I Know We're Hen & Chicks, But Chicken Pox -- No Thanks.

It's 1AM Guangzhou time on Sunday. We made it to the lovely White Swan around 5PM yesterday.

The rooms are much, much smaller than the Jiangxi Hotel in Nanchang, but overall the offerings are much nicer -- big, smoke-free lobby (that isn't freezing cold like the unheated one in Nanchang), cleaner rooms, everything new and shiny, plenty of hotel staff who understand English, large, numerous elevators, etc, more places to go within the hotel during times you're walking your cranky baby. I'm glad to be here.

A Quick Story from the Trip from Nanchang

Libby Doodle Doo was great on the bus trip to the airport, great waiting for the plane, great on the 1-1/2 hour plane ride, great riding in a second bus to get to the White Swan. But somewhere in all of that great behavior, she must have peed herself about 60 times – because she leaked straight through her Huggie, through her onesie and through her trousers. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a diaper leak. I also can’t remember when I’ve seen such a heavy diaper. It was holding about 10 times its weight in water.

I had the fun task of having to strip her down to her birthday suit on the moving bus heading to the White Swan, clean her up and change her without having her wiggle off the seat. This incident made me remember how an experienced mom can change a diaper anywhere – bleachers, hoods of cars, etc. I felt this little challenge was helping me get my mommy-of-a-baby sea legs back – or should I call them “pee legs”?

But What about the Chicken Pox ?

So the big news at the White Swan is that at least 2 babies in the hotel have Chicken pox. One of the babies is in the other part of my agency’s travel groups (My agency had 28 families receive their referrals in early November. Fifteen of them (my travel group) went to the Jiangxi province; the other thirteen (who left a day after us) has spent their entire trip in Guangzhou). I spoke to the mommy of the second baby (from a completely Different agency) on the phone.

How do I know someone from another agency, you ask? Through the Rumor Queen site, I got to know a few women very well. Someone dubbed us “Guangzhou Grannies” because we were, uh, kind of on the mature side of parenthood. We all got matched with our babies in early November. Our plan was to meet up in Guangzhou for a drink on the famous Red Couch at the White Swan. Unfortunately our travel dates varied dramatically – so that never came to pass. But it did turn out that 3 of us – from 3 different agencies – would all be in Nanchang and Guangzhou at approximately the same general time.

I tried to hook up with these other 2 ladies in Nanchang unsuccessfully. We were all in 3 different hotels, two of us had sick babies, and the Nanchang weather did not invite any of us to take a long, leisurely stroll to each other’s hotels.

When I checked into my room yesterday – even before the luggage arrived – I pulled out my phone numbers and called each woman. The first who was staying at the Victory had just checked out to go home – so close, yet so far away. The second – who is here at the White Swan – answered her phone and told me that her daughter has been diagnosed with Chicken Pox. I feel so badly for her family. She’s under some sort of “house quarantine” and may not be able to go home on Thursday as planned.

Getting the Chicken pox in America is really no big deal. Getting it in a country like China is a very big deal. So clearly this is a problem for my Libby Doodle Doo.

But it also may be a problem for me. A while ago my late mom (who was the mother of 6 kids – so maybe not 100% accurate with her memories) told me that I never had the chicken pox or – at least – that she never remembered me having them.

So – just in case – for my sake and Libby Doodle Doo’s sake (and for my sister for that matter -- who has had Chicken Pox, but also has gotten shingles -- the adult version) I have to try to figure out how to avoid getting Chicken Pox while staying here. Beyond these 2 confirmed cases there must be at least a dozen babies who have already been in close proximity to the infected ones – and may be infected themselves. I guess I’ll be avoiding the White Swan playroom when others are there and avoid other babies that I don’t know -- this is going to be tricky.

Any advice on what I should do would be most welcomed.

Libby Doodle Doo Was A Monster Last Night

Libby Doodle Doo had a big problem with sleep last night. She was clearly very, very tired, but she wouldn’t go to sleep. When I put her down after her bottle and a dose of Tylenol (she was a little warm) she screamed bloody murder on and off for at least 15 minutes.

I checked on her and her diaper was already wet. So I re-changed her – thinking that I had discovered the source of her misery.

But when I put her back down again, she kept on screaming. I tried patting her – no good. I surmised that she must be having teething pain and the Tylenol had not yet kicked in. I took her out again and rubbed her upper gum with some Orajel. She seemed fine again until I put her back down –then the banshee crying started again.

I was determined to wait her out. The first two days I had her, Miss Doodle Doo went to sleep without a peep and slept for 11 hours. Since she's been sick we've run to her whenever she makes any noise and scooped her from her crib. We, therefore, have been up with her throughout the night. Have I rewarded her for and encouraged her to have bad sleep behavior? I may have created this monster.

Back to last night -- I have her crib positioned next to my bed and I can put my hand through the bars to pat her back and stroke her cheek. I did that for about 10 minutes but she kept on screaming.

Finally I gave up and took her out of the crib. So Baby -1; Mommy-0.

My sister thinks she is traumatized by the new surroundings and is unsure what’s going to happen next. I did notice that she freaked out a little when my sister was holding her and I went into the bathroom and out of her sight. I also noticed that when I held her she kept checking out that her Auntie was still there. So my sister may be right. I laid down in my bed with my angel and rubbed her belly. The crying stopped. In about 20 minutes she was asleep. Ten minutes later, I transferred her back to the crib. She's been quiet since then (finally fell asleep at about 8:15 pm)

I'll have to watch her in the next few days to see if this bad sleep behavior continues once she feels settled here in Guangzhou.

(BTW -- I found these gorgeous monster dolls on a website called http://www.katesutton.co.uk/)