3 Digging trenches / for asparagus / is good for the / muscles and / waiting for the / plants to settle / teaches patience / to those who are / usually in too / much of a hurry.
We got back to the hotel and I was exhausted. I made myself a peanut butter and jam bun, which I had saved from the breakfast buffet, and drank a diet coke for lunch. Rob and Corinne said they would go to the department store, which was about a twenty minute walk from the hotel, to buy water and look around. They were taking Faith with them so that I could take a nap-- wonderful husband and big sister! In addition, Faith was never happy in the hotel room, which seemed to be the case for all the babies. Yulin told us later that they were not used to being confined to one room; that their foster mothers always took them out-- either to the orphanage when they went to work there, or just out with other foster mothers. My own theory is that the babies associated the trauma of their loss with where it happened-- i.e.-- the hotel rooms and had bad feelings when they were there. At any rate, I napped and Corinne, Rob and Faith had a nice walk, ate lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken and attracted a fair bit of friendly attention from the Nanchang people. They told me later that Faith absolutely loved her stroller-- especially when it went over bumps-- and that it was the only time her impassive, largely expressionless face became animated and she'd make noises of excitement. When they got back to the hotel, we drew the drapes, making the room very dark and napped, with Faith in between Rob and I on the bed. Then, we went downstairs to the hotel restaurant, where I had won ton noodle soup. It was the lightest meal I could find and I thought I could eat. It was delicious and Faith loved the chopped up noodles and drinking the broth from a spoon. After dinner, Corinne took Faith and walked her around the hotel in her stroller. By 7:00, Faith was fast asleep and by 8:30, Rob, Corinne and I followed. Faith woke up at 2:30 a.m. for her cup, drank most of it and went right back to sleep. She was still restless-- rolling all over the bed and keeping me awake, but at least she slept and so did Rob. We knew that soon, we'd have to go back to the store to buy baby food and some other things for Faith-- namely shoes. The smallest ones I had brought were way too big and even the small Mickey Mouse slippers kept slipping off. Thus ended our first full day of parenting our daughter.
October 9, 2001: We repeated the same ritual each morning with Faith for the rest of the trip. She'd wake us up between 6:00 and 7:30 a.m., have a cup of her mixture (we didn't start integrating the Enfalac until we got to Beijing), get bathed in the sink in Corinne's room while I showered and got myself ready, get dressed and then be taken around the hallways in the stroller, until Rob was showered and ready to go down to breakfast. We always gave her rice congee, fingers of toast with butter and jam and steamed eggs-- which she loved. She was also eating Saltine crackers like crazy and loved Cheerios, which I sometimes mixed into her cups of "formula." We visited the Nanchang Cultural Museum (fabulous works of art and models of authentic "bridal" suites and clothes.) Outside of the Museum we visited a children's daycare centre. The children sang for us out in the courtyard and then we toured the school. It reminded me very much of daycare centres I'd seen in Canada, but the playground equipment was old and made of steel. The children were delightful and it was fun to watch them. I had put Faith in her Baby Bjorn carrier for this trip, but it just didn't work for us. We were both way too hot and uncomfortable. We both preferred her Piggyback Stroller-- in either mode. I remembered that I'd never liked a carrier for Matthew either when he was a baby and even the "best "carrier available didn't change my mind. We got back to the hotel for lunch and gave Faith a glycerine suppository in our room, because she still hadn't had a b.m. and was refusing to drink juice or eat fruit or veggies. I even tried mixing prunes into her rice congee, but she eyed the brown mush very suspiciously and clamped those lips down until they all but disappeared. Nothing was getting past them! Naturally, the suppository worked just as we were getting back on the bus to go shopping at the porcelain store and I had to run into the hotel restroom and change Faith's stinky diaper. It was a hard lump and I was getting worried, since her diet sure wasn't going to help and I didn't want to keep giving her suppositories.
