Kids perspective

Obviously, with other children in the house, we are bound to get alot of humorous questions along our journey. 

We have four other girls - 6, almost 5, 3 1/2, and 1 1/2 years old respectively.  The very little ones won't grasp much, but, we still chose to talk to all of them about the baby. Things will be a little different - even if Meagan does really well, we still want them to be prepared for unexpected events, hospital visits, and/or set backs. 

Having a new sibling is definitely not new to them! They are used to mommy's belly growing, mommy going to the hospital, coming to see mommy and the new baby often that very same day, and then within 2 days, mommy and baby coming home.  Except for lots less sleep and newborn crying, not much has changed in their lives when we have had a new baby, except a new person is along for the ride in our schedule.

When we talked to the girls about Meagan, we wanted to prepare them, but, also keep things age appropriate.  They were excited to know we had found out the sex - they had been asking and asking (because they were all DYING for a little brother.. LOL)... When we told them it was another girl, they all laughed. They couldn't believe it and my oldest said "Oh my goodness! So many girls!" haha.

We  told them that our new baby was named Meagan and they were all very happy with her name. The older 2 were already making up nicknames they would call her when she was born (Megs, Maggie, etc..) and were having a ball talking about that.  Then, we told them that Meagan was a little bit sick.  The two younger ones probably didn't even grasp what we were saying -- but the older two immediately started with questions.

Our oldest (Reilly) asked us why she was sick - what was wrong with her.  I told her she had something go wrong when she was growing so a little water (I used the term water only because I knew she wouldn't understand if I said 'fluid') had accidentally stayed in her head and she was having a bad headache so we had to help her after she was born to get her healthy again.  Reilly then asked if it was in her brain (surprised me!) and I said yes, it was.  That was it for the questions and all they said is "Ok well we will pray for her" ...

A few funnies from the weekend:

 The two older girls were playing "house" and "dolls" and pretending to be friends with kids ...  Reilly asked Kaitlin (second oldest) to watch her other kids while she took her baby to the hospital.  Kaitlin said "ok"... when Reilly started to walk away I asked "Oh, why does your baby need to go to the hospital?"  She looked at me and said "Oh, she just needs to have her brain checked out."  I actually giggled because I realized in the whole situation, "brain" was the one word that from a 6 year old perspective made sense - she knew what it was and where it was - and that's what she had grasped from our talk. It gave me quite a laugh.  

Later, Brian and I were discussing the future room arrangements - now that we knew she was a girl, how were we going to divide rooms...who was sharing..etc.  We talked about this at dinner in front of the girls, who were getting very excited about their new "roommates"..etc.  We told them, though, well it wouldn't be for a while - probably another year because for the first several months, Meagan would be in our room, next to mommy.  Reilly asked, "Oh, is that because you have to watch her head?"  Again, I laughed and said "NO! It's because little babies wake up alot to eat and mommy doesn't want to walk down the hall to feed her!" haha... I told her they had ALL been in my room for the first several months.  I thought it was so funny how she thought otherwise. 

We then asked the girls, wow, when Meagan comes, where will she sit at our table? (Our kitchen table is pretty much maxed out) ... the girls looked around and Kaitlin pointed next to her and said "Right HERE!"  I said, ok that looks like a good spot. Then Kaitlin looked up and down the table and said "Wow, mom... when Meagan comes, we are going to have such a LONG family!" ... Um.. big family Kaitlin? Again.. gotta love the kids' perspective on things. :)

Finally, when I was putting Reilly to bed the other night, she looked at me and bluntly said, "Mom, what if my prayers for Meagan don't work?"... I thought it was a great question! I told her "Prayers ALWAYS work, Reilly... They just don't always work the way WE thought they would." :)