“On Friday the baby kept me up until 4 a.m.,” Victoria Boeckenstedt (10) said. “And then Saturday it kept me up until 3 a.m.”
In teacher Christian Carper’s Parenting class, each student cares for a RealCare Baby for a full weekend. Just about every student who comes back Monday morning with their infant simulator has an interesting story to tell the class from their weekend.

“A newborn will sleep between 16 and 20 hours a day, so if parents sleep when the baby sleeps, they will get some sleep, but the child never sleeps consistently so it will never be like a full eight hours of sleep,” Carper said.

Over the weekend, students are responsible for feeding the baby, burping the baby, rocking the baby, and changing the baby’s diaper. Carper programs the babies from an easy level to a more complex level, but he always wants his students to experience what it’s like with a baby.

Aleah Winkowitsch (10) said, “I hated falling asleep knowing the baby would wake up screaming.” She also said that she thought that Carper put the baby on an easier mode because she got a “decent amount of sleep.”

From this experience, Winkowitsch realized that she doesn’t want a ton of children. “It was a lot to wake up to (a baby) screaming in the middle of the night,” Winkowitch said.

When the baby shut off Sunday night, Winkowitsch felt a great “relief.”