Progress Reports

Got about a month to go before baby # 3 turns our world upside down, as per the doc. Can't wait to pop it out, methinks - more due to my growing discomfort than excitement at the new arrival as of now. It's been rough the last couple of weeks as I grow increasingly larger. I've outgrown my maternity wear! And wish I could wear my comfy, worn out old nighties all day, even to the office.

I had to make an emergency run to the nearest FabIndia to stock up on some affordable maternity wear to tide me over the next few weeks. Some of their stuff is nice and comfy but i need to remember to try on everything I buy from there - some of their clothing looks okay on a shelf but hideous on. I had an all-day conference at office on Friday and decided to get into the maternity dress I had just bought. Guess what? The dress is really, really long - longer than mid-calf but not ankle length which is funny and makes you look weirdly proportioned, especially when your ankles have ballooned due to pregnancy. Asked A if it looked ok, and just to be supportive he said yes. Then I asked my friend and colleague who'd come over to ride along to the conference - does this look like a housecoat? At her reluctant yes, I had to go back in the house and change.

Finding it increasingly harder to sleep, what with my back and pelvis aches and my stomach getting hard and bloaty every night - no amount of Eno seems to help and I spend half the night pacing around waiting for the bloat to go away. The weather has been pretty horrendous - hot so you need the AC full blast all night, leaving me with the sniffles. Am hoping the sniffles and cough go away soon - am shuddering to think how it'll feel to cough or sneeze with stitches in my belly :( And of course I can't believe I'm still nauseated. I have to keep eating every couple of hours or else I'm hunched over the basin, and I'm getting really tired of eating. During Chubbocks' pregnancy, I just couldn't bear to eat anything except bananas for ages, and then I lost weight during the first trimester so the doc had me stuffing my face. We'd nicknamed Chubbocks Pate, since I felt like the stuffed goose - I think this baby has me heading the same way!

On the plus side of sleeplessness, have come up to level 12 and 7500 points on brick-breaker on A's blackberry. Maybe I'll borrow the blackberry to keep me busy during delivery!

What with the house still under renovation and the workmen dragging out the schedule, I've almost no bandwidth to think about the new baby. The only thing I'm hoping to manage is to shop for baby clothes this weekend since I sent off all the baby clothes I had to my sister after Puddi was born, in the fond belief that I would never need them again. When Chubbocks was born, we arrived at the hospital with a suitcase full of clothes for me, but none for him, since I had checked in a week before he was born for pre-eclampsia. When Puddi was due, determined to redress the balance, I went to hospital with a suitcase full of stuff for her - clothes, bibs, diapers, bottles - but forgot to pack clothes for myself. This time I'm hoping to get it right - I knew there was a reason we were having a third baby!

Speaking of first and second, Chubbocks is really making strides in his swimming classes now, and swam by himself in the 5 feet deep area on Sunday, under the watchful gaze of the instructor. It's wonderful to see his growing confidence and enthusiasm for swimming classes. No matter how thrilled our own achievements may make us, there is nothing comparable to the thrill of seeing your child master something - the pride and confidence in his or her eyes.

His answers about what he has done in school remain laconic as ever, though he has plenty to say and ask about all kinds of unrelated matters. "I played" is his stock answer. His review with the current class teacher is coming up and I hope she'll be more eloquent than he is. His teachers from nursery seemed to be really fond of him and I remember that every time we went for a PTA meeting, the two of them would start giggling and laughing when it came to Chubbocks, which made us feel he was doing all right. His current teachers haven't made much of an impression on us so far, so I'm looking forward to the PTA meeting - hope it happens before the baby!

Puddi has become naughtier than ever and the best way to make her do anything we want is to forbid her from doing it. "Don't come and kiss abba - never come and sit on abba's lap" will immediately see her scrambling onto abba's lap and covering his face with her kisses. She's also learning English of a Tutti-frutti variety, mostly from hearing Chubbocks talk. So she keeps coming up with sentences which are grammatically correct but which she doesn't understand in the least! Five times a day, she asks, "Can I have a Toffee?", mouth all deliciously pursed up - but has no clue what she's asked for or what we have granted permission for when we say yes. She shows signs of having gymnastic inclinations and clambers up our inlaid Planter's chair like a monkey, holding on to its back. I wish I knew where one could enrol her for gymnastics lessons. With all the discoveries she's making about the world around her, her energy levels are sky-rocketing so it's become a real task to get her to sleep at night - she keeps getting more and more active as the night goes on. Good practice for # 3.

And last on our updates, I had a real Birbal moment at home yesterday with our latest and most gormless domestic help. My mobile phone was ringing and I couldn't get up. I asked her to fetch it, so she comes back and tells me it's in the bathroom.
Me: "Please bring it here"
After an interval when it kept ringing and she hadn't fetched it, I went out of the playroom to see what was the delay. I found gormless hunting for it in the living room, despite her having just seen it in the bathroom!