Wake me up when September ends

I have no idea what the Green Day song is actually about, but Rohan listened to it calmly, 20 times in a row yesterday. Mike is afraid baby will acquire my love of listening to music on endless repeat (can you say Beck, Saint-Saens, Dire Straits, or ABBA?)

Lately, Rohan has been sleeping better at night -- 3 to 3.5 hours at a time -- so much so that Mike's coworkers often remark, "You look very well-rested for being a new dad!"

Well, this is because Mike is a VERY sound sleeper and is oblivious to the Grunting Pig that is in the bassinet next to our bed. The Pig himself is equally sound asleep. I, on the other hand, although not worried by the pig noises, can not get a minute of sleep during the ruckus. My mother says that I made the same noises when I was a baby, and she actually tape recorded them and took it to the pediatrician.

I'm not that paranoid, but I thought I'd post a representative video here. You can play it next to your bed tonight and see if YOU can fall asleep! If you can, happy parenting to you.

Wide-eyed

Already, little Rohan has become famous for his big eyes that are of a probably ephemeral blue-black color. In his short life to date, a few things have made his eyes get Even Bigger. The picture at left is representative of this look. What does it mean? Awe? Interest? Confusion? Terror? He is a bundle of mystery.

Every time we can unravel a little of the mystery, we feel a great sense of accomplishment. Today we walked around our town fair, and Rohan screamed in the middle of it. I remembered a recently forwarded email from Krishna mashi in Riverside -- "8 reasons your baby is crying" -- and one of them was "I'm too hot." I immediately felt Rohan sweating under his layers of clothes, and he stopped crying after we took them off. Parenting mistake fixed!

It isn't easy to predict what things will make those big eyes even bigger. Last night we watched fireworks, yet he ate peacefully throughout the ruckus. Perhaps his fireworks experiences in utero (Wellesley, Boston...) prepared him well.

I wrote to a friend recently that every time Rohan experiences something new, I feel like it is my first time too. How exhausting to be born, for a baby, and re-born, for its parents.
Here is a short list of first-time "Big-eye" events. Can you find a pattern?

1. Going on a trail through the copses by Mystic Lake
2. Hearing fierce winds and thunder, the night that the residues of Hurricane Ike came through town.
3. Riding a cobblestone path behind the public library.
4. Meeting Nana (Grandma Gage) for the 1st time (photo above.:)

Ok, this has not been the best post. Hope to do better next time, need sleep.

Sleeping diva

This is what Rohan looks like almost every day, when we go out for a walk in the stroller that Dimoni and craigslist got him. Not very exciting, right?

That's what I thought, until I found out firsthand what an amazing center of attention even a boring, sleeping baby can be.

Yesterday, we walked to Fabric Corner at the corner of Mill st. and Mass Ave, where Dimoni was going to buy some supplies to make Rohan's kantha (quilt that grandmothers make for a new grandchild out of a soft, old sari.) It turned out that Thursday was Senior Citizens Day at the little basement shop -- no use to my mother, who is a perky 60 -- but it meant plenty of other doting grandmas who couldn't get enough of Rohan's tiny face.

At 13 days, he's the 2nd youngest visitor to Fabric Corner. And he slept through his 15 minutes of fame.

In other news his 2-week pediatrician visit went fine -- he's up to 6 lbs 1.5 oz, and still eating nonstop, rarely sleeping EXCEPT when taking walks and being admired. As my colleague F. said last night, "If one more person tells me to 'just sleep when the baby sleeps, I'll kill them!!" After the doctor, Mike, Rohan and I had our first family date -- to Dunkin Donuts. Sad, I know -- but it was vicariously exciting to see a baby's eyes open wide at the sight of a chocolate-glazed -- guess he's definitely a Boston baby now.

Home at last

After four long days at the hospital being poked, prodded, and stuck, we are all finally home (As of Tuesday night). Rohan is still learning to tell time and hopefully soon he will give up his vampire hours. Chandreyee and I are doing well and it was nice to take Rohan for a walk around the neighborhood and Spy Pond after his doctor's visit. He eats pretty well and has all the normal body functions. Thanks to a good friend of ours, Yushan, we now have a way of determining which one of us has to do the dirty work (picture at left). One of the times I got out of the duty was when I was holding him and talking to my mom on the phone at the same time. As you can see in the picture I was quite surprised to be suddenly all wet. Now I make sure the diapers are tight. :) We all love him dearly and look forward to new things he can do. Today he gave daddy a smile that made up for yesterday's waterworks.

Thanks again to everyone who writes us and calls and visits. It really helps us.

Mike

Babies bring out the best in us.

As long as I've known Mike, one of the cardinal rules has been that when he hasn't had enough sleep, he is a "Grumpy Gus," as his grandmother would say. Yes, the sweet, mild, funny man everyone knows turns into a 4-letter-word-spewing Mr. Hyde. So you can see I was scared by the prospect of sharing a small hospital room getting about an hour of sleep every day for 4 days.

The second night was the first time Rohan spent the night in our room with us. I wanted not to wake up Mike unnecessarily, but of course that didn't last long. I was in pain and it was the first night without morphine, and Rohan really hated wearing the hospital hat that he had to wear because he couldn't control his temperature yet.

Mike got up immediately upon Rohan's second round of screaming, and instantly calmed him down by 1. Removing the HATED HAT, 2. holding him on his chest and 3. looking into his eyes.

In the softest, sweetest of tones, even the sleep-deprived Mike spoke to his new son with patience, love and awe --
"All this over just a little hat."

So, actually I have been the more grouchy of the two of us these past few days, but when I'm feeling particularly despairing or impatient, I hear Mike again speaking to Rohan and to me, and we both feel much much better.

Getting ready to go home

We are finally getting ready to leave the hospital and go home. Chandreyee is feeling better but will still be sore and recovering for a while. She is a wonderful new mom and everyone is happy and healthy. We are very lucky to have Chandreyee's mom visiting us to help us out. Rohan loves his Dimoni (maternal grandmother). And he also apparently likes to wear his dad's pj's. Thanks to everyone that came to visit us in the hospital. We enjoyed it and so did little Rohan. Now we just have to adjust to going home and taking care of everything ourselves. It has been fun so far, and I can't wait for all the years to come.