Daniela's 1st Birthday!

Yes, today is Daniela's first birthday celebrated with a special outfit courtesy of Caroline, a cake we bought at Berlin last night and a party in the pre-school room in the afternoon. The guest list was somewhat limited due to so many kids being sick and in isolation but I believe the guest of honor had a lovely time - see pix below.

Today was also hair cutting today for some of the children. Not Dan cutting with a razor as I've witnessed before but Stella, an aide, cutting with scissors. Lea Celine sat perfectly still while Gabriela cried throughout and Paula screamed bloody murder. You'll see after pix of Celine below butI ddin't get a change to get an after picture of Paula or Gaby.

There was a more complicated head shaving procedure that went on with Maria Cleopatra. I don't know if they have to shave around her head wounds or what but there was the razor, gloves, and all kinds of sanitary stuff out for her procedure.  I visited her before and afterward and didn't notice any big difference as she doesn't have much hair anyway.

A different doctor came this afternoon to the clinic and checked out a bunch of the kids. Mobile Andreea got released from isolation but Twin Andreea, baby Roxana, Marius, Andrei, and Sami are still in isolation in rooms and Ion, Victor and Daria Roxana are in isolation off the nurse's station. I spent some time with everyone today but it is hard to spread three of us around the kids in so many different places. There were a bunch of aides there today though so that helped.

Lea Celine spent some time in the non mobile room and sat in the "kicker" bouncy chair. She was really moving her legs in it which is good for her as I think the doctors want her to be getting more leg strength after her last orthopedic surgeries.

I'm sure there is some other news but it eludes me - oh yes, the weather report. Fog all day and rain this afternoon leading to a muddy path for the walk back to the hotel tonite. Only 2 days left!

 

Daniela in her special outfit

 

Party time!

 

Her cake

 

With Malika the pre school teacher

 

The birthday girl with Rosie

 

Paula hanging out...of a crib in Maria's room

 

Andreea chewing on my camera case

 

A smile from Maria Cleopatra

 

Sami is still in isolation in his crib

 

Ion happy to see a visitor in isolation

 

Celine post-haircut

 

Celine in the kicker chair in the non mobile room

 

Gaby did not enjoy her haircut

 

Roxana

  

Andreea in the isloation room

 

Roxana in the isolation room - she likes the monkey

 

Andrei and Marius exploring in their isolation room

 

Andrei and Andreea taking her sheet off her crib in the isolation room

 

Marius still doesn't feel well

  

Andrei in isolation but seems to feel better

 

Roxana and Petre playing

 

Mihaela

Hot and Cold

We spend the days inside the playroom sweating and then bundle up to go outside. The Romanians would say that is why I caught a cold, or that it is because I wash my hair in the morning. Forget about those germs. Anyway, I am feeling better but did buy some cold medicine at the pharmacy tonite when we went in to Barlad for shopping and dinner.

It was my turn to write about today in our team journal and I decided to change it up and wrote about the day backwards starting with tonight and then going to this morning. I'm not sure my brain is up to repeating that in this posting.

We did have a nice dinner in Barlad at a restaurant I hadn't been to before called Garamonda. We went to the Berlin market in the northern part of town to get a birthday cake for Daniela for tomorrow and the restaurant was near there. I had pizza vegetal and the vegetal included red peppers, olives, mushrooms, corn, carrrots and peas. It was actually quite tasty. Before going to dinner in addition to going to the farmacia we went and bought two plastic garbage cans for the clinic. The head nurse is giving us a list of more things to buy tomorrow so I can spend all my donation money before I leave.

Daria Roxana was back at the clinic when we arrived this morning. At first we thought maybe she didn't have her surgery because her cleft palate lip looked the same. We found out that they did the palate repair first rather than the usual doing the lip repair in the first surgery and the palate repair in a second surgery.  Of course she is in the isolation room near the nurse's office along with Victor and Ion.  Ion is up to his old tricks blowing kisses and trying to take his sleeper off. It was pinned when I went in there after lunch.

Found out that today (or was it yesterday?) is Maria Cleopatra's first year anniversary of being at the clinic. Apparently it is unusual for a baby with hydrocephalus to live this long. Her birthday is July 26, 2008 so that makes her almost 19 months old if I'm doing my math right. I was visiting with her after lunch when they brought the 3:00 bottle in and I had a hard time feeding her and went and got Caroline. When you get the nipple in her mouth most of the milk runs down her chin rather than going inside. Caroline said she had the same problem.

Twin Andreea was in isolation in her crib this morning but they let us take her into the playroom this afternoon. She has had a really runny nose so I guess she has the same cold the other babies (and I) have. This afternoon a bunch of the babies were shuttled one by one wrapped up in winter coats to the main hospital in front to see the visiting doctor. It was a bit unclear to me why the doctor didn't just come back to the clinic building instead of the aides walking back and forth with sick babies in the cold. Ours is not to reason why.

Cristi stood for longer than I've ever seen him stand today. I "walked" him over holding his fingers to see Petre in the jumperoo. Petre is his buddy and the only other boy in the room. Crisit stood there looking at Petre for the longest time even when I let go of his hands and he was just kind of leaning against my legs. A few times his knees started to buckle and rather than doing his usual dropping to the floor he straightened right up. Usually he is on his back on the floor laughing to himself or hanging on to the bouncy chairs looking at the babies and it is hard to get him engaged doing something else so these small steps are noticeable.

And Gaby who likes to put her chin and face on a ball while you pound on it (so she can feel the vibrations) actually took to banging on the ball herself a few times today. Haven't seen that before either! Also, Denisa sat in the bumper chair for quite awhile looking at twin Roxana and everyone around her.





I visited the mobile room but neglected to bring my camera so no pix of those kids today. I did my usual bouncing them on my legs and threw Alina up in the air (she weighs 12 pounds) and danced around with the others.  Alexandra gets right in line for these events as she loves being jiggled and tickled. Apparently her leg is bothering her as she hasn't been walking.

It is interesting to watch these kids progress and then sometimes take a step or two backwards or go through "stages."  For example, Daniela who was always smiling in October is now falling apart and crying more - I think when she gets tired or hungry but also when she needs attention.  And Lea Celine another usually happy camper is also needing more attention and starting to rival Paula for loudest screamer in the group. (Paula still wins that one.) 

Enough updates and here are some pix.

 

Yesterday, the drive up to the clinic

 

Ion, happy to be "home"

 

Denisa and Roxana (did I post this already?)

 

Gaby and playroom

 

Denisa with the Lamb Chop puppet I brought trip before last

(Remember, Shari Lewis?)

 

Dan feeding Alexandra

  

Nurse Vali in the isolation room

 

Cristi bouncing Roxana in the bouncy chair

 

Rosie and Gabriela

  

Denisa sitting pretty

 

Rosie and Roxana

 

Roxana

 

Blurry picture of Andreea - she blinks when the flash goes off so I turned off the flash

 

Outside the gate to the clinic - a horse patiently waiting

 

My slippers and colorful socks (socks courtesy of Paula Elliott!)

The Path Report

The day doesn't start when the alarm goes off or with breakfast. It starts with "what is the condition of the path we take to the clinic?" This morning snow had started to fall again and the mud had frozen so it was actually a pretty easy walk.  We arrived to find out that Ionut and Ema had both gone to the hospital because of fevers, and for Ema, seizures.  Dear, sweet Ema Elena - I suspect she won't be back before our last day on Friday. Maybe we can get into the hospital to see her and Ionut. Normally only family are allowed to visit but Miahela the Country Manager (and our team leader's wife) knows someone at the hospital and has gotten volunteers in before.

On the subject of hospitals, Ion came back today.  He is in the isolation room with Victor.We were happy to see him and he seemed very happy to see us! We held him and played with him and he kept saying "mama." He remembered how to blow kisses - one of his favorite things.

Daria Roxana who left for cleft palate surgery is expected back today but hadn't returned when we left at about 6:15 pm. She was coming by ambulance from Iasi, about 2 and a half hours north of here.

We had a good morning. Alina and Lea Celine visited the non-mobile room for awhile. Celine loves the babies. I held Denisa sitting on the floor and Celine gave her hugs and pats on her head and kisses. Too cute. Alina on the other hand smacked the twins once or twice. I think it was by accident...or not. No major harm done.

I told the twins today that Autnie Cora and Auntie Karen loved them and we gave them as much attention as we could.  Andreea rolled from her tummy to her back (if I have them straight) and they had twin time and generally did ok. I think Roxana ate better than Andreea at one feeding and vice versa at another.

Gaby wanted nothing to do with the soup bottle at 9 but dipped her fingers into the yogurt at 10:30 (she won't eat from a spoon.) I had bought a few baby biscuits and we tried to feed them to a few of the kids. Lea Celine chewed away at some of it and Gaby gummed it.  The rest weren't interested so they will go to the mobiles. When the milk bottle came at noon Gaby downed it in record time. Petre didn't finish his bottle so I offered it to Gaby but she didn't want it.

Petre can stand if you hold his fingers. He actually is pretty steady on his strong little legs. He is so close to crawling.  He can sit by himself but usually gets all excited and loses his balance.

Marius was getting a nebulizer treatment when he arrived this morning. He and Andrei are still in the isolation bedroom but were let lose in walkers this morning, along with Sami.  I'm not getting to see as much of Marius and Andrei as I would like. It is hard to go into their room because when you leave they pitch a fit.

I visited Maria Cleopatra in her room with Daniela and then with Gaby who were both interested in the mobile above Maria's bed. Then, Caroline managed to lift Maria (not easy with the weight of her head) and brought her into the non-mobile room. Lea Celine was very interested in her as was Petre.  I think Maria was noticing activ ity in the room - it is hard to tell because of the way her eyes roll around in her head but she seemed to be responding.

Denisa spent some time in the "kicker" seat where if the baby kicks the screened end of the seat with his/her feet a song plays. Well, she did it! More than once! Not bad for 3 months old. Rosie discovered that if Gaby put her face up to the screen on the bottom of that seat and Rosie wiggled her hand on Gaby's face on the other side that Gaby thought that was just hysterical. Not sure I've ever heard her laugh that loud and long.

We had Mihaela in the room this afternoon and Alexandra and Alina in the room for a shorter time. Mihaela  actually seemed to know how to use Rosie's camera - definitely for looking at pictures. At one point she took a picture of her tonuge (pic not on this blog!)  Then our little gymnast Mihaela climbed up between the two sinks.

The non-mobile room was like an oven. Fortunately Rosie figured out how to turn down the radiator. I had the mask pulled over my nose and mouth so as not to transmit cold germs so that made it even hotter for me. I probably could have drank the whole liter bottle of water at dinner.

BTW, for those of you who have read the first two Stieg Larsson books, I have now read the 3rd book! It is called "The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Next" or something like that and Rosie had it in paperback. It is a really long book so I may not even finish all of the books I brought - all 10 of them.

Here are some pix! (For some reason not all my pictures are uploading to my computer. I took some of Ion but they didn't upload. Will try again tomorrow.)

 

Alina visits the non mobile room

 

Gaby gnaws at a biscuit

 

Gaby kissing Rosie

 

Gaby likes the toy that makes noise and flashes lights

 

Petre discovers his feet

 

Lea Celine makes friends with Maria Cleopatra

 

Petre jumps on the red ball (the blue one sprung a leak)

 

Alina admiring herself

 

Andreea

 

Maria watches Petre in the jumperoo and vice versa

  

Sami cruising while on leave from isolation in his crib

 

Denisa doing tummy time

 

Mihaela between the sinks

 

Mihaela using Rosie's camera

 

Caroline and Alex

Sun!

No pix today (Sunday) as I didn't go to the clinic since I have a cold. I should be ok to go tomorrow as long as I wear my mask. Rosie and Caroline did for this morning and discovered that Ionut and Ema Elena went to the hospital. We think Ionut was running a fever and no doubt went for that reason. We are not sure if Ema went for a problem or for a regular check up.  And today is Ema's birthday! Not that Ema knows it but still Caroline had brought a special outfit for her. I suspect we will have a party for Daniela's first birthday on Wed. the 17th and once again Caroline will dress a birthday girl in style.

I stayed in bed this morning and Rosie was kind enough to bring me breakfast. By early afternoon I was feeling better and with the SUN shining I went for a short walk. A lot of the snow has melted but of course that means the path to the clinic is MUD. Once again, I'll be happy to have my polka dot boots tomorrow. Also glad to have Karen's pretty purple scrub top that means I won't have to wash out scrubs in the sink quite as often. They do our wash once a week but scrubs rarely last for more than a day and I only brought 3 sets.

We had dinner by candlelight in the dining room last night, at least for most of the meal, as the power kept going off and on. It was windy but I'm beginning to think the hotel's electrical work leaves something to be desired.  When they fixed the light in our room they only put one bulb in and now it is hard to read. Hope to get that resolved tomorrow.

Caroline and Rosie are teaching me about downloading movies and watching tv shows online. You can't go to abc.com or sites like that because you can't download if you are out of the US but there is a site called cucirca.com where I hope to watch the Grey's Anatomy shows I've missed!

More kid news and pix tomorrow.

Saturday, Feb. 12th

I was too tired to post last night and too tired to think of a clever title for this post today. My tiredness last night could be partly due to the small glass of Romanian brandy I had at dinner. The owner of the hotel wanted to thank all of us for our work and our patience with not having internet for a week so gave those who wanted them a free drink!

I have a slight cold I think so that must be affecting my stamina. Still, I had enough energy to go to the clinic this morning with Caroline to see the babies. We took all the non-mobiles into the playroom, plus Alexandra and managed pretty well, even at feeding time. So hopefully next week with 3 of us we will be fine. Also stepped in to spend some time with Maria Cleopatra as I knew she would be missing her BFF, Pat.  I'm sure the twins Andreea and Roxana are also missing their BFFs Cora and Karen. And I know the aides are missing Karen who helped with the diaper changing!

Andrei's mother visited yesterday. She looked pretty young. He is still in isolation with Alina, Lea Celne and Marius and Sami is in isolation in his crib still. Also Ion is still at the hospital. Hope he returns before we leave.

Before leaving the clinic this am, we went into the isolation room to feed Ionut and Victor. Victor didn't take too much of his bottle. He has flaccid cerebral palsy and is just so floppy.  Lucky he is little right now and easy to hold.

Yesterday at lunch time the light bulb in our hotel room shorted out.  Our team leader Dan spent part of lunch trying to fix it but couldn't get it completely fixed. So we had a bulb hanging from a wire last night and got it fixed for real today. The really good news is that Dan couldn't get the wireless to work in our room so just moved the router to our room. So now Rosie and I can both be on the internet at the same time.

Here are some pix. I tried to load all my pictures to facebook this afternoon but am not sure I was completely successful. My team mate Caroline Ruhl has great pictures posted at her facebook site as well as on her blog (tutovababies.blogspot.com) if you want to see more baby pix.

 

Karen and twins on Karen's last day

 

Ema Elena in polka dots

 

Cristi entertaining himself

 

Caroline with Alina playing baby

 

Petre

 

Gabby kissing Rosie

 

Mihaela

Gaby with red bow and yogurt

 

Denisa in pre-Valentine's Day clothes

 

Roxana in pre-Valentine's Day clothes

 

Cristi and Petre

 

Marius still in isolation, the walker helps

 

Petre and Denisa

 

Lea Celine, also still in isolation