Grandparent's First Overnight Visit With Grandbaby
Letting grandma care for my daughter for an overnight visit was intended to provide me rest. I had never been away from my daughter for any length of time in her short four month old lifetime. For over a month, my mother had been asking to keep her for an overnight visit, and I could not put it off any longer. After getting all our gear ready for the trek to grandma's, I felt like I needed a vacation. And I had never been away from my baby overnight.
Mother had already purchased some baby items to keep are her home, but she did not have everything necessary for an overnight stay. The possibilities raced through my mind. It would be a good idea to let her use the baby travel system, including the car seat and the seat base. It would need to be installed in her car before we departed. As we all know anything can come up even if you are not planning on going anywhere. So into my van went the stroller, car seat and base.
My baby rarely falls asleep in he crib, so even though my mother has a play pen which could be used as a crib we did not need it. Our normal routine sees me putting her into one of my ring slings and wearing her around my house until she falls asleep. After she has fallen asleep, I carefully move her to her crib. So, I packed up a ring sling and planned to show my mom how to use it.
My husband and I decided to use cloth diapers during the pregnancy. Cloth diapers were used with my older siblings but I was a disposable diaper baby. She likened my cloth diaper decision to going in reverse. I tried to explain to her about how diapers stay forever in a landfill and that cloth diapers had changed so much since her day, but she still did not get it. For the overnight trip I was going to bring along my Fuzzi Bunz cloth diapers so that she could see how easy they were to use. I packed the cloth diapers as well as a wet bag so that I could show my mom how much they had improved from the old style cloth diaper.
By the time I was done packing my mini van I needed a rest, but it was time to leave. My mother and I spent over two hours going over everything after heading to her home. I took my cue to leave when she asked me whether or not I thought she had ever taken care of a baby. I had taken everything I could to make the overnight visit easy on my daughter and on my mom. I went home and got ready to go out to dinner with my husband. I could not stop thinking about my baby and the resulting stress had me calling my mother almost ten times in the first two hours. The visit went very well and all my worry was for naught. My little girl slept through the night for the first time ever, and my mom had a great time taking care of a little baby again.
Maria Cummings is devoted mom that works to help kids and families in the community. Manager of Bustling Baby, Maria loves to share her parenting experiences with new parents and assists parents in finding the best baby products, such as Fuzzi Bunz diapers.
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