After a lot of shopping and packing bags and weighing them several times I bid farewell to family before boarding the Lufthansa flight to Paris. The first leg was a 10 hour stretch to Frankfurt. The flight was full because of a strike on March 7 and 8. The space was cramped and the airhostesses were busy. The meal was not what I expected. It was a special meal but it was a disappointment. I just ate a very little of what was there, because of my keto constraints. At Frankfurt airport I just had enough time to find the right gate inspite of bewildering non- directions. The gate was miles away and I literally just made it through security and immigration. So the advantage of the Frankfurt stopover is that your immigration into europe is over with here and I will not have to go through it again in France. The 2nd leg was more comfortable. The flight was half empty. I presumed that less people travel from frankfurt to france. Purnima and Flo received me at the airport.
Leading up to Purnima's delivery we did a lot of things. I cooked a lot of indian food. We had a nice valakapu function where Purnima had invited her friends. The Menu was egg puffs, spinach cutlets , kabuli channa, cucumber salad; these were starters; main course was coconut milk pulao, tandoori chicken, fried salmon, raita and parotta. This was followed by fruit salad and ice cream. We picked up the icecream and the frozen tandoori from a shop called picard that sold all types of frozen foods including cakes, vegetables, sea food and the like.
Purni' friends seemed to enjoy the nalangu and the bangles. They all wore indian clothes for the occasion. We had little potli bags with kaju katli and chips from grand sweets.
The valakapu was on March 10. We visited two museums - Orangerie and marmottan monet museums. We saw the beautiful huge panels of Monet's water lily panels in the Orangerie. We also paintings by other artists such as Utrillo. Monet painted the water lilies in his garden till the time he died. At Marmottan Monet, there were a collection of Monet paintings including the famous railway station and sunset ones. There were paintings by Berthe Morisot who married Eugine Manet, the brother of Eduard Manet. We also ate at a place called Bistro Bourbon, another very old french old style restaurant. They served nice salads, burgers. The food was good quality.
We ate at a few places - the Bouillon Chartier in Paris - a french restaurant that served food very very fast. The place was large and almost full. The waiters were moving around very quickly and orders were served in a few minutes. The menu had all the traditional french food. I was really fascinated by the way the waiters took orders and served food. It was done with super efficiency. Content for a good business casestudy.
Cocoroco, an Italian restauant in Puteaux; was another place we ate at. We had pizza. salad and lasagna.
Purni went on Wednesday with some water leaking but it turned out to be a false alarm. They went to the hospital On Saturday Purni started having slight contractions. The contractions became stronger in Sunday but she was asked to come when the contractions came at intervals of 5 minutes. We went for a long walk to the small garden near the commercial buildings. I was surprised to see a TCS skyscraper among the high rise commercial buildings. By now Purni was having some powerful contractions but still had to wait till they were more frequent. We went to sleep but there was a feeling that there would be some activity in the night. Purni wakes me up at 2.30 am. Her water broke. She heard a small 'tup' sound and water started leaking. Then there was more water that was light brownish color that broke out, about a glass full. Purni and Flo booked a cab and left for the hospital, which was about 10 minutes away. The address was hospital Foch, 40 Rue Worth, 92150 Suresnes. The process here is such that mid wives take care of the delivery, supported by the nurses. When they reached the hospital it was confirmed that her water broke. The baby probably passed motion too. The water was therefore brownish. I was at home but Flo kept updating the progress. Purni started experiencing severe pain and she asked for the epidural injection. Then she had to wait till her cervix was dilated to 10 cm. This took a few hours and when it was dilated she was asked to push. In some 20 minutes, Elora was born at 11.50 am on March 18, 2024. Yes that was the name chosen by Purni and Flo. I liked the name and searched the meaning. It seemed to have Greek and Hebrew origins. The meaning translated to sun ray or 'my God is my light'. That was a beautiful name and meaning as well. Inspire of the atheistic ideologies that both held it came as a pleasant surprise that they chose a spiritual name.
I visited the hospital every afternoon with Flo till she was discharged on Friday. Elora was 49 cm long and weighed 2.8 kg. She lost weight in the next few days, as all babies do and she weighed about 2.5 kg. Since she was underweight the midwife and nurses took extra care, checking on her feed and also weighing her everyday. She was kept back at the hospital so her weight and feeding habits could be monitored. A lot of support and advice was given so she could feed better and gain weight. Elora was the most cranky on night 2 when she was awake and crying the whole night and not feeding well. In general she seemed to sleep in the day and get very cranky and restless as evening approached.
Purni arrived home on Friday March 22. Flo got a bouquet for her and also had her favorite smokes salmon and chocolate mousse, things she could not eat when she was pregnant. Purni was happy to be home as the hospital was ok but a bit suffocating and confining. Purni settled into a routine with Elora! There was feeding, sterilizing things, extracting breast milk, taking short naps when Elora slept, and so on. Some nights were hectic when Elora resorted to cluster feeding, but on the whole she started settling down a bit.
I tried to manage the cooking, making Indian food and also trying my hand with some french recipes. After the idli batter from the Gare du Nord - the Indian district was over, I made wheat dosa which Flo liked to have. I also made sambar, biryani, chicken gravy, chapathi and so on.
March 23, the next day, was Flo's birthday. Flo and Elora's birthday were 5 days apart.
We baked an apple cake for him, Purni gave me a french recipe for the cake. It came out well. I also made a tuna loaf with canned tuna which Flo enjoyed as well. Purni put a candle and we sang birthday wishes. They ordered a pizza and lasagna from cocoroco. They also ordered the tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella for me.
We were discussing right wing and left wing ideologies and how the left wing people are lazy and expect the government to take care of them and blame all their woes on the government. Macron the current president is right wing and many of his decisions don't go down well with the left wing, like the one where he delayed the retirement age to 64 from 62 as the government was burdened by the aging population of France. In 2023, population aged 65 years and above for France was 22 %. Population aged 65 years and above of France increased from 13.4 % in 1974 to 22 % in 2023 growing at an average annual rate of 1.02%.
Elora has been a handful, keeping Purni and Flo on their toes. The initial weeks there was a lot of crying by Elora. Since she was underweight she had to be taken frequently for checkups. Slowly, after finding the right feeding bottle, she started feeding better and calmed down. She keeps having a reflux and had to be kept upright longer. The Phillips feeding bottles were too hard for Elora. She initially drank only breast milk and gradually transitioned to a mixture of breast milk and a formula milk called Gallia.
We travelled to Limoges and Flo's parents were very happy to see Elora. Flo's mother presented me with a box of crochet work made by Flo's grandmother, mother's mother. Flo's mom some mimosa - the boiled eggs with the mayonnaise and yolk on top, baked tuna, baked cod with tomato gravy on top, chicken cooked with apricot and almonds. She also made a flan made with coconut flakes, coconut milk, cream and eggs; a chocolate pudding made with chocolate chips milk and rice.
