Greetings to the motherhood community. It's a pleasure sharing my experience with you all. I was really excited when my immediate elder sister asked me to come over and help her out as she was about to have her second baby. Apparently, she had a baby number two coming up six months after having baby number one. It wasn't really easy for her to deal with the pregnancy and taking care of the her first baby, so I had to go and offer some assistance.
While waiting for baby number two to arrive, I had to babysit Emilia who a year old then. Prior to this time, I haven't actually been one to babysit kids. I have lots of nieces and nephews but I don't usually have them around all the time. So in my head, it was a chance to have fun as a full-time aunt. Babysitting Emilia wasn't all that challenging at the time she was just a year old. I made sure she feeds well during the day, have a little nap, and scribble some crayons on paper when she wants to.
The challenge started when my sister had the second baby and it's boy. I never knew having a good night's sleep was a big deal until then. Terence cried so much at night and we took turns to soothe him. He definitely had no trouble sleeping throughout the day, only waking up to suckle and back to sleep. When he was barely 4 months old, my sister resuming working and I had to take care of the both kids while she was away during the day. I had to put in twice the effort to ensure the kids were safe and sound while the parents were away. One of the funniest things I remember doing was randomly checking to see whether the baby is still breathing when he's sleeping. It was my first time having a baby so tender alone with, so I had to make sure nothing goes wrong.
The first problem I had to contend with was knowing exactly what he wants with each cry. I needed to when he is crying for food, diaper-change or when he's just feeling uncomfortable. Sometimes he'll randomly start crying and after trying to bottle-feed him milk, give him water and sing a couple of lullabies for him, he still doesn't stop crying. It leaves me frustrated sometimes, but thankfully my sister's workplace was five minutes away and I would call her if I needed an extra hand. It wasn't long till I starting mastering the art, I stopped calling my sister out of work and most times when I don't call, she comes home during breaks to check if everything is still in control.
Sparing some time to rest was another thing I learned to do. While the Terence sleeps during the day and Emilia is also taking a nap, I usually do the chores around and fix the the house. By, the time I'm done and ready to probably take my own nap, one or the both of them are up at the same time. I have to start fixing their food and feeding them one after the other and soon enough it's night-time. My sister is back stressed out from work and I, on the other hand is equally worn out from the day's routine and funny enough, we aren't expecting to get enough sleep because Terence will have to be sleeping as well for us to achieve that feat, and we know he is not going to. Instead of always working myself out taking care of the kids and chores during the day and getting little sleep at night, I decided to do less chores and have some time to sleep in the day while the kids are also sleeping.
With every stage of his growth, I had to take extra care especially when he started crawling. I had to make sure he doesn't pick up dangerous stuff and shove into his mouth or he doesn't crawl into the kitchen and the likes. Let's not forget about Emilia too. She became so hyperactive that I couldn't even let her out of my sight for one minute. If I do, she's either wasting all the baby powder and lotion, or she's somewhere tearing every book she she sees just for the fun of it. The only thing that could keep her seated for more than 2 minutes is when the Tv screen is on and there's a little bit of 'Barney and friends' going on.
When Terence was 8 months old, I decided to go back home and continue with my own life. My sister got a babysitter for the both kids to help out when I'm gone. It was a fun experience having to do my aunt duties for some time, and picking up some lessons in the course of it. Shout-out to all the mothers here and out there, not forgetting the fathers, uncles and aunties as well. You guys are doing great and we can't thank you enough.
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