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

Big Rain

Alert the media - the weather forecasters were correct - rain and resulting slush today. As Dan said, it is "big rain" and Bucharest is apparently flooded. Dan shuttled us over to the clinic in his car today in two shifts although 3 of us walked back to the hotel about 5:15. Raining and once again thank goodness for my polka dot boots in the slush and puddles.  We left earlier than our usual 6 pm departure as we didn't want to walk back in the rain in the dark.

When we arrived at the clinic today, Caroline walked into isolation and Ionuz was lying in his crib covered in blood. She called for the nurses and turns out he was bleeding from his mouth. We think it is because of him clenching his teeth but the exact diagnosis wasn't clear. Not sure if the doctor came in but the nurses gave him lots of attention and apparently had to clean him up several times today. Poor baby.  And poor Caroline, scared her to death.

Turns out Ema Elena is teething so with some oragel she was a happier camper today although mostly needed to be held.  Marius had some kind of "lock" put in his foot today. It wasn't an IV or a port but similar I guess according to the nurses on our team. Marius, Andrei, Lea Celine and Sami are still in isolation.

We sprung Alina from isolation this afternoon and brought her into the playroom. Earlier in the day, Child Protective Services arrived from Vaslui County to check on her. Dan said it was because they get money from the county for her as she has a handicap certificate. They bought several bags with christmas presents for her altho when I peeked in the bags nothing looked terribly developmentally appropriate for her! Still a nice thought.

Sami is still in isolation in his crib all alone.  I took him out and walked him up and down the hall a bit today. His first few steps were quite tentative almost as if he had forgotten how to walk and then he got back into the swing of things.

Gaby actually stood and "walked" with serious assistance for about 4 steps today. That is progress for her. Daniella is standing and hanging on to things. She went into the mobile room today and hung on to the toys on the activity wall for abubwhile. Petre stood with me holding his hands for about 5 minutes. And we tried little Denisa in a bumble chair or whatever they are called (solid blue plastic) and she sat and looked at a mirror for about 5+ minutes. She has better neck and head control than Roxana.

We are skipping dinner in Barlad tonight as who wants to go out in all this rain. Theortetically the wireless is supposed to be working at the hotel  but I couldn't get it to work so we are still plugged in.

Pix from today below!

Gaby won't eat from a spoon so I gave her one to play with

Caroline and Denisa - unusually quiet

Ema is outgrowing her swing!

Nicoletta and Ema

Look at those eyelashes

Sami

Roxana after Cristi spit up on her

Hiding behind the toys

Denisa sitting up

Alina on the move

Look, I'm standing!

Gaby checking out a twin

Cristi and Petre

Cranky babies

Well, they weren't all cranky but some of our usual always cheerful ones like Petre and Daniela had their moments today. I think Petre is teething - he was better after he got some orajel.  He is the most active in the jumperoo these days.  Daniela was lying down on a boppy looking at the hanging mirror and the next thing we knew she had stood up and was holding onto to the top of the stand, and pretty steadily! She really wants to walk. She isn't crawling per se but scoots on her stomach. I think my niece Lianna did the same thing and look at how smart she turned out to be!

Ema Elena also seemed a little harder to comfort today. I held her quite a bit but then don't want to ignore the others. Her favorite swinging chair no longer swings automatically and vibrating chairs don't seem to do it for her. I also ended up trying 3 different nipples for her 6 pm bottle before finding one she could suck from. She had another massage today but it doesn't seem to be making her any more comfortable. In fact it occurred to me that maybe she is unused to that kind of stimulation and maybe it is hurting her muscles a little bit. I did get a smile out of her when I brushed her hair. After bringing a baby hair brush, not seeing it again, buying one, and not seeing it again, I finally bought one at the store last night and I'm going to take it back and forth to the clinic. A lot of the babies seem to like having their hair brushed although some have bed head that needs water and gel to fix.

Weather still in the 20s today with slightly warmer temps in the 30s and rain predicted for tomorrow.  I can't complain after reading about all the bad weather on the East Coast.

I'm sure there is other news but I'm too tired to think of it! So here are some pix:

 

Roxana and Denisa doing tummy time

 

Karen with Andreea and Roxana

 

Rosie and Alina

 

Ema - a rare smile today

 

Cristi stalking Ema

 

Sweet Gabriela

 

Lea Celine in a new outfit

 

Andrei still in isolation

 

Sami still in isolation

 

Petre in big boy clothes

 

Daniela standing
 

Petre