On Becoming a Grandparent Part 2

Donna reminded me of an incident which happened when we were still living in Japan at Moriya Mansion with two little babies, Eph and Reg. I've forgotten all about it and it dawned on me that it was our first major fight. This was back in the 70's, I was probably 25 or so. Anyway, Eph was barely a toddler and Reg was just basically a newborn. They needed changing, and while she was doing Reg she told me to change Eph as well.

I refused!

Yes, I refused and told her I don't know how, giving her the excuse of being the youngest in the family and never having the experience of changing a baby's diaper in my life. She said she got so angry at me and told me, "Do not touch my babies ever again!" No wonder I chose to put the incident in the farthest recesses of my mind.

I imagine the picture above was taken around that time. In case you're wondering, that's Reggie with Donna and I'm carrying Eph. He looks a lot like Camille, don't you think? The guy was a Japanese gentleman who befriended us. He's a friend of a friend and I credit him with introducing me to sushi and sashimi.

Fast forward a bit a few days after Camille was born; I felt guilty for a few days about that incident and I guess, to make up for it I volunteered to take care of Camille at night, to feed her, burp her, change her and put her back to sleep and I've been doing it since the second day they went home from the hospital.

I was told I needed to change her after each feeding to prevent her from having diaper rash. The first night was touch and go for a while. When it was time to change her, I was at a loss at first but I've been watching them change her and I thought, "How hard can this be?" It's not unlike driving in the Philippines, really. It takes a bit of getting used to but after a couple of changes, I can safely say I'm now a pro! When she was an infant, it was a bit tough because she wakes up every two hours on the dot for her feeding. And there were times I can't lay her down in her bassinet; she cries so I have to pick her up again, at times carrying her till the next feeding. Early in the morning when I was changing her, she'll give me a hint of a smile and it drives away all the stress from the lack of sleep.


My consolation was Rachel on maternity leave; she takes over during the day and I get to sleep.

Nowadays, it's much easier because after her night feeding between 10 pm to midnight, the next time she'll wake will be around 5 and she's so low maintenance that it takes me a little less than half an hour to do the whole thing. Once I hear her fidgeting, I fix her bottle (she drinks 6 oz of milk now), feed her, burp her, change her and I lay her down in her crib, turn off the light and she goes back to sleep by herself. We've since stopped using the bassinet (we kept it in our room) and she strictly sleeps in her crib in the nursery now.

I sleep until around 9:30 or so in the morning and by that time everyone would have been gone; Donna goes to work at 6:30, Eph and Rach leave for work around 8:30 or so and they drop Camille off to Norwalk at her folk's house to give me time to sleep. It's just me and Cassie here for most of the day. I spend the day mostly Facebooking or watching movies on Netflix. Oh and I get to walk Cassie in the morning as well. It's April now and I've been here 6 months and no signs of homesickness yet.

And I owe it all to Camille!

Everyone has been telling me how it is to become a grandparent, on how it feels as if you love your grandchildren more than your children (which is not really true, is it?). Now I finally know what everyone's talking about!

For Easter Sunday, check out her various pics:

Last year my brother Rafael and I visited some relatives in San Miguel, Mexico (Pampanga, not Central America!) and decided we'd have a Maniago Family Reunion July of this year. Somehow I got tasked with organizing it so now I have to go back and start the ball rolling. I don't know yet how I'm going to deal with being far from Camille but I'm hoping Skype will help.