First emergency hospital visit

Actual Date: 01/22/10 (As i was busy with few other things i have to write about this a week later!)

When dad left for work yesterday he dropped mom in Meenal Manikandandan's house. Meenal aunty had cooked a feast that day and mom enjoyed everything begining from lunch to evening snack. She had fun time with the kids. Totally, mom had a gala time at her place catching up with all the latest gossip revolving around DC achis group. Dad drove to their house in the evening to pick up mom and the adults decided to go to a nearby Indian restaurant (Rangoli) for dinner. After the dinner everybody departed to their respective places.

While returning back in the car mom was complaining about slight stomach ache. They were not sure whether it was because of the food in the restaurant or something else with my support system! During my very early stage, mom used to get morning sickness, stomach ache/bloating problem regularly and my support system is the one that will get blamed always during that time! Doctors, friends, family and anybody that knows how to write up in the Internet will all mention that this is normal during the first trimester of the pregnancy and she should learn to keep these symptoms at bay by following many different flavors of remedies that differ based on region, culture, weather and what is available there etc... You guys don't know how difficult it is for me to be inside this support system!  Leave alone the part where i have to get ready to begin my earthly journey :)

Once they reached their place, mom started implementing many time tested remedies that included walking for some time, drinking warm water at regular intervals. The pain was acute while trying to lie down in the bed. It was there while waling or sitting down in the couch. As there was no change in the pain, they decided to take a bit of medications (Tums/Rolaid) after some time. Even after taking these medicines, things didn't improve much. Time was around 1.00 PM and they started thinking whether they should go to the hospital just in case to make sure everything is fine with me.

During all this melodrama (!), i was sound asleep dreaming about many things that i will do once i am out. I am not even sure whether i have the ability to dream at this stage but for now we can treat the above sentence as fact! Suddenly dad remembered that he read somewhere sometime ago that one of the reason for the stomach gas/bloating problems to lessen during the second trimester is because of the babies movement which helps in bowel movement, blah, blah, etc... As mom was ready for anything that will help her out she agreed to his idea. They switched on the laptop and as they started playing some loud music i got up. I was kind of startled at first with the music volume but then thought probably the adults were in a party mode and a disciplined kid, i also joined the fun by doing what i know the best; few kicks and punches here & their! Parents were really happy and felt proud that i chipped in to help out with their problem :) But still mom's tummy was not improving and finally they went to INOVA fairfax hospital at 4.00 AM in the morning.

Size of an average rutabaga

Dad called his good old friend 'Guru' when he found out that i am on my way to join their life. He gave a good idea of what to expect during the coming months, things that got to be done during the early/later days, how to take care of me when i am inside mommy's tummy and many other important related stuff about me in general terms.  I think mostly if i meant 'me' you guys would have guessed  that includes mommy also! One of the main thing dad found out that day was there isn't a 'Undo option' for whatever thats going to roll over them in the future :)

Anyway, Guru asked dad to subscribe and to be active  in two/three websites that majorly revolves around guys like me before he hung up. Babycenter.com, babyzone.com were on the top of his list and dad subscribed to baby center and mommy to the later. later they found out that babyzone was very average or at least not on par with baby center in many of the cases. Meanwhile, baby center has lot of cool features and it also sends an email every week that discusses about my developments, what changes to expect during that week and top questions etc...

One things both the parents look forward in that email is my growth. The email will contain a picture of a vegetable that is comparable in size/weight to me that week. Hence, every week i will be one kind of vegetable in their mind :) I think they started looking the weekly email when they said i will be like a "lentil bean". Till this week, they know almost all of the vegetables that is used as an metaphor for my growth. Right now i am like an average rutabaga but what is this vegetable is the first thought that came to their mind after seeing the email today...

Aayirathil oruvan

Parents were busy celebrating Pongal last thursday and I got to hear (When i am awake and not busy kicking) what my parents were talking and doing during that day and that will be my memory of my this pongal. Mommy wanted to go to the theater to watch pongal release 'aayirathil oruvan' movie. I know dad will be game for any movie and i thought i will go to this movie like i did for 'Vettaikaran' for Diwali'09. During diwali time i was very small but it didn't stop me from getting excited during vijay's intro scene as well as few songs. Mom was kind of OK with me for that movie because of her love for any Tamil movie that too in a theater!

With 'Avatar' movie, things were different. I was bigger and my kicks were stronger and i know how to push myself forward & backward and jump around if i am excited or get disturbed. Everybody mentioned that 'Avatar' was a visual wonder, a stunning masterpiece for your eyes but for me it was all about the various  sounds effects throughout the movie involving the action scenes, bomb explosions and the fast changing pace of the background score while the hero flies or runs around in that fantasy world 'Pandora'. These things made me go crazy in the small place i have for myself. Mom didn't care much but dad was little unhappy that he was not able to get tickets for the 3D IMAX show that day. They have to settle down for a regular 3D theater. Little wonder did they know that time that mom will be watching her own 4D movie because of me!!! You know these are some perks of pregnancy that goes unannounced :)

Though 'Aayirathil oruvan' will be something like 'Vettaikaran' mom decided not to take the risk of taking me to the theater. She thought that the Tamil flick is not worth for a 4D experience and decided to wait for some time to watch it in DVD.

Sukhwinder or Sukhinder

Two weeks ago, Arasu periappa and Jyotsna periamma visited us for the 2010 New Year weekend. They both were very curious to know how i was,  what i was doing and how i was changing my parents lives. Once they entered our house, periappa told my folks that he is going to call me 'Sukhinder' ( or is it 'Sukhwinder') as i had started to learn and enhance my motor skills with my continuous kicks and punches. Earlier my parents used to mention that i will become  a football player (AHH, a soccer player in US) or a boxer or a dancer etc etc when i do a rigorous practice session with my activities. They call me with lot of different pet names over the time but not something like a real name name. Their favorite is to call me 'puppy' and i think it will rank first in the list of pet names. i think they actually mean it and if i were a puppy, then they should  be :)

anyway coming back to the topic, periappa mentioned that he came up with 'Sukhinder' because of the surge in my activities and also it is like the famous 'oh balle balle' punjabi dance. I was bored already hearing discussion about various choices for my name for some time and at that time, if someone comes up with a cool name with a good reasoning who will not love it! I have to thank periappa for this cool name at least for the time being... On a side note for future 'to do' stuff, i need to learn this 'balle balle' bhangra from a professional dancer. I am sure it will be helpful in lot of places!

Also i heard from him that he thinks 'chittappa' has something he likes to be addressed and periappa was not of preferred choice for him. But what do to, i have no choice as of now. Since you came up with a cool name for me, i will bend a little bit backward and try to convince everybody that i can also call you 'chitappa' technically since my dad got married earlier than you :) Do you think folks back in India will go with this logic? or else the only other way is for you to come up with a nice nick name and i will have no problem going with it!

Crib, Stroller & car seat

Parents were looking out for various styles/designs for my crib, stroller and car seat over the weekend. Since i am the first one in the baby category for them, they are quite confused about what to buy. There are hundreds of selection online but they wanted to go to stores and check the real display units to get a rough idea and then pick something online later. They were discussing a lot about ease of usage, things they liked/disliked and many more related things and of course the cost of different ones etc...

I was not interested in most of these things except for the color! They were talking about blue, pink and the neutral brown color themed crib/stroller and about siblings, need to buy different colored ones if they have boy/girl or girl/boy pair etc... After some time, they were inclining to go with the neutral one based upon my future little brother/sister scenario mainly because of the re-usability of these stuff. I was like 'OH MY GOD, i am still yet to show up and you guys started planning for the next arrival'.

I am not sure whether they can keep all these stuff till that time as they will end up buying lots and lots of stuff for me alone! The way the people in this country associate blue/pink with boy/girl makes me wonder how i will behave with these preset preferences when i grow up... Only time will tell :)

A digital footprint

Finally a digital footprint for myself even though it will be still few more months for me to keep my real footprints on earth! daddy decided that he will start something for me in the digital world wide web after i land myself on earth. But i was not ready to wait for that long. He is a old school guy! Though I started doing my small antics long ago, i upped the ante by increasing my rate of activity over the past weekend and that made my poor daddy to revisit his decision. And here we are on my own place in the Internet. I have a blog where i will brag about all my little things, my first of many kinds that will be called as achievements by (proud) parents, my life and many more things.