When my husband and I found out we were expecting our 2nd child we were elated. We were thrilled to be expanding our family. We were also nervous as we were essentially "shaking things up" and our family dynamic was surely going to change. Our son wasn't going to be an only child anymore, and I wasn't sure how he'd handle that. Well, let me tell you... he has and is handling it like a champ! He is a fantastic big brother!
From the time when my tummy started to expand I kept telling him his little brother or sister was growing inside me. When he asked, "Where is he?", I would tell him that the baby "wasn't done yet". I knew this was something he might understand as it's how I got him to learn to not pick the green strawberries, and to only pick the red ones, i.e. when they were done. :-) As my tummy would grow, and grow, and grow you could tell he was getting impatient. It's as if he thought we were joking with him. As we neared my delivery date, we kept telling him over and over again that his sister was coming very, very soon and that he would be meeting her and that he would be a big brother. You could see the excitement in his eyes every time we talked about it. It made my heart happy. We wanted to include him in the process as much as we possibly could so he didn't feel like we were replacing him, a feeling I know quite a few kids his age feel when a new baby is added to the family.
The day our daughter was born, my son was in school. His school knew we had a planned induction and informed our son that his sister was being born. They created an adorable, personalized card for Daddy E and me, and wrote down a poem, of sorts, of what Harrison had to say about his sister. His teacher was kind enough to write it down to capture the sweetness of it, and the silliness. He was so excited that his sister was finally here that apparently he turned into a jibber jabbering motormouth! I'm so thankful to now have this immortalized forever, and to hold this over his head someday. ;-)
Here are his thoughts on his new sister:
It's been 3 weeks since baby Gwen was born, and it makes me so happy to say that Harrison adores her. He is so extremely gentle with her and tells her he loves her constantly. The slightest whimper from her, and he's softly responding, "It's OK Gwen". A match made in brother & sister perfection indeed!
I couldn't be prouder of him. Of both of them.