Sunday, September 18, 2005

Sumisikat na ang araw,
Di pa din ako makatulog.
Harap sa kaliwa,
Harap sa kanan,
Tayo, upo, dapa...

Napapapikit na ang aking mga mata
Ngunit animo'y nabuhusan ng tubig
At napapa-igting muli
Dahil umiiyak ka na naman...

Haay Tricia, nagsusumamo ako,
Matulog ka na please!

After spending an almost sleepless night with my niece, Tricia because her parents had to attend to a family matter, I now have more respect for working moms and yayas out there who takes care of these cute babies day in and day out. As a pediatrician, I have been constantly exposed to these babies for 4 straight years during my residency training but only when I made my rounds in the nursery when I was on duty or if I was assigned to a post at the nursery (these posts changes monthly). I have not tried taking care of a baby for 24 hours, not until yesterday. For those of you who have yet to experience it, the task is very tiring and sometimes frustrating. Perhaps even more so for those who are not trained to interpret a baby's cry and body language to mean something. Take for example the time when I heard Tricia crying high-pitched and was crankier than usual. She must be missing her parents hence the extra crankiness. But what about the high-pitched cry? I bet some would not even notice the difference. Ahh.. might be a case of colic. Inspection of her tummy confirmed my suspicion so I immediately sought a remedy for that. And then night time came, she again became cranky and looked like she was pushing. Hmmm... constipation, I thought. Lo and behold, after helping (you don't want to know the details of how I did this) her do her thing, she quieted down and slept for 3 straight hours. Things are looking good for me. But I guess I spoke too soon because just when my head hit my pillow after feeding her and putting her to sleep for almost an hour, I was getting up again to see what was the matter this time. She just looked at me from her crib as if to say "Wala lang, gusto lang kita gisingin". I tried everything to make her go to sleep again, I tried talking to her, reading to her, singing to her, pleading with her and playing my dad's tapes (which I usually do not listen to) at 3 am because she apparently likes listening to it but to no avail. Just when I was about to give up, she suddenly settled down and slept. By then, it was already almost 7 am.

Now I appreciate the yayas I used to fight with when I was still a little girl. I should've been nicer to them because what they do is not easy. Attending to the needs of a small child who is not even your own and doing a great job at it requires patience and dedication. Now I appreciate more my parents who took care of me by themselves and then still had to go to work the next day. My mom is lucky, my dad was also a hand-on parent. I pity those wives whose husbands think that taking care of a child is only a woman's responsibility. I pity those single moms who doesn't have someone who can help them take care of their child.

Moral of the story:Huwag mag-aanak kung hindi handang magpuyat araw-araw. Unless makahanap ng paraan na maipanganak ang bata na anim na buwan na agad. :-)