During my pregnancy with Jonah, I was very worried about how Sophie was going to react to the new baby. After all, she as already four when he was born and very used to being the baby herself. And she is a TOTAL mama’s girl and I was afraid she would be super-jealous and want to eat him alive for taking up my time and attention.
Whenever I expressed this fear either to friends or here on the blog, everyone said that Sophie would surprise me; you all said that she would looooove the baby and be a “Little Mommy”. Since I can barely get Sophie to glance sideways at her baby dolls, I was not really believing you all. At all.
But YOU were RIGHT.
She adores him. She wants to burp him, snuggle him, pick him up (no), change his diaper (um, NO), and shove his paci in his face all day long, even when he is soundly asleep without it, or happily awake without it. She tells him she loves him constantly and she is SO. Sweet.
But of course, she is a little TOO attentive, and I fear I am going to spend the next six months constantly saving Jonah from his big sister who loves him so much! Earlier this week I changed his diaper and then left him in the pack & play to wash my hands. I came back to find Sophie un-snapping his sleeper (4 snaps down!). “I’m gonna change him.” She informed me. I then informed her that he had just been changed and that, oh by the way, only grown-ups were allowed to change his diaper! (Although I HAVE let her “assist” with a gentle wipe after I’m already done.) Then, the next day as I was making dinner, Jonah was again in the pack & play when Joshua came running into the kitchen and said, “Mom, this is REALLY bad…” so I pushed him out of my way (he is incapable of saying ANYTHING quickly) and ran to the pack & play. Sophie was standing there with innocent eyes and Jonah was crying. Joshua followed me into the room and said “She kept trying to pick him up but she couldn’t. And she kept telling me it was my turn but I knew I wasn’t supposed to so I ran in to tell you.” (What a saint.) So I had to give her the lecture about how only grown-ups can pick the baby up. She cried and cried. She was really sad about it, because she was afraid she had hurt Jonah.
But despite the near-misses, Jonah seems to love her already, too. I caught one of his early smiles on Friday and he was looking right at Sophie as I took this picture:
Of course, two seconds later when she was trying to put his bootie on his HEAD instead of his foot, he was less enthusiastic:
And yet. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful sibling relationship! And I couldn’t be prouder of my girl for doting on her little brother!
And did you hear me? I said I was WRONG! You were RIGHT! I’m so humbled. 🙂
Aunt Zola tried to feed me potato chips when I was a baby, when Grandma said, “Don’t do that, he doesn’t have any teeth!” Zola looked UP and said, “God, why didn’t you give my baby brother teeth?”
Big sisters can kill ya!
UP
My brother and I were 4 and 5.5 when my sister was born (Mom needed a breather). She had to keep little sister in the playpen some times to keep us out of her face. Mom caught me trying to put her in my doll baby buggy.
Once he gets big enough to sit up, he’ll start defending himself. For many years I had a scar on my cheek where my sister scratched me away with her little fingernail.
Our “middle” daughter was the same way when her baby brother came along. I was also worried about how “the baby” would react to being displaced, but she has such a wonderful nurturing spirit. She LOVES to take care of little ones. Six years later she and her brother really are great friends and roomates. So glad to see that Sophie loves her baby brother just as much!
When Megan was born I had been around babies all my life and was 9 years old. My step-father had never even held a baby. When Mom would leave the house, she’d say, ” Mackenzie, watch the baby… and Lincoln.” Made me feel good at least.
love the smiling picture of Jonah.
I used to hide Abby’s in the closet in her bouncy seat just so she could get a break and get a good nap. One of my friends with only one child at the time thought I might scare the other kids when they couldn’t find her, but I told her I really just cared about the newborn’s safety! Out of sight…out of mind.
Good pictures. good story.
When I had my first baby, I watched my nieces (2 and 4 A LOT) and they were always wanting to carry my poor girl around. I remember once seeing the 4 year old carrying my infant down a flight of stairs because she thought I couldn’t hear her crying upstairs. Talk about a heart attach. My baby was only 6 pounds so VERY easy for the 4 year old to get her hands on, unfortunately.
My daughter just turned 5 and my sister just had a baby (who is 6 pounds) and I can’t imagine my daughter carrying that little baby at all!!