Another premature girl was born a few days ago (1.5kg) and despite being left to freeze on 2 soaking wet blankets in the ‘cheese counter’, she is now doing well and feeding from her mother. Within my neonatal intensive care/transitional care unit, I have come to the conclusion that the best strategy is to get the baby reunited with the mother as soon as possible as this is the key to their survival. I seem to manage to convince the mothers of the need to keep the baby warm and fed much more easily that I can convince the nursing staff. Problems arise when they need oxygen but to be honest, it is probably better to get them off of this sooner rather than later as they can probably survive on air so long as they are warm but they can’t survive when they are freezing cold and laying in the ‘cheese counter’. The other baby girl, born to the eclamptic woman is also doing very well and is breast feeding. Her mother is also much better and seems to be managing to care for her daughter pretty well. All babies that come through the neonatal intensive care (ie they are sick and I get involved in their care) are wrapped in various multi-coloured knitted blankets sent over from the UK. So if you have ever knitted these and sent them over – many thanks, they really are very useful.
Before I left Gimbie, I took a photo of Jaba, who is now an enormous 2Kg in weight. Actually, he is looking quite podgy for an Ethiopian baby! Here's a series of photos:
Day one: 21st October 2011
I was chatting to Melvin and Sarah on Skype a few days ago and they mentioned that they were just off to Tescos to do the shopping. So it got me thinking that many people will be visiting the various supermarkets to stock up for the Christmas festivities. Here is our local supermarket:
Actually, this is considered to be the most stocked shop in Gimbie as the shop owner has a regular order of goods delivered from Addis. It allows us to get access to all sorts of things like pasta and apple juice. Mind you, the tins of tuna should be avoided as it tastes like, and smells like cat food.
We are now in Addis (again) as we have to have one last attempt at keeping the car here and if that fails (very likely), we will head off for Kenya on Thursday where a friend will keep the car at his house for 3 months. The idea being that we will fly back to Addis and return to Gimbie for 3 months so that we can finish up some of the work that we are doing there and then we will head off to Kenya, pick the car up and perhaps go onwards to Malawi. This part of the plan is unformed so whop knows??
Thankfully, the hotel that we stay in – the Lion’s Den – is a really friendly place and the owner is really helpful. There is a congress on here at the moment and so we were lucky to get a room. When I said this to Bibi (the owner) she said that we were family and she would have let us have her villa if they were full up. So it’s really nice to have somewhere where they are so kind and helpful and where they greet us warmly on our arrival.
One week old
46 days old (6 ½ weeks): 5th December 2011
An enormous 2KG
In an attempt to create more exciting meals, I have been referring to some vegetarian cookbooks (one I bought over and the other my parents sent over) and we had an amazing feast of Rosti, with eggs laid by our chickens and Parma ham that Clara gave us from a previous trip to Addis. So all is improving on the dietary front.
Note the deep yellow yolks – a sign of very well fed chickens. Thanks for the advise of chicken care Andrea. Daisy, however, has taken to layong her eggs in the flower bed. Not sure why but she seems to prefer this option. They are both getting very friendly and want to sit on the veranda with us all the time. This is fine, but thought things were going too far when we found Maisy sitting on the compuiter table in the house!
Good to hear that you are back safely Heidi and Andrea, although I guess it's a bit of a culture shock to go back to work. We miss you ......
Jeremy has just done a whole week on call. Actually, it wasn't as busy as it could have been and he did manage to get a few undisturbed nights. I'll update you on the car tomorrow when we will have our plans more formed. Off to the Greek club now for supper. It'll make a change from Makabe's beans and potatoes (by the way, Heidi, Makabe has got the hang of the need for vegetables as well as potatoes so all looking better on that front).
Dear Karen and Jeremy.
ReplyDeleteHappy to hear that Jaba is 2 kg now! Who is feeding him now and who is preparing food for the little miracle?
Yes is is difficult to come back, there are snow to day, miss the sun.
We are exciting to hear about you and the car! Gimbie or Kenya og Malawi!
Say hallou to all the staff speciell Wasjun and Makabe.
Love from Heidi and Andrè.