Parker will be 6 months old on the 28th of this month and this marked a very important weekend for Robby and me. You see, it was Justin and Sarah's anniversary and they asked us to keep Parker while they snuck out of town to celebrate...for the WHOLE WEEKEND...for the 1st TIME EVER. In my excitement about getting to keep our grand daughter for an "over nighter", I began to think that perhaps I had forgotten a few things regarding babies.
Having been a stay at home mom, with 4 small children, many things were now a blur for me. I did, however, remember a few things that...well, let's say frightened me even in memory. One of those things was sleep deprivation. It had been MANY years since I had been woken up by a baby in the middle of the night. Upon giving me the baby's schedule, I noticed that Parker would be doing just that...waking up during the night to eat. So, as Robby and I were laying in bed discussing our "over nighter" with Parker, Robby announced, "I guess I will just go sleep in Caitlin's room while the baby is here." A little shocked, I replied, "WHAT??" He said that he knew Parker would be getting up during the night. "OK...and your point is??", I asked. "Well," he explained, "I figured you would make me get up with her." WHAT?! "Oh, don't act so shocked", he said..."I got up ALL THE TIME with our kids when they were little." HMPH!!..."ALL the time, you say?" OK, I will (and did...) admit that he did indeed get up a good bit with our children. However, I talked him into staying in our bedroom and promised that I would be the one to get up for the late night feedings.
Day one came and Parker and I pretty much stayed on our routine, with lunch and feedings and nap time. Sarah is a breastfeeding mom, as I once was, and had pumped plenty of milk for the weekend. Everything seemed to be going well until it hit about 6 O'clock in the evening. Robby came home and as we prepared for her dinner and bath, she began to get a little fussy. Having done really well eating her lunch that day, I suggested that Robby slip her in her little chair and feed her...unfortunately, she was having none of that. I don't know what had suddenly happened to the complacent little darling from that day, but in her place was someone who was really pitching a little fit. Robby fixed that...he took her out of her seat and fed her in his arms, standing up. Well, well, well...it seemed that the baby was going to make the rules around here. And I suppose that was alright (did I just say that?!...you can tell I'm the Ya-Ya and not the Ma Ma). After that, I gave her a quick bath, which she didn't seem to enjoy very well since she was getting sleepy. I dressed her for bed and rocked her to sleep. Hey! That seemed easy enough. I laid her down at 8 and she was awake by 8:05. Hmmm...so much for getting her into bed early. After some more rocking, she was back in bed by 9 O'clock. Not knowing what the night had in store for me, I got in bed, myself, shortly thereafter. At 1:15...Waaahhh!!! I hit the floor, grabbed her bottle and plopped down in the rocking chair. I've never seen a baby drink a bottle that fast in my life! She "appeared" to fall right back to sleep...5 times! And...OK, although I did not "officially" make Robby get up, I WAS loud enough that he couldn't sleep while I was up either; sorry, but it's true that "misery DOES love company". Finally, at almost 3 a.m., she REALLY went back to sleep and I fell quickly into bed. At 5:30, she awoke for another bottle and went back to bed instantly. We both woke up around 8:30. I had survived night one of the "over nighter" with Parker Ann; now, onto Day 2.
We stayed on schedule all morning long and after her nap, I informed Robby that we had to go to town to buy diapers. He said, "Both of us?" "Yes! I can't go by myself...I might need help." He looked at me as if to say, "Didn't you use to do this all by yourself with 4 kids?" I KNOW that was what he was thinking, but he was smart enough not to verbalize that thought. He came inside, got cleaned up and off we went. She was a GREAT little shopper! And EVERYBODY commented on how adorable she was (of course, we LOVED that...). After making our way home, Robby returned outside to work in his shop and Parker and I played for a while. I could tell that she was getting tired, so I decided to rock her. She's one of those babies that fights sleep...and I'm not really sure what to do during the fight because she doesn't give up easily. I was the one to give up first on trying to get her to take a nap (another point for baby...zero for grandparent); we went outside to visit with Poppi. Her head began to nod, so Poppi decided that he would give rocking her a whirl. I was sort of glad to get a break and decided to take a bubble bath while he attempted that. Suddenly, I head this very loud noise...I wondered what it was and cracked the bathroom door to listen. Ahhh...it had been many years since I had heard it, but it immediately brought memories back and a smile to my face. Robby, when rocking our children, had sang to them his "special version" of a couple of songs. First there was "Old MacDonald Had A Farm"...except on the farm he sang about, it was actually an exotic animal ranch. For there was every kind of animal in his song from the ones who lived on the farm to ones who lived in the jungle. The other song was his rendition of, "Hush Little Baby Don't Say A Word"...In Robby's version, he buys MUCH more than a mocking bird. It never mattered to me, because it seemed to be the perfect sleep potion for babies. Night 2 went much smoother than Night 1; Parker only woke up once during the night! Now, we only had to worry about timing things just right to get to church on time.
Sunday morning came and our little sweetie pie awoke with a smile on her face. I fed her part of her bottle and then handed her over to Robby while I went to get myself ready for church. As I walked back through the kitchen to get another cup of coffee, I glanced over to see Robby and Parker covertly doing something. "What are you doing?", I asked. Glancing around like a deer caught in the headlights, he replied, "Ummm...giving her a little rice cereal." "WHAT?! She doesn't get that yet. I didn't tell you to feed her anything." Sheepishly he looked at me and said, "I was just giving her a little snack." Oh well, how could I get mad at them since he looked so cute and she looked so happy...cohorts in crime (I'm sure not for the last time...). We made it out of the house and to church on time. And she looked like a little doll, if I may say so myself!
That afternoon, Parker's mommy and daddy returned. And Robby said to me, "I'm sorta worn out. God knew what he was doing when he gave babies to young people." I was afraid that I had to agree with that. It had been a very long time since we had, had a baby in the house. I had forgotten how tired I had been back when my 4 had been young. Although we had a great time with our little granddaughter on our "over nighter" weekend, I now understood why my friends always said it was so "Grand" being a grandparent. You can definitely have all of the fun playing with the baby and spoiling them...but at the end of the day, you are not the one who has to deal with the daily routine of child rearing any more. That's all left to mommy and daddy, who are younger and full of MUCH more energy!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
She just looks so much like Justin! I bet you had fun.
ReplyDelete