Donovan Alfred Shetty

Donovan is a Celtic name that means "dark haired warrior" and Alfred is my Dad's first name....

7 lbs. 5 oz. and 20 inches

Born: August 3rd, 2007 at 2:01 am

Mommy and Baby....

"Mother's arms are made of tenderness, and sweet sleep blesses the child who lies therein." -- Victor Hugo

My name is Allison and I have been a member of this site since I was 12 weeks along. My son is now 11 months old, so I decided it was finally time to revamp my page. I am 33 years old and have been married for almost 5 years to my true love, Rupesh, who will be 35 years old in September. We live in the beautiful Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona, where we enjoy sunshine more than 300 days a year. This is my parents' first grandchild so they are very excited, and my sister-in-law and my brother are also so happy to be a first time aunt and uncle as well!

We were blessed to get pregnant easily and I had an very uneventful pregnancy. My due date was August 5th, 2007, but I went into labor on August 2nd and gave birth to Donovan 5 hours later, at 2am on August 3rd! There were no complications and Donovan scored a 9 on his APGAR test.

My husband and I had a whirlwind courtship that felt like something out of a romance novel. He works in the hospitality industry and I met him while on vacation in Russia. It was literally love at first sight, and we traveled the world together, an opportunity we were glad to have before starting a family. Now, he is working in management for the prestigious Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and I am planning to go back to school to obtain my Master's degree in Education and my teaching certification from Arizona State University. I am 100% Italian-American and Rupesh is Eastern Indian. He was born and raised in Bombay, India, now renamed Mumbai, which is an incredible city and country to visit. I've even been to the Taj Mahal- TWICE! He is a permanent greencard holder, soon to be eligible for U.S. citizenship! He's so proud to have the chance to become a naturalised US citizen! We're both Catholic, although I am more into it than Rupesh is, and at Easter Vigil Mass of this year, I was confirmed at our beautiful, local Catholic Church, something I should have done when was I was 16, but neglected to do it until now, as an adult. I am by no means a fanatic, but I must admit that my faith now plays a more important role in my life than it did before now that I have a child. Donovan was baptized in December 2006 and will receive the remaining sacraments when the time comes.

Lately, I have been trying to get Donovan to say "Mama", since he's only said it a few times. His favorite thing to say is "Dada", which he says ALL the time! I was trained as a classical singer in college and now I sing to my baby. Mostly I sing scales to him, using different consonants or sounds, such as "la", "me" ,"moo" or "ma", in the hopes of getting him to repeat "mama" after me, but mostly he just smiles devilishly at me and says "dada" lol!

Rupesh speaks and/or understands 8 languages, but English, taught to him by the Brothers at a Catholic school, is his best language and he speaks it beautifully with a "hybrid" accent- not quite Indian and not quite English. It's soft and very easy on the ears. I could listen to the sound of his voice forever. I keep trying to get him to speak in Hindi to our son so Donovan will be bi-lingual, but so far, the only language that is spoken in our household is English! I think Rupesh's Hindi has become quite rusty in the past 10 years since he's been living abroad and he knows he will not teach his son the "correct" grammar lol.

Every morning I wake up to find my son smiling at me from his crib and every evening, I lull him to sleep in my arms as I rock him to the sounds of a CD of Celtic lullabies. I never thought being a mother would be so amazing. I never believed other women when they told me how much they enjoyed motherhood, but now I know exactly how they feel. There is truly nothing like it in the world! I received a vocal scholarship to Pepperdine University, worked as a sales rep for a large international pharmaceutical company and also as a buyer for a major department store, but no financial success and no personal accomplishment can compare to that of becoming a parent. I never thought I'd be one to write or speak those words, but it's the honest truth!

I hope you enjoy my page and that VIP members feel free to leave a message for me. I am really very good about responding to people!

At the park in the baby swing. He loved it!!!