Friday, August 3, 2007

A trip in the city





There’s a haze in the city that has been keeping us in our hotel room. The industry here seems to be putting out quite a bit of unfiltered output as well as the tobacco users. It is almost unbearable to take a walk in the city but that didn’t stop us. We had to get more diapers, how can a little 12 lb man use 112 diapers since Monday? Using the good old lonely planet we ventured out in the city. John wanted to do a meandering walk but soon changed his mind after discovering he couldn’t read Cyrillic and didn’t have a clue where he was going. The 12 block walk to the store soon became a test of will and a challenge. After walking about ½ hr we started to see people with grocery bags and breathed a sigh of relief. Basically, we got there only by divine intervention. It’s a good thing that the universal language is baby and the people feel sorry for you and are able to deal with your inadequacy of your language illiteracy. Many smiles later we were able to purchase our diapers, baby wipes, “mineral” water, some juice and bananas. We’ll have to venture out again to get some chocolate although the hotel has a tasty bon patisserie with some high price treats.
John has been an incredible father and it has been a joy to parent team with him. He now understands why teenage moms bring their babies in the emergency room because they won’t stop crying. He is fast learning the “baby cry.” Michael has a heart wrenching painful cry that he uses when he has gas but is also incredibly hungry. We are hoping to fix that once we get home and I can read the ingredients on the formula can. When we went to get the formula at the store they didn’t show us the formula; they just said Nestle’. Tomorrow I’ll share with you what we were told his feeding schedule was. Anyway, there are about 5 kinds of Nestle’ in the Beta Store. I also cringed at some of the ingredients that our facilitator read to us and was frustrated that I couldn’t read the can. When we gave him the full strength one with comfort proteins which was also the “premium” one he had massive runs. Then we tried the “organic” more natural one and he seemed to do better. We thought we would halve them and put them together and it seems to be working better. However, I still don’t think this is the fix. We don’t want to experiment too much since we can’t read the can and he needs the dha/ara in the premium formula. I really think I’m going to try breastfeeding him as he is a natural, he almost immediately tried to suckle when I first met him and I wasn’t even trying to do anything about it. It will only help him and it is funny how you will do anything for your son.

1 comment:

millersbran said...

Hi, Gen, John, and Michael,

Thanks for the link, Gen -- I think you actually had sent it once before, but I was leaving on a trip -- got back a week ago Monday with Meredith. He is adorable -- your initial photo looks a LOT like one of Kiernan's newborn photos...sounds like a challenging transition, but we will be praying for you. I'm so happy that the Lord has put you three together. Enjoy the adventure...Blessings,

jan, for all the millers