The Sweetest Thing

I had been dreaming of the moment that Brenden would meet Lauren for months. Part of me was just plain excited, while the rest of me was crazy nervous that he would instantly dislike her. The entire time I was pregnant we did everything we could to prepare him and he seemed to be ready to meet her. Every time we saw a baby he begged to hold him or her. He would tell random people that there was a baby in my belly and always knew to tell them her name. He started telling her to "Come out!" during the final few weeks. Of course, there is a huge difference between hearing about a baby you can't see and having it invade your personal space.

Susan brought him up to meet her when she was only a few hours old. He had to sit around in the waiting room with his grandparents while I was moved to my regular room. (A room that was ridiculously smaller than everyone else's rooms...but that's enough complaining about that from me, right?) I actually saw him laying on the ground watching tv when they wheeled me past. I was so ready to see my little boy!

When he finally walked in I got really nervous. I was so tired from being awake most of the night and going through a traumatic 20 minutes while getting Lauren here. At first he seemed very ready to walk right up and see her, but then he stopped. All I could think of was, "Oh no! he doesn't like her already and he hasn't even really met her!" He walked back to his grandma, grabbed a stuffed toy he had picked out in the gift shop, and handed it to her. He wanted to make sure she got his gift! I started crying. It was so sweet!

He wanted to crawl up into the bed with me and see her after that. He was a little hesitant with everyone watching, but he was still very sweet and very gentle. Eventually he asked to hold her so we both held her together. He had to check out her fingers and her toes, her belly and her hair. For awhile he watched everything we did with her, telling us who could hold her and hovering while Susan re-swaddled her.

Checking her out. The Lamb Chop is his gift to her. :)

Toes!

Keeping a watch over "his" baby.

Since we've been home he's still been sweet but we can tell that he's not really all that into her anymore. He had a few days where he was a completely, whiny mess but I'm not sure if that had anything to do with Lauren beshowing up or with being with his grandparents for a few days and then coming home and having to abide by our rules again. (We all know the grandparents spoil him...it's a given.) :) Thankfully that seems to be past us now, at least for awhile. Tim and I were getting really tired of it, although we were glad that if he was going to act out it was only screaming and crying and not being violent towards his sister. He's still very gentle around her, always trying to give her a pacifier or a bottle if he sees one, he just doesn't go up to her on his own to say hello. I'm curious to see how he'll be when we don't have any grandparents around to dote on him, too. (He's been staying with Karen and Rick at their hotel. Talk about spoiled!) :)

Our babies snuggling before bed. :)

Sharing his new toy. We were so proud!

I think he'll be much happier when she actually does something. The first 6 weeks or so infants are such lumps. Adorable lumps, but still, they don't do much. When she starts laughing and cooing and rolling over and crawling I think he'll be thrilled. We're going to have a hard time keeping him off of her and being gentle. Plus then she'll be into his toys and things. Not sure how that will go.

Right now I'm just enjoying my cuddly little girl and my happy big boy. If this is our honeymoon time I'm going to relish it for as long as I can. Soon enough we'll have new teeth and preschool and all sorts of things to throw us off our game.