It All Comes Back To You

It’s been years since I had to get up in the middle of the night to feed an infant. Or that my arm fell asleep holding a baby because I was afraid if I moved even a little, the babe would awake. Or that I had to wrestle with a wiggly tyke in an attempt to change a diaper. Funny how it all comes back when you need to call those skills back into action.

Lots of things have changed in the past 27 years. Different theories. New technology. But soothing a tiny human at 3am is the same as it’s always been. I fell into the early morning feeding schedule during my visit to Atlanta, tag-teaming with the mama (who had to get up to pump milk anyway) and the daddy, who usually took the 6am leg of the schedule. Lifting, positioning, cooing, rocking are talents that kick into auto-pilot when needed.

The routine was so familiar that it was easy to forget that I wasn’t handling my baby girl, but my GrandBoy. I think I was a little surprised by that. After all, a parent jumps from one kid-stage to another: newborn, infant, toddler, child, adolescent – it’s easy to leave each previous skill-set behind to keep up with an ever-changing offspring. But I guess you just store all of that knowledge somewhere until it’s called for again.

You can’t call up a skill you never had, though. The one thing I was lousy at with Daughter was putting her sleeping-self back into her crib without waking her. It was all a matter of luck. Sometimes I got away with it; many times, I didn’t. Well, folks, that lack o’ talent continues to this very day. You’d think I’d’ve gotten the hang of it, but I still managed to rouse GrandBoy several times during the crib put-down. I’m open to ideas on how to perfect my technique.

Some things never change.