After 3 weeks of looking at tiny photos sent via text, I finally got to meet her. My grandson was watching through the window for her arrival. He ran to the front door to open it for his parents who were carrying a car seat holding his new baby sister. He was so excited and touched her tenderly. His mommy sat next to him on the couch and his daddy put baby sister on his lap. Such joy!
Next it was my turn to hold my granddaughter. She may have been 6 weeks early, but she
looked absolutely perfect—from her button nose to her tiny toes. As I gazed down at her, she looked up at
me. I fell in love. Babies are such miracles.
The next three weeks were a bit of a blur. I spent many hours on the couch holding baby
and often feeding her. Preemies are not
easy. They sleep a lot. My little granddaughter was constantly
nodding off while feeding so we developed methods to wake her up. Breast milk alone does not contain enough
calories for a preemie, so she needed to be supplemented with formula. My daughter had to do a lot of pumping along
with breastfeeding.
During this time, we were all tired, especially mom and dad. Initially there were weekly visits to the
pediatrician to check baby’s weight. He
was happy with her progress. There were
issues with gas and reflux which complicated her care. My daughter struggled with her own recovery
from her C-section and ended up back in the hospital on her baby’s one month
birthday. This was especially hard on my
grandson who worried his mom wouldn’t come home.
I spent a lot of time with my sweet, energetic
grandson. Every morning I fixed him
breakfast. We watched movies, played
games, read stories, baked cookies, went for walks, and more. He had been pulled from daycare/preschool
because of COVID cases among the staff.
He missed his friends. I tried to
keep him busy.
One of the benefits of being there at that time was that I
got to celebrate my daughter’s 36th birthday with her, the first
time since she was 18 years old. I
watched my grandson make a couple of gifts for his mommy with just a little bit
of help from me. He was so excited to
give them to her. I made her a birthday
cake. My younger daughter and her fiancé
joined us for the celebration. A video
call connected my husband to the party.
It was wonderful to be together.
I must admit that I was tired, and I had little time for
myself, so it wasn’t easy. My daughter
was so grateful for my help and we had a lot of opportunity to talk. I returned with photos of lots of sweet
memories.
What will I remember the most? I can picture my granddaughter’s face as I
held her, and she drank her bottle. I
would put her on my shoulder, and she would lift her head and look at me before
falling asleep. Every morning my
grandson would come into my room to say good morning with a big smile. I loved my conversations with him. I loved simply hanging out and talking with
my daughters.
I have been home a few weeks and I am slowly returning to some sort of normal. It is good to be with my husband, cats, and dog, but I miss the rest of our family. We keep in touch via phone and Facebook. I will always treasure these special weeks as a live-in grandma.
