Storytime with Nikita’s Grandma

What a Great-Grandma Wants You to Know About Infants

My maternal grandmother, whom we call Oma, is eighty-five years old and smart as a whip. She is a mother of three, a grandmother of eight, and a great-grandmother of five (so far). Not only has she had a hand in raising each and every one of us (yes, all sixteen!), but she loves babies so much that she decided to spend a big chunk of her retirement working at a daycare, specializing in infant care for babies aged three months to one year.

The woman is an oracle. I could not have written a book about anything baby-related without including the best advice she has ever given me about newborns:

Have patience with your newborn, because this is all newer to him than it is to you. He’s never felt air on his skin, and he’s never heard the sounds of the outside world like this before. He’s scared and he’s sad, because he just left the only world he’s ever known. The only thing he recognizes here is you, your voice, your movements, and your smell. You are still his home.

So when he cries for you in the night, don’t be vex with him.* When he wants to be held all day, don’t get frustrated. When he won’t let anyone else comfort him, don’t be upset.

Just help him get through this tough phase in his life. Soon everything will become more familiar to him, and he will get accustomed to his life in this new world. But for now, just be there for him. The time for schedules and rules will come, but this is not it. Now is a time to enjoy.

So, go—enjoy your baby. No guilt, no fear, no apologies. Oma said so.