More Snow Melt

baby

This is my response to "baby"  for Thursday, May 14, 2009 in the "Follow the Leader" 

A baby is cuddly and smells nice right after it’s diaper is changed. Having a baby in the house is a wonderful experience. A baby wakes the entire household up in the middle of the night because it’s hungry, wet or needs attention.

I’ve had some experiences with babies in my 62 years. I gave birth to a daughter, whom I gave up for adoption. However, my experience with babies isn’t limited to birth to giving birth. I have seven nephews, three nieces, three grandnieces and two grandnephews. The nieces and the nephews are the ones I experienced most as babies.

We could never put one of my nieces down for a nap without having someone stay in the room to watch her. If you laid her down on an ordinary bed for a nap, you would hear her crying five or ten minutes later. You would go into the room and find her stuck upside down, her little legs kicking, between the bed and the nightstand. If you put her in a crib then about five or ten minutes later, you would hear her crying. When you went into to room, you would find her upside in a disposable diaper box her little legs kicking. To this day, I believe the diaper box saved her life because the room she was in had an uncarpeted cement floor.

Another thing we learned from this same niece is never tell an older sibling, especially the child’s brother, to bring the baby to you unless you sure someone has shown him how to properly pick up and carry a baby. The brother will inevitably pick the child up by the neck and attempt to carry her to you. Fortunately, more then one adult was in the room when this happened and the brother got a lesson in how to pick up his baby sister.

Despite my niece’s mishaps as a baby, she grew up to give birth to two beautiful daughters of her own. Therefore, a baby is a wonderful thing to have. Being an aunt is great because you can spoil the baby and send it back home to the parents. My mother tells me being a grandmother and a great grandmother is rewarding as well.