Today marks the start of a new routine for Darius and us as he begins his first full-day session at his cc.

Since March this year, Darius has been on half-day sessions, in preparation for the inevitable arrival of today. Six months of preparation was not what we had planned for initially, but given his familiarisation with the environment, friends and teachers there, we hoped he would face minimal distress during this transition.

Besides changes to our schedules and timings, Catherine and I also had to make other preparations before he was to embark on today’s journey. For instance, additional clothes/towels and cloth diapers had to be packed into his small backpack for the longer hours. New essential items like his milk bottle, powder container, cup and toothbrush had to be packed and brought along too.

Furthermore, each of these items had to be individually labelled so that the teachers wouldn’t mix up his items with those of others. This is especially important during periods like this when infectious diseases such as HFMD is common.

Catherine sewing Darius' name on his towels and clothings

Tagging Darius' items using a label machine we bought long ago

This morning, I brought Darius to school as usual, gently reminding him on the way that he was needed to stay longer at his cc, though I wasn’t sure if he had understood what I said.

When I left him with the teachers, I reminded them of the notes Catherine had written down in his communication book and also on a piece of paper pasted onto his milk bottle. Darius was having loose stools yesterday so we had wanted to remind the teachers not to give him his Yakult drink which might worsen his condition. As for the note on the bottle, it was for the caretaker (a lady who is in charge of bathing the children and preparing milk and food). We had been having issues with moulds growing on the spout of our MagMag bottle, so we hoped she would help minimise the occurence by drying the spout and bottle after washing.

Later in the afternoon, we called the cc to get an update on Darius’ status. Fortunately, all were well according to the teacher who picked up the phone. She said that Darius was cooperative during his bath and had fallen asleep soon after his milk feed, though he had woken up earlier than they had expected (about an hour plus of sleep). We thought this was expected since it was Darius’ first day napping in a different environment and well, it probably wasn’t as comfy as sleeping on his own mattress at home. ^^|

When Catherine fetched him later at around 5pm, he was in a pretty good mood and so we were relieved that he had assimilated well to his new routine, though we still couldn’t help but feel somewhat guilty and uneasy for leaving him from our care for such long hours. Looks like Darius is not the only one needing a transitional period. ^^|

Returning home and finishing our dinner, we made use of our short time with Darius by reading books and playing with him before he was to go to sleep. Our time together in the evening has become especially precious for Catherine, since that’s the only time she will only be able to accompany him now, unlike the times when he was on half-day sessions and they had the whole afternoon to themselves.

Quality time together

Darius was tired from his long day and slept soon after we tucked him in.

The next two days of his full-day sessions will continue to be his transition period since Catherine can still afford to go down to the cc in case she is needed, since she will only be starting work from next week onwards. Hopefully things will go smoothly from here on.

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