The Babies

I know I promised a story about my apartment for this time but I've just been grabbed but the heart with the baby bathing routines here at the Maria Maternity Hospital.
This just couldn't wait.

So it goes like this... they wheel the tupperware bed with baby into the bathing room. (I will try to include photos of the whole affair) They will have prepared the baby bath water ahead of time but the room temperature is about 23 degrees. They strip baby down and do a little scrub in the tub but use no soap? Also, nowhere to wash your hands and nothing to dry them on?

Then if baby is to do it's floating routine, it gets lifted over to the swim tub, a plastic water wing affair gets attached around it's little neck and it hangs there in the tub floating about for maybe 5 minutes or so. And here she is, just relaxing in the bag lined pool. I think it makes clean up easier, and cuts down on cross contamination.

If only they would use a fresh towel for each baby.

Meanwhile mom or any number of the babies relatives, nana, dad, big sister, etc watch from the other side of the class doing all the normal, smiling, waving, googling behaviour new babies bring out in us all.

This is the "swimming" part with the family looking on from outside, mom and gramma were allowed in.

Note how everyone is dressed in their coats,even mom and big sister. Actually, big sister liked that rubber ducky a lot more than she seemed to like her new sister.

Mom gets no "hands on" bath experience with

her baby until she gets it home. Then, I'm told, it will be one of the grammas that will do this work for the first month since the mother is not to be "touching water" for that time? So that also means no shower for mom either. A bit hard to imagine I must say. It could be I don't have all the facts yet since I know only how to say "hello" in Chinese. The normal hospital stay is 5 days, I think two weeks for caesarian sections ( and I'm told there a

re plenty here... the moms are afraid of the pain and the doctors get more pay from surgery than just baby catching)
Back to babe.
Now some of the babies like both their baths and their floats and some like one or the other, and, of course, some like neither and howl the house down. After the water stuff is complete, babe is lifted to the towel down table (sometimes the same towel for multiple babies), dried, umbilical cord attention, sometimes a heel prick for blood work, maybe put on the scale, sometimes head and chest size measured, a massage with baby oil and then the dressing.
You won't believe the dressing part.It starts with a diaper... always disposable but some without sticky tabs? They just put a very loose elastic around the baby's tummy and tuck the ends of the diaper under it? I'm sure it must be a lost cause for effectiveness. Next a light weight two piece sleeper outfit, some with boots attached, some without, so then they will need socks. The top is like those old fashioned baby shirts that crossed the chest and were held on with ties. The knickers are a wonder to me still. They are a flat piece of material with two little legs that hang off of it. They baby's legs are stuffed in and the cloth has strings that tie behind the baby's back. The diaper is still exposed! The ankles have extra little ties to keep the feet in place.

The next layer is much like the first, little crossover shirt that ties on, same pant affair, same exposed diaper... but this layer is made from a medium weight usually quilted fabric. The final layer, (yes, they are not done yet) is yet another crossover shirt, same knickers, same exposure on the caboose, but the weight this time is northern arctic wear, snow suit weight! By now these are truly "star" babies... you know the kind that when they get all their winter gear on they can't move or bend arm nor leg and can just stand or lie there looking like a star. The final ties go around the upper arms (if they can find them) to keep their arms from slipping inside the sleeves. I think I counted 16 ties in all... it takes a considerable time to dress these wee ones.

And the final accessory... the toque!The babe is now ready to be wrapped... you think I'm kidding. It is wound in a receiving sized quilted blanket that is held on with a velcro strap... then, for the finale, into it's tupperware bed folded like an omlet into a winter weight duvet with their own tiny pillow, always on their back... and wheeled back to mom.

Need I say more?

China... The Cold

I'm here in China for a wee spell... until April ish.
It's the city of Changsha, inland a bit and on the latitude about half way between Shanghai and Xiamen, so get your google maps out. The flight from Shanghai to Changsha took about two hours so if you can translate that into distance, you'll have it.

Now it's cold here, I was told. So I packed a light winter jacket that is rain proof, grabbed some gloves, scarf, turtle necks, sweaters, tights, cords and flannel jammies. I think I've done well... not so. I'm from Canada, eh? I know cold, and being too smart for my own good, I don't get that it's cold in China... inside, everywhere, always! Who knew? Seriously? People go to work in their coats and don't take them off all day.
The supermarket, hair salon, hospital... all staffed with people in their winter outside attire. The newborn babes in the hospital lie in their wee tupperware beds dressed for a day at the local mountian. I can't imagine the chill of having a diaper changed. I must say that of all places, not counting the spa, the hospital ward was the warmest and I can only imagine the room where the babies are bathed must be warm as well. But even though it's warmer in the ward rooms, the moms are all wearing their winter jackets.

The snow came four days ago and is showing no sign of wanting to leave. The first day there was about 10 cm, followed by 10 cm, followed by 10 cm. The good thing was the first two days the temperature stayed at about freezing, just enough to keep most of the wet heavy snow on the ground. Yesterday the temperature dropped so this snow is firmly attached to the frozen everthing; roads, stairs, trees, fences... I have yet to see a plow. I think they may not have plows here but yesterday I saw a guy with a shovel, shoveling out a path through the hospital parking lot! Better than that were the three guys shoveling the road! In all fairness only two had shovels, one had rigged up a board with a rope attached and as one pushed, another pulled the rope along cause the snow was so heavy.

The weight of the snow on the tree branches, especially those trees with leaves, has caused the branches to break and crash to the ground everywhere. Nonie, you remember that storm in Banff in september? Same thing.The roads are all blocked with branches and it's very dangerous on the sidewalks too. This city is multi level so along the side streets there are stone steps (everything is made of stone here) covered with snow and ice... impassable. I have worries of losing my footing and sliding down those stairs with nothing to stop me but the non-stop traffic on the busy street. I'm sure the underside of a car would stop me dead, as it were.

next installment... my apartment
(It's the giant pink one in the pictures. And the last photo is the hospital.)