March 20: Babies' Medicals and Beijing Zoo

We left really early this morning (7:30 AM) to go to an international clinic to have the babies’ medicals done. It was your typical doctor’s appointment – first we waited in a Greek restaurant and had Chinese coffee and fruit while we waited and filled out, you guessed it, more paperwork. Then we went in smaller groups to the clinic. We waited some more in the clinic and then visited the nurses who weighed and measured the babies. Unfortunately this involved undressing Norah, so the nurses got an earful of her powerful lung action. She weighs about 17.8 kg (hard to tell as she was kicking and screaming so the weight kept changing) – she’s in the 25th percentile for each of head circumference, weight, and height. Then we saw the doctor – she was from Montreal. Turns out that Norah has an ear infection, so we have to give her antibiotics in the hopes that it will clear up in time for the plane ride home. We also have to give her decongestant for her cold. Otherwise, she’s in fine shape – slightly delayed in some things (e.g., she can’t crawl yet), but the doctor said she’d catch up soon. She behaved well for the doctor and she said Norah was good-natured (obviously she hadn’t conferred with the nurses on this!). Five and a half hours later we were all done and headed back on the bus to the hotel. We took 15 minutes to regroup (translation – change diaper, eat Pringles and a protein bar) and a few of us decided to spend the rest of the day at the Zoo.

The Zoo was OK – nothing really special, other than the pandas. The most interesting part was the Special Small Creatures Club (or something like that – I can’t remember exactly, but it was a weird name). You had to pay to get in to this part, but there was a tear in the tent, so we took a peak. The creatures on display were domestic dogs. They had signs for each breed, just like they had signs for the lions, tigers, etc. It was weird to see Cocker Spaniels, Dalmatians, St. Bernards, etc. on display at a Zoo! The other interesting thing is that we seemed to be more interesting to people than most of the Zoo animals! People come up to us constantly. They try to make the babies smile and often tell us to bundle them up better – or just do it themselves. Now, the temperature has been about 18 Celsius for the last couple of days – we still have winter coats and hats on the girls, but that’s not enough for some of the local women. We were warned about this before we left, but experiencing it is another thing entirely. It feels weird to be stared at constantly, have people take your pictures, and touch your babies without asking. I’m sure by the time we leave we’ll be as used to it as Brad and Angelina. Then, just when we’re heady from the fame, we’ll come home.

Norah had a major meltdown in the cab on the way home. She tends to have at lest one of these a day where she is inconsolable for about 10-15 minutes. She just shrieks and flails about. She also tends to choose moments like when we’re in a confined space – e.g., a cab or the bus, so there’s not a whole lot we can do. We were with another couple (Heather and Paul) and their baby (Jocelyn). The poor cab driver started shaking his thermos at us. I think he was saying, “For God’s sake people, give the baby something to eat!” – you can see my Mandarin is getting really good. We made it home and Norah was spent – slept for about an hour. This gave us an opportunity to change her diaper without her screaming. The referral said she was a deep sleeper and we’re happy to say that this is very true in her case.

We actually got take-out tofu last night – a small reprieve from the Pringles, which, as you might recall, we’d already had for lunch. We fed Norah some rice cereal with bananas and she loved it. This helped her sleep a little longer. Doug has been getting up with her at night (this was night 2 where he’s done this) and this has helped with the bonding for him – and has also given me a much-needed break. I still wake up, but my arms get a rest from holding her.

I'll have to post pictures tomorrow - it doesn't seem to be working again tonight.