After months of waiting and preparing Addison for Baby Punkin's arrival, we still wondered how she would react when the day finally arrived. In conversations with her throughout my pregnancy, it seemed like she understood that it was more than her getting to say she was a Big Sister.
When we or others would talk to her about Baby Punkin's arrival, she didn't just repeat things we had told her. She would come up with her own explanations of what she's going to do as a Big Sister, etc so we were confident she was understanding the arrival of her younger sibling on a real level.
Mommy & Daddy are Going to the Hospital!
The hardest part about "planning" that unplanned moment of going into labor was considering how we would handle Addison. Months ago we made arrangements with Auntie Lorie to watch Addison when we went to the hospital. We had Grandma G as a backup too. But logistically, Addison was the most important aspect to consider. Luckily the timing of my labor worked out pretty well, since it started during the day and we headed to the hospital in the evening. We had Addison's overnight bag packed for weeks, so we just had to add a few last minute items and waited for Lorie to drop Addie off. When they arrived, I told her we were heading to the hospital. We gave Addie a big hug and told her she was gonna have a fun sleepover with her cousins and we were going to the hospital to meet Baby Punkin, so she'd get to come see us soon.
She wasn't at all sad or anxious, just excited so that made it much easier on us too. For much of my pregnancy, I was constantly worried about how Addison would handle this big life change and what it meant for her - even more than how it would affect Tim and me. There was not anything in the months leading up to Baby Punkin's arrival that made us think she wouldn't take it well, but ya never know!
Silly Baby Meets Baby Punkin
It went perfectly. I always wondered how Addison would react the first time actually seeing our baby, if she'd "get it." But she absolutely did get it. She came in and came up by me to see Baby Punkin right away. She was so happy and gentle and cute with her new little sister, it was awesome. The next morning when she came back with Tim was great too. She sang to Eden and wanted to come up and snuggle with us right away. That was just the first of many snuggly moments with my girls in the past month.
Addison loves to talk about "when I was a baby..." and compare it to whatever Eden is doing at the time. She did that while I was pregnant too, but it's a lot more now. It did take her some adjusting to always call Eden a girl, since while I was pregnant she'd usually say she was having a brother and Baby Punkin would be a boy, but then she'd refer to Punkin as "she" and "her." In the time since we've been home, Addison has also settled into calling Eden "my baby." Adorable!
Big Sister Job!
Of course, a very important concern for us in this transition is to not foster any jealousy or feelings of abandonment in Addison. While I was pregnant, we had Addison make Baby Punkin a Build-A-Bear and would talk to her about what it would be like once Baby Punkin arrived, as did her cousins and Auntie Lorie.
At the hospital, most visitors also brought Addison a Big Sister present which I think helped tremendously, because then she was proud to announce she was a Big Sister and got much of the attention for it.
Tim had 2 weeks of Paternity Leave which was extremely helpful in getting Addison used to Eden being around and, especially since I'm nursing, used to Mommy being indisposed several times throughout the day. So Tim was sorta on "Addison duty" in that time, but we also made sure she was forced to wait for attention or have to play on her own sometimes so she wouldn't be shocked when Tim went back to work.
We've gotten Addison involved with "big sister jobs" like throwing out diapers, getting us new ones, getting Mommy a water bottle while I'm nursing and singing to Eden when she's crying. Funnily enough, Addison singing her ABC's is quite soothing to Eden and she often times does stop crying when she hears Addison's voice!
Of course we're only a few weeks in, so she may take a turn, but for the most part we are off to a great start and I can't wait to witness this relationship blossom in the coming years with my little girls!
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