Palmer 'Baby lady' has what it takes… patience

Heat a bottle for the 6-week-old infant. Change five diapers, one after the other. Feed the 8-month-old a jar of pureed peaches. Stop the two 1-year-olds from resorting to biting and scratching as they battle over a favorite toy.

It is a routine that would leave some adults babbling like the babies they had been caring for. But Lynn Stachelrodt handles situations like this every day like a pro. That's because she is.

"If I ever had twins, I know I could do it," Stachelrodt said as she bundled up several babies to go outside to play.

For the past five years, Stachelrodt has been the baby lady, or "Miss Lynn" as the toddlers call her, at the Children's House in Palmer.

The job started as a favor. Stachelrodt and a Children's House worker knew each other through their daughters. When the daycare facility was short staffed, the woman asked Stachelrodt if she would be willing to help out for a few days.

"And I just haven't left," she said as she zipped up a jacket on a 6-month-old baby boy. "I love being here with these guys."

Over the years, she has spent some time working with older children at the daycare and for a while even taught pre-school. But she says she misses the babies when she's away from them, and apparently the feelings are mutual.

"When I'm not back here, my parents get upset," Stachelrodt said her boss told her.

This isn't to say that nerve-grating cries of the infants don't get to her sometimes. When she has a particularly cranky baby, Stachelrodt said she will ask a co-worker to relieve her for a few minutes so she can go for a walk or just get out for a break.

It is advice she says parents may want to consider for themselves -- when it starts to be too much, take five.

For Stachelrodt, these moments are rare, however. She says she misses the babies over the weekends or when their parents take them on vacation. When they're sick, she worries about them. And when they do something for the first time, she cheers them on.

Stachelrodt watches her babies experience many firsts -- first rolls from front to back, first steps, first words. She says she makes a big deal when it happens, but when the parents come to pick up their children she keeps it to herself because she doesn't want to steal the moment from mom and dad.

"Wouldn't you just bawl if you went to pick up your baby and they said, 'Oh, she took her first steps today'?" Stachelrodt said. Instead, she waits for the parents to tell her.

From working with parents to keeping the babies safe and happy, the job is demanding. Stachelrodt said people will apply for a position at the daycare, saying they love children, but within a little while realize they aren't cut out for the work.

"It's a tough job unless you really have the patience and the love for them," Stachelrodt said. "It's not just changing diapers. We talk to them. We get down on the floor with them. They love that human interaction … a lot of times you can calm a baby just by talking to them."

Stachelrodt has taken numerous childhood development classes but says a lot of what she has learned has just come with experience. Her first few days alone in the baby room were terrifying, she admits. She was afraid she wouldn't be able to take care of the three, four or even five infants she has at one time.

But now the job comes as second nature. When a baby cries, she goes through the routine of trying to find out what is wrong and trying to comfort.

"But if I can't calm them down, sometimes I let them cry it out," she said. "They have to learn to comfort themselves, too."

With five years of experience under her belt, Stachelrodt said parents often approach her with questions about what to do with their baby. And she says she doesn't mind; she even gives some parents her home phone number so they can call her with questions.

Stachelrodt said she has found that after a first baby, parents tend to relax some. And after dozens of babies, it is even easier.

"I just tell them, 'They'll be fine. Honest.'"