I have been impatiently waiting for almost a year to write this entry. Today, our third and youngest child, Hari turned six months old! Last October, my wife Juliet went into preterm labor at 26 weeks. Hari was born 14 weeks early, weighing just 2lbs — under 1kg! He spent 133 days in the N.I.C.U. and came home in late February. A few minutes ago, I was upstairs in our living room, watching him smiling and giggling as I tickled his chubby cheeks. I am still dumbfounded, shocked, and astounded that he's here, in our life, in our house, against all odds. I thought I could write this long-awaited blog entry without tearing up, but it's impossible. But let me back up a bit and start from the beginning.

Years before our oldest child, Naveen was born in 2015, Juliet was diagnosed with infertility. We went through a long, difficult period and then finally Naveen arrived, a healthy and smiling baby boy! His first few months were tough due to feeding issues but we did our best, especially Juliet, and before we knew it, he was hitting all of his milestones weeks and months early. Our attempt at having a second child of our own failed despite years of treatments and multiple disappointments. Never the one to give up on her dreams, Juliet started us on the path of adoption and in 2019, we were fortunate enough to adopt our daughter Leela straight from the hospital where she was born. She's five now and tomorrow I'm taking her to softball practice. She's super excited!

Not even a year after Leela was born, Juliet was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and soon after, we left Florida for Illinois. While both of us always wanted to have 2+ kids, by now our focus was on keeping her healthy and stable, while giving the best life to Naveen and Leela. Juliet has been seeing a neurologist in downtown Chicago and I would say her condition has been pretty stable for a year or two now.

So imagine my shock when Juliet showed me a positive pregnancy test last May! Actually, when she came all excited to my office to show me the test, I sighed and said "You got COVID in 2024?" She laughed and said it was not a COVID test. It took me a few seconds to realize what the beaming smile on her face meant but once I understood the implication, I was frozen. I literally did not believe it! A part of me thought it was life playing another cruel joke on her, giving her false hope. Another part of me was iterating through the list of medical conditions that can elevate hCG in women. No part of me even remotely considered that this was real. Because that would be a miracle!

And it was. And he is.

Before I allowed myself to get all excited about the unexpected but extremely welcome pregnancy, I made appointments with all of her medical providers right away. I wanted to make sure we did everything we could to ensure her and the baby's health - during and after delivery. Once we were 1000% sure this was a real, viable pregnancy, we sat the kids down and very careful shared the news with them. With Naveen, we were concerned about the 10-year age gap and how he would feel about getting additional responsibilities all of a sudden. We were especially cautious with Leela because she knows she is adopted since very early age and we didn't want her to feel any less special when a new biological baby arrives. Turns out, our kids are just the best because they were both absolutely ecstatic at the news and couldn't wait to meet the baby.

Juliet's first trimester felt unreal — not just unbelievable but also unprepared, unconventional, and uneasy. We moved to Illinois for her health and I had researched neurologists, physical therapists, and neuropsychologists. I had not looked into maternal-fetal medicine specialists and hospitals with good labor & delivery department! This was not what I had prepared for so it took a few months to get my new father-to-be groove on. Nevertheless, we kept the news literally to ourselves until we started to feel it was real.

Early October she had a small, baby "sprinkle" and then just five days after, she went into preterm labor and ended up delivering in the only hospital with a Level 3 NICU around here, located 90-minutes away from our house. While all of this was happening, I reached out to all of my family and friends and wrote down everything for posterity. It was all such a chaotic blur that I knew if I didn't write it, I would not be able to piece together exactly when and what happened. And more importantly, who all made all of this possible for us, who took care of our kids while we were in the NICU, and who listened to us breakdown at having to make medical decisions for a baby boy who was born without fully formed lungs, skin, eyes, or intestines. I will likely post those journals here in time, albeit filtered for privacy and emotional reasons.

Hari spent 133 days and nights in the NICU before we could bring him home. Juliet spent almost the entire time at the hospital, living by herself at the adjacent Ronald McDonald House. I came home after about two weeks so I could take the kids to school and give them a semblance of a normal life while their baby brother was hooked up to a ventilator and feeding tube. I drove back and forth to the NICU every other day to spend as much time I could with Juliet and Hari.

And then he finally came home. It's not even been two months but the NICU parenting life is but a blur. We're home, he's home. We're all together. Every day. This is all we wanted for days and nights and days and nights. On Thanksgiving, on Christmas, on Leela and Naveen's birthdays. We just wanted him to come home and now he's here. And today he is six months old!

I wanted to share this news for so long but I stopped myself many, many times. Because I wanted to be joyful and happy when I announced my baby boy to the world! Sure, the details above were not all peachy. But that's what makes today such a wonderful, jubilant day — our little boy is a growing, healthy, smiling bundle of coos and cuddles. He is everything Juliet and I dreamed of and he has already brought so much love and color into our lives.

While both Juliet and Hari are doing well and not in any acute or critical medical situation, they both have a long road ahead. Juliet will continue to get medical care from her existing doctors and Hari is getting a ton of physical/occupational therapy and speech therapy (which at this age is about feeding). Being born 3 months early, he is not exactly the size of a typical 6 month old baby and so needs a lot of nuanced, personalized care. And honestly, it's not a big deal. He could not have picked a better set of parents to take care of his complicated medical conditions because for us, it's just another Tuesday.

I love you my little Hari! I can't wait to see you grow and make your mark in this world.

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