaurants. She was excited to have the dessert in particular - Mango Ice-cream with sticky rice! It was a beautiful evening, she enjoyed with warm ginger tea (hmm, note that), crispy spring rolls, healthy summer rolls, the pineapple fried rice and ofcourse the dessert. The evening also ended on a beautiful note where the restaurant made a couple of kids bring yet another candle-lit Mango ice-cream with a sweet birthday song. This was Jay's idea and she couldn't have asked for a better day. The following day was Piya's parents' anniversary.