Babysitting

As most of you already know, I have been taking yoga for a few years at the Portland Yoga Studio, which is a fantastic place. Well, about a month ago, my friend Lindsay and I took this 4-week workshop there on developing your own home practice. The workshop was fantastic, probably one of the best and most useful sessions we've taken there. The other cool thing is that then instructor allowed me to do it for a work exchange, which means instead of paying for the workshop, I'll do an equal number of hours in work for her (such as walking her dogs, cleaning, etc.) Yesterday morning I got an email asking if I could babysit for her an hour before my yoga class as part of my work exchange because her normal sitter was in New York. So I said yes. My instructor is actually a foster mother now for an infant, I believe she is only about 3 months old. Her name is Abby, and they are hoping to adopt her but it's a long process and may not know for a year or so.

On my way to the studio I got a little nervous because I realized I haven't actually been around an infant, one-on-one since my early teen years when I babysat for my neighbors infant (oddly enough, another foster child). So when I when I got there and was left alone to feed her her bottle, burp her, then entertain her for an hour or so, I was a bit weary. I kept thinking, oh my gosh I'm pregnant, I better get used to this. I also kept convincing myself that it's okay that this all feels pretty new, I'm sure not every woman who has a baby is used to taking care of them. I imagine that's part of the joy of motherhood.

Well things went well with little Abby and me. She drank all of her bottle, had a few good burps and projectile spit ups (luckily these when over my shoulder instead of on it), and had fun looking at stuff around the room and listening to me make up little songs because I wasn't sure what else to do and that made her smile. At one point, she started crying a lot. I was worried that was going to happen, and more worried that I wouldn't be able to get her to stop crying. I tried swinging her gently back and forth and bouncing her as we walked around the room, but that wasn't working. Eventually I put her on a blanket on the ground and pet her belly (not unlike you would a puppy) and told her it's okay, it's okay. For some reason that worked right away. So I spent the rest of the time occasionally rubbing her little belly and making funny animal faces. That made her smile and have little giggles, which was very satisfying. She was so cute. Eventually her Mommy came to take over for me so I could get dressed for yoga, and she was surprised that Abby wouldn't look at her, she kept staring at me. She was happy that Abby liked me. So I guess in the end, despite a little crying episode, I did okay and she seemed to like me well enough. There is hope for the tiny fetus inside me after all.

Abby