It’s 2 a.m. and my phone’s just beeped. It’s my friend’s husband from London, telling me that P delivered a baby 20 minutes ago and that he, the doting father, has already uploaded the little mite’s pictures on their blog. A blog that they had started when the little one was conceived. (And no, they didn’t record those details).
So while until last night I had been staring at black-and-white sonograms, now I’m looking at a baby. But what I can’t stop staring at is the caption — “Isn’t she beautiful?” Sorry, but did I miss something? Is P calling this tiny, shrivelled thing with flakey skin, beautiful? I scroll down and realise that many people have already begun congratulating the couple. Some are avid followers of the blog, some bloggers themselves, some mommy-friends.
Do all mammas think their babies are the cutest? Wait, don’t answer that. Not until you’ve seen all the baby blogs floating around the Internet. There are pictures of babies — bright-eyed and downy-haired, wrinkled and ugly — along with stories on how to raise children, hair-raising ones for someone without a progeny.
One of the most popular of these seems to be Bringing Up Adi and blogger Parul Sharma has even made a book of it called Bringing up Vasu. Her blog links to another by Meera who is venting her pregnancy woes. I wonder, is this how I’ll be? I stumble upon Anita next, cooing about her baby’s dribble and what he regurgitated last night. Not fun. In the next window, Rajini’s toddler has just ripped the seams of the sofa with his teeth. And doting papa Narain’s just posted pictures of his four-year-old twins taking turns to doodie. Ouch!
{{/usCountry}}One of the most popular of these seems to be Bringing Up Adi and blogger Parul Sharma has even made a book of it called Bringing up Vasu. Her blog links to another by Meera who is venting her pregnancy woes. I wonder, is this how I’ll be? I stumble upon Anita next, cooing about her baby’s dribble and what he regurgitated last night. Not fun. In the next window, Rajini’s toddler has just ripped the seams of the sofa with his teeth. And doting papa Narain’s just posted pictures of his four-year-old twins taking turns to doodie. Ouch!
{{/usCountry}}I suppose we don’t have use for good old baby books anymore. Family and friends from across the globe can now catch a glimpse of the world of parenthood on these blogs. And even a voyeur like me can poke fun at their expense. No wonder my friend K who’s pregnant has asked me to gift her a subscription to an online baby journal. This is the where, she says, she can record all the milestones, keep growth charts and even have a baby diary. Called hiraj.com, it’s already registered over a 100 parents.
But my best find so far has been Cathy Thorne’s cartoons, who’s managed to capture the joys and woes of mothers and babies to perfection. At everydaypeoplecar-toons.com, she gives a fun peep into all our lives.
I suppose baby blogs are a sort of crash course in motherhood. Some find it comforting, but I find it purely self-indulgent. Perhaps that’s because I think I’m going to have the ugliest baby ever!