Coming May 2012

Several months back Lily randomly told my Dad "My little sister's in heaven - she's getting out soon!" Maybe kids know more than we do about these things!?

We're having a baby! 

We are super excited to have another child and for Lily to be a be a sister! Since we live with them, we broke the news to my parents first. Lily drew a handmade card, and inside I wrote: "Lily's little sibling is getting out of heaven" and on a flap "SURPRISE" Underneath the flap I glued one of our ultrasound images of the new baby. Just a tiny little bean. Above the ultrasound I wrote: "We are excited to be welcoming another sweet baby in May 2012" 

Lily was in the Doctors office that afternoon, but she didn't really get what was going on. I was ok with that because I wanted to break the news in my own way. With the card ready we told Lily that she was going to be a big sister. Silly Mike showed her the ultrasound photo and told her it was of the baby. She got upset and exclaimed, "That's not a baby! Poo-poo!" and swatted it away. But we explained that the baby was in mama's tummy and it was really tiny and had a lot of growing to do before it could come out. We said: We want you to go give this card to Grandma and Grandpa, and once they've read it you can tell them you're going to be a big sister! - but don't tell them until they've read the card! She did great. She rushed in excitedly to give the card. Grandpa got it first and exclaimed over the front like any other card she's given them. Then when he saw my writing inside he read it aloud to my mom and his eyebrows shot up with a twinkle and met mine to confirm it was really true. Lily danced around excitedly and said her 'big sister' line. Then we called all the rest of our family and let Lily break the news over the phone. "Lily wanted to talk to you..." It was so funny how everyone thought Lily was just talking at first. To each new person she'd say "I'm going to be a big sister." "Oh, that's nice" was the typical reply. Not until she said (with a little prompting) "There's a baby in mama's tummy," and with us saying "Yes, she is. Yes, there is!" off to the side on the speaker phone did it hit home. It made it fun every time.

I'm not really sure how Lily feels about the idea of being a sister, and I don't think she'll really grasp what that means until the baby is here. I mean, you can never really prepare for the change that having a baby brings. And you don't really even understand that until you've had a baby of your own. Sometimes Lily seems excited when we talk about it and sometimes not so much. She said one day, a few days after we first broke the news, that she didn't want to tell people she was going to be a big sister because the baby wasn't out of my tummy yet! Lily is hoping for a sister, and she said she wants to name it "'Lily' so we will match." Lately she mostly seems slightly grouchy about it, but tonight I was reading her the story of baby Jesus from a little First Bible board book and I pointed out Mary's tummy and talked about how big it was and how the baby Jesus was ready to be born, and she put her little hand out gently on my tummy and patted it. It was so sweet. I know it will be a tough adjustment, but I think we'll be OK. Boy or girl - we love our little baby already.