I’ve been incognito because baby Allie has made her appearance and has been with us for 5 weeks now! Prior to her birth, I was having a hard time understanding how I could love 2 kids equally when my heart has been so overflowing with love for my precious little Cooper. But, now that she is here, I get it!
I’ll be totally honest though, I did struggle with feelings of guilt for the first few weeks seeing Cooper struggling to adjust to not having quite as much attention from mom. However, he’s continuing to adjust, and seeing how much he loves his baby sister melts my heart to pieces. That’s all it is, just adjustment, and that’s a good thing for my little guy to learn. =) 
He also shared 2 hilarious quips regarding little sister. The first was when a friend delivered us dinner and asked, “How do you like your little sister?” to which Cooper responded, “Mmm, she only cries.”
The second was when I was adjusting a nursing pad (I’m blessed with an abundance of milk and have to keep an eye on those squirmy suckers), and he started crying, “No, no, no…no getting out the food!!” Ahh, the way they express their frustrations crack me up!
The main purpose of my blog entry today was to share that the “Big Brother Basket” worked wonders! The situation which required the “basket intervention” was when Cooper woke up from his nap, wanting to walk around the entire house holding my hand, without explanation. Finally, he led me over to the swing and started crying, “You put Allie in so you can hug me!” I relented and sat there with my baby Cooper in my lap, embraced with the tightest of hugs for about 5-10 minutes. Allie got to cry a bit while I loved on my son. But, alas, I cannot keep Allie crying for too long. So, this is what I explained to Cooper,
“You know, Allie had a feeling you’d get frustrated that she would take up so much of mommy’s time, so she left you some presents! Let’s go get one that you can play with while I feed Allie.”
His first one was the Magnetic Fishing Game. He happily played with it on the coffee table while I fed Allie. We even had a little educational session naming the different types of underwater sea creatures! I’ll keep you posted on future situations requiring a “Big Brother Gift”. =) Until then, I’ll attempt to provide other fun ideas I’m attempting whilst learning to juggle two kiddos!
You're not asking for advice, I know. And I don't like to offer unsolicited advice, but this was the best thing someone told me when I first had 2: "Your baby won't remember crying some when you put your other child first, but the older one can remember and understand when you always put the baby first." It helped to to remember that (within reason), I had to pay attention to my older one, even (sometimes especially) when the baby was crying. It was a great way for him to know that he was still very important, too.
ReplyDeleteYou're doing a great job!!