Being a Grandma, again, at age 42...

My second grandson,Scout, was born to the same daughter, Summer, 4 years after Noland arrived. Scout was a bundle of blue eyes and blonde hair and we all adored him from the beginning. I am now into my 40's and getting very used to the new life as "Nana" to Noland and now to this new guy, Scout. My girls who live at home are graduating and getting involved in sports daily so I am tossed into the mold of "Nana needs" and my own needs of being there for the other 3 daughters. My daughter has since moved out of my home when Noland was a toddler,but we still feel the need to nurture him as our"own" since we experienced his every "first" accomplishments together.
Scout grew into a family of "blended" siblings and was the spoiled baby for a couple years. My daughter had since married a new man and Scout you see, is the offspring of a new dad. The brothers bonded though and stay with their mom. Summer divorced when the boys were 4 and 8 and remarried soon after to a younger man...but a more stable man I have yet to meet. I am impressed with the qualities he brings to the family and feel relieved I can now rest my weary "Nana" stance. I do not need to improvise and take over the helm of being a "2nd" parent to my daughters sons.
The boys now live in Oklahoma, which is 18 hours away from me. I miss them like a hole in my side ...daily. But I do know that my daughter made a wise and very optomistic decision to break away from our tied apron-string hold. She and I are better friends and I now admire her strength and her tanacity of becoming the mom I always knew she could be. She is a better human being to everyone and treats herself better in life. I see the boys once or twice a year as they are permitted to live with my husband and I for 2 months in the summer. This is the time that I cling to and surround myself with them in my life. We make the best memories as often and as meaningful as we can. They are 13 and 9 years of ages now. I live for their phone calls and their letters.

Becoming a Grandma early...

I became a grandma at the age of 38. My eldest daughter, Summer, graduated from high school. She decided to stay around her hometown and work a few months then left us in Jan. of the following year to seek her new world. She drove to Texas from Ohio and moved in with relatives and worked for them. About the time spring rolled around she called us and said she was moving to another state with a boyfriend and that she was pregnant. They drove to Tacoma Washington and looked for jobs. She delivered a premature baby boy 3 months early due to difficulties in her pregancy with her amniotic fluid not building up enough. It was a rough time and the baby, Noland, was so tiny at birth. Almost 3 pounds. They kept him for 6 weeks in the neonatal unit and when he was just over 5 pounds we flew him and his mom and dad back to Ohio to live with us. We already had 2 teenage daughters and a 10 year old daughter living at our home. This was to be a new challenge. But we fought to prove we could bring in an extended family and we nurtured this new baby boy as if he were our own. My own brothers were still having more children of their own. There I was 38 and presenting my new grandson to my family for them all to accept. Noland changed our lives profoundly and taught us to open our eyes to small minded thinking. He pulled us through alot of tears and much laughter over his tiny premature life.