When a Newborn Makes You Grandma

#6: Becoming a Grandparent

Seeing a newborn baby touches places in my heart that stirs up a kaleidoscope of memories and feelings.

Those tender little eyes, in pure innocence, look out to share a touch of the divine.

I’m always brought back to how I felt when I first held my grandsons, and to how I felt the times before that, many years before, after coming home from the hospital with each of my three children.

Those moments engraved themselves forever on my heart.

I can remember sitting on our couch the day we brought our first son home.

I held him and just stared at him. I stroked his head, played with his little fingers and toes, and was in total awe that this precious, tiny child would one day grow to be a man.

It was the same with our second son born twenty months later.

This time, though, I had a young toddler at my side sitting with me holding the baby, and I could vocalize to him, as well as to my younger son, all I was feeling. I’m sure they didn’t understand my words and wouldn’t possibly remember them. But it was a special sharing of the infinite with them both that I’ll never forget.

Six and a half years later when we brought home our daughter, I found myself again caressing her and in awe that I was holding a future woman.

This time there were two older big brothers with me to enjoy her; to tell her who they were, who she was, and to question me as to when she would be big enough to actually do something and play with them.

I couldn’t help but laugh secretly to myself, knowing that in not too many years hence, the little girl hanging around the big guys would not be something they would want.

But I wouldn’t ruin the moment by sharing that with them then. Instead we shared in the wonder of a newborn in our house.

All these memories flooded back to me when our baby girl gave birth to a baby, and brought all that is the wonder of my grandson into our lives.

The picture of my beaming son-in-law coming out of the delivery room, meeting me eye-to-eye wordlessly to give me the thumbs up sign, stays with me.

I will always cherish the look on my husband’s face, sharing in the awe of becoming a grandparent, and the look on our two sons’ faces when they met their new nephew for the first time.

Life doesn’t get better than that!

Promoted to the status of Grandma, all I wanted for him overwhelmed me.

I wanted to share everything I had ever learned. Never did I expect how he, and later his younger brother, would be the ones to teach me so much!

John Lennon’s tune of Imagine softly played from the plush star mobile, as the lights on it twinkled in the bassinet for my first grandson.

He stared sleepily at the blinking lights. His smile as he slipped into sleep captured my heart. I was unprepared for the depth of love I experienced with this child.

And then nine years later there’s another newborn joining the family, and when I held him, again I fell in love.

That same mobile in the bassinet at my house lulled him to sleep as peacefully as it did for his older brother as I cherished the sight once more.

A new baby pulls me out of the craziness in our world, and brings me to a safer, more loving place.

For that moment, all is right with the world!

That peek at perfection inspires me once more, renewing in me a desire to do my part to make a difference to achieve a better world for them.

Routine is important for children.

Stability makes them feel secure.

I tried the best I could to try to establish routines when raising my children, although I must confess to many times reverting to going with the flow amid the craziness of life.

So whenever my grandsons are here, I make sure to continue routines at Grandma’s house to give them that security, a much easier task freed from the hectic 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, ongoing onslaught of raising children.

I now had more patience and time to share this stability with my grandsons.

After seeing both of them so comfortable with the familiar routines, an astounding thought hit me. I realized that these routines I established for my grandchildren, which changed as each grew, gave me security, too.

I have the inner peace that I chased when I was younger, but never quite attained.

Today the eldest grandson, a teenager, along with his younger brother, both still enjoy “hanging out” with Grandma.

Thanks, boys, for teaching Grandma so much!