Part 6: First one post-visit

The following snippets come from an email I sent to my mother after she had visited us in Taiwan. That is the reason for the gap of about a month. She was right here with me, so I didn’t need to send emails over that time. It was a wonderful trip and she got to meet Jay and spend lots of time with us. It was very sad for me when she left and I sobbed saying goodbye to her at the airport.

During the time she was here we hired a nanny, Stella, and my mother got to meet her which was good because she got to see what she was like and how she handled Jay which helped her to feel at peace about the whole thing. I just hadn’t felt comfortable about leaving my son with any of the daycare centers we had visited.

Snippets from August 29th, 2009 (2 months)

As far as Stella goes, I am very happy. She seems really nice and to genuinely love Jay. She is always talking to him and showing him things and sings to him (other songs like nursery rhymes and ones I don’t recognize). She also reads him little books while he is in his swing. I read them to him as well and he reaches out for the pages now which is SO cute and although I know he doesn’t understand, I can see him looking at the pictures. As you know, he loves his pictures. It was so cute because Stella told me that he really likes the picture of the toucan on the cereal box, but she didn’t know what it was called. She asked if it was a bird or some kind of duck. I told her the correct name and she remembered because now I always hear her talking about the “toucan” to him.

Tomorrow I’m meeting Annie for breakfast and I wonder if she’ll notice any changes in Jay. I’m pretty sure she will. He becomes more and more of a little person and less and less like pure baby every day. His smiles are lasting longer and don’t seem to take as much work (both from our side and his – if that makes sense). He is also reaching for things more and when I wear my hair down, he always clutches a handful. I make sure he does his daily "exercises" and Stella also lets him have tummy time on his new play mat. I must say that the new room looks pretty good and the mats are soft and easy to clean. We don’t wear our shoes on them or let the dogs on them. If they do break or get old they are quite cheap to replace so I’m happy about that. Actually, I placed Jay under that bear toy today – when we first got it he hardly cared about it and just didn’t seem to like it that much, but now I’ve noticed that he is actually staring at the bear and reaching out for the dangly things and kicking the ball. Anyway, he was playing there and I got up to put his towel away – it was after his bath and I was giving him some “naked” time to air out his little butt – well, he proceeded to do a huge pee and he was lying on his back at that point so it all seeped behind him and onto his back. Needless to say it was back into the bath for him! At least the spongy tiles were easy to clean.

Today has been a total “catch up on sleep” day. I think Greg and I are just over-tired from a series of late nights and waking up at night. I mean, I think Jay really does sleep well at night and only wakes up for a feed once or twice, but still it breaks up your sleep and although Greg mostly sleeps through it, in the early morning hours I often need him to hold Jay while I go pee or fetch the breast pump so it affects him then, too. I just decided that it was Saturday so I didn’t care if I stayed in my PJs all day. I just slept when Jay slept till around 12 when he was up for a while. Then when he had a longish sleep in the afternoon, I used that time to prepare for my classes on Monday. Greg woke up once or twice to help me, but kept going back to sleep. At around 12 when I got up for good, he was still sleeping so I left him and he woke up later at 4pm! The funny thing was that he said that he felt he could have slept for even longer. He went out and got us Subway for dinner and milk for tea and then came back. We ate and chatted and then decided that we were both actually really sleepy. I was utterly exhausted, but I knew that Jay probably wasn’t sleepy. Greg was so sweet and said that he’d let me sleep for an hour first and then wake me up and then it would be his turn which I thought was a great idea – there is something awesome about sleeping when you know you don’t have the baby with you. It’s like your mind and body can really let go. When I have Jay with me, my subconscious is always aware of him and what he is doing and taking cues from him in terms of when to wake up. I passed out on my stomach which is something I never get the luxury of doing nowadays and I woke up an hour and 45 minutes later (Greg had just let me sleep because he felt I needed it – so kind of him). Anyway, I woke up and took Jay and fed him and now Greg is sleeping, Jay is sleeping in his swing next to me and I am typing a letter to you. I wonder for how long I’ll have the luxury of using both hands.

It was actually quite nice teaching again. The students are all so happy to see me and I’m still feeling “fresh” so none of them have managed to irritate me yet. Ha ha! I have over a hundred students and most of their names I can remember, but for some of them, it takes me a few seconds and I have to wrack my brain to remember. Fortunately, I can use the roster to check. When I came in yesterday one of my students, Erin, was there with her mom. She is a super smart little girl who is already in the last stage and only in Grade 3. Her mom spoke Chinese and she translated for me. Her mom was so excited when I was pregnant and would often give me cake or cookies. I showed her some pictures of Jay. Remember last week I told you that I’d asked my conversation class to write an essay about Jay and his birth. We had discussed it for conversation class that day. The essay was simply entitled “Teacher Emily’s Baby” and they just had to write a short paragraph. Well, they handed them in yesterday and some of them were so cute. Here are some snippets:

This one is Erin’s:
“Teacher Emily has a baby now! I’m so happy because Teacher Emily came back yesterday and told us all about little Jay. He is so cute and he was born on June twenty-fifth. Little Jay’s candy was so delicious. Thank you for the candy! My mother was very excited to see little Jay’s picture. She was so happy. Next time, when little Jay is older, please take him here. I will wait for little Jay.”

Other students:

– “On June twenty-fifth, Teacher Emily’s baby was born. He is a boy called Jay. When he was born, it was late at night. He was born at the hospital. Teacher Emily was happy that her baby was born. She was pregnant before Jay was born. Jay is very cute. She sang and talked to the baby after her baby was born because she felt really happy. She uses the special pillow to make the baby sleep more safely and sleep very well. Teacher Emily showed us his sonogram. It doesn’t look like a baby!”

– “Teacher Emily said she has buy a special pillow, it can make the baby don’t move. Teacher said her dog will eat the baby’s popo. I think this is strange.”

– “Your baby is special because it is handsome and has blue eyes.”

May, who used to be one of my students, sent me a letter via her sister, Belle. This is what she said:

“Dear Teacher Emily
Belle talk me you had a baby. I think you may be very happy, right? Now you are mother. Ya! Belle showed me your baby’s picture. He is so cute. Maybe I can take care with your baby. I could be a baby-sit. Believe me I’m good about take care little baby. I’m so miss you. I’m third grade now. It’s so tired. I always want to sleep.
Take care. From May
P.S. Could you give me your baby’s picture? But don’t close his eyes (in the picture Belle had he was sleeping) because Belle talk me your baby’s eyes is blue. It’s so good. I want.”

And on that funny note let me be off.
Lots of love

Em x