Something Box.

If I were a guy, this post would’ve been called “Nothing Box”, but I’m a girl so I don’t have a Nothing Box in my brain. (Wait, there wouldn’t even be a post like this if I were a guy…)

Looking after babies for 11 hours a day (when I’m on duty, at least) leaves me with a significant amount of time to ponder about… life. So since I’ve been doing so much more thinking than you have (just because I have more time to do so), I thought it’d be nice if I shared all my answers to life’s deepest questions with you.

Just kidding. My brain cannot handle such profound thoughts. So I’ll just share some random things that go through my mind while I hold babies :) and while I’m at it, some random incidents too.

Random incident #1 – I was holding little L, and because of the way I was carrying him, his arm was behind me. He started grabbing at my t-shirt, but in doing so was kinda poking me, and I started to giggle…

Random thought #1 – Wow, even a 5-month old baby can tickle me...

Random incident #2 – I was feeding the older babies cereal for breakfast while Lisa held a smaller baby, and we were talking for a long time. Eventually I finished feeding the older ones, so we both went to sit on the couch – each holding a baby as we continued our conversation.

Random thought #2 – Lisa! This is what we’ll be like in like, 10 years! When we meet up again we’ll be carrying each other’s babies and sitting around drinking tea and chatting!
(At this point, we both got extremely excited… but we realised that we had to first get married.)

Random incident #3 – There are 3 particular babies who puke a lot, especially after being fed. On this particular day, 2 of them were lying on the floor side by side, and every other minute, they’d puke. I really do not exaggerate when I say every other minute – they did puke that much.

Random thought #3 – Technically, it wasn’t a thought, but it broke my heart every time I had to wipe up baby puke from their clothes/the floor/their faces… And mind you, I had to wipe it up a lot of times.

Random incident #4 – There are usually 3 people on a shift, and Lisa (not the MDT Lisa) was working in the isolation room while Mackenzie and I were outside handling the 12 babies. We fed the big boys their baby food first, and later when we were supposed to give the younger babies their bottles, one of the big boys started screaming because he wanted to be carried, and it was almost as if his scream was contagious. Once he started, 3 other babies began wailing, and having 4 wailing babies out of 12 in a living room really isn’t the most pleasant experience.

“Stressful” isn’t a good enough adjective to describe the whole situation. I was frustrated as I failed miserably at propping up the bottles of 2 little babies, because they kept tugging at the towels holding their bottles up, and each time the teats slipped out of their mouths, they would start screaming/crying. (It’s like putting an M&M in your mouth and then having it taken out before it melts, or being given KFC but not being allowed to lick your fingers after that, you know? You know?!)

Random thought #4 – As more babies started fussing, I got increasingly agitated, and tried my best to remain calm as I fought a losing battle. (Wah wah wah, drama sia…) But what I realised was that it’s easy to enjoy looking after babies when they are smiley and giggly and well-behaved, but it takes real love to be patient and caring when they’re shrieking the house down and pulling your hair out (or causing you to want to pull your hair out).

I really do love the babies I care for; when they’re making my day with their toothless grins, and when they’re decreasing the days of my life by bawling simultaneously. The romanticism of looking after babies 11 hours a day is fading (or maybe it’s faded), and I’m starting to love what I do for what it is, rather than because I’m excited to be here and do something I’ve never done before :)