Baby sitters with a lifetime of experience

They reported for duty at Fort Carson armed with bottles and bibs, going hand-to-hand with the mightiest species on earth: babies.

They're the rocking grannies.

Every Wednesday, a van load of these residents from Sunrise Senior Living's downtown facility go to the army post to baby-sit while parents take classes in the Nurturing Parenting Program.

Most want to be better moms and dads. Some are court-ordered to attend.

Doesn't matter to these grannies. They're here for the babies.

"It is very important to us to have something to do, and do something that is worthwhile instead of just sitting doing nothing," said 85-year-old Yvonne Wick.

"I feel like a mother again," said Louise Raby, 80. "I go back to that feeling again when I had my four daughters. There's just something about babies when you pick them up and rock them."

The matriarchs do their job sitting down. They sing lullabies, pat backs, coddle - and don't change diapers.

Jodi Dunn started the weekly field trips about two years ago when she took the activity coordinator post at Sunrise. Dunn previously worked for the Fort Carson program and would line up volunteers to tend to the babies during class.

At Sunrise, she found a willing, able and seasoned crew of grandmas ready for some rocking action.

"It brings back memories. Just to be around children again is huge," Dunn said.

Most are widows whose children, grands and greats are scattered all over the country. Some were military wives who know the strains the young parents face being uprooted far from relatives.

"We're here by ourselves," said new mom Paula Valenti, whose husband, Kristopher, an Army captain, is in Iraq.

Baby Kanden Valenti burped and rested in the arms of several grandmas while his mom attended class Wednesday.

"They take good care of Kanden," she said.

It goes both ways.

"You can't believe the love and kindness we get from those mothers and their babies," said Wick, a retired schoolteacher.

"It's very hard to get to be an old, old person and live in the world we live in. Most of your friends are gone ... are dead. I was very depressed for a while, and Jodi brought me out here. Of course, there's no way to be depressed when you have beautiful children with you like this and wonderful mothers."

About six Sunrise residents form the baby brigade most weeks. Most are regulars.

Newcomers such as Ginny Blakeman are always welcome.

"It's my first time, and I kind of feel out of it," Blakeman, 84, said Wednesday. "My kids are all grown up, and I haven't got any little ones."

Not to worry, said 80-year-old Gloria Laird, cradling a sleeping month-old girl in her arms.

"It's not rocket science," Laird said. "It comes right back. It's just instinctive. Motherhood is always there, under the surface, of course, at this stage of my life, but always ready to reactivate."

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Call Brown at 636-0253