You are now 8 months old and too far away from me..!

Hello My cutiepie

You are just 08 months old and your papa had to go away from you for his job. Son I am presently in Kuala Lumpur trying to settling down here. Reached here on 25th feb, but could not write to you coz I got super busy with work and the daunting task of finding a nice house for us. So finally things are looking in shape now as I have found ourselves a lovely little nest here in KL. Its mid-way between the downtown area and my workplace. So its easy for me to commute both ways.

Now from the videos that your mommy sent me, my goodness, touch wood  you are already a big guy. I felt so emotional when I saw your crawling video (something I missed watching live but thanks to your mommy who captured it). You were trying to reach out for your fav toy and in the process you started crawling. He he .  I felt so overjoyed that could not hold back my tears rolling from my eyes. Oh by the way, you are already on YouTube  J Doing your cute things.. ha ha..

Your fav thing to do right now is to bang on the top of the bed rest like if you wanna play tabla on that. Hahaha.. its so amazing to see how dedicated you are to bang that bed rest with your tiny hands that you don’t even notice your mom calling out your name.. lol.. Poor her..! You look at her once and give this look as if saying,” Hold it mom. M kinda busy here.” :) :)

Beta papa has already arranged for your passport and now we are waiting for mommy's passport to get renewed. Its taking a bit more time as it has to go to Canada for renewal. But don’t worry we are on it and making sure that it gets renewed asap..! I don’t wanna spend anymore time with you guys not around me. It gets so boring on weekends. I don’t feel like going out either. Once you guys come over, we will go around the whole city and surroundings. Papa has already finalized a tour operator. Just waiting for you and mommy to come over here.

I have bad news for you. Your great grandfather passed away three days back. He was your favorite. You used to play with him all the time, sometimes push him back on the bed and then climb onto his stomach..! Its by GOD’s blessing that you two had some time to spend with each other before his soul departed to unite with the almighty. He will be missed by all of us!

I hope that by the time you guys come over, Papa will already have his car. We will roam around together in our car..! yaaaaayyyy..! Papa, mommy and their Sweetypie. I am sure you are gonna be loved by all the building mates. Oh this reminds me that I have to ask your mommy to bring the car seat with her coz here in KL you cant drive around with a baby without a car seat..!

OK beta. I have to rush somewhere now…

You take care and always remember that Papa misses you a lot..!

You are 5 months old already..!!

Dear Baby
I read the title twice after typing it..! Would you believe that.. You are already five months old and it seems that you were born only yesterday..!
Let me first let you know your name. We have named you "Shaurya". This means bravery and popularity. You will be known to the world as "Shaurya Partap Singh Minhas". A pure Rajput name..! Plus you are a Leo..! So I am already imagining how well will your name go with your personality when you grow up..
So we are back in Punjab now and I am living the blessing of having the pleasure of watching you growing up and enjoy every tiny smile that you keep showering on me every now and then. And thanks for recognizing my voice among all the family members. I believe that you got familiar with my voice right when you were in your mothers womb..!
Baby I am waiting for my Visa and soon I will have to go away from you for a brief period of time. I have to go and start working in KL and once I have settled everything about the accommodation  I will bring you and your mom over there. So briefly I will have to live away from you and your mom. But don't worry, I will put all my efforts to make this time gap as minimum as possible. :)
Now let me tell you as what all has happened in between these five months. We came back to Punjab in September. This is the time when season changes and weather slowly changes from summer to winter. We all have been celebrating together. Be it my birthday, my mom's birthday, diwali, christmas and very recently we celebrated new year together. Your mom's birthday is coming up and I am sure we will celebrate this event together as well.
Okay so first two months since we came, you stayed at my place and thereafter till last week, you stayed at your mom's place. At both the places, you have won hearts of everyone. Even those who has seen you only once, can't stop talking about your smile and the ease with which you get familiar with them and start playing..!
Just one thing.. You always cry a little before going to sleep. Maybe most of the babies do this. But believe me, I can't see you crying..!
Everytime I look at you and you smile at me, all my tensions and worries go away and the time changes..!

I have a lot to share with you.. Stuff that you do.. Will keep writing about that in my coming letters..!

Your proud father

Magical moments when we saw your face..!!

My Angel!
We went for 4d scan at FocusScan here in Velachery.! Guess what..! First the doctor did the 2d scan and then he turned it into a 4d scan and on the screen we saw something that brought tears to my eyes.! (of course tears of joy!).
You were lying there with your hand covering half of your face. We asked the doctor if it was normal. He said that babies do a lot of different movements inside. So this is just one of those movements. But to us it seemed like you were being naughty and decided to give Mommy n Daddy a little hard time to show us your face, Lemme put it in Hindi.. "Tumhaari muh-dikhaayi itni asaan nahin thi.. natkhat bache!! :)." We had to wait for the right moment.
And then there it was. In the fourth clip recording, you did something that filled our hearts with the most unbelievable blissful moment of our lives. Just as you might have thought that "Okay its enough. Lemme not make Mummy n Daddy wait anymore, you opened your eyes..! Would you believe that.. You opened your eyes and then gave us the cutest of the smiles that I have ever seen..!
Oh my GOD.. My eyes are all watery as I am writing in here!!. The doctor has given us the clips on a cd which I dont remember how many times we have watched till now. You know what.. I think that you are gonna have a dimple on your left cheek..! :) I might be wrong but I think I saw that cute dimple when you smiled..!
Guess what happened next..! I sent those clips back home in Punjab.. Your grandparents were so happy to see you..! They all were passing different comments..(of course cute comments only). Gaurav chachu was in Punjab too. He was so happy that he said that he can't wait to kiss you and carry you in his arms..! Your Nanaji and Naniji, your Masi.. All were delighted to see the clips. Baby you know wot.. Your lips are just like your Mummy. We all agreed to this..! Thanks to the modern technology that made it possible to see you even before you were born..!
Baby now we will have next scan in one month from now. By then you would have developed even more and will be nearing your date with this outside world..! Your Mummy is still on Insulin and is gaining steady weight.. Not too much though.. She has gained around 1.5 kgs in last 15 days and the doctor says that its normal.
We had one concern..! Your 2d scan showed that your Head Circumference (HC) is corresponding to 37weeks gestational age..! We were really surprised to see this.. Coz mummy was running her 33rd week of pregnancy and your head was corresponding to 37weeks age..! We were worried about this. But when we spoke to her caretaker yesterday, she said that it is expected as Mommy is running Gestational Diabetes. Its within growth limits but on the upper limit..!
Now its almost 43 more days to go till the expected due date. All these days seem like a long long waiting period to me.. coz you know how eagerly Papa is waiting to see his little angel..!
Mummy's next check-up is in 15 days from now. Will let you know how it goes..!
Till then.. Stay put in there and keep doing Bhangra and Martial Arts..! :)
Loads of LOVE..!
Mummy and Papa..!

Hello My sweet Angel..! :)

Hey baby..
Papa is chooooooooo chorrrryyyy for writing to you so late! I was so badly stuck in my work that I did not get time. But you have started to respond to my voice. Papa feels so happy..! You kick when I put my hand on Mummy's tummy and speak to you..! How wonderful is that feeling, is inexpressible in words..! :)
Now you are almost 7 months old. Remember last time I wrote to you, we were going to Punjab for Holi..! Okay I will start from there..
yea.. so.. we boarded Rajdhani Express to Delhi.. Everything was going okay until it was time to sleep. Mummy was having a bit of uneasiness in lying down in the moving and shaking train. But later on she found her way out and things were smooth thereafter.
We spent sometime at Sanju Chachu's place. We both were seeing Adish (Sanju chachu and Arti chachi's son) for the first time. He’s so cute. We really had a good time there. Next day we boarded Shatabdi for Punjab.
While in Punjab, Mummy started having toothache..! :( Now lemme tell you something.. Mummy is not supposed to take any painkillers (except crocin) during her pregnancy coz this might cause harm to you. The dentist at Jalandhar hospital suggested removing her wisdom tooth immediately as we had the time upto 6th month of pregnancy only. This was really a tricky situation for us as we did not want to go for surgery untill we consulted our lady doctor who was back in Chennai! Even after surgery, she would not be allowed to have any painkillers except crocin..! Luckily we consulted Rewari aunty and she suggested us a dental surgeon in Nawanshahr. She gave mummy a pain relieving gel (safe for pregnancy). It really worked and her toothache was getting better. :) But you know wot.. Mummy had to eat on left side of her mouth only. Coz the aching wisdom tooth was on the right side and it hurted everytime she tried to eat on that side..!
We spent two weeks in Punjab.. Played Holi. It was awesome time. I am sure you would have enjoyed your first trip to your mom n dad's birth place. :) Your Dadaji, Dadiji, Nanaji, Naniji and your Masi.. All were so happy to meet you. Till the time you come to this world, we wont know if you are our son or daughter but hey u know wot.. Daddy wants you to be his little princess..! Mummy wants you to be her naughty son.. Dadiji wants you to be her grandson.. Masi wants you to be her niece.. hahaha.. Different choices for all.. but for us, you are our precious gift from GOD and doesn’t really matter if you are a boy or a girl.. Still we all have our likes..! :)
Now m gonna tell you something really important that happened during all this time. The lady doctor here in Chennai told mummy to keep her sugar intake controlled coz ur naniji is diabetic and this runs in her family too.! Same is the case on ur daddy's side too but mummy's family history is relevant coz this decides if sugar level control is required or not. After we came back to Chennai. mummy had her second scan. Everything was okay except that you were a week bigger in size than wot you were supposed to be. So the doctor prescribed mummy to take GTT (Glucose Tolerance Test). And guess wot.. Mummy had Gestational Diabetes..
Now you might be wondering wot  is Gestational Diabetes (GT).. Lemme explain it in brief.. See wotever we eat, contains natural or artificial sugar and to break down that sugar into useful stuff, we need insulin. Now insulin is produced naturally in our body. In mumm'ys case, this naturally produced insulin was not enough to tackle all the the sugar coming from food. After seeing the report, the lady doctor referred mummy to a Diabetologist. He prescribed Insulin injections. Since that day mummy has been taking 6 parts of insulin every morning (half an hour before breakfast)
You know wot.. Mommy loves sweet things.. cookies, pastries, cakes etc.. but now she had to stay away from all of this stuff.. To add to it, she is not allowed to have potatoes too..! You don't have any idea how much she loves to eat Aloo Tari.. Now with no potatoes in her diet, we were left with limited options for cooking too..!
Her fruits intake too has to be controlled. She is not allowed to have mangoes, bananas, grapes, pineapple.. basically all those fruits that are having high sugar content.. Only apples. pears and small amount of watermelon is permitted..!  On top of this diet control and insulin shots, she has to walk twice everyday for 20 mins. All these three things.. insulin, diet control and walking are equally important to keep the sugar level under control and to keep you away from harmful effect of GT.
But the good news is that in her second sugar test, her sugar level in under control but mainly due to the insulin shots. The diabetologist has recommended insulin for another three weeks. Its really very hard to manage baby.. but mommy's doing her best to make sure that your health doesn't get effected coz of this condition. Anyways we have been told that this GT will stay there only until the time of delivery. After that, it will go away by itself. but it has to be controlled by all means coz if not controlled then it may lead to you being bigger in size at the time of birth and normal delivery wont be possible. Mommy would have to go for c-section and we really dont want that. We want you to be born in natural way but then who knows wots gona happen next.!
Now we are gona see you this Monday (21.05.2012) Mommys due for her third scan. We have been reading and researching over internet and it says that you have opened your eyes by now and you are able to see as well.. So excited to see you.. :)
You know wot.. you have started moving inside mommy's tummy. Sometimes it feels that you are doing martial arts inside. lol.. :)  Sometimes you kick so hard that it hurts mommy. :( But she happily takes the pain and feels better coz your kicking assures us that you are active and healthy inside while we patiently wait for you to come out and fill our lives with joy and bliss..!
Looking forward to see you on Monday.. Stay put there sweety.. You are soon gonna see your family and the family's soon gonna welcome their little angel..! :)
Loads of love :) :)
Papa and Mommy

Writing to you for the first time!

Dear Baby (Your journey so far)
Hi.. This is you father (papa). This is my first time that I am writing down something for you. We discovered that you had already knocked at our doors on Nov 25, 2011.
Your mom was feeling weak for a few days before we went to the hospital to check with the doctor. She asked her a few questions and then told her to take the pregnancy test. Our hearts were filled with suspense as we waited for the results outside the laboratory. When we took the results to the doctor, she announced your mom to be pregnant..!
That was a feeling that I cant even express in words! Our first baby.. Me becoming a father.. The feeling was overwhelmingly joyful. I remember I was blushing at the hospital. Before that when your Mom was getting her urine test done, I unknowingly stood under the photo of a baby boy hung right in the center of the waiting hall of the hospital. Your Mom saw me and said like "look where are you standing".. I said.. "Why.. What.. Where".. and then when I looked up, there was this cute fat baby boy's picture smiling at us. Maybe that was GOD's sign of your arrival..!
Well we did not know whom to tell first.. First we broke the news to your Grandparents, Your Gaurav Chachu and then to my buddy Sanju (Sanju Chachu) and Arti Chachi. All were so happy that we talked for hours getting a feel of this new blissful feeling.
Coz you were just an embryo at that time, you needed loads of proteins. The doctor made sure of that by prescribing Folic Acid Caps. Your mom had to take them for a month to provide you with those extra proteins vital for your proper growth.
After a month, we had our first scan. Oh I cant even word that feeling!. There you were like a tiny dot. You had already developed heartbeat and I could hear it loud and clear. Thanks to that ultrasound machine that we had the first glimpse of our blossoming flower. I had a wide smile pasted all over my face after returning to home. Your mom was even more excited..
Baby this was the time when we had to take the best possible care of your mother. This is the time when she had to make sure that she does not pick up heavy things, no stresses, no tensions to be taken and unnecessary travelling had to be avoided. You know wot.. your mom was working before we discovered about you. And her travelling to and fro was about 2 hrs daily and that too via bus, one time in the day. So keeping in mind the care that we had to take, we decided that your mom would quit the job and just stay home making sure that she does not develope any complications.
Thanks to that rest period that your mom had, the second scan was normal too and you were growing at normal rate. No complications! The doctor had some reservations about your Granny (Your mom's mother) being diabetic. So we had to clear that doubt by taking Tripple Screening Test. Even that was normal.
Baby its been good so far. Coz doctor had advised earlier not to go for long distance travels, now as you are already three months old, we are permitted to travel. Now on 2nd March, 2012 we've booked our tickets for Rajdhani Express.. Its gona be your first train ride..! Yippeeee...!!!
We have your 20 weeks scan coming up around the same time that we intend to travel to punjab. So we might take the scan a bit earlier. Probably on 1st March, 2012. And then off we go to Punjab.. To see your grandparents. Trust me baby loads of love and blessings await you there..!
Oh and this is gonna be your first Holi !!.. yayyyyyyyyy..

Love
Papa
17.02.2012