The first month

It was indeed a very trying period for us. For my daughter she needed to recover after a very difficult delivery. She was unable to deliver the baby and the doctor had suggested doing a caeserean. However since my daughter did not respond the doctor decided to try vacuuming. It worked. The baby weighed 3.67kg.

As this is my daughter's first baby, she was inexperienced and hence relied on books and friends to help her to understand the baby's behaviour, her sleeping pattern and feeding requirements. My grand-daughter did not sleep much during the day which is contrary to the norm. We had a difficult time putting her to sleep. She also needed more milk than is recommended for babies of her age. At night she gets up once or twice for feed.

My daughter also employed a "confinement lady" whose duties are to help her to bathe the baby, cook for her and to assist with looking after the baby day and night. However, my wife and I had a difficult time with this lady, especially her speech. On one hand she claims to be a simple person with simple needs and on the other hand she will ask us to buy specific stuffs for her own consumption. As we had to assist in buying the groceries and food, she will call us to tell us what is required. The following is to illustrate what transpired.

1. She eats only chicken wings. Hence once we bought a whole chicken she made adversed comments until my wife could not stand it any longer, told her that the chicken is not meant for you alone but for everyone in the house. A price check at the supermarket indicated that for chicken parts, the most expensive is chicken wings!

2. She wants to drink coffee but it had to be Nescafe with the red label.

3. She tells us not to buy brocolli from China but from Australia. What is the difference we asked her. Brocolli from China is harder than those from Australia.

It was indeed a very difficult month for my wife and me. We came to the point of even avoiding visiting our grand-daughter unless necessary. We went only when we had to deliver the groceries. That was indeed a very long month for us.

For the "confinement lady" her one month does not mean 30-31 days but exactly 4 weeks or 28 days from the day she reported for duty.

On the positive note she did helped my daughter during this first difficult month. Perhaps having an experienced person around to handle the baby extrude confidence.