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They say ‘whatever the mother eats during lactation period, baby gets it all’ … And when you see your otherwise calm and happy child crying with severe pain at midnight, you feel too helpless to do anything…. you silently curse yourself for eating something which led to this misery…. I had been facing this problem over the last weekend and immediately my mind went into flash-back to check what all I ate… And the answer was “nothing gassy” … now what???

All 3 of us didn’t sleep the whole night. At 6 in the morning, I called up my sister-in-law to ask what should be done before we visit the doctor. She suggested to mix a pinch of asfoetida powder (hing) with 2 drops of water and apply on baby’s naval for instant relief and I should also take a pinch of hing, salt and ajwain with water after every meal  … You might be one of those of who don’t believe in house-hold remedies, but mark my words, when it comes to your own child, everything looks plausible…

At 9.30 we rushed to the dr. and he pacified us by telling that it happens to 6-7 weeks old babies, so dont worry.. Ahhh!!! a sigh of relief. … Further, the dr. told us when an infant is breastfed, he tends to swallow some air which accumulates in the stomach and causes flatulence. To get rid of this excessive air the parent must keep the child upright for 10-15 minutes after the feed. He gave us ‘Colicaid’ to expel the gas, ( colicaid being a milder medicine than Colimex which relieves only the spasmodic pain). He then told us that the child should be made to sleep on his stomach, occasionally though, for the same reason.

I had been doing everything what the dr and my friends told me… I dont know what has worked, the medicine or the house-hold remedy, but whatever it is, it has brought the smile back to my child’s face once again … and a sense of relief to ours … well this is just the beginning of an unimaginable experience called ‘Parenthood’ ! We welcome ourselves to this new journey

The moment I came out of labour room, my husband told my brother, “Now it’s up to us to find a good name for him.” I heard it and screamed, “Samarth” !!! That’s all. No more discussion on the name. It has to be Samarth! Both of them looked aghast.

In Hindi, Samarth means ‘capable’. So my dear husband started calling him, ‘Samarth, the capable’ (courtesy movies with tag line like ‘Aag, the fire’ … ) I always wanted my child to have a nice and meaningful name. There were lot of discussions earlier on naming the child, be it girl or boy. Since naming the baby with alphabet ‘A’ is in vogue these days, all the good names with ‘A’ had been taken. Moreover, children with the names starting with A have to appear first for all the examinations, viva etc…. The examiner conducting viva  is also very fresh in the beginning and asks all the tough questions, you being the early bird to appear for it, have no clue of what the examiner has in mind.

And if you name the child with U or V (like me), again you are in trouble due to long hours of waiting for your turn to come. You lose all the enthusiasm and the examiner is too frustrated to listen to any of your answers… So we decided to name the baby with an alphabet which lies somewhere in the middle….., hence the name Samarth (signs of a worried parent !!! ).

I believe a child always lives upto his/her name. He gets the inherent qualities of his name reflected in his behaviour. I would love to see my son ‘Capable’ of handling any situation with a cool mind, ‘capable’ to take a fair decision in life, ‘capable’ to help those in genuine need, ‘capable’ of exchanging his ideas with conviction and clarity…

Am I expecting too much …. time will tell ….