parenting course

As I head into my 4th week of my children's rotation, I can't help but feel that we (medical students) have an advanced parenting course. Part of the logbook that we need to have signed off - other than taking vital signs of a child/infant, we need to have bottle-fed an infant, changed an infant's nappy .. among other things.

So as I'm one who likes having things done well in advance, I headed up to the special care nursery today. With the excellent help of a nurse there, I was told to come back an hour later to change and feed a 1 week old infant.

So I walk back in an hour later, to be greeted by the nurse- "oh good! she's just started stir.. let's go prepare the feed".. and off I went into the prep room, where she was already pouring some formula milk into a bottle and she made up 80ml of it. then she started telling me the different types of milk - fortified or not, whether it's for premies or full term.. etc. O_o and then i went to the infant.

and she was just sleeping there, almost soundly. with the nursery's lights dimmed, it was almost magical. "okay, you know how to take obs? good! then after you are done, change her nappy and then you can feed her. just call me if you are struggling!"

so here i am, 24yo, a 5th yr medical student, with ZERO babies under my care before, having to deal with it. just like that! so i fumbled a bit with the nappy change - yay no poo! but it was heavy and slighly wet. quickly strapped on a new one. then... i took a look at her serene face and .. "ok... now what?"

well, so remembering the instructions about how to pick the baby up, i did fumble a bit. rested her head on my elbow, and i picked up the bottle.. and she started drinking away.

O_o she took a long while. there are so many rules!

1. you only feed for 20-30mins otherwise they get too tired.
2. the teat of the bottle has got to touch the roof of the mouth- so angle the bottle at a correct angle
3. you got to stop halfway - burp the baby every now and then
4. you got to remind the baby that they have to keep drinking!
5. their lips are to be pouted, not drawn inwards by the sucking motion
6. you can actually help the sucking motion by doing a mini chin lift every now and then.

so.. halfway through, after a bit of burping she started to hiccup! as cute as it was, i was containing my kancheongness. then the nurse came to my rescue and told me not to worry, just continue to feed. hee.But by 25mins, she still had 10ml to go! i could sense a bit of urgency so i passed it back to the nurse.

and yay she completed her feed in time. she was completely exhausted at the end :( i felt so bad :(

THEN i got shown how to wrap the baby up.

ahhhhhhh. it is really an advanced parenting course for all of us. would love to see my male group mates complete those tasks!! :)