Jamie Nelms leaned over her baby’s crib Thursday night, cooing and patting her so she could sleep.

Eight-week-old Audrey wanted no part of it. She stayed wide awake, giggling and smiling.

Nelms’ husband, Jerrod Nelms, called through the open door, “You’ve got residents hanging out of windows. I think there’s alcohol involved because they’re acting stupid.”

Jamie had to go to work, doing rounds as assistant hall director of Rodes-Harlin Hall.

The Nelmses, along with Brian Powell, hall director of Poland Hall, and Kevin Utt, assistant hall director of Pearce-Ford Tower, are raising infants while living in dorm apartments and managing the day-to-day functioning of buildings with hundreds of residents.

The Nelmses said the biggest challenge they face is balancing their time between working, trying to get their master’s degrees and taking care of Audrey.

“We’re literally handing the baby off at times,” Jerrod said.

He occasionally takes Audrey to his job as a graduate assistant.

“Sometimes it’s better when I take her to work because people will hold her, and I don’t have to hold her all the time,” he said.

The Nelmses said next semester will be even more hectic because Jamie will begin taking classes for her master’s degree.

“Next semester is going to be kind of tough,” Jerrod Nelms said.

“Ahh, we’ll manage,” Jamie said.

The Nelmses have no specific plans for making the adjustment, but they might ask Jamie’s mother to care for Audrey on Thursday nights when both parents have classes.

Powell said the main challenge of being a parent and a hall director is maintaining work responsibilities while raising a child.

“I can’t really grab her and go respond to a fire alarm,” he said.

All three families said living in dorms has made life easier overall because they live so close to their workplaces.

“Part of the difference is the commute,” Utt said. “My office is only 30 steps from my home.”

The office also provides some relief from the occasional inconsolable fit.

“I’m not good with that. Jarrod’s better,” Jamie said. “I just want to pick her up and hold her, but we don’t want to spoil her so that she has to be held all the time.”

HRL administrators have been supportive, Jamie said. In fact, they hired her when she was seven months pregnant.

Residents have also reacted well to living with an infant.

Jamie said that a Rodes resident assistant jokes that “people could be in a terrible mood. They could be fighting or crying, but as soon as they see a baby, they’re immediately happy. They start cooing and smiling.”

Living with dozens of RAs also means many potential babysitters.

“When we need one, there will be a whole lot of babysitters available,” Powell said.

Residents’ noise doesn’t affect the Nelmses much because they live in apartments secluded from most of the dorm.

Lynn Holland, associate director of HRL, raised her two sons as elementary students in dorms.

“Living in the residence halls was actually a good environment,” she said. “There were students who had education projects who would work with my sons, tutoring them and helping them with their projects. There were 400 students at the ready to help my sons.”

Audrey will probably live in the dorms until she is about six or seven, Jerrod said.

The Nelmses said incidents such as what happened Thursday are the exception, not the rule.

“We’re normal. We just live in a residence hall,” Jerrod said. “It’s a job. You’ve got to make a living. You’ve got to provide for the baby.”

Reach Greg Capillo at news@wkuherald.com.