Tag: parenting

On the way back from the pediatrician, I stopped by the pharmacy to get some breast pads for Olga. There were a couple of people in the shop already. The cashier was busy helping a really old grandma (120 years old or so) to select the hair dye that would make her look 100 years old. They were moving around the stands and talking in Greek, pointing there fingers at any box that had more than black and white colors on it. Yup, including condoms.

By the cash machine there was a middle aged mother with 4 year old kid on her hands. She was just standing there, waiting for the cashier to return. She looked bored and tired.

I came in and, since this is a very familiar pharmacy, marched straight to the stand with breast pads and grabbed the Chicco box. I came by to the cash machine and put out exactly 3.50 CYP, which is how much those pads cost. I know because I already purchased them a couple of times there. It was pretty much a routine for me.

And than I saw the look on the mother’s face. She was staring at me. No etiquette, no politeness, no social rules, nothing – simple, direct stare. She looked at me in general. Than she measured me. Than she inspected my breast with her blank stare. I sware, she had to physically restrain herself from touching my breasts to see if I am wearing a bra with some breast pads in it. Fortunately, I wasn’t.

I gave her a right eye wink, smiled at her, nodded to the cashier and left. This was fun! I think I will remember her face for some time now…

Olga and I took Maxim to see his pediatrician, dr.Simos, and to make his first vaccination.

Tuberculosis vaccination, or BCG, is not mandatory in Cyprus. Cypriot kids don’t usually get it. It is recommended to aliens from those countries where tuberculosis is a real threat. Like Russia.

Because of such non-popularity of BCG among locals, it is not easy to find in Cyprus. Our pediatrician had the last case of the medicine and thus had to delay Maxim’s vaccination for a couple of weeks, so that two other kids could grow up enough to receive it too. Three vaccinations happened in that office today – all one after the other.

Knowing what a vaccination is I was worried for Maxim. I don’t obviously remember if BCG is painful or not, so I didn’t know if he was going to suffer more than for just a whole in his skin. Olga was also slightly terrified.

We brought Maxim in and his was very calm. He was even more silent than usual. He enjoyed himself. We undressed him to his bare butt and showed him the window. He loves windows. In fact, he loves any source of light. He can stare at a light bulb for like half an hour. Windows, with their natural light, can grasp his attention for a whole hour.

So he was laying there all relaxed and enjoying himself and the light from the window, when dr.Simos came upon him. First, he used some antiseptic on Maxim’s right arm. The smell of alcohol got Maxim exited and curious. He was moving his head around trying to find the source. There was even a semi-smile on his face and he was making sounds similar to “Au! Au!”.

… and than came the vaccine. It was in the small syringe with a really tiny and thin niddle. Dr.Simos perforated Maxim and he started crying. No, not crying. Shouting his butt off. He was terrified. Dr.Simos explained that its not that painful anyway, so it must have been the contrast of going from the total pleasure of a naked butt in the warm room with a huge window to the pain of the injection.

The next two minutes were harsh. We were listening to the instruction set on how to deal with the vaccinated arm on one side. And were trying to calm the baby down on the other. Both channels required a lot of concentration and there was no compromise. I think we let Maxim shout a bit more than we could have.

In return though, we learned that the injection is not painful and that it goes under the skin and not in the blood streams or anything. We were shown a little bubble button, which was immideately covered with a piece of plaster. We were told that the plaster should be taken off tomorrow and that there won’t be any bathing for Maxim today. Poor guy will have to suffer I guess. Dr.Simos also informed us that in about one month, the skin around the bubble will go red. And than it will start to sore a bit. I wonder if that will hurt.

So we were done with the vaccination and proceeded with the regular check. Maxim is growing nicely and everything appears to be in order. During the last week he has grown one centimeter and no measures at 56 centimeters. He has also gained 400 grams (!!!) and now weights 4560 grams. Yup, we passed the four and a half kilograms barrier!

Maxim is five weeks today. He is old enough to have his birthday milestones be measured with months, not weeks.

I am always amazed by how slow time goes by when I am taking care of him. Days crawl. When evening darkness comes I can barely remember everything I did during the day. Yet, when another milestone reached, like today, I am astonished by how much has been done and how fast Maxim is growing. I am paying a lot of attention to all his changes from day to day, but I don’t notice all of them. He learns something new every day – a new move or a new sound. Some of these pass unnoticed at first. But than, he surprises me. If I missed a new sound, he surprises me with three new ones in few days. If I missed his new move, he surprises me with a new rolling thingy he learned to do. When I think about everything he learned to do and everything I learned about babies in general and him in particular, I am amazed at how fast the time goes by. Paradox.

I am trying to blog everything, but I miss bits and pieces. And I feel how they get into routine and how they would get forgotten. Like the corn he got today on his upper lip from sucking too hard. Or the fact that he absolutely and totally loves bathing and how he immidately calms downa and shuts up when put to bath. There are heaps and bunches of these details and I can’t possibly write them all down. But I am trying.

It is also fun to read my previous posts. I don’t have much of a history with Maxim blogging, but there are already parts that I find useful and entertaining. This is rewarding. I’ll keep doing it as long as I can.

Because before I will know it, I will be celebrating his five years birthday. I can feel it coming already…

Today we took Maxim for a hearing test. It was slightly delayed by our pediatrician due to a bit of water in Maxim’s right ear, but since that was confirmed gone during the last check it was about time to proceed with the test.

Our appointment was for 14:15 in the “Center for preventive pediatrics”. We found the building pretty easy following dr.Simos’ instructions. The first letter of the sign outside was gone and the sign read as “enter for preventive pediatrics”. It struck me that the meaning didn’t change.

Anyway, stepping inside the office we got into a very comfortable atmosphere. There were no people except for about five members of the staff. Office looked very clean and fresh. One of the ladies there politely invited us in exactly the minute we entered the office, although we came about 15 minutes earlier.

We were told that the test will take just a few minutes and that it won’t cause any discomfort to the baby. Now that’s always nice to here, isn’t it? We were also given the explanation of the testing procedure. It is rather simple I must say. There is a normal laptop computer with a tiny microphone attached to it via a long wire. The microphone is not only a microphone, but a tiny speaker also. A sterile tissue is covering it, in case you’re worrying. Now, the nurse is putting the micrphone in baby’s ear and presses a button on the computer. Sounds are sent to the ear and the returned noises measured. All is done very fast and automatically. There are some wave graphs on the screen, but they don’t hold any meaning for the uneducated like yours truly. It is mandatory that the baby is totally quiet during the test. Luckily Maxim was sleeping through most of it, so we didn’t have any problem.

While Maxim was being tested, I was filling in the form (hard copy unfortunately) with the standard set of information about the baby and his mother – names, addresses, dates of birth for both of them, caretaker and pediatrician names, clinic, etc. There were a few fields about hearing disorders in the family, but I clicked “No” on all of them. I am not aware of any.

The form also had a clearly marked paragraph that explained that data from this hearing test might be accessed by a number of medical bodies. I had to put my name and sign for that I read that. Alternatively I could mark a field saying that I object against such sharing. I am not against it, so I didn’t.

Anyway, three minutes after we started the test, it was done. We could pick up Maxim and leave. By this time I was slightly worried about the bill. See, we don’t yet have the insurance for the kid and all cleaningness and technology in the place were suggesting that the place isn’t cheap. To my relief, I was informed that the test is free of charge for everyone. This center is probably making a huge amount of money by testing other things and taking care of rare hearing disorders. Or they just sell the information as expensive as they can. I don’t care actually. Free, fast, and with good quality of service – what else can I ask for?

Before we left, we were given the certificate confirmed Maxim passing the test. Also we’ve got a paper explaining the procedure and information sharing bit. And if that all wasn’t enough, they gave us a piece of paper with all words a baby is supposed to say before the age of 3. That last paper was all in Greek, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. I am sure we’ll hear all the needed words and sounds just in time…

One of my favourite actions to watch recently is Maxim falling asleep. On a good day it takes me about 20 minutes to calm him down to oblivion. The process seems to be so simple and routine, but there’s so much happenning that it reminds me of all those educational movies on Discovery about animal life.

At first, Maxim is very active. He moves his hands and legs, looks in different directions and his face is always moving and changing the grimace. I sit down in the armchair, take him in my lap, put his head on my left hand and pull a blanket over him. By this time, his legs are moving less and his hands start to calm down. He finds some spot to look at and explores it most of the time. His face starts to relax.

I put my right hand on top of the blanket to add some weight on to him and give him the feeling of protection. I give him some tea from the bottle. He sucks and I can see how his eye lids get heavier and heavier.

His left eye is always first to close. When he cries, when he worries, when he is hungry; and so it is when he falls asleep. His right eye starts rolling up. Maxim makes a few attempts to keep it open, which results in few wrinkles on his forehead. Than he realizes that he doesn’t have enough strength and he stops fighting the temptation.

But he is not sleeping yet. He is still falling. I can see his pupils moving under the eye lids. His hands are still moving a bit, trying to find something to get a grip off. He spends about five minutes in this state.

And than the last stage kicks in. His body softens as he is totally relaxed. His pupils freeze. And just before he totally falls asleep a miracle comes. Left side of his mouth moves slightly and forms a semi-smile. Than it moves back. Than it smiles again. It goes back and forward for a couple of times more and than it stays in the smily position. When it stops there, the right half of Maxim’s mouth just falls down (remember, his head is on my left hand) into a semi-smile of its own. And here we have it – a smile. A brief moment, which lasts just few seconds, but which makes my heart explode in joy. This moment alone is worth all the parenting trouble, all the money spend, and all the sleepless nights multiplied by a million!

And so he sleeps…