Friday, May 09, 2008

K & O's 'Sibling Class' at the Hospital

Last night was K & O's Sibling Class at the hospital where Baby Sister will be born. We had signed the boys up for this one-night "class" through the same organization where Braydon and I took our Lamaze class (CES, click here) -- K & O even had the same great teacher/nurse that taught us Lamaze, "Nurse Barb." It was a terrific kid-friendly class. Nurse Barb read them a book about how babies are born, she showed them a movie about the roller coaster of emotions that come with having a new baby enter the family, and they got a tour of the hospital baby/maternity wing where Baby Sister will make her debut.

The kids got to wear scrubs, etc., but Owen did not want anything covering his "I'm Going To Be A Big Brother!" t-shirt. (!) Kyle was thrilled (and took it very seriously) to dress like a "real doctor!"

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In one of the labor/delivery rooms Nurse Barb used a special doll with a baby in its belly to demonstrate the whole process. K & O knew all about this already, but still they were absolutely enthralled with the whole thing.

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Kyle was so incredibly excited while we were on the tour of the hospital. He would go listen to Nurse Barb for awhile and then come back to find Braydon and I -- jumping/prancing/grinning-ear-to-ear -- just so excited he was about to bust at the seams.

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The boys' favorite part was when they got to look through the windows into the nursery to see the "real just born babies!" They were so taken with this. They could have stayed there forever.

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They could not get enough of looking at the babies. We had to literally pull them away from the windows when it was time to go.

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This morning when Kyle woke up he came stumbling into our bedroom as he always does. He climbed into bed and the first thing he said was, "Mommy, are you ready for the baby to come out?" A few minutes later, this was the conversation~~ (note for new blog readers: June is K & O's imaginary friend)~~
Kyle: Mommy, I am excited about Baby Sister. But June is not excited. She's feeling mad.
Heather: Oh! Why is June mad?
K: Because Kyle and Owen and Papi and Mommy are going to feed our baby. But not June. She can't feed her. So she's mad.
H: Oh, she's mad about that? Is she feeling jealous?
K: Yes. But June has her own baby.
H: Oh! What's June's baby's name?
K: Her name is 'Baby Sister'
H: Oh!
K: She is inside June's belly. Right Owen?
O: That's right!
K: And she will be born very soon. So, she'll have her own baby and we will have our own baby.

We're getting very close to the due date (6 days away), and I feel like it could be any minute now. I caught a cold from the boys this week, so I'm feeling under the weather with sore throat, runny nose, low-energy, etc. I am hoping to get rid of this cold fast so that it will be gone before I go into labor. But now that K & O's birthday has come and gone they are all set for their sister's arrival. In late December when we told them they were going to be big brothers May seemed soooooooooo far away!!! And, here we are.

1 comment:

Mamato2 said...

I ma soooo glad the daysd of secrecy and shame surrounding child birth are loooong gone, but had no idea siblings were now acknowledged in this awesome way by hospitals. This is great!!