Reviews for Rocking the Babies

The average rating for Rocking the Babies based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-05-21 00:00:00 Alec Moua The ad in the newspaper asks for volunteers to help rock and comfort premature and drug-addicted babies in the neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital. Two very different middle-aged black women answer the ad. Nettie Lee Johnson has worked most of her life at the tire plant in Dayton, Ohio. At forty she unexpectedly found herself a single mother, and had high hopes for her daughter Yolanda. Unfortunately, Yolanda has been a source of disappointment and heartache to her mother. Despite being raised by a hard-working, fairly strict and very practical mother, Yolanda grows into an irresponsible, spoiled and self-centered teenager. At fifteen she becomes pregnant by her fourteen-year-old boyfriend, a slick-talking but not particularly bright wannabe thug named Byron, usually called Barn. After the birth of her son, called Little Barn, Yolanda becomes bored with motherhood and eventually gets hooked on crack, leaving Nettie to raise Little Barn. Martha is a just-retired librarian about Nettie's age, a divorcee for many years and mourning the crib death of her only son Paul long ago. She is looking to fill her lonely days with something meaningful, and the volunteer grandmother job at the hospital seems the perfect fit for her. The nursery is filled with tiny, fragile newborns with various problems, many relating to their mothers' drug use. One baby in particular has an especially sad backstory: Baby X was born two months early, addicted to crack and with a life-threatening heart condition. Her mother abandoned her on a cold winter night in a Port-a-Potti on a construction site, and nobody knows who she is. Nobody except Nettie, that is. Nettie knows that Baby X's mother is Yolanda, and she is determined to take care of the baby somehow; but she is afraid to tell anyone what she knows for fear Yolanda will be prosecuted. Rocking Baby X in the nursery seems to be the best she'll be able to manage for the time being. Nettie and Martha take an immediate dislike to each other. Nettie is blunt and outspoken, and has worked a factory job all her life and has never had much money. Martha is well-educated and well-off and tends to be a bit snobbish and prissy, at least in Nettie's estimation. Martha too has a fixation on Baby X, whom she has privately named Faith; she wants to become a licensed foster mother with an eye toward adopting Faith when she is released from the hospital. Nettie is made aware of Martha's plan and is openly hostile toward her, which Martha cannot understand. Nettie and Martha spend long days in the busy nursery, holding the babies and occasionally asissting the nurses with basic procedures. They meet many of the babies' parents, including LaRone Cruz, whose son Daquille was born with cocaine in his system. LaRone comes to the nursery often to spend time with her son, and she's usually accompanied by her friend Shavonne, who is herself very pregnant. At first LaRone is sullen and defensive; she knows the harm her actions have caused her son and she resents the judgment she feels from others. Gradually the four women begin to share their stories and to respect each other. Nettie sees that Martha has been lonely all her life, despite her apparent privilege; she lost her beloved brother when he was shot as a teenager by a white neighbor who mistook him for an intruder. Her baby son died in her arms, and her husband eventually left her. LaRone begins to see that while she has made bad choices, she is lucky enough to be able to turn things around for herself and Daquille, and the more she realizes this, the more willing she is to reach out to others for help. But there's still the issue of Baby X. Her health is not improving, and the doctors and nurses are not optimistic about her chances for survival. A rather pushy and overeager social worker seems to have made it her mission to find and punish the baby's mother, and while she is supportive of Martha's desire to become a foster mother, she informs her that her chances of being able to adopt Faith are not good. As Baby X's health continues to fail, Nettie makes the difficult decision to come clean about her relationship to the baby. She doesn't know where Yolanda is, and wouldn't reveal her location if she did, but she wants her granddaughter to have a name and, maybe, a place to come home to. Nettie's revelation has serious consequences. Because she had withheld the information, she is asked to leave the nursery and not return. Martha feels betrayed, but at the same time realizes that "Faith" or Maria Christina, as Nettie has named her, was never hers; she understands that she looked upon Faith/Maria as some sort of magic cure for her own grief over the loss of her son. Nettie is literally on her way out of the nursery for the last time when Maria codes again, and this time there's nothing anyone can do to save her. And so the grandmothers are left to come to terms with their loss, and to help each other. And LaRone, too; Daquille is strong enough to be discharged, and LaRone, with the help of her own father, is taking him home to raise. And now she can count on her newfound mentors, Nettie Lee and Martha, to help her. The pacing was a bit slow, and some of the old stories shared by Martha and Nettie seemed a bit like padding, but it was an absorbing read. The characters were well-drawn and complex, and while they didn't always make good decisions, they usually believed they were doing the right thing. The only thing that really bothered me was Nettie's continued loyalty to Yolanda. She was already raising Yolanda's son, and knew of Yolanda's drug use and irresponsibility and Byron's criminal activities; she was deeply disappointed and angered with Yolanda, yet kept on protecting her; did it not occur to her that Yolanda being arrested might be the only way she would ever get off crack? Did she ever consider that if she kept on that path, there might be more Marias abandoned in the future? There is no resolution regarding Yolanda's fate, or if Nettie ever hears from her again. But it was a great story nonetheless.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-11-13 00:00:00 Victor Sulantay This novel tells some of the stories of two women who volunteer at the local hospital as "Grandmothers" who rock premature babies. Mid-way through the novel, they are joined by two young women, one of whom has a child in the premie ward, who sometimes listen and sometimes tell their own stories, which are different in time and detail, but the same in substance. Being poor and female is just hard. And the stories ring true. None of them are neatly tied up with a happy or satisfying ending; all are told through the lens of their own challenges, limitations, and wisdom. These are real women living real lives, and their stories provide much to think about.