Christmas has always had the same picture in my head and it is that of me spending it with my family - parents, grandparents and aunts. It's been like that for years and even when I left for the university I will always return to spend Christmas with them.

It's the tradition in many homes but do we ever imagine a time will come when the picture will change? Well, not until the picture actually does change. I remember this one time I spent Christmas in Yaoundé. It was the first time I spent Christmas away from family. It felt weird but it was a new experience so I loved it. At home, Christmas a typical well-spent Christmas day involved eating the special 'Christmas rice' in the morning before going to church. This rice was accompanied by egusi (melon seeds) soup and some chicken. That's my grandma's speciality and no rice on earth tastes as good as Christmas Rice. Upon returning home to have our main Christmas meal. It's often the traditional meal of my village - Bafut, which is Achu and yellow soup with lots of meat because it's Christmas. We also have drinks and just stay at home chatting for the rest of the day. At times we had a few visitors but usually, most people just spend Christmas at home. I always loved to visit my friends and I did it right after church before returning home (with them at times). But Christmas is often a quiet one in my home town Bamenda.

But sometimes we want to try new things or simply break tradition no matter how attached we are to it. My experience with spending Christmas outside the home has been quite interesting though. It was quite different from family Christmas. It included going out for drinks in the evening and the menu during the day was quite different. I could cook anything I wanted or not cook at all. It was left for me to decide. I still missed Christmas at home though.

Over time, I got used to spending Christmas away from home. My family too. When it wasn't possible for me to return for Christmas, they won't make it a problem. I think it comes with becoming an adult. It made me realise that home is now where I live.

Now that I have a baby, I really realise that 'home' has changed or there is another home now - which is mine. All I want is to give my baby a home where we do things that will make her remember her growing up. Will there be new traditions? Maybe. I would have loved to start them this year but due to unexpected circumstances I had to prolong my stay at my mom's and we will be spending Christmas here.

It's my first Christmas here because we are new here and I spent Christmas all the time with my grandparents. I don't know if it's going to be the typical Christmas I know or did mom modify tradition? We will see.

So it's official. We are spending Christmas at my mom's. And I am looking forward to it.

Where are you spending Christmas? Are you spending it elsewhere or at your home?

It's almost 6pm as I write this post. My nine-month-old and I just woke up from a deep nap and she is using my bra strap as an anchor to get on her feet as I sit on my bed to write this post. She is so joyful when she's well-rested - I mean, who wouldn't be? I'm only glad that she didn't develop a fever after her vaccines two days ago.

Her nine-month vaccination day was last Friday - actually, I chose to go that day because nine-month-olds are vaccinated only on Fridays where I currently am. I could also choose another Friday but I just wanted to get it over and done with.

I hate vaccination days to be honest - anyone else? Apart from seeing your baby cry after being pierced (I know it's for their own good- rolling eyes), it's also stressful waking up early and preparing to go to the hospital after a night of insufficient sleep. That's how our vaccination day started but it later turned out interesting.

Highlights of the day

We woke up early - as usual (my little girl makes sure of that) and got ready quite easily as I had packed and set aside our clothes and other important stuff the previous day in the evening. I can't stress enough how much it's important to get ready the day before. It saves a lot of stress in the morning.

We are currently at my mom's in a village called Tangui. The hospital we went to for the vaccination is in a neighbouring town called Mbanga. It's a district hospital and I quite like the organization of the vaccination days, especially for nine-month-olds. Nine-month-olds are vaccinated only on Fridays unlike the clinic I would have vaccinated her at which collects numbers of the mothers and call them to come for vaccination when they have up to ten babies to vaccinate. From what I was told, one bottle of the vaccine used can vaccinate ten babies and once it is opened it expires after 24 hours. So it's necessary to have ten babies before opening each bottle of the vaccine in order to avoid wasting it.

The vaccines at nine-months are against yellow fever and measles. There is often a small talk given to the mothers before the vaccines are administered. We got there very early - when the nurse was still cleaning up. Usually, she waits for the other mothers to come before she starts but she explained that she couldn't keep us waiting till the others come so she started with the educative talk on what to do in case of a fever after vaccination and how to properly feed the baby at nine months.

It was quite an interesting talk and here are a few points that I retained from it.

Care before and after vaccination

- Don't give fever medicines to babies before or after vaccination until they show signs of fever like high temperature.

- In case of high temperature, wet a towel in lukewarm water and dab the baby with it.

- Rush back to the hospital if the fever persists for more than 24 hours and if the place injected still hurts or swells after 24 hours.

 Nutrition

- It is important for babies to have food which contains iron because it helps in blood formation and prevents the baby from being anaemic

- Vitamin C is important for babies as it helps their body to easily absorb iron. Oranges, pineapples and other fruits containing vitamin C should be given to the baby.

- It's important to introduce meat and fish to their diet once a day. It should be well cooked before giving the baby.

- Milk is very good for babies because it contains all the nutrients that they need.

- Breastmilk/milk alone at this stage is no longer sufficient to properly feed the baby. They need other forms of food to complete their diet.

- The baby's diet should contain a wide variety of food like vegetables, cereals, animal protein, nuts and tubers.

 Weaning

- Weaning a baby is a gradual process. It's not advisable to wean abruptly.

- Babies can still breastfeed for up to 3 years. (I intend to breastfeed till two).

When I asked to know if my baby's weight was normal, the nurse explained to me that the baby is expected to double its weight every three months. This made me realize that I had to make more efforts for my baby to eat well as she didn't meet her expected weight. I already know it's not going to be easy but I'll make the effort to get her to eat more

Read: What my six-month-old eats in a day

Overall, I had a nice time at the hospital. We were done by 8:30am and got home by 9am. If you are wondering how much she cried after the vaccine it was quite intense because they were done in two different places - the arm and the lap. But the crying only lasted until I suckled her immediately after. She fell asleep after that and I backed her and we left for home.

One of the things that made my day easy at the hospital was the niceness of the nurse. She was very nice and took time to explain many things to me though she is originally french-speaking and she had to explain to me in English.

It's really important to be nice to people because it brightens up their day.
 
Read: How I Manifested My Baby - My Birth Story
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