Sunday, August 17, 2008

I need to practice!

I was so happy to do some babysitting the other night. My son and daughter-in-law had to make arrangements for the christening, so I volunteered to get Emma to sleep. She has established a great nighttime routine- the 4 B's- including, bath, book, bottle and then bed. When I got there she had already gotten the bath and book so my job was pajamas, bottle and then bed. I had done this once before with her and all was well so I was confident! The jammies went on fine, and I had the bottle ready. I quietly went into the master bedroom and sat on bed with the lights off. Emma was happy to get her bottle and I settled in with her. Before very long, the bottle was empty and I was thinking that she really must have been hungry since it went down really quickly!! I prepared to put her into her bassinet when I realized that she felt wet. After a full examination, it appeared the the front and back of her pajamas were wet. The bottle had apparently leaked and she did not get to drink her full amount. I debated whether I should take her back into her room and change her there, but after full consideration, I didn't want her disturbed and back into a bright room when she was pretty relaxed and sleepy. I quickly ran to warm another bottled, dashed in to find another pair of sleepers and then proceeded to change her IN THE DARK! I was thinking to myself that I had done this hundreds of times with my own children, and really how hard can it be?? So I gently took off the wet pajama when clung to her as if it had a life of its own. I laid her on top of the new one and tried to dress her in a soothing way. Her arms, which were very lax at this point, worked their way into each sleeve and I started snapping at the neck. So far so good, I thought. Then I reached the dreaded crotch! I had much more difficulty pairing up the snaps around the legs and crotch. I had to try several times and always managed to wind up with ones that didn't seem to go together. At last, I did get it together, and gave her the new bottle, after having checked the top several times. She finished half of the second bottle and went to sleep. I confessed to her parents what had happened when they got home and I promised I would get better about my grand parenting skills. The next day I asked how the rest of the night fared, and Suzy, my daughter-in-law, said she did wake up and took the rest of bottle number two after I had gone. She said that she also had experienced the leaking problem since that night and found it to be a loosened nipple. So now we both check before we begin...every time! I guess I have gotten rusty and will get better with practice. Thank goodness babies are forgiving.

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