Happy First Birthday Dhruvie Kanna

I've been so bad about blogging. You'll realise it when you see that this is the first post after the one I wrote about his birth. Blame it on facebook. I spend any free time there, trying to catch up with old friends, updating them on the pranks Ive been upto in these past 10 years. But then, yesterday was Dhruv's first birthday and I thought I owed this one to his blog. Arun surprised us with his preemptive move in booking a really nice place to stay at South Lake Tahoe. The reason he chose this was because he wanted to take his parents and Dhruvie on the gondola ride and he always wanted to stay at the Heavenly Village. So he booked Timberlodge, Marriott at the Heavenly Village. We left on the 12th of April, on a beautiful Easter Morning. Greg and his family had invited us to a BBQ in the afternoon. Dhruv had so much fun playing his dogs and watering his weeds with his little elephant water-bucket. We drove to South lake tahoe straight from there. The drive was beautiful but as we got closer to the place we realised that there wasnt any ounce of snow on the ground!! We were headed to tahoe in the hope of finding snow!! We checked into our hotel and quickly went over the activity list they had to us. There was a galss painting course for adults. My mom-in-law wasnt really gung-ho about it but said "yes" to make me happy. We went to class and enjoyed it more that we expected to. We were the only two students. We painted Lake Tahoe and Dhruv's favorite animals on margarita glasses. Arun, daddy and Dhruv joined us athe end of the glass and D wasnt too happy about not being allowed to play with the paints. We got up the next morning to the loud calls on the cell phones. My parents called from India. All of my folks took turns in singing to D and D swings side to side when people sing to him. It was so cute. We videotaped the whole thing. We were all also laughing about how Obama's dog was selected and was all over the news as "first dog"!! D got gifts from his grandparents. We showered him and did a little Arati ceremony. Its customary in the Konkani tradition. D sat the whole thing, decked in his Indian clothes. We got a call from the Tsiros' family saying they were going to join us at tahoe too. We got ready, had a filling breakfast at Heidi's (its tradition now) and waited for the Tsiros'. We joined them at Lake View park and played by the beach. Dhruv walked on the sands with his dad's help. We later dropped off the grands and farida/gregory to take the gondola ride at heavenly. The rest of us went to Harrahs. I gambled away. Was very excited!! Lost money....(nevermind)..I had fun and thats what counts. Dhruv walked for the first time. He took about 25 steps without support or falling down and went to Uncle Los. We had amazing coffee at Seattle's Best. We left for home at about 3:00pm.Happy Birthday my little Boy and may you live many many long years, healthy and wealthy (in family and friends!)

Birth

It was a Saturday morning. Arun was really excited because he was going to see his first gold major tournament in high-def. This was the Masters' at Augusta. He asked me to wrap up my music classes soon and was all set to get the car seat checked at the fire department in Rocklin. I called HP and told her that I wasn't too comfortable driving to her place to attend the annual TN meeting. I told her I would call in.

1:00pm: I call into HPs meeting. I had this weird feeling down my spine. I thought I was dreaming. I let the first one go.

1:20pm: I felt it again. I quickly disconnected the phone and called Arun.

1:30pm: Arun rushed back home. I knew my contractions had begun.

1:45pm: Told HP I was really nervous and logged out of the meeting.

2:30pm: Arun started winding up quickly on his tax return forms as Tuesday was the last day and we werent ready to push it out any further.

3:00pm: Started counting my contractions and timing it.

4:45pm: Arun posted all his tax forms and started working on Bill's doc for Titleist. This was a consolidation of all versions that we had taped out until then.

6:00pm: Contractions were 8 minutes apart. Called the hospital and told them we would be coming in.

8:00pm: The nurses checked the dialation. It was only 2 cms.

9:00pm: Back home. Was in labor all night.

13th April: 3:30am: Got up and took a shower. Arun was by my side all along.

6:30am: Rushed again to the hospital.

8:00am: Nurses said I hadnt dialated enough. Baby D wasnt moving so they put me on drips.

9:00am: Pains were really high. Was 4 minutes apart. Could not sleep anymore. Rashmi, Mummy, Daddy and baby Ishaan called to tell us they were on their way.

9:30am: Rushed for an ultrasound in all that pain to make sure Baby D was okay inside. Was on a wheel-chair for this and was in terrible pain.

10:00am: The doc and nurses asked me to walk around till I fell on my feet. This happened within 20 minutes. Rajini rushed in and so did Rash, Mummy and Baby Ishaan.

10:20am: Dropped down. Was rushed for an epidural.

10:28am: Was given the epidural. Saw no more contractions.

12:25pm: Rash and Neer applying make-up, getting set for Baby D.

3:00pm: Dialated 8 cms.

4:00pm: Dialated 9cms.

5:00pm: Dialated 10cms, but Baby's heart beat started to fall. 8 nurses rushed in. Baby's heart beat went up without any action. The little stinker was just troubling everyone around.

5:15pm: Started pushing.

5:42pm: Baby D was no more inside me. He was out and Daddy cut the link between baby and me!

5:45pm: Baby was wiped and put on me. He stopped crying and kept staring at me as I spoke to him and made him feel comfortable. He stared for all of 10 minutes at his mom.

5:50pm: He was taken away for his bath and checks.

6:20pm: He was bathed. Daddy says he was the only kid who didnt cry there.

6:45pm: We re-united at the recovery room. Rajini, Mini, Lori and Krishna were waiting outside the recovery room. Uncle Paul, Uncle Angelos, Aunt Farida, Gregory and Rajini's family were the first to get a glimpse of Baby D