First post...Flash backs...

It's such a shame on me, that in spite of a being a technology buff, I didn't create a blog of my son's raising.
I never seem to take anything seriously than my work from the past several years. No personal projects!
So, here I am, after Shubhang is two year old, starting to write my experiences raising him.
I always believed my memories over the last two years are as vivid as todays. I may be wrong, I am human, getting little old and might have forgotten several small things worth sharing/penning here.
Still I will try to do my best, writing everything in flashback. This is the only way I can do to overcome the shame.

Oct 2012 to Jan 2013
After 10 years of being childless, my wife and I are ready to welcome our first child. It was an epic moment.
It was on 8-Oct-2012, on a sunny afternoon, Shubhang was born.
It was on 15-Oct-2012, I joined Cenduit, leaving Sonata Software where I worked for 12 years.

Life is changed for ever (such a cliche...but pardon me..I didn't find a better phrase).

Feb 2013 to Apr 2013
I had to travel to Switzerland on work. While this was very happy moment for me, at the same time, I felt bad leaving Shubhang even if it was for only three days.

Shubhang can now recognize his mother very clearly, me and my mother. He can now turn himself and sleep on his tummy. Everyday, in the morning, he would wake up at 6 am or so. He usually wakes up smiling and I don't recall a messy morning. After having milk, he would be awake for about two to three hours before he will start sleepy by 9am or so.
I developed a routine of taking care of him during the morning hours. And, when he should sleep, I sang couple of songs. One was 'Hey Krishna...mukunda ...murari...'. This is a very old telugu movie song but devotional one sung by Ghantasala. My father's favorite and mine too. <link to actual song>
Also, sung by me was a Bharthrihari's Subhashita 'Keyurani na bhushayanthi purusham...', as heard from All India Radio. AIR used to play this with beautiful rendering of a female voice. I could not find it on YouTube to provide you a link!

May-2013 to Jul-2013

This is when we started to provide Cerelac also to him apart from Lactogen. Dr Nagesh actually advised us to feed home made 'Ragi Cheri'. We temporarily started with Cerelac before we find the best way to prepare Ragi Cheri at home. We bought readymade ragi cheri from Subbamma Store in Gandhi Bazaar and tried as well.

Shubhang seems to have liked this change (from Lactogen to solid food) nevertheless. 

He now can craws on his knees. He will do that tireless covering every inch of our house. We tried to avoid a lot by keeping obstructions 

One thing we noticed a lot was, he puts his fingers in to his mouth when he smiles. He also will stop smiling almost immediately and returns to his normal expression. The instantaneous expression changes always made us surprising. See the video.

It was during May, we did his Namakaranam (Naming Ceremony). Also, as the purohit suggested, we did ayushya homa in Subramanya mutt the following day.

During June, an incident occurred. Early in the night just after few minutes of his sleep, he woke up and started crying. We were clueless. He would stop for brief moments and again cry. After almost half an hour, we got ready and rushed to see the doctor. Dr. Nagesh usually shuts at 10 or 10:30PM. It was almost 11:15PM. We had actually planned to go to Cloud Nine in Jayanagar, but saw his clinic open and went in. He said its probably tummy ache and prescribed Meftal Spas drops as we told him we already gave him Colicaid but didn't help.

Doctor also assured there cannot be any major issue as he didn't see any symptoms. We thanked and came out and were searching for medical shop to buy the drops. We were unsuccessful in finding a single shop open, and even those opened didn't had this medicine. Shubhang was crying intermittently through out. We even visited BGS Hospitals near Kengeri without getting the prescription.

At almost 3AM he fell asleep, occasionally waking and crying. In the morning he woke up at 7AM or so, not crying intensely. He wanted either me or Preethi to carry him and didn't wanted to sit/stay in one place. I started to examine his body from top to toe. (or was it toe to top?). I immediately found that his right great toe was swollen with puss behind the nail. I understood the pain he might have suffered in the last night. We again took the appointment and consulted Dr. Nagesh. He gave a painkiller and taking the same he had become a little normal. Uff...poor Shubby. :(

Dr. Nagesh referred us to a child surgeon and we went to him where he cleaned the toe and removed the puss and tied a bandage. Again it was pain time, I was near tears.

He became normal and wound was healed in three days.

I still remember when he was out of the KR Hospital, I was holding him as Preethi was starting the car. He looked out curiously at few kids running past the car talking loudly. In spite of the painful ordeal he went through in the last 24 hours, he was still the same curious cutie kid.That frame is still fresh in my memory.