Page 34 - Tonilee & Bobbye Social Media Special Edition Oct Nov 2011 (1)

Is There a Baby watching TV with his legs propped up on the coffee table when Caitlyn
suddenly stood between his legs, propped her hands on his knee caps
and said, with the most serious tone a three year old can muster, “Hello,
Daddy. I’m Dr. Caitlyn. I need you to take a deep breath and count to ten.
in Your Belly? I’m going to need you to push as hard as you can so we can get that baby
out.” I couldn’t help but laugh. I passed it off as an innocent, but hilarious,
incident that would be soon forgotten. When we visited my parent’s house a
few weeks later, Caitlyn lay grunting and groaning on the carpet. Her little
By Erin Pistilli face was scrunched up as if she was straining to get a really tough bowel
movement going. When my mother asked her what she was doing, Caitlyn
answered in a tight voice, “I’m trying to get this baby out!” Apparently, she
When my husband did, because a few seconds later she was cooing to an invisible baby. Ok,
Mark and I found out so maybe this idea of watching baby-birthing reality shows wasn’t such a
we were pregnant brilliant idea after all.
for a second time we After the reality-show misstep, we decided to move on to her baby books
were beyond thrilled. again. As Caitlyn and I flipped through the pages I kept pointing to her baby
Caitlyn, our daughter, pictures explaining that the baby in the book was her and when we got to my
was just two at the big belly pictures I explained to her that she was once in mommy’s tummy
time, so we decided too. Her big blue eyes bulged in terror and she yelped, “I don’t want to be in
we had plenty of time there!” I reassured her that she would never be in my tummy again and we
to figure out how we closed the book - so much for the baby book idea.
were going to explain As a stay-at-home mom during the week, my two little partners-in-crime fol-
that her whole world low me everywhere so I decided that taking her to my doctor’s appointments
was going to change. would be informative enough. At my very first appointment, the OBGYN
After getting some came in and turned off the lights to do an ultra-sound. As she scanned my
advice from other belly she turned up the volume so we could hear the heartbeat. The dim-
parent friends and lights, bright screen and the pulsating noises became too much for Caitlyn
family we started in and she wailed in horror. Soon her baby brother joined her. Alright, so no
small steps. While more taking the kiddos to the ultrasound appointments (if I could help it).
doing chores around But whether I liked it or not they would still have to join me at my prenatal
the house, I would appointments. I found the best way to entertain them was to cram as many
occasionally put on a snacks, toys and books as I could into the diaper bag. This plan worked
pretty intrusive reality beautifully until I had to do the hour-long glucose test. After sipping that ter-
show that followed rible-tasting sugar drink I handed the kids their toys and snacks and settled
women on their baby into the seat for the long hour ahead of me. Five minutes into the hour my
journeys. The cam- son groaned and grunted until he took the biggest and messiest poop in the
eras wouldn’t show history of poopdom. The worst part about it (besides the smell) was that the
anything too revealing other than an adorable, but very gooey, baby being lab techs wouldn’t let me leave the room; I had to change him in the same
handed to its mother for the first time. As the new mother would cry and small, cramped room everyone was waiting in.
34 coo at her precious baby I would take this as an opportunity to tell Caitlyn I apologized profusely for the smell and the techs came over and smiled
things like “Mommy felt the same way when she met you” or “You were once politely as they sprayed a raspberry scented room spray that smelled ten
a little baby just like that”. She would smile up at me and continue with her times worse than Kiernan’s digested sweet potatoes. As I settled back into
playtime. my chair for the remaining forty-five minutes, Caitlyn promptly spilled her
After a short while, I began to pull out her baby books and we would look cheerios all over the floor. The next half hour was spent telling the kids to
through the pictures together. I pointed out my huge belly and explained to share, picking up Kiernan’s discarded toys and the occasional cheerio. As
her that babies come from their mommy’s belly and that was why mommy’s I take the kids in the bathroom with me for the final part of the test Caitlyn
belly was so big. She would nod, smile and continue looking through the exclaims “Is this a playground?!” as I shut the door behind us.
pictures. Eventually, I could no longer get away with telling Caitlyn my belly With the glucose test behind me, I had a quick doctor’s appointment immedi-
was large because I’d had a big lunch so I told her, very simply, that mommy ately following. The kids were impatient beyond belief at this point and I was
had another baby in her belly. She took this news rather well so I brought as frazzled as a washed-out perm. The doctor smiled sweetly at the kids as
out her baby book and went through the story again, this time adding that we she felt my stomach. She noticed my two dolphin tattoos on my lower abdo-
would be making a new book for a new baby-a baby boy. men and asked me if my daughter liked my shark tattoos. I couldn’t help
The next step is to include her in as much of the baby planning as possible but laugh as I explained to her that I was a young, bubbly eighteen year old
(for a two year old that is). She helps us pick out baby clothes, Winnie the when I got the dolphins and supposed that thirteen years and three pregnan-
Pooh bedding and room décor. We emphasized the ‘big sister’ role and did cies had turned them into smashed-up looking predators. She looked a tad
everything we could to show her that she was just as important to us as she embarrassed as she laughed with me. The kids soon joined in and I relaxed
was before we found out about baby number two. My parents even had the for the first time that day.
genius idea of getting a baby doll for Christmas that came complete with a Later that night, my husband and I had a long talk and after quite a few
high chair, stroller and bassinet. She loved it. laughs. We came to a simple conclusion: If our daughter had questions
When Kiernan, her baby brother finally arrived, Caitlyn toted her baby every- about the baby we would answer them but we didn’t need to go and “borrow
where. I realized how perceptive she was as she became a mother to her trouble” as my mom likes to say. It took my daughter giving fake-birth in my
own baby doll. She sang to it, took it for walks, and even nursed it once or parent’s living room for it to really sink in. Our three-year old was a lot more
twice. Kiernan, our newborn son ate well, slept quite a bit and, much to our aware of things than we expected and we realized that by giving her too
surprise, we had very few jealousy incidents between Caitlyn and her baby much information we had over-loaded her developing brain. Lesson learned:
brother. Life was good. We were the proud parents of two beautiful children Kids are naturally inquisitive-let them navigate their way through discussions
and our team work had paid off. regarding big life changes. You may just be surprised by how much they
We found out we were pregnant with our third child when Caitlyn was three actually know.
and a half and Kiernan was one. Kiernan was at the point in his life where I’m now into my sixth month of the pregnancy and it is the calm before the
eating lint was the highlight of his day so we knew that, once again, Caitlyn storm. We have since abandoned the watching of any reality shows (at least
was the person we were going to have to break the news to, only this time until after the kiddos go to bed) and have ceased bringing the kids to any
she was much more aware of any sort of change that was coming her way. sort of ultrasound appointments. Caitlyn will occasionally ask to feel my bel-
I began to put on the same baby shows to introduce her to the idea of yet ly and she and her little brother still accompany me to doctor’s appointments.
another baby being in the house. She was a lot more interested in the show For the most part, the kids play and laugh with no worries in their beautiful
and would actually come sit next to me on the couch and ooh and aah when hearts. Until this baby comes, my day is spent chasing after Caitlyn who is
the baby was born. chasing after her brother with squeals of laughter echoing off the walls as he
One day, when I came home from work, my husband pulled me tosses her baby dolls across the room.
aside and asked me if I’d been watching ‘those baby shows’ again. I told
him I had and asked him why. His response was a story of how he’d been