My niece is a young mother. Turning 20 this month and her baby is already six months old. I was a young mother. I understand how frustrating that can be.
She is also in a financial strain and her mother, my one and only sister, is also in the same predicament.
On a whim, my daughter decided we should take the baby and give my neice a break. The man she is living with, not the babies father, is out of town a lot and she was feeling overwhelmed. She was also fighting a bout of swine flu and just didnt have the energy needed for him.
Thursday night after working a full shift at work, I drove the 40 minutes home to grab my daughter then we hit the road for the 2 hour drive to pick up the baby.
It has been a great weekend playing mom again...being that my baby is now sixteen. It has also been an awakening for my girls. Babies are great fun, and we love having him here to cuddle. However he has been teething and also fighting an ear infection and had some challenging moments.
My older daughter put up his port-a-crib in her room and was great at getting up with him at night. I have faith in my girls that they will someday make great mothers. I also think that this weekend just might help them to hold off a few years before haveing children of thier own. It is great when you can send them back home.
I am also proud of the fact that they both seem to take on the challenges of the cranky baby on thier own but are open to help and input from me. I watch my older daughter watching me with the baby and she is learning patience and how to keep the stress to a minimum. My younger daughter still gets quite stressed and tries to calm him any way she can...she cannot handle crying for long.
It has been a fun time and a lesson for them.
And just in time to send him home to mother... I feel a cold coming on... great!
