These are the rules:
1. No going out.
2. No aircon.
3. No washing of hair.
4. No showering (apart from hot herbal bath).
Yes, that is the life of a mum in confinement. You hire a confinement nanny for the month to take care of both the mum and the baby. She cooks a series of confinement food that are typically full of sesame oil, ginger and vinegar. The best part of it all, the food actually tastes nice.
So in the midst of this one month of confinement, what do dads do? "Nothing!" cries the mother. Well, if you are like me, you eat. And eat. And eat.
Dads have a special role during confinement. We are like a mixture of pomp pomp girls (cheerleader), delivery boy (fetching anything the mother needs), purchasing manager (buys everything the mother wants), office boy (fills up all the forms needed by everyone), accountant (tabulating all the expenses incurred so far), operator (answering all of mothers phone calls) and messenger ("sms"ing everyone about how baby is doing) all rolled into one.
We sometimes morph into a handyman. Fixing up the baby monitor, setup musical mobiles, explain how milk warmers work after reading japanese instruction manuals (it's the pictures you see), unpack and setup the sterilizer, setting up the baby rear view mirror in the car, figure out how the car seat works and occasionally, help our wives see how much milk they have expressed out already (if you don't know what expressing means, please read previous blog).
So if both dad and mum has so much to do during confinement, who gets to enjoy?
Baby.
This one month, Maegan has only three things to do. Feed, Sleep and Cry. Nothing else. Just these three magical moments that gets you out of bed in the middle of the night and yet smile.
If that's not magic, tell me what is.
P.S. If you wondering how we survive the confinement month and yet remained so positive, I'll let you in on a secret. The key is to ignore rules 1 - 4. But remember, at your own risk. Police dressed as mother-in-laws are always round the corner somewhere.
