I've finally caved and written my first blog entry. I know that I've told all of my family and friends that I would never share the very personal information about myself in the form of a blog but I think that what I've been through in the first few years of my son's life could be very helpful for others who are having similar challenging situations.

March 14-March 17, 2003 - My wife was in labour for 3 days. This was extremely painful on her. Our son was already a week late. My wife had to be induced 4 times and poisoned by Nubane (a pain killer that she's allergic to). Vomiting for 12 hours was the side effect. So the pain of delivering combined with the side effects of severe nausea and vomiting made everything thrice as challenging.

March 17, 2003 - My son was born in the wee hours of the morning. I was so happy but I knew something was wrong. My wife's sister and I looked on in fear as we noticed he wasn't moving. The doctors surrounded us warned us he wouldn't make noise for a while as they worked like experts having done this a thousand times. They brought him back to life and then rushed him to neonatal intensive care because they knew something was wrong with his breathing. To make matters more terrifying, it looked like my wife was hemmoraging and time had stopped while I stood between the two of them not knowing what to do - feeling completely helpless for the first time in my life. I thought I had felt the emotion of helplessness before that day but I realize now that it's the only one time in my life I've truly felt completely and utterly helpless.

The week after labour - Our son was born with a collapsed lung and spent almost a week in the neonatal intensive care unit where we were able to hold him a few minutes every couple of hours. My wife was hospitalized for 2 days as well. We worried ourselves sick and slept practically nothing for the next entire week. He had trouble drinking but things quickly improved over the week. We brought our beloved son home and started our life together. It's been 3 wonderful years and we've grown inseparable my wife, son and I but we've had several extremely scary moments together but we've gotten through each one. I will write about some of these one day but they include the following: autism, collaboma (a birth eye defect that could result in blindness), severe developmental delays and attention deficit disorder.

Over the last 3 years I've learnt not to sweat the small stuff and to live in the moment and not worry about the "what ifs". I've got many friends and family members who worry about every little aspect of life. I wish I could help them to enjoy each gift that live gives us and to enjoy the present time. To clarify, I'm not saying don't plan for the future - definately do - but also live in the present. Don't let the years of your life slip away because you live in the past or ache for the future...