Despite Cat’s condition, I made sure I have not forgotten our baby Darius and left him all alone in the nursery.
Cat was not in any condition to perform breastfeeding, so we had to request the nurses to bottle feed him with formula milk instead. We have chosen Similac as we had heard that it is the closest match to the breast mlik.
While I was staying back in the ward the entire last night, and when Cat’s condition seemed slightly more stabilised, I started missing Darius and went over to the nursery to request having him out. The nurse said they would not allow the babies to be out of the nursery at that hour unless it’s for breastfeeding, but the kind nurse made an exception for me anyway.
I pushed Darius out and sat down on the chairs along the ward corridor. He was slightly awakened and eyes were slightly opened. I talked to him and enjoyed every moment with him, observing his expressions and such.
We had been doing prenatal conversation with him since Week20+, so he seemed to be able to recgonise my voice. Everytime he seemd a bit restless or was going to cry, hearing my voice and singing would make him quieten down. He would also try to locate the voice by turning his eyes towards me. It’s an invaluable moment everytime he does that.
This noon, I requested the nurse to push Darius to our ward so that I can learn to bottle feed him. It was a little awkward at first since I only knew how to do it roughly from the antenatal classes. Thankfully he was very cooperative and obedient, and quietly suckle the milk from the bottle. His eyes were opened too when he was suckling. 
In the midst of the bottle feeding, he stopped and though I tried to tempt him to drink more, he was reluctant to do so. I suspected he had dirtied his diapers, as he stopped drinking from Cat during the initial breastfeeding sessions when he soiled his diapers.
Indeed, the diaper was filled with poo, this time slightly yellowish, as compared to the greenish stools (meconium) he had earlier. It didn’t stink, and well, in fact, it has quite a good smell. As I was wiping his poo with the wet baby wipes, more came out so well, it took me quite a well to even clean his buttocks. His poo reminded me of seasame.
Fortunately, he was very obedient during the diaper check too, unlike yesterday, when he cried and cried as I lifted his feet up to clean up. I have noticed that he hardly cried too in the nursery, even when the other babies were screaming at the top of their voices. Probably he knew his mum is going through a tough period and wouldn’t want to add on to our stress.
I had dirtied his swaddle a bit during the diaper changing, so I informed the nurse to change it. Also, Darius only drank less than half the bottle of milk, but the nurse was appraising me for a good job done nevertheless. It sure was a fulfilling task as a parent. I still got a lot more to learn in the days ahead though!
