So funny ! Course, it's not all fun and games is it.
Back then no heating , no 24 hr tv and the 2 am feeds ( when they were on formula)
could be very bleak times.
The baby would wake up screaming with hunger but was sodden through from the rubbish nappies, as was the cot, so baby and cot had to be changed first .
Then downstairs to put the kettle on to fill the jug to warm the bottle . It took forever, all with a baby that screamed so loudly my ear drums have never been the same.
Oh and then there's the endless hours in casualty because they've accidentally poked your eye and scratched across it with their sharp little nails almost blinding you .. and the pain.
And when they got a little older ( 3 ish) we won't mention the naughty word they learnt and was shouting it all over the supermarket at the top of their voice.
So embarrassing.
ROFL, Liz!
How I remember all! Middle of the night waking's I referred to as "the witching hour"!
I'm certain my gang had pre-programmed internal clocks, because just like clockwork and between the hours of 2 am and 3 am, their internal alarm clocks would go off! Dead on my feet, I'd roll myself out of bed, pad my way down to the baby room to investigate what the problem was... wet pants, a bottle, a nightmare, then of course by the time I had things settled I'd be wide awake, so back into bed I'd crawl, and depending on the night, sometimes struggling to fall back asleep again. Talk about long tiring days.
Back in my babysitting days I learned a trick from one mom I sat for, double sheeting the crib, where you make up the baby's crib with a rubber sheet, then over the rubber sheet you apply a flannelette sheet, then over the flannelette sheet another rubber sheet, followed by a flannelette sheet. When witching hour strikes and the crib is wet or soiled, off comes the top layers (flannelette and rubber sheets), and under is a fresh flannelette sheet all ready to go! I practiced double sheeting with all of my kids. What a game-changer it was.
For nighttime/bedtime I always padded my kids bottoms up extra well... 3 or 4 diapers folded together topped with a pair of rubber pants... my kids used to look like they were wearing an oversized marshmallow on their bottoms when I was done diapering them! Still, even with all of the extra absorbency, I had two that woke faithfully every night the instant they were wet. They'd start fussing, kicking, and wailing the instant they were wet! With them it was a guaranteed trip to the diaper pail nightly!
I seldom turned the room light on, working with what little light streamed in through the nursery window from the street lamp and the night light in the baby room. Changing diapers in the dark meant mastering the art of pinning without sticking baby or myself, and then there was putting rubber pants on inside-out or backwards, or trying to thread flailing kicking little feet through the elastic leg holes!
On nights when I managed to get a fair night's rest, the pre-programmed alarm clocks would go off anywhere from 6:30 am to shortly after 7 am! Wet and hungry they were, and from that moment on there was no rest for me until nightfall again. I often think to myself, how did I manage, but the magic was in my age, I was young enough to bounce back no matter how tired and rundown I got.
And yes, those flailing little hands and thrashing little heads proved to be a cause for concern at times, like the time when one of my sons was sitting on my lap and decided to throw his head back! I got the back of his head square in the nose to the point of me seeing stars, and no matter how many diapers I pinned/changed, I always seemed to stick myself a few times a week! Ouch! Boy, did that ever used to smart!
Gosh, all the memories, so many that I forgot a few until chatting with yourself and reading all of the other entries in this thread!
Thank you for the walk down memory lane, Liz!
