How Did We Do It?

Last night I spent the night at the hospital, so Kerry's guy could go home to sleep. He snores really badly so she was having trouble sleeping. She thought it would be FUN (!) to have mom come and spend the night. We could have girl talk, sort of like a maternal slumber party. We did...Sparky went and got Kerry some chocolate ice cream and a bunch of snacks to soothe her calcium and hunger cravings at 2:00 AM.  We only got about two hours sleep total, as the baby stayed in the room. (I know, I know, she should have had him sent to the nursery so she could sleep, but the nurses were slow to get him back to her, so she wanted him in the room.) You can't tell your children anything, sometimes! Here is little Barron, on his fourth day, finally back home!

I am watching my daughter learn to be a new mother...First, I watched as her sleep was interrupted constantly while in the hospital. She was there for four days.....I am watching her still as she continues to have sleep troubles trying to take care of the baby now that she is home. Her guy has taken off time to help and he's trying his best....Neither one of them has had much sleep at all, we're talking about maybe a couple of hours a night. They are exhausted! Sparky is exhausted watching them trying to cope! Those of us who didn't have moms to come and help us, how did we make it through?...Because it's a heckuva struggle!

When I had my children, my mom lived too far away to come and help. It was me, myself, and I and a non-helping first husband trying to get through those first few weeks until the baby got herself into some kind of a schedule. We had a crank swing that ran for about 30 minutes, making the most horrendous clank back and forth. My first daughter would sleep for 30 minutes, Mom Sparky would fall asleep in the Lazy Boy rocker, the swing would come to a stop, and daughter would awake screaming once again. She was very colicky.  It was the only gadget we had at the time to soothe a crying baby. Back in those days, I would put my daughter into a big sling pouch sort of thing, like a front backpack, and walk around the house to keep her from constantly crying in addition to using the crank up swing.  That seemed to help, as well as running the vacuum cleaner....I had really clean floors back then!

There are lots of cool gadgets to help parents soothe their babies these days. Kerry got a Sound Sleeper machine that mimics waves, heartbeats, and other sounds, in addition to having music and a little projection screen onto the wall to display images to entrance a baby's interest. Geesh! Wish I had one of those when my girls were little! Sparky just about fell asleep listening to the waves on the seashore, but she was holding her adorable little grandson, so can't fall asleep on the job! There are Swaddlers, which are cool, soft, cottony wraps with critically placed velcro pads. It makes wrapping the baby as simple as wrapping a present! This is NOT Barron, but this little guy is cute, too! Barron LOVES to be in these Swaddlers.....

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I'm so glad I can be there to help her. I've been going to help each day, doing whatever is necessary to help them. They are trying to help their female husky adapt to the baby, and that's a challenge, too..It just made me wonder, how did we do it? How did those of us who didn't have parents nearby manage to get through those tough days...There was a lot of crying, as I remember...but we did have the phone as our disposal....I was on the phone a lot to my mom......

I know they will get through these weeks, it just is hard to see them be so tired!