In the short time since he arrived,Shlok has taught us how to sleep in installments.He has his feeding times all planned out.The plan was to have no "plan" at all ! His only aim appeared to be, to feed twice each night.My wife and myself were very sound sleepers and treasured our sleeping hours dearly.All that changed with Shlok's arrival.We both realised that between us, the strategy of  "pretending-to-be-asleep" would not work beyond a few nights.So we started taking turns.We were paid for our efforts by the occational smiles that we would get from our son just as he would drift back to sleep after his feeding.It seemed to make it worth all the efforts we put in.Infact he even had us fighting over who would win more of his "mid-nightly" smiles.

After a lenghty process of planning out our strategy along with consultations with "experienced" friends and family,we devised a plan of trying to regulate his feeding times.We decided to feed him twice every night but at fixed timings and when he got into the rhythm we could play around with the timings a bit to gradually fit him into our schedule.After a week of implementing "Our" plan we realised that we had yet again ended up adjusting our schedules to Shlok's plan rather than the other way around.

The sweet smiling rascal had won yet another round ...but we swore ( "hoped",would be more accurate) our day would come!

The coming days were a roller coaster ride of events and emotions of such profound depth and range that I would emerge from it a different man..an "older" man.Life was, until that day, a fun filled and carefree joyride that I took for granted.My wife was a total emotional wreck and so was her family.I did not have the courage to tell my own family back in India...at least not yet.Life seemed to have lost its purpose.

My days filled with despair were punctuated by fleeting glimpses of joy and hope which made me smile inspite of the circumstances.The times we fed Shlok or changed his diaper or his steady progress through a chain of rooms as his "status" changed among the ranks of  his "pre-mature" collegues,until he was in the "Green room" as it was called, signalling the last leg of his stay at the hospital.

His naughty self shone through early on,when at times he would wait for his daiper to be removed to let go,of a stream of "pee" right across the room.The occational smile he would give off was like a beacon in a storm, giving us the courage to face the future.It took us a while but after more than a month and a half I can say we have finally made our peace with reality.

These days, more time is spent enjoying his day-to-day high-decibel tantrums rather than brood about his future.Shlok has also been putting on some well awaited grams of weight and showing good progress on all the other usual indicators.

The twist in his ankle is being fixed by the "Ponsetti" method,which is a non surgical method of treatment involving the use of progressive casts that gradually corrects the allignment of the joint over a period on 2-3 months.He is now on his first cast for the past 2 weeks and taking it quite well, considering the restrictions the cast places on his tiny but hyperactive foot.I have read some very positive things about the above procedure and am very hopefull about the same.Luckily for us we found a very well experienced doctor right here in Abudhabi who has successfully used the procedure in the past on children with similar condition such as Shlok's.I would recommend it as an alternative to all parents who have children with such foot deformaties if they are considering the traditional surgical approch.The key here is to begin the treatment as early as possible preferable within the first few months of the babies life.

The cast, as we found out is a good place to display some of our feelings in the most artistically ammusing way.He has things like, "Iam appa's pet" and "my dada loves me" and some cool cartoon characters courtesy his cool "mama", drawn on it.It adds to the positive feelings that we need so badly in our lives right now.

"Have you noticed something different about your baby Mr. Dinoo? "the petite lady doctor said in a middle-eastern accent...I wish I had not heard what followed.I could only see my perfect little son, born just minutes ago, sucking on his pacifier like his life depended on it."Ya, he is a little ' Little' ". But hey,  what else do you expect from a baby born a month before his time."You mustve noticed his foot?" "His foot??" oh ya it does have a slight twist, now that you mentioned it"."But thats not whats worrying us.He seems a little 'floppy',not  able to hold up his head, his eyes appear to be slightly slanted upwards and..."."What are you trying to say doctor?"."Have you heard of Downs syndrome, Mr Dinoo?".A whole lot of pictures of babies, we have grown up knowing more popularly as, "Mongol babies" flashed across my mind and before i could complete my thought process she said " we think your baby has Down's syndrome".

Time stopped for me that instant on the night of 22nd of August 2006.

I remember telling the doctor that I was feeling giddy and needed a seat. She and a nurse were kind enough to offer me a chair and a glass of water.Everything seemed so blurred.I realised that somewhere in between all this,tears had started flooding my eyes.She added that only a Chromosome analysis can confirm the diagnosis and blood samples have already been taken and prepared to be sent to Germany.The results would not be available for atleast 3 weeks.

A hundred different questions started flooding my head as I was left alone with my new born son and a few other pre-mature babies who shared his room in the "Pre Natal ICU".What was I going to tell everyone waiting outside the ICU? What was i going to tell my wife who at this moment was probably being wheeled in to her ward after the surgery? How could this happen to our baby? Surely there must have been a mistake,such things are only supposed to happen to somebody else.Looking at my son through the incubator glass he seemed so "Perfect".I could'nt believe something could be "different" about him.....about every cell in his tiny body.