From Infant Care to Nannies

Hannah was pulling another fever-level temperature on Sunday evening of about 38.5°C which got the both of us both worried and resigned to that despite our best efforts, our little girl still wasn’t recovering. She’d been going through a string of illnesses that’s lasted for more than a month – it started off with diarrhea, then running-nose, then coughing. Basically, Hannah would be alright if she’s still taking medication: but the instant she’s off it, she’d be ill again.

We paid another visit to our PD last night, and the latter decided that the underlining causes of Hannah’s illnesses needed to be treated – since fevers that is in the fifth running week basically indicate that current treatment methods weren’t working. She wrote up a prescription that was the equivalent of a medicine cocktail, not all of which was going to be sweet-tasting (you can imagine how babies would take to bitter drugs).

When we got back home, we got Plan B in motion too. Ling was weary of having Hannah returned to what she was calling “the germ pool” at infant care, and we’ve been getting in touch with nannies around the Sengkang and Punggol areas. We called up a nanny that was referred to us by Ling’s ex-colleague with to see if she would be alright helping take care of our girl on an ad-hoc basis starting tomorrow on Wednesday. It was indeed a blessing that the nanny was able to at short notice, and moreover was one that Ling was very comfortable talking to.

Admission regulations at the infant care require a month’s notice for child withdrawal, so it’s going to be additional costs for the nanny assistance on top of the infant care fees. But looking at the PD consultation and medicine costs that we’ve chalked up already in the last couple of weeks – and I think it’s already in the four digit figures – frankly, the costs of engaging nanny assistance right now is peanuts compared to it. Lentor parents are abroad on vacation right now, so when they’re back we’re going to see if we can get their help on selected mornings too.

All said and done, despite that our girl’s not been well, we’re still grateful for the fact that she’s still her happy self, eating and (mostly) sleeping well. And for that, we’ll have to thank the many friends and family members who’ve prayed for us.:)