Another year is coming to a close very soon, and what an eventful year it had been for Catherine and me! Of course, what made this year so special from the other many years we went through was the addition of Darius into our family.

"Happy New Year!!"

The beginning of 2008 marked busy months of us reading up information on pregnancy and baby from magazines and the Web, while shopping around for things we will be needing before our baby arrived. There were also the gynae visits and exciting moments of watching our baby from the ultrascan examinations.

The middle of the year was a difficult time for both of us, after our gynae confirmed Catherine had the Impaired Glucose Intolerance condition late in her third trimster, especially when we had been looking forward to a smooth journey ahead of us then till delivery (see Visit to the Doctor- 35 weeks 5 days and Glucose Tolerance test).

Catherine was already not eating much in her first two trimsters but she still had to watch her diet even more to avoid the ill-effects of her condition befalling on Darius. He was already growing quite big in the womb then and we wouldn’t want him to end up becoming a giant baby, like the one born recently in California.

Then came the D-Day (Delivery Day) in July, which Catherine fought a tough battle before finally giving birth to Darius via an emergency c-sec operation (see A long battle of 23 hours…). We were glad and relieved to finally see Darius healthily born into this world but alas, our joyous moments were short, as Catherine suffered from intestinal infection and was warded and suffered for a week after delivery (see Day 3 and Day 4) while other new parents were celebrating around us. Poor Darius could only manage to see his real home a week after he was born (see Discharging today). Before then, the hospital’s nursery and our ward had become his first homes.

From then on, there were some difficult times as we took up the tasks to take care of Darius ourselves, but they were certainly worth it with the joy Darius had brought for us. Besides learning to take care of our baby as we journeyed together, we had also discovered things about ourselves too, like managing our tolerance levels and building up stronger bonds and communication between Catherine and me.

Moving forward to this day, as Darius is reaching 6 months old soon, I am looking forward to an even exciting year with him ahead (in a good way), despite the global economic downturn that probably will stretch through the whole of next year. Career stability is becoming a genuine concern, and I could only ask and be thankful for a stable employment over this downturn period.

Family is still my top priority in this coming 2009 and with Darius growing up everyday (looking back at those older photos reminded me of how much he had grown!), guiding us to discover new things about him and ourselves at the same time, and so saying that an exciting year awaits ahead us is not an understatement.

With the New Year, I pray for good health in my family and friends, and hopefully they will discover what are the things in life that are truly important to them, if they have yet found them. Life is short and unpredictable, so let’s make the most out of our valuable times together and treasure those who are precious to us.

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