Friday, February 20, 2009

highly recommended

After a whole year, I managed to watch a whole movie at ONE go ie no interruptions for feeds/sleep/play-with-me-now-mommy screams....and I managed to catch Slumdog Millionaire on DVD. Can't recommend it enough. How did a British director get into the psyche of the sprawling Mumbai slums. Dharavi pulsates.

Now, I need to go get Vikas Swarup's book Q&A from which the movie was based to see how it was translated into film.

Highly recommended. Frieda Pinto is a vision.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Mommy Tag Via FB

Tagged by Ms Blabs via Face Book and doing it here.

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED?
Yes

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME?
Yes

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS?
I was so, so shocked that I went cold for a while- I went to sleep clutching my heart that night, waiting to do the home pregnancy test again, just to be sure. I was too afraid to be happy

4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU?
No.

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU?
32

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT?
Home pregnancy test kit.

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST?

Murali – we were driving back home and I told him we needed to get a kit. My period was late- and I thought maybe? SO, I went home, peed on a stick and told him – ‘there’s a blue line’.
He: ‘Does it mean that we are….?’
Me: ‘I don’t know- maybe’. And burrow my head on his shoulder.

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? DID YOU FIND OUT?
Of course.

9. DUE DATE?
January 30, 2008.

10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS?
I had all day sickness for about 4 months- morning, evening and night. It was horrible.

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE?
Nothing much actually. During the first trimester, I couldn’t eat anything spicy or strong, Pretty much survived on yogurt, rice and lightly cooked veg - the blandest of food.

12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST?
The fact that I couldn’t (wouldn’t take coffee), that I was chucking up all the time in the first trimester. That I was tired all the time. That we had to move twice during the pregnancy, one intercontinental and one in Malaysia.

13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX?Boy

14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING?
For some strange reason, I was very sure that it was boy way before we scanned.


15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY?
I put on 15kgs. Some of it seems to have stuck around still. Sigh.

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER?
We did have a picnic of sorts at Russell Square which was farewell cum baby shower.

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW
Yeah, I knew about it.


18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY?
I think resembling a beach whale would come under this.

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH?
Pantai Medical Centre, Bangsar.

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR?
21 hours, though I did sneak out for thosai and tea half way, when I was about 3 cm dilated. Ha. I always remember this when I go to Lotus Jalan Gasing now.

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL?

Murali. My parents came along as well despite my protest- I was insistent that we were wasting time because although I had a bit of a bloody show that evening, I didn’t really feel that it was labour day. How wrong was I because in a couple of hours, I was admitted!

22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH?My gynae and a whole team of nurses who did the one-two-push rara. Murali was there but I held on to the nurse as my legs had gone numb by then (no thanks to the epidural) and I needed her to tell me when to push (I was chucking up as well, so it was pretty miserable).

23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION?
Assisted delivery via vacuum.

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN?
I was ready to take anything and had the epidural.

27. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH?
2.99 kgs.

28. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ?
21 January 2008

30. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER?
Sprong (he he). More often that not, Bubba boy or Bunny boy.

31. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY?
12 months 3 weeks

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Mama Gets Her Groove Back

Last year, I was a terrible friend. I didn't reply emails, forgot birthdays and never kept in touch much. Just because I had a baby.

Yes, I became one of those women, who was always dishelleved, always late, always never kept an appointment, cancelled the book club invite, didn't go for her high school reunion, was more interested in her baby's burping habits than talking about poverty/death/war.

My insularity bugged me and made me want to scream but in a way, I think it was a necessary process.

Now, I am reconnecting and want to thank my friends for being so patient with me.


XXXX

Current reads:

January: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini , The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitave Ghosh


Feb: The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama