Being Mamma Bear

The day began. The baby had woken up already and her chatter woke me up too. She didn’t care that it was Sunday. And it was just as well, because we had quite a few things lined up for that day that just couldn’t be pushed any further. We said our ‘Good Morning’s to baby just to see a big smile on her face, like it is every day. It’s one of the reasons I look forward to mornings lately.

We brushed our teeth, we called my husband’s parents on video and had a nice chat with them for about half an hour or so. That’s the best time to play with her actually; she’s had a nice long sleep, she feeds just before she wakes up. The first two hours, she’s neither hungry nor sleepy. 😁

Due to network trouble, the call got disconnected a couple of times. Around 8:04, our cook showed up after being gone for 4 days when she’d told me she needed 2 days’ leave. I was super annoyed with her work anyway because she’d forget things. One day she left without checking and the gas was still on. When we smelled something burn we realised that she’d forgotten to turn it off. Even though I caught it pretty quickly, whatever sabzi was at the bottom of the pan was almost charred. And taking 4 days off without informing me in advance was the last straw. So I fired her in the morning. I figured I had to start cooking again soon and I had been doing that for the past four days anyway.

8:30 AM

Now on a normal day, she plays in the morning because the husband’s getting ready to go to work and I’m busy with getting the house in order. I massage and bathe her around noon and she naps until 2 or 3 PM. But we just found out Saturday night that a few relatives from out of town were going to visit around 5 PM. We had plans to go to the mall to buy some things for her after she would wake up from her nap. But we had to change our plans and be back home by 4:30 at least. I even wanted to go to the salon that day but we had to cancel that.

So instead of an elaborate bath routine, I gave her a quick sponge bath and she was all ready before the clock hit 9 AM.

9:10 AM

While I cleaned up after her sponge bath and soaked her clothes for washing, my husband sat her in her rocking chair and made tea for the both of us. 💓 By the time I was ready for tea, he had already finished his, but since the baby wasn’t fussing, I got to have my tea hot and in peace. 😊

And while I had tea, he made the bed. It was pretty futile, really, because once the baby is on the bed, the pillows come off from their decorative positions to around the baby to make a fort.

9:26 AM

It had been two hours since she was awake, so it was time to feed her. She took a nap while I fed her, our maid came home and started with her work – washing the vessels, and then sweeping and mopping the floor, followed by washing baby’s clothes because we don’t put them in the machine. My husband finished his bath during this time too.

10:20 AM

She was done with her work and the baby was done feeding. If the baby’s awake, our maid always chats with her and these days, the baby responds with a wide grin. 😊

10:40 AM

I went to have a bath while my husband entertained the baby. I usually have my baths late in the afternoon after I massage and bathe her because it’s pointless to bathe before that. It was a refreshing change for me to bathe and be ready so early during the day.

By the time I was dressed up, it was almost 11:15 and I knew that in a few more minutes she’d be hungry again. So I tried feeding her. She fed on and off for a few minutes every time from then until noon. She was more interested in playing with her bib and her toes instead of feeding, so we decided that we should call a cab. The mall is barely ten minutes away so if she got hungry, I could feed her there.

12:20 PM

She fell asleep on the way and I knew she hadn’t fed well, so I took her to the baby care room directly. And there I got pissed off. I was the only one in the room because it was just past noon. But the attendant there was so noisy that she woke her up. Someone passed her a bunch of keys and they threw it on the plastic chair and the loud noise in an otherwise quiet room startled her. Then the intercom rang and the attendant was so loud that my baby, who was otherwise dream feeding, started screaming at the top of her voice and refused to have any more milk.

I had to get up and rock her for her to calm down and when she still refused milk, I took out my Soul Slings Meh Dai Wrap and carried her to Hyper City where my husband was already looking for some stuff.

12:45 PM

We spent the next hour or so in Hyper City (we got some teething and squeeze toys), Me n Moms (A-Z Jigsaw Puzzle Mat and a battery operated toy that makes sounds), and Mothercare in Shoppers Stop (some sleep suits because the ones we have don’t fit her anymore), in that order and a few minutes into our shopping expedition, she fell asleep again.

Once we’d bought everything we needed, we decided to go have something to eat at the food court. On our way out of Shoppers Stop, we ran into one of my college professors and it was great to see her after so many years. She hasn’t changed one bit! She was really glad to see the baby and said she hadn’t seen one this small in a really long time. 😍

1:50 PM

By then she was awake. I thought she’d be hungry by now, so I took her to the feeding room once more, where, again, she threw a fit and refused to feed but kept smacking her lips. This time there were two mall employees in there. One was putting on make up for the other. And once again, they weren’t quiet. Now normally, this wouldn’t have bothered me. But a few weeks ago when I wanted to call my sister in, I was told that ‘others’ weren’t allowed in there unless they had a baby too, and I was alone in the room at the time. So apparently if someone’s there to give me company during the 15-20 minutes that the baby feeds, that is against policy, but sure, mall employees can use the baby care room as their walk in dressing room.

2:10 PM

With the screaming baby, I didn’t want to create a scene. So I patiently tried to calm her down and when that didn’t work, I just took my bags and walked out. She was quiet when we were out, but imagine ordering food and your baby starts screaming while you’re waiting for your food to arrive. We decided to cancel lunch plans and call a cab home.

Won’t have milk but will lick the carrier.

2:30 PM

Once we reached home, she was calm and playful and fed well. Since we were expecting people in a couple of hours and we needed juice or something to offer them, my husband stepped out and said he’d get food too.

3:30 PM

It took him almost an hour to come back, but he got some delicious Malvani food from this place called Konkan Swaad. I had’n’t documented the last few hours well, so I wanted to take pictures of the food and that’s when he got annoyed at me that instead of having food I was wasting time. Fair enough. We were both hungry. I got my picture(s) and a video though. 😁

I was done with the chapatis and was yet to eat rice when I found out that our guests were arriving almost an hour early. I had food on my plate, had changed from my jeans to my husband’s shorts and I haven’t waxed since October. Yeah, horrible timing I must say.

I quickly gulped my food down and wore my jeans again. All this while the baby was quiet in her rocking chair but the minute people arrived, she got cranky again because: a) too many new faces, and b) she hadn’t slept well. My mother, sister and grandparents were here too. Some more crying followed and because of that and the fact that they were in a rush to leave, I couldn’t take a picture with a milestone card, though I would have loved to.

She was getting crankier by the minute 😞😟

5:00 PM

After they left, I calmed her down again by rocking her and the fed her. She napped while she had her milk but was awake by the time she was done. My family was still here, so my sister played with her, now that she was awake and alert.

While they both entertained each other, my husband and I opened the jigsaw mat and laid it on the floor. We first set it in a 4 x 6 grid with 2 extra tiles at the bottom but realised that a 5×5 would give her more space in length and breadth. And the ‘Z’ was left hanging at the end. 😆

When we put her on it, she seemed to be having a good time but most of her attention was on the TV. It was on because my husband and grandfather were watching cricket.

6:15 PM

She got hungry again and I went back inside with her. When she was done in about 20 minutes or so, my family was ready to leave too. But as it always is, the good byes took another half an hour 😛 and by then my husband decided to take her out for a walk. He urged me to come too but I was so not in the mood. So I suggested he take her so I could have some peace and quiet.

7:00 PM

Ever since he’s tried the Pink Anmol SSC, he has loved wearing her. So he did that and went for a long walk and bought vegetables and curd and some other stuff for the house while I enjoyed my solo time by checking out the day’s pictures and posting on and browsing Instagram while I had 7Up.

7:45 PM

I had a good 45 minutes to myself, and once they were back, after letting her play for half an hour or so, I started with her bedtime routine. During that time a friend called on my phone and he answered the call so we couldn’t take pictures of that process.

8:45 PM

Once she was dressed in fresh clothes, my husband took her to the small temple in our house to say her prayers, which currently consists of us, talking to God on her behalf, describing her day to Him and thanking Him for it, and asking for His blessings to be a good human being.

8:48 PM

Baby said good night to the world of Instagram but what happened after that is something only we know.

After her bedtime routine, once she starts her feed, it usually takes her about thirty minutes to fall asleep. Sometimes she asks for another feed in another 20-30 minutes, but she’s isn’t awake during that time.

But on this day, after her first round of feeding, she was awake and refused to be put down. She wanted to be carried and rocked and screamed if we did anything other than that. She was still hungry but wouldn’t suckle either! We spent over half an hour trying to get her to calm down but she was so worked up from her schedule being tossed into the bin and not having napped properly throughout the day that even though she was extremely sleepy, she had a hard time falling asleep.

10:15 PM

I could finally enter the kitchen. We had some leftovers from lunch so I only had to make Rotis. We had our dinner at 10:30 and were so zonked. He went to bed around 11:30ish and I was up for some more time clearing up and replying to comments on Instagram.

Monday, 12:08 AM

I wanted to start drafting this post Sunday night itself because everything would be fresh, but nope. Zero energy and will to do so. So I went off to bed as well because I knew that in less than 7 hours, it would start all over again.

And it did.

At 6:45 AM. 😓