Monday, February 26, 2007

Babysitting

Today is the first of the seven weekdays that I will be babysitting our baby Shanle full time in the day. His mother is off to work and I can call myself a house husband for the time being. Irene will takeover from 7 Mar onwards until her mother returns from China after a month-long holiday.

The day began with a visit to our family doctor. Shanle developed conjunctivitis in his right eye. The poor little thing's eyelid is swollened and pinkish. It's quite a challenge to bring a baby for a doctor's visit all alone. Besides carrying the baby, I still have to bring along his small towel, pacifier and water bottle in a small little bag. Not to forget an umbrella to shield off the sun and rain. When he gets tired of the one-hand cradle and starts kicking a fuss, a position change means things falling all over the place. The same applies when I need to reach for my wallet when boarding the bus. But it's still quite manageable on the whole.

Back to the eye. The swelling actually began yesterday morning. We brought him to KKH later in the afternoon for treatment. However, the KKH doctor did not diagnose conjunctivitis even though we saw a little white dot under the lid of Shanle's eye. The doctor even told us that it could be a bug bite! This is the second time we failed to get a correct diagnosis at KKH. I think we will not bring Shanle there again unless it is an emergency.

I wonder if it is common for babies to developed conjunctivitis at such a young age. He could have inherited this from me as I have a long history of severe conjunctivitis. I was sent to SGH A&E last month when my eye was so swollen that the polyclinic doctor feared that there might be puss in my eyelid. But research on the Internet suggested otherwise. Conjunctivitis is not uncommon in infants or young children. The infection can be due to bacteria or viruses or allergies. This is a good website for interested readers.

I am not sure what is the cause of Shanle's infection but I suspect bacteria infection. We have been bringing him out everyday since the start of Chinese New Year. The long days out meeting so many people easily exposed him to bacteria infection. Our doctor said that Shanle will be fine after a few days and gave us a tube eye oinment to apply on the infected eye.

Other than the conjunctivitis, babysitting Shanle is not too difficult. I have been training myself by taking on the bathing on weekends and attending to his poo when opportunities arise. Breastfeeding I cannot. But I am getting skilled with the bottle nowadays. Sometimes instead of leaving Shanle on bed, I will carry him in one arm and while I prepare the formula milk, explaining the steps to him at the same time. This is much better than letting him screaming away alone while I scramble to get the right water temperature and scoop of formula milk powder. Putting him to sleep is more a routine to me now. By the way, I'm the one sleeping besides him at night most of the time since his birth. I'm well-trained for babysitting.

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