To Grandmothers We Go

Leaving my four-month old at Grandma's house for a whole weekend was a bit stressful. He wasn't sleeping well for us (really just getting up every three hours during the night, but still) and was having trouble taking a bottle like we wanted him to (chewing on it more than drinking anything). Grandma Ba insisted she was up for the challenge so I let her have both kids. Whereas I was more worried about him not eating, I should have been more concerned about him keeping them up all night. And I should have remembered his Woombie swaddler. He ate wonderfully (maybe thanks to the new Breastflow bottle.) but woke up every twenty minutes at night from the reports we got. I'd love to say that Rick and I were able to get two good nights of sleep to catch up and reset our systems but that wasn't really the case. I still had to get up to go to the bathroom and I pumped at six in the morning. Rick tossed and turned and was up at seven. I didn't sleep soundly and endured bad dreams and a fear that someone was in our house. Then I woke up to the phone ringing at nine saying all was well at Grandma's and everyone survived the night, albeit will less sleep than hoped.

The second night at Grandma's house was more successful. Iain slept for a five hour stretch at night and in the car for Rick's leg of the ride home since he met Grandma and Grandpa halfway to make the kid and car swap. And Ada was the perfect angel of course. I'm just happy that Grandma Ba and Grandpa Rich were willing to take both kids, slather them with love, and donate a few good nights rest to do so.

Moral of the story: Passing off your child into someone else's care isn't easy. Doing it at the last minute makes it even more stressful so try to start off easy and build. And consider bringing items the baby is used to like a swaddler, blanket, and Pack 'n Play.