At 9:20, we met with our guide downstairs from our hotel lobby. The ride to the registration office took about 30 mins. Once we got to the registration office, my husband and I were looking for a little boy crawling on his knees in the playroom on the 3rd floor. Our guide told us, there he is! My husband and I looked around and we didn’t see any little boy crawling anywhere. We saw an older boy about 2 to 3 years old and a young infant female riding on one of the mini seesaw. Our guide said he is the one in the yellow suit running around! My husband and I were amazed that our 13 month old boy was already running! The director of the Wuhan orphanage said that he has been walking since he was 11 months old.
His yellow suit made him look like he was going to go skiing somewhere. All the layers and layers of clothes they put on him made him look bigger than he actually is. During winter time in China, our guide said that the parents with young infants always add layers and layers of clothes. But the weather in Wuhan is actually warm for us. When I felt our son’s head, back and hand, he was sweating!… and of course his sweat may have to do with him running around all over the place.
My husband and I tried to introduce ourselves to him but whenever we do, he runs off and just keeps on running and running like Forrest Gump. He just doesn’t stop running. 🙂 He was making me and my husband sweat running after him.
While we were there, I asked questions like how often he eats, does he sleep normally on his back, stomach or side, what does he like to eat, was he fed this morning, how do people call him, etc. Our guide translated my questions to one of the caretakers at the registration office. Currently, he likes to be called Fanfan. But we need to get him used to being called Nathan.
While driving back to the hotel room, he actually fell asleep on my lap in the van. When we got to the hotel room, I placed him in his crib. He slept for about 30 mins in the room. Once he woke up, the room was very unfamiliar to him. When he noticed he was in a different place, that is when he started crying! Good thing our guide helped us on how to keep him calm.
Since he was sweating in those multiple layers of clothing, I decided to give him a bath. First I took out his hat. Secondly, I removed his buttoned sweater. Thirdly, I removed another sweater. Fourthly, I removed his shirt. Next, I removed his padded pants with an opening between the pants. Then I removed another pants! Once I removed the last pants, I noticed that his diapers looked weird. It reminded me of what the sumo wrestler wears. It was a diaper in the middle but on the side of the diaper it was a rope that was tied in a knot to keep the diaper from slipping off.
Once I got all his clothes out, we gave him a nice bath. He was still crying at first but once in a while he would stop and look at our funny faces that me, my husband and our guide were showing him 🙂 So yeah we all cramped ourselves in the tiny bathroom to help him calm down.
After his bath, I did my first diaper change! It wasn’t hard at all. He is an active baby but he didn’t make it difficult for me to change his diaper. Then I put him in a new clean sweat pants and clean shirt I brought from home. Even when I removed his old clothes and put him in clean clothes, it wasn’t difficult at all. I thought I would have a hard time doing that.
Once he was all clean and wore his clean clothes, he was walking everywhere. He is such as curious baby. He can play and entertain himself. When he picks up something that he shouldn’t be holding or when he attempts to go inside the bathroom, he would actually listen to me when I say No. When I walked into the bathroom cleaning his bib, he would actually just stand outside the bathroom and smile. Then he runs off and play elsewhere.
He loved this cookie puff snacks I also brought from home. He loved it so much that he wouldn’t stop eating it. I tried to give him something else like pureed banana with rice cereal but he wasn’t interested. But at least he drank his milk formula.
After our guide left us alone with our baby, he was still just walking and curiously looking at the things inside the room. The hotel even supplied us toys that he can play with and his favorite so far is the rattle because it makes a noise. Those toys really kept him busy for a long while.
My husband and I started to get hungry a bit. But we wanted to buy a stroller first so that we don’t have to keep holding him. He weighs about 21 lbs and I couldn’t hold him long while we walked on the street. Our guide gave us directions to this mall which was walking distance. The mall actually was quite nice. On the 7th floor, they sold baby items. We decided to just get a cheap stroller here. After we bought the stroller, he wanted to actually go in it. I was glad he didn’t make a fuss when we strapped him into the stroller. He just loved riding in it. Again, he was very curious about everything… about the people, toys, elevator, etc. We just had McDonalds there for late lunch.
After we came back to our room, the place became unfamiliar with him again. He got quiet. I was like ‘oh oh, he will cry again.’ I gave him his milk again and he drank more of it. But he was still quiet. He was sitting on my husband’s lap and didn’t mind when my husband was hugging him. But again, our son was still quiet. Then after 15 mins in the room, he started to cry. I thought perhaps his diaper was wet. I checked his diaper and he needed a change. So yes today it was my second diaper change! I will make my husband change his son’s diaper next time. 🙂
Even though I changed his diaper, he was still crying. I can tell he was sleepy though. So I carried him and rocked him a bit and he fell asleep! He sleeps pretty quickly.