– 8:23 am

Early evening yesterday, after Rozalia left for her dinner at Silo, Lucy picked you up and went, “Is it me or is his skin slightly yellow?” I noticed her push down your nose like a button on a telephone. A series of events quickly followed.

Her suspicion was neonatal jaundice. She swiftly left to catch Dr Swee Fang (the paediatrician who had seen you earlier) before she could clock out. Moments later she came back to explain what jaundice was in case we worried. How thoughtful. (This is so coincidentally funny. She literally just knocked and poked her head through the door as I was typing this about her. We just exchanged a few words.) Your mother’s in the bathroom so she’ll be back later.

So yes, when she came to reassure us, I’d already googled “baby jaundice”.

Infant jaundice is yellow discoloration of a newborn baby’s skin and eyes. Infant jaundice occurs because the baby’s blood contains an excess of bilirubin (bil-ih-ROO-bin), a yellow pigment of red blood cells.

Infant jaundice is a common condition, particularly in babies born before 38 weeks’ gestation (preterm babies) and some breast-fed babies. Infant jaundice usually occurs because a baby’s liver isn’t mature enough to get rid of bilirubin in the bloodstream. In some babies, an underlying disease may cause infant jaundice.

It’s harmless as long as you don’t have any underlying issues. Phototherapy is a viable treatment. Lucy again returned with what I think was a handheld jaundice detector. It emitted a beam of light every time she pushed it into your chest. She took a reading and said it was a bit high.

Dr Fang dropped in as well. She ordered a number of tests to eliminate the presence of an infection. “I’ll be in touch this evening”, she said as we exchanged numbers. A nurse (not a midwife) came round and took you away, for bloodwork I imagine. (You still have the plaster on your left hand.) They most likely put you under a light of sorts as you returned quite warm. I stopped your mother from interfering unnecessarily going with you. There was no need for us to see you being poked and crying be there. So I made us stay behind.

Dr Swee – love that name – called the room that evening saying you were all clear. No jaundice, no infection. It was certainly a relief but your mother and I were honestly never worried.

Carine (midwife not a nurse) had stopped by that morning to say hello. We said we had you booked for the nursery that night. She said she hadn’t seen our names on the list and dashed to check you into one of the two remaining slots. Unsurprisingly, Elaine never got round to it. Item number 71 was just one too many. Contrary to everyone else we’d met, she came across as way too busy.

I ordered an unnecessary amount of food. Fully giving into my inner gluttony. The meals here are better than in plenty of restaurants. We had dinner and went to bed. The macaroons Rozalia brought from Pierre Hermé were right on the money for mouth-watering. One leads to the other and so inevitably, we ate too many.

Louise brought you back this morning. Besides your mother, it seems you and I didn’t sleep so well. As usual, I struggled with the temperature of the room and the new bed. Story of my life. I can’t sleep away from the house. You apparently cried a lot. So much so that they had to put you in an over-priced self-swinging baby cot to settle you.

In her words, you took a “humungous poo”. “That’s a good thing”, she said. The meconium is out of your system completely and you are digesting food well. She did ask if you had a tongue-tie and trouble feeding. So clearly that is an issue that needs addressing. The tie has to be snipped. Lucy’s going to confirm availability but it won’t be today. It doesn’t have to be done here either. If we can’t pull it off before we leave, we’ll ask Marc and Jess where they did it for their kid(s) locally.

One thing that has been consistent so far is how “cute” you are. You’ve been getting it from all angles son. To me, you look a bit Asian. But you’re also changing every hour. Mexican tomorrow?

PS – I was in the bathroom when they carried out a hearing test. You can hear all frequencies. All good. Also, I sent your full name to your grandfather who said to make sure it said Wanchambi on your birth certificate, without the “Ta” so that’s what we’re going to do. I’ll still call you Tawa though.