Completing 1 year of M.P Course

Our son Shashank is one year old today. We are happy considering what all we had to give up in the past one year to watch him grow. The first few months were manageable with Anu's parents helping us both in taking care of the baby and the household work. Though those months involved intermittent sleep patterns for both of us. Some days, it will be a full blown cry for reasons we couldn't understand. With the help of in-laws, we succesfully completed 4 months of parenthood.

The toughest part in this first year was the period immediately after my in laws went back to India. We had to go early to bed and wake up early to sync up with Shashank's sleep patterns which we did. As I used to come home for my lunch, Anu got her reprieve, for an hour at least. We had to hold him in our laps and stuff our lunch down the throat as soon as possible. Nothing is as unpredictable as child's behavior, everyday we were in for a surprise. There will be days where he won't lie down at all in the afternoons, some days it will be 30 minute of nap every 2 hours, some days he will sleep sound through the afternoons. It all depends on, well, we don't know what, that is why I called it unpredictable in the first place. In the evenings, we had to wash the dishes from our lunch, sterilize the bottles, feed him, make the dinner, wash the dishes again and go to bed before 10.30 or 11. It meant tight work for both of us especially after 6 months of continuous help from our in-laws from all aspects of household work. If you had a good day at work, you can be sure that your day at home that evening will compensate for that.

Once I shifted to my new job in February this year, Anu lost her one hour reprieve during lunch time. It was not unusual for Anu to get frustrated with him and skip her lunch or just stick to snacks during lunch time. And our occasional quarrels in the evenings in taking care of him died down slowly. This way it continued and things got better and better after 7th or 8th month. We got 4 or 5 hours of continuous sleep at nights before his first feed at night. We got time for ourselves in the evenings to have a chat. The last two months of his first year were thoroughly enjoyable with my parents being here and taking care of us.

We feel proud now to have given up small materialistic things (like going to theatre), watching cricket or movies online, just browsing, aimless shopping and many more to watch Shashank crawl, sit, stand, laugh, cry and grow into a big one year old boy. I am sure there are many more challenges that parenthood is going to throw at us and we will face them with a smile. This day last year, I was a happy man and I continue to remain so today.

PS: M.P stands for Master of Parenthood. This is my first post, so all your kind reviews are welcome.