Since I returned back home from my National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) program, I've been assisting with babysitting my elder sister's child, i.e my Nephew wherever she's off to work. She works a three (3) days, 12hr shift job. Usually, I assist my yonger sister and my mum, so it not as if I have to be the only one to completely watch over him all day. But yesterday, I was the only one around so I had to be fully in charge.

The morning started with his usual cry. The cry of disappointment of not waking up to see his mother next to him. After his two (2) to three (3) minutes cry, I pet him back to sleep. Few hours later, he finally woke up completely and jumped out of bed. He played and roamed about the house for some minutes before I decided to feed him breakfast. He will be a year and one month old in 3 days, so I can tell if he's hungry, and he probably wasn't starving before I fed him. After feeding him his usual, Cerelac. I then bathed and dressed him up. He kept his cheerful vibe and kept playing all by himself. But I needed to work and do some other things. So I decided it would be best for me to put him to sleep. Then I can I have time for myself and do my things.

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Photo by William Fortunato on Pexeles

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I performed my magic and in no time he fell asleep. I quickly tidied up the house, washed my dad clothes that popped out of the blues, had my bath and then ate breakfast. My plans for the day was to do my laundry. So after eating, I decided to relax a little and in the process, I was scrolling through my Hive feeds and engaging on some post. Not so long after a friend of mine called me to help me work on a CorelDRAW project. When I was about to start, I heard him make a cooing sound so I went to check up on him. He was wide awake already and playing by himself. He isn't much of a long sleeper. He sleeps for about an hour or two (2). So I decided to pause my work and play with him for few minutes. After some tickling and tossing around on the bed, I decided to fold the mackintosh and the little clothe I spread on the Mackintosh for him to sleep on the bed in order to avoid him from wetting the bed if he eventually pees while sleeping.

But just right after I moved him away from the mackintosh to the bed and began folding the mackintosh, I noticed he was looking at me innocently and he was quiet. I then observed that his hands were between his thigh. It was then it dawned on me that he has just peed on the bed. I quickly carried him off the bed and quickly grabbed a small towel to soak the urine off the bed. I was just so angry with myself and my thoughts were filled with 'had I known.' I got another small towel and damped it in order to completely get the urine off from the mattress. I eventually had to move out the mattress for it to be sun dried.

When I was done carrying the mattress out, I then cleaned up my Nephew and changed his short while putting on a fake smile on my face. I honestly don't like frowning at kids even if I'm to scold them. I then took him to the chair in the living room and gave him some pieces of biscuit to eat while I continued working on my laptop, but I kept turning back at interval to check up on him. During the process of eating the biscuit, he messed up the chair with some biscuits in which is normal. I gave him water at the end and cleaned the chair with a damped towel and then I returned back to working on my laptop.

I then got carried away with edit I was making on the file my friend sent me to work on. Only for my phone to ring and it was his mum. It was then my consciousness recalled that I'm baby sitting a child and I haven't heard him make any sound in the past few minutes. As I picked the call, I turned my head backwards to checkup on him, and to my most shocking surprise, he had pooped in his short and the poop was so much that it spilled out from his short to the chair and he had even dipped his hands in it, played with it, and spread it around the chair. The only words I could utter was "AHH!" His mum understood and immediately asked, 'what happened?' It was then I told her what had happen.

That was how I got engaged with another unplanned work. I took him out of the mess and I went to clean him up. This time around I couldn't even force the smile on my face, I was just ensuring I wasnt frowning my face. After cleaning him up, I wore him a new short only, and placed him to sit on the floor and headed to tidy up the messed up chiar. I began picking the poop on the chair with tissue paper in my hand. I had to wash the chair surface with soap and sponge before using a damped towel to then wipe off the soap residue. Then I transferred the chair outside for the sun to dry it. At this point I was just frustrated and thinking to myself that is this how stressful it is to have a child? Cause it was getting exhausting having to attend to unplanned task.

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Photo by Craig Adderley on Pexeles

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After I was done tiding up all the mess, I returned his mum's call. It was almost time for his mum to come pick him up so I decided to go dress him up. (actually, it was time for me to take him to his mum. lol.) So I wore him his diapers. I honestly can't remember the last time I wore a baby a diaper. Probably my little sister when she was still a baby fifteen (15) years ago. After some couple of adjustments I finally got it right. (one don't just get to forget some things you know 😉. ) I then wore his trousers only on him. Then I went to prepare his usual meal, Cerelac for lunch and then fed him. Even I myself was extremely hungry at that point but his needs were my priority, so I attended to his needs first. (such a great uncle I am, right? 🙂.) After feeding him, I cleaned his mouth and wore him his top. I quickly gulped a little garri with some peanuts in it before setting out to take him to his mum.

On arriving to his mum, she handed over a chilled bottle of malt to me first to appreciate me and tell me that I have tried before even receiving her child from me. Haha 😄. Even if nobody praised me that I have tried with sll that stress I went through, I'll praise myself that I've tried. So I dropped him off with his mum and then walked back home feeling like a fulfilled nanny. Lol 😆

Just so you know, on getting back home, I still had to go wash the bedspread he peeed on and the bedspread he messed up the previous night. And that's how I never ended up carrying out my own planned task for the day 🤧

But in all, I'd say the experience was a memorable one and I'll show him this post I wrote in few years to come. Thanks for reading.

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