Long Walks On Leafy Streets

6/9/2015 C & O canal towpath, Harper's Ferry, WV
I am writing this in one of those rare intervals when I do not need to be helping Nicole with our newborn son. I am still getting used to this feeling, of being a new father, of having another member in our family. It hasn’t quite sunk in yet.

The past week has been certainly the most eventful, exciting, and nerve-wracking but ultimately exhilarating seven days of my life. I got to witness and experience firsthand one of the greatest miracles of nature, a mother giving birth to her child. That it was our own child borne out of our love for each other made it seem even more miraculous. They say there is no experience like it and that it transforms you. While watching a show on PBS about race horses one of the people caring for the horses said he never fails to be inspired when watching a mare give birth, no matter how many time he sees it. I believe that now.
When our little boy Prashant’s face appeared for the first time it was an otherworldly experience. Until then he was simply an abstract entity whose existence was only confirmed by sonar images. To see him emerge as a little human being with his tiny face and arms and fingers, then start crying as soon as the Doctors and nurses held him up – there are no words to describe it.

The Doctors had told us that they would induce labor on Wednesday morning if Nicole had not gone into labor yet. So on Wednesday morning we packed the car and left home bright and early, arriving at the Washington Hospital Center by 8 a.m. She was straightaway taken to the labor and delivery room. Everything went so quickly and efficiently from then on, like a well-choreographed dance routine. The next 19 hours were one of the most tense and anxious times of our lives. She went through various medications. They monitored the baby’s and her heart rates constantly as she went through contractions and labor. Every time the baby’s heart rate went down my heart would stop. Every time the nurses summoned the doctors to deal with a new issue the anxiety would rise up. Ultimately at 3.09 a.m on Thursday morning Prashant arrived.

We had to stay all of Thursday and Friday at the hospital because he needed more care. More anxious moments followed. We finally came home on Saturday afternoon. Since then it has been a non-stop routine of feeding, diapering, burping and pacifying. Sleep has become a precious commodity. But I forget all of my fatigue and sleeplessness when I hold his little body in my arms and feel his little fingers tightly wind around my index finger. I dream of what sort of person he might grow up to be. I tell myself that he is his own person, and content myself with being happy at where he is now -- a healthy, active, curious boy.

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