October 23, 2008

• It Has Been A While……

  After Jen’s wedding, I agreed to care for my grandson, Alex, until my daughter could get their finances in a better condition.  Since this would entail her getting a job, I would be giving her time to find a job and getting child care setup.  They only have the one car so this was going to get tricky working everyone’s schedule around the availablity of the car.  My daughter suggested the arrangement to me but did not think I would do it since she could see that my health had gone down hill a bit.  While she was here, my doctor had increased the dosage of my pain pills.   My doctor had come to realize that I was more interested in decreasing my pain levels than increasing my pain killer dosages since the pain meds that she had been giving me only allowed me to be active about 10 minutes at time as a free standing adult.  I found more relief from the ibuprofen but there lies the rub…..I am on steriods so I am told the two do not mix well.  She increased the pain med dosage as a bargaining chip to get my promise to reduce my Ibuprofen usage.  The new pain med dosage enabled me to be more active with less pain.  I do not get to be pain free….just bring down the pain levels to an acceptable level so that I can do things.  With that in mind, I agreed to take care of Alex since he could walk and I did not have to carry him all the time.  Taking care of Alex for those few months were a blessing to me……and a wakeup call to me!  I am not a young as I would like to think I am.  I now fully understand why we have children while we are young.  It takes a lot of energy and time to raise a child.  I have raised five of my own but caring for a grandchild was different.  One difference was that I did not care if he minded anyone else as long as he minded me.  I am the Grammie….not the Mom, I have waited a long time for a grandchild to spoil and now is the time.  Now that he is gone back to his Mom, I wish that I had spoiled him even more.  As it is, I forget that he is not here sometimes and I think I hear him waking from his nap.  That happened to me yesterday and I almost got up from the computer to get him…..and then I remembered that he was not here.  I miss him!  I love his baby kisses and his baby hugs even though he is going to be turning 2 years old this coming Friday.  He will always be Grammie’s baby.  My daughter also learned a valuable lesson too.  It is hard not having your child with you even for the best of reasons.  The good thing is that Alex made the transition from one household to the other without a hitch.  That is probably due to the fact that he probably considers Grammie’s house his other home…..which it is.

  • 3:29 am
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