Deciding to have a baby, or a second, or a third has never been a decision hubby and I have entered into lightly. We have always made sure it was right for us at that moment and have been very lucky to get each of our babies when we were ready without any struggles.
We’ve talked about baby non-stop throughout the pregnancy, looking at pictures of how babies grow in the belly and talked about how the baby is going to get out. We’ve talked about how mommy is feeling and what baby is doing. My girls have become very comfortable with what’s going on inside, but now we’re getting ready for baby to be outside.
The addition of a third to our family is definitely going to be life changing (just as the first and second were) and I’ve spent many months contemplating what these changes would be. Most importantly I’ve looked at every angle of how having a baby in the house is going to affect my girls. How will they cope with a baby? How will a baby affect their daily routine and lives? Will they love the baby from the start and never stop or will they become resentful at some point? All of these questions and scenarios have been filling my thoughts and dreams for 38 weeks.
The one scenario I never even thought to work through, though, was how the WAITING for baby to come would affect all of us. I know how I feel as it gets to the end and I’m ready to meet baby but I never thought about how it would affect the girls. I never thought I would see a behavior or routine change before the baby arrived.
Turns out none of us have slept in the past two weeks. The girls wake up exhausted, fussy and ready to go to nap by 10 am. Twice I’ve gotten them out of their room in the morning and Honeybun has said “Mommy, I thought the baby was coming in the night time.”
Having two exhausted girls is hard enough but what bothers me the most is the other signs of stress they’ve been showing. Honeybun has had a perpetual upset stomach for almost a week, sometimes so bad it brings her to tears. Stomach upset is not something she has every had a problem with so it’s a very alarming symptom for us. And in addition to sleepless nights, Sugarplum has cut her nap back by nearly half. Her two hour nap yesterday (which used to be standard) was the longest she’s had in over a week. Usually if she has a few short naps in a row she’ll take a 3-4 hour nap one day but this has yet to happen.
All I can say is, the sooner this baby gets here, the better for our family. I hope.
