yay! It sounds like things are working out well! Seven months is such a fun age-- is he crawling yet? He will keep you busy!
On the blood pressure-- I don't know, but do narcotics lower your blood pressure? After I had my c-section, I was on morphine for a day, and my blood pressure was really low-- I think I remember someone saying that it was b/c of the morphine. Then again, I don't really remember b/c, well, I was on morphine!
Is there any way that just Jason can go in and collect your things? Just a thought.
Good luck!
Colleen

Hi Colleen!

He was asleep when I was over there Friday night, but I'm pretty sure he is crawling. I'll spend an hour or so with him on Friday morning and then I'll actually babysit him on Saturday for a few hours while his parents go to a company picnic.

Per BP- the nurse was actually mentally prepping me for it to be high because she said the narcotics and intense pain would like send it up... she was really surprised when it was a healthy number (and this happened 3 times over a period of two weeks, all three different nurses). Once was at the ER before they did the MRI to find the herniated disk so they were really shocked at the normal range because I was in so much pain that my face was drained of color and I looked (and felt) about ready to pass out. For sake of gossip I won't share more details, but my job was just not a good situation.

Per my stuffs, I think I should go because I had relationships with coworkers and it would be so rude to just not say good-bye. Plus, I haven't been there in 7 weeks and I can't even remember all that I have there... it's best for me to come and make sure that he doesn't accidentally take what's not mine or leave what is. I will be ok, especially because it will be to say "adios" to the place! It's the right thing to do, the Christlike thing to do, to go in person and say good-bye, so it will be ok :)

Ok, long response! Thanks for reading and commenting :)

Tami

Haha, that makes sense about your BP. Like I said, I vaguely remembered people discussing the morphine's effect on my BP, but couldn't remember what it was. It is a little crazy, I can hardly remember anything from my day on morphine. Which is kinda sad, cause it is the first day of my son's life. Oh well, there are lots of other days to remember!
Have fun babysitting! It is nice, in a way, that the mom will be in the house with you, so that if he is inconsolable at first, she is there for backup. However, if it was my child, I would be always trying to swoop in and save him if he so much as whimpered!
I am curious-- you said you wanted to be a nanny for a Christian family-- is that so you feel like you can comfortably share your beliefs? Or do you feel like there is a specifically Christian style of child-rearing that you would want to use as a nanny ? Or both? I am just curious. I know that I would be more comfortable working w/ a family where faith was important, b/c I feel like their values would more closely align w/ mine, but I can't put my finger on exactly why it would matter so much. There are certain parenting styles, though, that are marketed very specifically as Christian that I am very uncomfortable with, and I don't know that I could work w/ a family who used those techniques. LOL, this is all hypothetical since I have zero desire to be a nanny!
Colleen

Well I definitely would appreciate knowing they were on the same page regarding Jesus, of course, but I'm reading a book called Shepherding a Child's Heart where the premise is helping your child to realize that discipline is not about behavior modification- it's about the fact that they're misbehaving because their heart is not in the right place. Basically, the point is to guide your child to realize that they need to be aware of their heart and why they act the way they do, and to help them have a Biblical viewpoint on why it's important to have a heart that's surrendered to Jesus.

Obviously very young children can't grasp the intangible concepts of the duality of man but it lays the groundwork to raise them to see Jesus not just interwoven through life but as the very threads that create the tapestry. This includes sharing Bible examples with them and explicitly sharing Jesus- for example, if ever I get angry I need to apologize to my child and help them understand that I've sinned and offended Jesus, and that my sin hurts Jesus and them, and to ask for their forgiveness. Likewise, they need to see their own sins in this way... as a nanny I'll employ the same outlook.

I think it would be really hard for me to not nanny this way because it's absolutely central to my convictions about how to raise godly offspring, and that to me is so important that I couldn't help raise a child if they weren't being instilled with those values. Some people could, but I definitely couldn't!

And, though it's obvious, a family that either worships a different god or who doesn't see Jesus as the only way to God would be totally wrong fit. It goes beyond discipline, too. To touch on a really sticky subject, for example, I could never tell a child that sees to people of the same sex kissing that that's not sin. If s/he asks I can explain that it's sin, just like s/he and I sin, and that Jesus wants us to love each other even though we sin, but that the bottom line is that two people of the same sex shouldn't be more than friends... and to be fair, if there was a heterosexual couple getting hot and heavy I'd explain the same thing! But, clearly, I could never be a nanny for a couple who doesn't hold those same values.

Whew- this is a doozie! Sorry :) But Jesus is so central to every part of life that I just couldn't not share Him openly with a child so I need to be a nanny for parents with the same convictions; similarly, the family I'm going to nanny for has the same need, just from the parenting side.

Oh- and regardless of what they decide to do (he's not quite old enough and they haven't decided yet) I'll never have to spank him. I do believe there's a Biblical way to do it that's still loving (I can share if you're interested in what I think- just ask! This is just long enough already!) but I would never, ever want to enact that discipline on someone else's child. Way too sticky with issues of child abuse and such! So if that's what you were referring to, I am definitely glad I won't be expected to do that.

Ok, I'll let you absorb this novel :)

Heh, it never even occured to me that you, as a nanny, would be expected to spank. Like you said, waaaay too many issues for that to ever happen. I think that, if you teach, the idea of never laying a finger on one of your "charges" is soo drilled into you that it is completely beyond my frame of reference that you even could do that! I am sure it is the same way for you.
No, I personally am pretty anti-spanking (big surprise there, right?), but I don't think that is so horrible that I couldn't work w/ a family who believed in it.
My concern is more with people who essentially require complete obedience from their child and base this belief in the Bible. I know that our obedience belongs to God, not to anyone else, and I would be uncomfortable requiring complete obedience in all things. I am NOT saying that I don't believe in rules, saying no, timeouts, or discipline. I do tell my son no (although I try to do it rarely) and he certainly knows what it means! I, personally, am more likely to tell him what to do than what not to do ("When you're in a chair, you sit on your bottom. You can stand on the floor"), but that is partly b/c I don't want him to hear no all the time and start to tune it out.
I am curious about the way/reasons for which you would spank, and especially at what age you would start. I just think this stuff is interesting-- I love to hear what different people think and believe.
Oh, by the way, it totally makes sense why you would want to work w/ a Christian family. I can certainly understand that you would need to be able to share your core beliefs and values with a child.