Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Baby Led Weaning

I have been reading about BLW even before we planned for a baby. The whole concept was so new and interesting

that I kept reading more and more on it out of curiosity. And of course the reading only increased post pregnancy.


We started with liquids and purees for Ved when he turned 5 months old due to dehydration.

I fed him purées on my laps for a month until he turned 6 months old and started sitting pretty well with support.

Post then, we switched to BLW completely and there was no looking back. It sure is not a super smooth process,

it is super messy, it takes time for the kids to figure it out! You need to be patient and not interfere and allow your

baby to explore! I thought it was the most amazing process in fact, so different from what we all have grown up to

see.


So here is how we started with BLW:

-  giving him some pieces of soft fruits or steamed veggies in his hand and directing it to his mouth if he did not

- I also started offering him khichdi pre-filled in his spoon. In BLW they generally mention leaving the spoon in

their hands but I kept holding onto the spoon (he directed it to his mouth though) and once he got the hang of it I

slowly started giving him pre-filled spoons by farther away. He now eats and gives the spoon back to me. Also,

we don’t blend or mash his khichdi, it’s just like ours without any salt and minimal spices.

- I never feed him myself, if he doesn’t eat. I try offering him something else that he might like but I never distract

him or entertain him to eat. We try to offer him the spoon a couple more times and stop if he doesn’t want to.

I want to allow him to decide how much he wants to eat.




Instead of running behind him with food and him associating mealtime to be forceful finishing food or watching

screen/parents singing or dancing while eating I am glad we chose BLW. 


Benefits of BLW:

  • Allows kids to explore new tastes and textures with their bare hands.

  • Lesser chances of kids becoming fussy eaters

  • No distractions like screens/singing/dancing needed to eat food. But to focus and be aware about how and what to eat.

  • Helps motor skills

  • Trusting kids with their appetite.

  • Having meals together as a family


He already has likes, dislikes and favorites too! He hates Apple, loves pancakes, corn, beetroot, French beans and

likes almost everything else I’d say! This itself speaks for itself how less a picky eater he is considering he has

tried 80+ foods in 3 months. 


I know many people who freak out about gagging or babies swallowing pieces of food. Gagging is a very natural

reflex which in fact helps them to not choke. Many think that babies cannot chew unless they have teeth. Babies

can chew anything and everything with their gums. Give them your finger to bite and you’ll know the strength.

I’ll encourage every parent to stop comprehending and go ahead to experience this beautiful journey of enabling

your child with self-feeding! 

Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Sleep Training - A Blessing Indeed!

I remember just two weeks back I posted on social media about reading multiple books on sleep training because we were sleep deprived. Well, it’s been almost two weeks since then and things have changed drastically for us. Ved has been sleeping longer stretches of 7-8 hours at night and independently. We put him in his crib when he is drowsy but awake; he rolls over, adjusts to his comfortable position, shuts his eyes and sleeps off. Seems unbelievable for a 6 month old baby to do this right?

Here is how-
We were co-sleeping till recently when Ved turned 5 months old. While co-sleeping, everything seemed to be going fine as I could feed him while sleeping next to him whenever needed, but eventually we realized that number of times should have reduced but was rather increasing as he knew food was always around and available. So eventually I tried to break the nursing to sleep association and walked or rocked him to sleep. Now, since a month back Ved started waking up almost every hour at night and I had to literally walk, rock, sing to him every time up for almost 15-30 mins. This was because I chose to have certain hours of gaps between the feeds, not let him use me as a pacifier even when not hungry. I put him back in his crib, to do the same again in an hour or two. If you’ve read some articles on infants sleep you’ll know how important sleep is for their growth. With what was going on with us, even if Ved was sleeping at 7:30 pm every evening and waking up at 6 am every morning – he was hardly sleeping 6-7 hours every night. And naps were even worse – he woke up to any noise or discomfort. I had to hug him and sleep some days and nights. While having dinner I could never eat it at leisure, it was always on my mind that he was going to wake up crying and that I’ll have to rush and soothe him back to sleep. Any noise around in the day bothered me so much thinking it was going to wake him up! In short I was losing my sanity. Also, Ved has always been a super happy and active baby in the day, so I knew that there wasn’t anything else wrong with him. It was just the sleep that was affected since I had introduced all the wrong associations of rocking, walking, etc. He got so used to either nursing to sleep or being rocked to sleep that if he woke up in the middle of the night and wasn’t hungry – he still needed to be either rocked to sleep or use me as a pacifier when co-sleeping. So every time he woke up he expected me to do the same because that’s only  how he knew he falls asleep.
I was reading about Sleep Training since I got pregnant and was inclined towards doing it. While reading the book Sleep Baby Sleep, I got Anish to read the book too. We always wanted to make our son independent in every possible ways. The more we read about this, and the more his sleep problems increased and our sleep decreased – we realized it was time to go for it! We had already started setting up Ved’s room – crib, baby monitor – night vision camera, white noise, and blackout curtains, all was set!




Although, I did not think I could do it myself with the ample of books we read which all had some things different. I contacted Ajita Seethepalli from KidsCentre.in who is one of the best sleep consultants in the country. We had an introduction call on which she patiently answered all my ifs and buts. After speaking to her the very first time, I had made up my mind about going ahead with her. Getting professional help to guide us all along the sleep training was the best decision ever! Ajita helped us with a customized plan specifically considering all the information we provided about Ved and his sleeping habits in the past. We started with the sleep training the very same night of our first consultation call. And since the very first night, after we experienced the miracle of our son’s ability of putting himself to sleep, he started sleeping 4-5 hours at a stretch.  When he woke up for a feed after 4 hours, I had to make sure I fed him awake and put him back into his crib awake. Now on, he was to put himself to sleep. And we couldn’t believe this small change made so much difference!
It has been precisely 12 days and Ved now sleeps 7-8 hours stretches at night. He sleeps at 7pm daily and wakes up around 2:30am for a feed. I put him awake in his crib after the feed; he rolls over and sleeps off. He wakes up around 6:30-7am every morning. With this routine, he has been sleeping 11-11.5 hours every night now! He naps every 2-2.5 hours in the day for 45-90mins.
I do not feel guilty accepting that this has been a game changer for us – we have become happier parents who are sleeping well. I still remember his cries when he woke up those night crying for me to help me soothe back to sleep. I truly believe we have blessed our son with a gift of self-soothing and sleeping independently. Today, I can ask anyone in my family to put him in his crib for sleep.
Today is when I realize, all the assumptions I made when he did not sleep well were completely untrue –
Ved is in pain due to teething thus not sleeping well - We have also experienced teething between the sleep training processes – we surely helped him with medicine for the teething. He slept for 7-8 hours on those nights too!
Ved is not a light sleeper – we have firecrackers bursting on some nights, some construction noises right above his bedroom some nights and he has tossed and turned but put himself back to sleep without any hassle.
Ved is not hungry every 1-2 hours – this happens with every mother where she doubts herself about not producing enough milk and that being the reason for night wakings, etc. Ved now sleeps 9 hours some nights. I have not weaned him off the night feeds – I feed him on demand in the day as well as the night. He wakes up when he is hungry.

It was two adults one baby and no sleep just two weeks back. And now we have two adults one baby and happy family sleeping like a baby! Thanks to Ajita Seethepalli to our rescue! :)

Monday, June 22, 2020

My Favorites List - Baby Essentials (0-6 months)


I have collated a list of the items I have used in past 6 months and which I absolutely loved!

Moms & co baby products

Mothercare convertible crib

Crib mattress

Baby Monitor/Night Vision Camera

Baby Carrier

Fruit Nibbler (we have tried sweet lime, steamed beetroot, chikkoo, mango in this)

Squeezy Silicon Feeder

Inflatable Bath Tub & Toys


Luvlap Convertible High Chair

Interlocking Playmat

Play Gym

First Book Collection

Pampers Active Diapers

Superbottoms Cloth Diapers

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

How I prepared for a Natural Birth

Note: Every pregnancy is different and I did the below after consulting my gynecologist. I would suggest you do the same. 

Stay Active - Yoga, Walking, Squats, Exercise Ball - These are 4 things I swear by and followed every single day religiously throughout my pregnancy till the day I delivered.

Favorite Essence Products- I had crazy nausea for the first trimester. Some products that helped me during this were- Moms & Co Body Wash, Lemongrass candle in the room, Body Shop Strawberry Body Butter, etc. 

Prenatal food habits - I could not avoid junk food much, although I tried to balance things out by keeping my protein intake high. This helped me since I did not gain a lot of unnecessary weight and the right nutrition helped the baby’s growth.

Hospital Bag List -
-        Toiletries 
-        Entertainment stuff (music, movies, etc whatever will help keep you distracted when in labor if it’s long)
-        Soothing stuff for the same (candles, favorite essence)
-        Slippers
-        Cord blood kit
-        Nursing pads (for breast milk leakage)
-        Comfortable inner wear (consider the fact that you will be wearing sanitary napkins for more than a month for the post-delivery bleeding
-        Outfit helpful in feeding if you don’t want to wear the hospital gown
-        Camera and any outfit or props to capture moments with your new-born
-        Baby clothes (we put him our own clothes)
-        Baby wet wipes
-        Snacks to eat before while after labor/delivery (I’d kept dark chocolate protein bars mostly) coz even if I want to eat less it’s an instant energy
-        Cotton Sanitary Napkins (the hospital ones are the shittiest ones; I really liked the slim cotton ones by Stayfree. I generally use whisper but since whisper ultra has plastic lining it does not help with the rubbing of vaginal stitches. So as per my experience, the slim cotton napkins gave me most relief post-delivery with my stitches).
-        Going home outfit 

Talk to your partner - My partner knew exactly what I wanted with my delivery experience. When you’re in labor, your partner needs to know your priorities before you are in labor. Since, you will not be rational when in the pain, he will have to make the decisions for you! In our case, I had specifically told Anish to not let me take epidural in any case unless my labor is too long! I had told him how to motivate me and if I am beyond 7cms then the labor should generally progress quickly so just help me stay motivated through the major labor transitions. Trust me, your partner plays the most important role when you are having a normal delivery!

Favorite Mom-To-Be and Baby Products-
Moms & Co products for Mom-to-be and baby = I totally looovvveeed their products. Each and every product of theirs is outstanding. My husband had gifted me their mom-to-be package with body wash, stretch marks oil, etc and their body wash helped me in my first-trimester nausea. I fell in love with this brand. They are completely organic and the smell of these products is so refreshing (which is most essential when you’re pregnant and have a strong nose). I used their stretch marks oil religiously and I have no stretch marks at all!

I used their baby products for Ved too now and I don’t think I can ever switch to another brand now (I also tried Himalaya & Johnson products for comparison).

Saturday, March 28, 2020

My Natural Birth Story!


Tuesday, December 10th, 2019
I was facetiming with my mom and sisters in the evening and I mentioned to them how it'll be great if my labor starts in the morning since I read that one has well-rested all night so has more energy to get through the labor. And they said "Aise thodi hoga. Be ready for anything". I also mentioned the same to Anish saying "I wish my labor starts only in the morning." They also asked me to show my belly and said it looks like baby has come down. I told them "Yes baby has attached to the cervix but the doctor checked just 3 days back and said it will still take about two more weeks."

Skip to the night, usual bedtime routine. Anish was kissing me goodnight and also wishing our baby in the belly. Out of the blue, he happened to say “Ab bass ho gaya, kitna wait? Don't you wanna meet me now? Don’t you love your daddy?” And this was super strange because every other night he always said "Don't come before the due date. Gain a good weight and then arrive!"

And lo! Hum aa gaye!! Obeying both mom and dad about coming only after a good night's rest and coming the very next day when dad asked to! :)

Wednesday, December 11th, 2019 (38 weeks 5 days pregnant)
I woke up a few times during the night feeling something in my belly - some tightening (which now I know was part of the labor). Every time I thought it was maybe just me dreaming due to all the anxiety and wait now.
I woke up at @5am to use the washroom. I came back to bed to go back to sleep and noticed some watery discharge coming out of my vagina. I rushed to the washroom thinking my water could’ve broken. I noticed some blood spots on my panties and realized that something surely has happened. I went back to our room and woke Anish up and told him about it. Anish told his mom about it. She asked me if I was in pain, I said no I am not feeling anything at all. We all decided we need to go check at the hospital for sure. We started prepping for leave. His mom said “Since pains have not started at all, it’ll mostly take time now. I think they’ll check and let us go and wait for labor. Let’s not carry everything.” But having read so many other experiences where things are super unpredictable and could change. I was sure I wanted to carry my hospital bag & exercise ball even if we had to get it back home (again good decision).
We had kept our hospital bag packed. I drank a glass full of milk since I knew they might now allow me to eat or drink once I get admitted and we left for the hospital. Before leaving for the hospital, I called my parents and told them that we were leaving for the hospital. My parents stay in Baramati which is approx 6 hours away by road. My parents immediately left for Mumbai.

By the time we reached the hospital, it was 6am. The nurse there checked me and told me that I was still only 1cms dilated. She asked me if I was having contractions and I said no (little did I know the tightening of my belly was a part of early labor). She asked me to get admitted and informed us that if the labor doesn’t start in a while we will do a scan and might induce it. After admission, she checked my belly and told me that it was tightening and that the contractions had already started - I WAS IN LABOR!
That’s when I thought to myself if this was labor pain and I am feeling literally no pain yet, how bad could it get after all? The nurse told me they were putting me on IV and I had to stop eating and drinking now. I quickly grabbed a protein bar and ate it to get some energy for me to get through the labor. And now to think of it, it was the best decision because after the labor pains started, I hardly let the IV be in my hands, I kept using the washroom, moving around, sitting on the exercise ball, etc.

Until 8:45am, I was chatting away. I kept bouncing and doing some exercises on the exercise ball (P.S. sitting on exercise ball helped majorly in fast-forwarding my dilation later). I and Anish were also recording the contractions which were pretty irregular but not more than 5 minutes apart. The doctor and checked me, I was only 2cms dilated. She asked me if I wanted to go for an epidural (painless delivery). I told her no, I will do it the natural way. She gave me some medicine through my anus for stool softening.

Around 9am, slightly painful contractions started coming in. I had read about changing certain positions during labor. So I tried doing some exercises on the exercise ball. The doctor came in again at 9:45am, checked me and mentioned I was still only 2cms dilated. They will artificially break my water in an hour if not broken already by then. The contractions were as painful as my menstrual cramps this time. So I was doing just fine, breathing deep during the contractions and relaxing between the contractions. 

Around 10:45am, the contractions started getting intense and they were just 2mins apart. The doctor checked me, I was still just 3cms dilated. She broke my water and mentioned that now the contractions will get intense and will be closer. There was a gush of water in the bed, almost 2litres of water! The contractions started getting super intense now and they were just 1.5-2 minutes apart. I was screaming at the top of my voice. I couldn’t relax between the contractions thinking about the next one on its way just in a minute. I was sweating during the contractions and shivering between them (since the AC was on and I wanted it to be). The pain was so bad, I started asking for epidural. Fortunately, I and Anish had been discussing many things throughout my pregnancy and he knew exactly what was important for me. And that even if I give up, don’t let me take an epidural. I kept on insisting on epidural and he kept avoiding it. When I kept on forcing for epidural over and over again, he warned me that if I ask for epidural, he’ll leave. I was in so much pain, I told him “You May leave, I don’t care! I can’t bear the pain. I need a painless resolution”. Anish s mom also had come in by this time and both Anish and his mom kept massaging my back and my head for me to relax during and between contractions. I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes. 

This continued till 11:50am when the nurse came in to ask me to come down to the labor room for the doctor to check me and continue my labor in that room on the bed. They laid me down on the bed in the labor room, attached some equipment on my belly to check on the baby’s heartbeat. 

At 12pm, the doctor checked me and said I was only 4cms dilated and that we were looking at least 3-4 hours more to go. I then begged her to give me an epidural, she told me the anesthetist doctor had left since I said no for it earlier. And that he will only be back after an hour. When the doctor informed me this, I screamed at Anish “I told you to let me take the epidural, you did not listen. Now I cannot manage the pain, I am going to go for c-section”. I was screaming at the top of my voice. Both Anish and the nurses kept reminding me to breathe and not scream to save the energy later for pushing. The contractions were less than 30 seconds apart now. The good thing was, I couldn’t discuss or talk much with Anish either and had to focus on the contractions. I had this urge to push and thought I wanted to poop, so I got up to use the washroom and sat down there since the contractions were so intense, I was scared to walk to the washroom. I held Anish tight in this sitting position, while he kept massaging my back which helped a lot!! My parents had reached the hospital meanwhile and my mom came in to see me. She had tears in her eyes seeing me in pain. I asked her to leave because I couldn't see her cry watching me cry at that time. Wasn't helping! Haha!

Around 12:30pm, I suddenly started having this uncontrollable urge to push and it got so bad that I laid down and started pooping on the labor bed. The nurse noticed this and started wondering why in just 30mins was I wanted to push so bad. She checked me and told me that I was already 8cms dilated and that she could feel the head during my contractions. She went running to call the doctor and started prepping for my delivery. Now the pain got so bad that I couldn’t think through and kept crying out to Anish that I couldn’t do it. And the contractions were overlapping now not allowing me a break to refocus or reposition myself. While they were prepping for my delivery, Anish screamed loudly “Neha we’ve done it! You’re almost there! You’re 8cms already? You can do this! We are about to meet our baby.”

They started prepping for my delivery now and at 12:45pm I was lying in the side lying position when the nurse asked me to get into the pushing position with my legs apart but I could hardly move as the contractions were now just overlapping each other and I had no break! The nurse warned me “If you keep your legs pressed, the baby’s head will get blocked and suffocate so give it space to make a way out!!”. When I heard her say the baby will get harmed, I got all the energy to get into the position asked.

As they were prepping me for the push, the doctor asked my husband to leave the labor room. He was surprised since we’d discussed it already that he’ll be there in the labor room right from the start till the end. The doctor said, “You won’t be able to handle the sight of blood”. Anish said “I’ll be fine doctor don’t worry I can handle it. I’d like to be here with her!” The doctor again requested him to leave and instead of wasting time in that crucial moment, he had to leave. The doctor then gave me anesthesia which today I feel wasn’t really even necessary but was more given just to increase the cost a little bit. Or maybe because they’d anyways called the anesthetist in for the epidural but my labor progressed so quickly that they couldn’t do that so did this. Because before asking me to push they gave me the anesthesia and later when asked said because you weren’t pushing we’d to give it.

Anyways, so after the anesthesia, I started getting unconscious of course. And I wasn’t aware that they’d given me anesthesia. So I felt like I was fainting and in my head, I was screaming “Are they aware of what’s happening to me and that I am not conscious about what’s happening?” Then in the second push I felt this pressure relief from my belly as the belly vacated and I heard baby’s cry and saw the doctor holding Ved. She asked me- “Neha, what is it?” I looked at his testicles and said: “It’s a boy!!” She said yes. I was aware until they told me the weight of the baby. And then I dozed off. I missed out on immediate skin to skin with Ved due to unconsciousness. I kept waking up in between while she was stitching my vaginal cut. They took me to the room after that. By the time I held Ved in my arms, it was 2pm. I was feeling quite dizzy even then. I just fed him and we both slept off. Our first sleep together! :)
It seemed unreal, it all just happened to fast and just in 8 hours of when I knew labor had started, Ved was already in my arms! :)

A big shoutout to Anish, without whom I could’ve definitely not been able to get through this. He was such big support during the whole labor. He kept reminding me to keep focusing on breathing, kept massaging my back and kept motivating me telling me how great I am doing and that we could do this together. Not once did he lose his calm or stop doing what he was doing. Having a pillar-like supportive partner was a major help in me having a vaginal delivery. 

And to all of you who are reading this, I hope that I was able to give you a little insight into my birth. Don‘t take anything to serious though, since each birth is so different and unique! What might have been hard for me could have been easy for you and the other way around? But I hope that you enjoyed reading about it. 

Let me know if you have any questions!