It’s been three months and Aaron is doing okay. Rather than post more videos and pictures of our baby, I decided to post our daily adventures (or struggles) with Aaron and particularly, his yaya.
If given the chance to things all over again, Jen and I would have made smarter choices. Looking back on Aaron’s growth, we made lots of mistakes and bad decisions. But definitely we are learning as we go along.
And yes, we would never have taken in Aaron’s yaya. But then again, the yaya was a gift from our godmother, so we can’t really return her like a defective DVD series from Quiapo.
So why the hell did we get her?
We thought we prepared for everything before Aaron arrived. But when Jen and I brought Aaron home, we didn’t know what to do with him.
Sure, there were a lot of people giving us advice. But there were small things that we didn’t know – like how to clean his umbilical cord, cut his fingernails, or how he should take a bath.
Some hospitals would give parents instructional books, videos, and even training on how to take care of new born babies. Metropolitan Hospital did not. In fact, we were left blind on what to do.
To aggravate the situation, Aaron was caught the colds on his first week outside the hospital. He didn’t have any appetite for milk and had difficulty breathing.
Several days had pass and Aaron was still sick. Jen and I were losing sleep from trying to feed the baby. We told our relatives about Aaron’s condition, they were all worried for him.
Enter the yaya
When news of Aaron’s sickness reached Jenny’s aunts, our godmother offered to help.
Our godmother called up the agency to get the best and most qualified yaya. She even paid six months for the yaya’s services.
We were so grateful for this gift -- at least we had someone to help us take care of Aaron.
Highly qualified means highly paid
And so we got this yaya (let’s call her Chuchay). When our godmother asked for the best yaya, the agency gave us their best.
Chuchay has been a yaya for more than fifteen years. She even had a degree as a midwife and caregiving. She’s even worked in places like Hong Kong and the Middle East. She’s even worked for wealthy families from exclusive villages like Greenhills and maybe even Forbes.
The first time I saw Chuchay, I was amused. She wore the typical white uniform of yayas from rich families. She even has her own set of yaya uniform (our house-helps wear normal clothes). And unlike the other house-helps, who call me “kuya”, Chuchay calls me “sir”.
When I heard how much our godmother paid for the yaya, I was totally blown away. Chuchay was earning P 6,500 a month!
Looking back, I guess she was worth the money our godmother paid. Aaron was (and still is) a very active baby. He wakes up almost one or two hours at night to drink. And it was obvious that Chuchay was well versed in take care of babies. Aaron’s cold seemed to have lessened thanks to her care.
So Jen and I decided to assign all the “baby task” to Chuchay – from sterilizing the feeding bottles, washing Aaron’s clothes, and taking care of Aaron. Aside from Jen and Chuchay, no one else was taking care of the baby (I was busy with work). If we were a call center company, Chuchay would have been manning the phone 24/7.
As Aaron’s health improved, we came to rely more on Chuchay for her skills. But that became our next biggest mistake.
(To be continued)
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