Kaniz & Abbas +2

It looks like I'm a week or so behind in the pictures.. and even though Kaniz is the one that is supposed to be suffering from less than optimum memory, I can't seem to recall all the things we did during days 51-57.. good thing we've got lots of pictures as reminders! One notable thing during this time was our family trip to College St. (our old neighbourhood) for some dinner. Samarah, as expected, handled the outing exceptionally well. Aside from a feeding, she slept through most of it. Having seen plenty of toddlers have meltdowns at restaurants, I think Kaniz and I need to take advantage of this low-maintenance time as much as possible. Aside from that, we went out a bunch of times to visit with friends and family.. and we had a few guests drop by. Thanks to everyone for coming by, and bringing such wonderful gifts. Aside from diapers, we haven't really had to buy anything for Samarah! Here are the pictures - enjoy!

As usual, the last week just flew by. As I write this (12:11am), Samarah will be turning exactly 8 weeks old in 5 hours (adjusting for daylight savings). I know I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but I can't believe that time is flying by so fast! It may sound a little silly, but I really miss Samarah as a tiny 4.5 lb baby whose crying sounded just like the squeak of a mouse or a tea kettle about to start boiling. Despite the 'nostalgia', it is incredibly rewarding and humbling to see her get bigger and learn new things every day. This week's installment of photos are, in my opinion, pretty interesting.. we've got a few nice shots of Samarah's bathtime routine, which generally consists of bathing in a plastic bowl in the bathroom sink followed by a gentle massage with some lotion.. and since her head was shaved, we've also been putting some baby oil gel on her head. For Mother's Day, I have to admit that I wasn't able to think of anythi...

As I mentioned in the previous post, we shaved Samarah's head last weekend, in observance of Islamic custom.. Although Samarah looks super cute with her Kojak/Sinead O'Conner look, I still miss the hair a little. It'll grow back soon enough (it's already started!)... Enjoy the pictures!

Another busy week for Kaniz & Abbas + Samarah. A few highlights: We bought a crib mobile! I'm not sure why it took us this long, but we finally got our act together.. Samarah isn't sleeping in her crib full-time yet, but she takes her naps there and she really seems to like the mobile. Our friends Jamie & Kim came over with their son Sebastian for a weeknight dinner.. in the midst of all the excitement before Samarah's arrival, I forgot to write about how Kim totally helped us out by installing our car seat for us (so, belated thanks Kim!). It was fun to see Sebastian try to cover his head with rice.. can't wait till Samarah starts playing with her food! (or starts eating food, for that matter). Janelle, Scott & Karen visited us on Saturday. Karen really like Samarah (almost as much as she liked ghantia - a salty, deep fried snack made from chickpea flour). Saturday evening, we got together with Kaniz's parents and my brother Hussain, my sister-in-law Ba...

Samarah turns 6 weeks today.. so I thought I'd share a list of six things we (or I) couldn't live without as new parents: My Brest Friend nursing pillow - we looked at the Boppy and Jolly Jumper nursing pillows but opted against them. The Brest Friend pillow wraps around the body, ties securely, provides back support, and is made of much firmer material. Definitely makes feedings a lot easier. GR8X receiving blankets - I've mentioned these already, but I like them so much, they deserve a second mention. The problem with most receiving blankets is that they're a little too small for a proper swaddle. GR8X blankets are larger, they're soft and they're stretchy - and most importantly, they let you give your baby a tight swaddle.  Sleep positioner - I'm not sure what brand we have (it's a hand-me-down) but the thing is fantastic.. not only does it ensure that Samarah is sleeping on her back while in her bassinet, we've also used it to let visitors (wh...

Where does the time go? When Samarah first arrived, I figured I'd have plenty of time to keep the blog up to date, but between working full-time, running errands and hanging out with Samarah, the days just fly by! I've still managed to take pictures of our little treasure every day, and hopefully I'll be able to do a fun 'year in review' DVD for her first birthday! In any case, here are the latest pictures that I've managed to process.. this brings us up to April 26, so I'm not doing too bad, right?

As promised, here are some pictures from Samarah's second photo shoot. I took most of the pictures by myself, so there aren't very many 'dynamic' shots in here, but the next shoot (scheduled for tomorrow) should have a little more variety. Stay tuned. In the meantime, here are the pictures !

My dear friend Vicky, who I know from my first job in California, now lives in Montreal and has her own greeting card company. All of her cards are hand made and reflect her beauty and creativity. She sent us this card, which you can't appreciate in the pictures but it's the most beautiful card I've ever received. I'm certain Samarah will just love it as well when she's old enough to sift through the many lovely cards friends and family have given us to celebrate her arrival. Thanks Vicky (and Michel)!!

Today is not only Earth Day, but it's Samarah's 1 month birthday! It's hard to believe an entire month has gone by since she came into our lives. She's doing great (as you can see in the tons of pictures her daddy is posting). We had a pediatrician appt yesterday and Dr. Freedman said she was doing great. In fact, he gave her an A+! She's 6lbs, 6ozs now so she's gained 30% of her birth weight. She's much more alert these days as well and has been following objects with her eyes. Another fun development game we've done with her is scents. Abbas let her smell cinnamon which she liked and citrus which she was indifferent to. Tummy time pics to come!

I know I know - I've been a little neglectful of updating the blog over the past week. But I'll make it up to all of you in the next few days (I promise!). I'll post about the highlights from the past week a little later, but here are a few photos to keep you entertained till then: Samarah's first official 'photo shoot' at home Days 22-26

If you make it through the 3 minutes and 50 seconds clip of me and Samarah hanging out in our room last week, you are officially part of the "Samarah Fatima Fan Club"!

Phew - it's been a busy few days, although to be honest, Kaniz, Samarah & I haven't been doing very much outside of our usual routine. The days just seem to fly by anyway. It's hard to believe that Samarah is already 3 weeks old (tomorrow is her actual due date)! Some highlights: Last week was my first full week back at work, and as most of you know, I work from home. It's definitely been a challenge to stay focused on work during the day, instead of running downstairs and hanging out with Samarah all the time. I feel really lucky though because I can spend time with her (& Kaniz!) during my breaks and over lunch.. and I'm home as soon as I stop working!  Samarah went to the mosque for the first time on Friday. Samarah also met her newest friend, Mahdi (who's super cute and looks just like his mom) Hussain (my older brother), Bano (my sister-in-law), Sakeena (their 2 year old daughter) and Zain (my youngest brother) visited on Thursday evening. Bano was ...

Here's a video of Samarah meeting her older sister (our niece) Safiya. It's about a week old, but it took me that long to figure out how to do anything with the HD video that Sony camcorders create (this is a separate rant altogether, so I'll spare everyone).

At our last clinic appointment, we got the official confirmation that Samarah is over 5 pounds! She weighed in at 2430 grams, which is roughly 5 lbs, 6 oz. So based on the weigh-in, Samarah is gaining 39 grams per day, which is much better than expected, so she should be catching up to other babies her age pretty quickly. More importantly, she'll finally be able to fit into all her newborn clothes. Other than that, not much new to report. The stream of visitors has been steady over the last few days, and I've stayed busy with the camera. We tried to do a 'professional' photo shoot yesterday for the official 'thank you' announcement, but ran into a few 'amateur' issues. Hopefully, we'll get it all sorted out this week. In the meantime, here are the latest round of pictures . I feel as though I'm posting an inordinate number of pictures of Samarah just lying there on her blanket, but I just can't help myself! She is so cute!! :)

Samarah's officially 2 weeks old! The time has just flown by and I'm already feeling like the year will be over before I know it. I just have to keep reminding myself to enjoy every second with her. Motherhood really does rock, just like our friend Iris said. Being able to comfort Samarah and having her look up at me with her big brown eyes brings happiness to me that I've never known. Anyhow, we have settled into things very well. We feel relaxed, well rested (relatively) and most of all, well fed! Thanks to everyone who has been feeding us!! We really appreciate the help and it certainly has given us time to feel comfortable at home quickly. Oh update on the bp - I saw my doctor last Thursday and my bp woes seem to be over (fingers crossed). I'm back down to normal numbers and so I'm off the meds. They had said the high bp could last for up to 4-6 weeks after delivery so I'm very thankful that 2 weeks later and everything seems to be fine. I still n...

Well, another few days have gone by, and Samarah has been doing great! Although we don't have the official word, I'm sure that she's over the 5 lb mark.. and she keeps wanting to feed more and more, so she'll be catching up to all the other babies pretty soon! A few random highlights since the last post: Our friends Muslim & Minaz had a baby boy, Mahdi, on Thursday evening, so a big congratulations to them both! The nursery is complete! The crib got assembled and we put up the Dottilicious dots. Pictures coming soon. We had more visitors! Nishat and Baby Rayn visited on Wednesday with Ateqah and her kids, Dia and Sabria. My mom and sister-in-law came to visit with my niece, Sakeena, on Thursday. And yesterday Samarah got to meet Lauranna and Pratiksha & Rahul (also known as Prahul) I started back at work on Wednesday. More on this later. So here are the latest photos from the last 4 days. Should have some more by Sunday evening, along with a video or two!

Not sure how well this is going to work, but here goes nothing! A quick 'test' video of Samarah and I hanging out with our friend Danny the Duck.

10 days, that is! Even still, time seems to be flying by! I think that she's going to grow up before we even know it.. so Kaniz and I are trying to enjoy every moment that we have with Samarah. So I'm happy to report that everything is well on our end. Samarah is feeding regularly and putting on those ounces - at her last weigh-in at her pediatrician on Tuesday, she almost broke the 5 lb mark! After the doctor's appointment, Samarah cruised around town a bit more, and managed to get a feed and a change in the car! Since it's day 10, I thought I'd share ten things that I've learned as a new dad: Swaddling a baby is a science, not an art. By the way, GR8X makes great receiving blankets! When changing diapers, it's always a good idea to have more than one clean diaper at hand. You can never take enough pictures of your baby, even if most of them are out of focus! Breast pumps are totally weird (but thank God for them). Newborns have it right: eat, sleep, poop...

At 5:11am ET, Samarah Fatima Rizvi turned one week old, and it has been, without exaggeration, the most blessed week of my life. It's unbelievable how much hope, joy and contentment this little girl has brought to us.. Having a child of my own, and feeling an absolute, unconditional love towards her, it's incredible for me to think that my own parents felt (and still feel, I hope!) that way about me. The whole experience has given me a much better understanding of my parents and helps me understand how they were able to make all the sacrifices for me and my siblings. Anyway, enough emotional stuff - you're here to see pictures, not listen to me go on.. so here you go - the latest pictures from Samarah's Day 7 .

Phew! Someone should have mentioned how much work a newborn is! We're managing fine - it really helps to have family nearby to help out with meals and Mom has been great keeping things in order around the house while Abbas and I experiment with feeding cycles and diaper changes...yes, there have been some very interesting events on the changing pad which I will spare you from. I just wanted to say a quick hello and THANK YOU to all my friends and family who have written such lovely notes/emails to Abbas and I. I apologize for not being able to respond individually, I hope you understand that time is precious to us right now - and I'm really just not sleeping as much as I should be. We do however, appreciate your kind words from the bottom of our hearts...again, Samarah is such a lucky girl to have you all in her life. I'm trying to take better care of myself as the hypertension issue is still around and will be for a few more weeks until my body readjusts. You know me ...