I’m a little late with this post, but this past weekend my baby turned 3 years old. I can hardly believe it. Isn’t he a cutie? I’m so in love with this little guy.
As we celebrated Ryder’s birthday, I was reflecting back to 3 years ago, as I preparing for his birth. My mom had been in the delivery room for all her grandbabies up to that point (except for my niece, who was born in Florida). I anticipated she would be there with me for Ryder as well. At that time, mom was exhibiting odd behaviors but we didn’t have a diagnosis for her yet. I admit I was a little annoyed with her when the issue of the delivery room came up. Although she wanted to be there, she couldn’t commit to it if I had happened to go into labor in the early hours of the morning because it was “too hard” for her to get up early. I was hurt, at the time, because it was so unlike her. Nevertheless, everything worked out when delivery day came. I ended up being admitted around noon and that worked out nicely for mom.
This was the last grandbaby that mom was in the delivery room for. Two more grandsons have been born since, and mom wasn’t there for either of them. In fact, she hasn’t even met my nephew who was born this past February. Sadly, she doesn’t seem very concerned about it. It’s all part of the disease…it’s definitely not the mom we once knew, who was ecstatic to be a grandma.
I am really grateful that, even though I “lost” my mom early on and my kids never really got to know their grandma for the person she once was, she was present for each of their births. These pictures will certainly be cherished for years to come.
My youngest turns 3 next week! My mom came to help out with my other 3 kids while i was in the hospital and it was the last time that she traveled alone. She had to fly from North Carolina to Missouri and had some delays because of storms and it was all really confusing to her. I didn't know how much worse she had gotten, because it had been 5 months since I had last seen her. She could handle taking the kids for walks, doing crafts with them and making basic meals for them, but other than that she was kind of in her own world. It was super stressful to be in the hospital and not know how the kids were doing at home - my mom could barely talk on the phone at that point and driving was iffy. After that grandkid we knew she wouldn't be traveling to help out with births unless my dad could go too. It was sad, because my mom loved being there to help. But at this point she is like another kid to take care instead of any help. She used to clean my house from top to bottom, cook meals and take the baby in the morning so I could sleep. She loves to serve, so it's hard to see how this disease has taken away that ability. She still does as much she can, but that awareness of others just isn't there anymore. But, I too am grateful she has been able to see all of my babies within a day of their birth. If I have more it will be strange if she's not there.
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