Last week, Coach and I agreed to babysit for our friend’s sweet 5 month old baby girl.
Only, someone had a soccer tournament to coach, and knowing I was NOT going down that road alone, I called my sister to come help me. My younger sister who, having no siblings younger than her, has had about as much experience watching babies as I’ve had with coaching soccer tournaments.
Do you see where this is going?
Things started out well, but after 10 or so minutes, our sweet little baby turned on us. I think she could smell fear. She screamed for about an hour as we tried to feed her, changed her diaper, played with every toy she had, and changed the thermostat a million times trying to guess what she was so upset about. We even called my mom. Finally, tossing up a hail mary, I told my sister to turn on the vacuum cleaner.
It worked! My ears stopped bleeding. The only problem was, we had to leave it on. So for the next 2 hours, the vacuum cleaner sat in my living room deep cleaning a 1ft x 1ft square of carpet.
After awhile, we finally obtained the certain finesse you need to keep a baby asleep while you transfer her from your arms to the bed, but I started to get nervous. Thoughts swirled in my head. “Aren’t we supposed to place babies on their backs to sleep?” “Why did her parents tell me she sleeps on her stomach?” “Is she still breathing?” “Do you still do 30 chest compressions for infant CPR?” “I better google it just to make sure.”
Sidenote: Google is probably not the best tool for an over protective mother to use
I read that most SIDS death occur when they are being taken care of by someone other than their parents, and that babies need to sleep in their own crib, or a firm mattress, on their backs. Oops. She was sleeping on my pillow top mattress, away from her parents, on her stomach. So we wake her up (I know, I know!) and try to switch her to her back, or in her carrier, or on the floor, and of course none of those work for her.
Not long after that, her parents came back and picked up their completely awake daughter and asked us “Why is your vacuum cleaner on”?
6 comments:
This is too hilarious Sarah! I love it!! I remember one of my first actual babysitting jobs watching a 5 or 6 month old... I had no clue what I was doing. About half way through feeding him his baby food which was a wonderful cheeto orange (I believe it was probably carrots) he swatted my hand and the carrrot (or other orange mixture) ended up on my friends bright white carpet. I seemed to get it mostly cleaned up... but I decided it was a clear indication of him being done with dinner. lol... I promise it does get easier once its your own child. I have had one, and still have problems calming the newborn I watch who is only 4 months old. I think when its your own you have the instinct to know whats wrong when no one else seems to have a clue. :) You will be a great mom when the time comes.
However I wish you could have filmed this all... sounds like it would have been quite the sight! lol :)
hmmm... I guess I have a really clean carpet to look forward to!
Hahaha! Well if the vacuum works, I say, "Leave it on!" I'll keep that in mind for my future babies.
HAA!! This was hysterical!! At least you know you are going to keep an awesome house when you are a mom!!
This was hilarious! I promise that somehow it is so much easier when it is your child. Somehow when you have your own you seem to know more what to do. I am looking forward to reading your blog and glad I finally found it! Hope all is well!
Don't worry, even moms resort to these kinds of things with their own child. I completely wore out my blowdryer keeping Bentley calm during his first month! I completely agree about Google not being the best place to look when you're in a panic. I love this story. Thanks for sharing!
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