Many years ago when I was still young, I had longed for a child. However, as I got married late, the waiting time for the wish to come true was much longer than what I could expect in those early years. When I was in my early twenties, I only felt a little jealous for my friends who got married early and had children, whereas my mind had been no rest since I was over thirty years old. Envy rose in my heart when I knew that almost all friends that grew up along with me had become parents. Some of them shared with me the experience of how a child had changed their lives. I was sensitive when a friend in a WeChat group said, “At the time when I cuddled my newborn daughter, I felt the whole world had become different. “
I was so curious to know how the world could be different, that when my son Ivan was born I cuddled him with my hands. At that moment I was very delighted as my wish for many years had come true. That day I had been 35 years old. My wife had some infection during labour, and she stayed in the hospital for a few days with the baby. I drove to the hospital every day in the morning and came home late at night. I had never been that weary in my life before. This was especially true when I was told that the baby’s jaundice was above a certain level and blue light treatment was required. The midwives helped the baby to wear glasses to prevent the eyes from being damaged by the blue lights and put the baby into a box where blue lights were turned on. My heart was heavy when I saw the baby lying in the box and tried all his best to get rid of the glasses. Fortunately, this only lasted for a day and a night. At length, a midwife notified us that my wife and the baby could go home. I sighed and thought the hardest time had been over, but in fact, new challenges had just begun! As soon as we left the building of the hospital, we found that the baby was too small to be able to settle on the car-seat. It was fortunate that there were a few taxies parking on the street. We waved for a taxi driver and then my wife, the baby and my mother took the taxi home and I drove home alone.
Ivan had made me no sleep since then. He seemed haven’t developed the concept of the day and the night. He was awake frequently at night, requiring someone to cuddle him, or even to sing to him. Breastfeeding was another challenge, as it took quite a time for the baby to develop the skills to suck milk. Despite weary, it was a very pleasant experience to see the little one grew up day by day. For the first few days at home, there were nurses coming to my home to have injections for my wife, and there were also some visiting home nurses for the baby. The GP (general practitioner) phoned us to have an early checkup for the baby. “He still has jaundice.” The doctor said, “It is better to have a blood test for the bilirubin level.” My heart became heavy, recalling the memory when the baby was at the hospital and had the blue light treatment. We then went to the pathology centre. A nurse cut a small wound on the baby’s heel and squeezed blood to a small tube. Ivan cried terribly, making my heart almost broken.
In the following day, we were told that the bilirubin level was within the normal range and no treatment was required. However, the baby’s skin was still yellow. We were suggested to let the baby have another blood test some weeks later, and this time the bilirubin level was still within the normal range. “Maybe it was not jaundice. ” I said to my wife. “If not, why he is that yellow and dark?” My wife said. Then I said some people in our two families were also with dark skins, attempting to conclude that Ivan’s skin was congenitally dark too.
We lived in Indooroopilly when the baby was born. The unit that we lived in had a very old and dirty carpet on the floor. As Ivan grew up, sooner or later he would crawl on the ground. In addition, there was no air-conditioning in our bedroom, and the baby would be too hot when the summer came. Considering these, we decided to move back to the house that I purchased in a northern suburb. Then in August when Ivan was over two months old, we moved home to the house. This was an old wooden house built in the 1950s. The house itself was small but the land was over six hundred square meters, which required much gardening work. There was a space that my mother could plant vegetables and melons there. There was a swimming pool at the back of the house, but the machines such as the filter had been broken. Not far away from the house was a primary school where Ivan could go for when he grew up. Next to the school was a big park, where we regularly took Ivan there in the late afternoon.
Ivan grew up day by day. He gained weight quickly. The yellow and dark colour in his skin had gradually eliminated, resulting in very fair skin. His cheek was so smooth that whenever I saw it I would have a desire to kiss it. Raising a child at this stage had its challenge compared to when he was born. He had no longer been satisfied by being cuddled and required someone to cuddle him and walk around. Breastfeeding had no longer been enough to provide all the nutrition he needed, and thus we began to give him some other food. I was impressed by the first time that we gave him rice cereal. He seemed not willing to eat and was hard to swallow. But after some attempts, he began to show signs that he liked what we gave him to eat. From the time he was born, Ivan weed and pooed normally. He pooed every day. However, as long as he started to eat food, he pooed every several days. There was a time that he hadn’t pooed for five days. We worried about that before he made a big poo on the nappy. When we saw the poo, we were as happy as we found some golds on the ground.
Now Ivan has been six months old. He has begun to crawl on the ground. We had a mat with colourful pictures, which we placed on the ground of the living room with some toys for him play. Recently we bought a baby playpen to surround the mat. We called this region the rainbow village, and this was Ivan’s little world. Originally I worried he might not like to be in the playpen as it restricted his space of activity, but my worry was nonsense. He liked to be inside it. We couldn’t use an adult’s psychology to view a child’s interest.
I have never thought the world became different when I cuddle Ivan, who is my little son. However, my life has been dramatically changed because of him.
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