Pandora

so yeah its been a long while

Pia:

• is now two
• talks a lot
• is the smartest kid i have ever seen
• has had many favorite songs

Piya Haji Ali
Namak Ishq Ka
Omkara
Sohniya by Juggy D
and thesae day: Ve Vanjaraya by alaap which she calls "noosahhng"(new song)

• She had a phase where all she would eat were raisins followed by strawbewrries and cookies we are now in the m&m/lollipop and pizza phase

pictures to come soon

Last night Was Pia's first night where she slept longer than Jessi and me. She had her last feed at 7:15 pm and slept around 9....she woke up at 5:45 am....lmost 9 hours...I think we have had a meaningful breakthrough. Next goal sleeping in the crib instead of the swing.

Just so you know Pia got this for her Mom on Mother's day. The inscription on the back reads: "Mom I love you , Pia 2006"
 

So here is the story of Pia's birthday:

Jessi and I went to the doctors office that afternoon (4/19) and he did a check up and felt that the cervix was about 3 cm dilated. He asked us to come in the hospital at 5 in the morning the next day to undergo an induction. That evening she started to have contractions starting at about 7 or 8 pm. I went to the airport at 9:30 to pick up her mom and when we got home the contractions got longer and more frequent. we actually got to the point where they were 5 minutes apart. We decided to go to the hospital and when we got there we checked in. It took about 3 hours to get us completely into the system and all the while jessi started to get more uncomfortable and she was in a lot of pain. She almost broke my fingers when she had contractions, but eventually she got the epidural (at about 3:30 am 4/20)
I was extremely sleepy and had taken out my contact lenses, the nurse checked her out and thought she was ten cm dilated so that was my cue to put the darn contacts back in. As I opened my eyes I saw three nurses running around like chickens with their headds cut off, one of them pushing a bag of saline into my wifes veins and another fiddling with the baby's heart monitor. At one point my wife had a low blood pressure (probably a result of the epidural) and the baby's heart rate was slow....then a nurse wheeled in this large blue tray which was draped with a steile cloth and had a large number of threatening looking instruments on it. Needless to say despite my medical knowledge an training I was scared s***less.
Ultimately the doc got there and delivered the baby (after using forceps) Pia had her cord around the neck and unlike TV she didn't cry right when she came out of the canal, they slipped off the cord and suctioned her nose and she cried! her dark blue/brown skin immediately turned pink and tears came to jessi's eyes and mine. some one said "dad you want to cut the cord" and it took me a second to realize that they meant me. I cut the cord..and mind you I didn't know if she was a boy or girl yet...I'm embarrased to say that I couldn't tell right away (lol). Anyways the doc kind of tossed her on jessins belly and said "congrats mo it's a girl" That first time i saw her I was smitten...I talked to her in the goofiest high pitched voice and told her how happy I was and how happy everyone would be. I was so afraid to touch her because I thought I might inadvertantly hurt her.

I called everyone I could think of over the next 2 days...what a whirlwind!!

Yesterday was my first father's day and Pia (and her mom) got me this shirt and watch
 

So I am back. Fatherhood has not been as tough as I expected it to be....although it helps to have a mother-in-law who is extremely helpful and willing to watch the baby late at night. Additionally with my wife having time off of work she is taking a lot of the load.

I plan to document various stories about Pia as time goes on but today I want to write about what happened today.

I am in San Francisco, My little brother graduated from Medical School. He was at UCSF and is now embarking on a career as an anesthesiologist in Cornell University in New York...Passing gas to make Cash. The ceremony was nice with a good speach by the dean and then a keynote speach by the Surgeon General of the United States. The ceremony occurred at the Nob Hill Masonic Center (not sure if it has to do with the free masons) and it wa extremely nice. It took me back to how my medical school graduation was celebrated by my Med School (Dayanand Medical College and Hospital in Ludhiana) I was asked to get my papers signed and to make sure all my bills were paid ( I think I had to bribe a person too) and then 3 months later I received a Laminated degree which looked like a Kindergardner had made it. The kicker was it folded in quarters....nice. Now I have a degree with 4 lines in it...I'll scann a picture of it soon.
In any case we are all proud of him and enjoyed the ceremony a lot.

 

 

this past week my mother and aunt have come to memphis to help us out pre and post delivery. I must say it is nice to have them around. I feel bad because I am still working and not able to entertain them. I feel like they may get bored easily...at least we have Z tv!.
In any case we are unable to travel at this point because the baby can come at any time.
we can hardly wait for the little one.

My last three weeks at work have been challenging to say the least. We had a lot of patients on service which made it tough but thats allright.