A day of technological breakthroughs and breakdowns

by Peter
(Bucharest)

Organic Baby Suit

Victor slept badly last night, eating almost hourly, and so by the time the morning arrived, while I was fresh and awake and ready to roll, my wife and my mother - in - law were very tired! I really do love his little organic body suit though - and he suits it very well.

We did try to brave using the baby weighing scales and when they started to give us negative numbers, i.e he weighed less after a feed than before a feed and I had check with Irina to find out who was feeding who, we decided that the ultimate in French technology was actually a load of expensive plastic rubbish and so took it back to the shop later in the day - only to discover that in Romania, if someone sells you something which does not work, they do need to take it back, replace it or refund you - but send you to a service centre to check it... who knows how long this will take to do! Nae, my father in law was desperately trying to convince us it worked using apples - but none of us were convinced it worked on anything human and so he lost and on Monday we will head to the depot to see what can be done. I have also emailed the French company to see if they can organise a quicker exchange for me.

I chatted to a friend in England and apparently he thought that weighing a child after every feed was a bit much, but the reason we weigh him is to check how much breast milk he has eaten. Apparently even the French are not so precise, and so I have no idea where the Romanians got this idea from! I just go with the flow.

The next piece of technology which we bought today was a humidifier - which looks like a seal, but spouts cold smoke from his nose - as our house is 35% humid and baby needs 50%... this too almost got sent to the cellar, as I brought it home and set it up - forgetting there was any other setting than max - so it just spouted a huge cloud into the room, which of course instantly became like rain and flooded Irina's beloved jewellery cupboard... I did move it into the bathroom, but due to our electrics, if you want the plug in there to work, you need to switch on the light.

In the end I got the machine under control and it is back with Victor. I can now maintain a humidity of 40% - the downside is as it gets more humid, the apartment feels hotter!

The next purchase was the CD player - it took me ages to find one which was not black. Every single one I could afford was black. Finally I found a cheap and cheerful one which was blue, and so I was able to buy it and bring it home - I now have classical music playing to the child - but need more - which is where Susy is about to help me!

The final purchase of the day was the pushchair with extra large wheels - which is great as Romanian pavements and roads are not the best kept roads in Europe. The problem is it is huge, and so we are going to borrow another chair for our countryside trips. We also need to now clean out the garage, so it can live there as Irina can't carry it upstairs on her own, and if we leave to downstairs, we are certain to find anything which can be removed, will be - and the rest will be covered in dodgy stains where people coming into the downstairs hall will use it as an extra chair (one visitor peed in the hall today - to give you an idea of the quality we are up against! (We had to make a proper sealed in barrier to stop people getting into the cellar to use it as a toilet)).

Victor is fine - his eye is clearing up - with lots of screams as Irina and Doina added the ointment. He is getting more and more alert however, and is a joy to have in the house as I and Doina sing traditional songs to him.

The nurse came today, and helped bath Victor and give him another amazing massage - which left his skin a fiery red - but he slept so well afterwards, and fed really well, that I am sure he enjoyed it - he certainly did not cry. She also tested the rubbish baby weighing scales and decreed that we should not use them - which just added to our evidence.

The day wound up nicely - Victor had a feed and a long sleep. We are all getting into the routine of things. I settled down and was allowed to do some ironing and seem to have improved - so I have another set of jobs I can do each day. I also discovered I had missed a few people from my list for sending this blog address to and the photos which go with it, so if you are a new reader, I hope you read on with us, as I have no idea where this story is going to take me.

Peter