A Day with Auntie Ariel

This past Thursday Aiden's sitter called to let us know that her youngest daughter had the flu. I didn't want to risk Aiden getting sick, so I made an emergency request with my sister Ariel. She has never babysat a baby before. I was a little nervous about the whole thing, but Ariel was super excited about spending the day with her nephew. She asked that I call her on my way there to make sure she was awake before I arrived.

I stopped by the sitter's first to grab the diaper bag that I leave there all week to bring it to Ariel's. On the way there, I called Ariel, but she didn't answer. Big surprise. I sent her a text message and continued my trek across town. When I got to her house, no one answered the door. I knocked again and waited a few minutes before using my key to let myself in. I set Aiden and all his gear down in the living room before going to knock on her bedroom door. Five minutes later she's rushing to the door asking if I called her. Ha! That girl sleeps like a ROCK.

I took a few moments to give Ariel the run down on baby basics (diapering, how to make bottles, etc.) before rushing off to work. I was SO NERVOUS all day. I ran around like a madman trying to finish my work so I could step out a few minutes early to relieve Ariel of her sitter duties. I wasn't worried that Ariel would hurt Aiden. It was more that I was worried he would start crying and she wouldn't know how to console him.

When I walked in the door to her house I realized I had no reason for my fears. Aiden was laying on the couch having a good ole time. Granted, he was supposed to be in the middle of a nap at that point, but at least he was happy. Ariel forgot about giving him his pacifier at nap time to help him go to sleep. Next time she'll remember though.

One time, in the foggy first weeks after Aiden was born, Ariel went with me on a trip to Target. I wanted to get out of the house and was finally allowed to drive. I was nervous about the whole thing, so I asked her to help me out. When we got in the car, Aiden immediately started crying. That's when I realized that it was feeding time. I was hoping he would make it until we got to the store, but didn't want to risk an entire car ride with a baby screaming in the back seat. I asked Ariel if she would sit back there with him and feed him his bottle - we could burp him when we got to the store in 10 minutes.

Unfortunately, the trip ended up having a crying baby the whole time anyhow. I was super stressed but convinced myself that I could make it all the way to the store before I got in back to help Ariel out. I didn't know what was wrong with him though. Was he mad someone besides Mommy was feeding him? Did he not like being fed without being held? It wasn't until I hopped in the back seat with Auntie Ariel in the Target parking lot that I realized Ariel didn't quite know what she was doing. Turns out, she was worried about him choking on the nipple if she put it all the way in his mouth. Instead, the poor boy had to suffer for 10 minutes with a bottle just out of his reach. Makes me sad just thinking about it three months later!

Ever since then, Ariel has prided herself with her knowledge on how to bottle feed a baby. She's a pro. She even knows to burp him every now and again. Which is good because I forgot to remind her of that when I dropped Aiden off last Friday.

In the end, everything was fine. Ariel even said that she was bummed I got there early because she didn't get to spend enough time with little Aiden. I hung out at her house for a couple hours before heading home so she could fit in some more baby time. Ariel told me that she would do it again in a heartbeat. That makes me feel so much better about the possibility of such a thing happening again. Although we won't run into this exact situation again since Aiden will be starting at the daycare next week. If one teacher gets sick at his school, there should always be a back up. Phew!