Midnight dash

Further to my previous posts about the woeful state of post natal care in Hong Kong last night I found myself urgently needing to access it.

Eve has been a bit poo-ey (babies mean you start to create lots of new adjectives) since the green poo incident. Last night she was unsettled all evening, not all that unusual at the end of the day, but after her 11pm feed she started to scream. This was not a "Mum, I'm hungry" scream, or a tired scream but a "blue murder I want to kill someone" scream. I took her off the Boy and started wandering around the flat. H, the fountain of all baby wisdom, came out of her room to tell me that Eve was ill. It being 11pm, and me being very tired, at first didn't think she was - after all she had just fed really well. However, H showed me the depression on the top of her head (a sign of both dehydration and that something isn't very well) and it was like a hollow hole. I showed the Boy and, quick as a flash, we were off to the hospital.

We have a choice of two hospitals. The public hospital is brilliant, one of the best in HK and has an expertise in obstetrics and children. However, going there would have meant a long wait and we were both worried and tired. The hospital where she was born, although private, has a very good emergency unit, the added advantage of having her notes and we would probably be seen immediately. We drove there.

She was seen straight away (there was no line at all - prompting us to repeat over and over "it's not like this at the NHS") and they had all her notes with the doctor within a few minutes and we were out within 15 minutes of our arrival. It transpires that she has, perhaps as predicted, some sort of gastric bug. It is unusual in breast fed babies, but perhaps not ones who already stick their hands in their mouth all the time or whose father is a bit ill with a poorly tummy too.

She has been given some drugs to take and we are keeping an eye on her. She seems to be OK, feeding well, although she has lots of wind. The Boy, H and I are now obsessing about the state of her poo and her feeding habits.

The whole experience was nerve racking, tiring, and expensive (the whole lot came to HKD 1,000 including being charged for parking at the hospital). However, I finally realise that with my own baby no issue is too small and no cost too high to make sure she is OK. It also helps that I have very good health insurance from my company!

The final note to all of this is how brilliant H is. Not only is she excellent with Eve on a daily basis, but she recognised the difference in her cry when the Boy and I were too tired and fraught to react to it, and knew what symptoms to look for and worry about. I feel very lucky to have been blessed with such a great nanny.