Paula Palmer is busy getting baby Christopher, four months old, to smile for the camera. He is being fussy. As soon as daddy stepped into his line of vision, he started smiling and cooing.
Paula smiles at husband Andre, who was quiet and attentive throughout the photoshoot and was there to hold Christopher when Paula had her hands full. They met nine years ago while they were both studying engineering at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus, Trinidad.
Andre “is very hands-on; the only thing he doesn’t do is breastfeed and I try not to hold that against him,” she says laughingly. She admits bashfully that she might, in the not too distant future, have the desire to have another baby – hopefully a girl, but right now juggling a baby, work and being a wife is all Paula can concentrate on.
To strike a balance between home and work, Paula tries her best to separate the two and keep work at work, “but with my job that is pretty hard to do as I have to work late and on weekends at times”.
Paula says she cherishes any “me time” (trips to the salon) she gets with her hectic schedule. Her daily routine is up at 4 a.m. [Christopher wakes up around that time] Get herself and Christopher ready. Christopher is off to daycare and Paula is off to work as an electrical engineer, where some days she may be in the sun or on her feet a lot. She is also pursuing an online diploma and serving as chairman of a committee at her credit union.
“Let’s just say a working mum’s day is pretty tiring, or at least mine is. It’s like having two full-time jobs and [an] extracurricular activity.
“Christopher is usually in bed for the night by 10. In between there is plenty of smiling, laughing and talking”, Paula says, smiling.
“I mainly bottle-feed. When I first had him we had a little trouble getting him to breastfeed, then he would breastfeed . . . and still be hungry, so I decided to bottle-feed. Also, he is at day care now and I never had any luck with pumping off milk.”
Paula is glowing as she relates that she had a wonderful pregnancy with no major health issues. It was a fairly good labour and a short delivery. “I thought it would have been horrible, but it was a wonderful and not terribly painful experience.”
The decision to have a baby was an agreement between the married couple and Paula was surprised that she got pregnant so quickly. “I was a day late in my cycle and I bought a test. I was very excited when I took the test and it was positive. I went to the doctor the next day for confirmation. I then stopped at the supermarket and purchased a bottle of non-alcoholic wine. I heard stories of persons taking a few months to conceive so I was pretty excited that I didn’t have to wait too long after making my decision.”
And the baby’s sex??“I definitely wanted to know. I remember waiting patiently for the doctor to perform the ultrasound and at the end getting very excited when she finally asked if I wanted to know the gender. Persons always asked me if I didn’t want to be surprised – and I would say yes, when the doctor tells me at the ultrasound, I will get my surprise then.”
Paula says she was an excited first-time mum and went all out in shopping for her newborn:?“I bought everything! He had clothes, a playpen, a bouncer, baby monitor.”
Everything has been almost smooth sailing so far except for a small snag when at two weeks Christopher had a bout of colic. “It was a bit hard, dealing with the constant crying. At first I was skeptical about leaving the house with him in case he got one of his crying episodes whilst I was out.
Paula admits she had first-day day-care jitters. “When I was home on maternity leave, he liked to be in my hands a lot; I could hardly put him down without him crying. I was fearful that he would spend a lot of time at day care crying because he couldn’t be held as often, but he is doing very well at day care.”
Paula has fond memories of her childhood and hopes that she can pass on the values instilled in her by her parents:?“My parents taught me to be honest, kind and how to think for myself and not be influenced by others. They also made sure that every Sunday I was in Sunday School or church and made sure I was very disciplined. I hope that Christopher grows up to be a good, humble person with a kind heart and a loving nature.”
Right now Paula is working on his baby book, along with pictures and postcards she has received, to give him when he gets older.
With strong support from her family – “my mum carries him to day care on mornings and is always willing to take care of him” – Paula says what she loves most about being a mum is seeing Christopher’s face light up when he sees her and how his eyes follow her across the room.
What special moment are you looking forward to? “His first word. I really hope it is mummy.”