Monday, August 27, 2007

Nesting and Siblings

As the time for our new baby to be born is quickly approaching, I'm getting into "nesting" mode. Thank goodness it is much cooler the last few days so I can organize things and clean without dripping in sweat.

We have all of these projects we are working on around the house and I feel like none of them will get done before the baby arrives, but I'm trying not to stress about it. The only thing that really has to be done, in my opinion is blowing up the birthing pool (which the guys are working on right now) and having some space for the birth. Dema was born in our other house and we had the spare bedroom all set up. Now we have most of my inventory for my business in the spare room so I won't birth in there. I don't want to take up the boys' room in case it is a long labor or happens while they are sleeping so I'm down to our bedroom which is smaller and has a king size bed taking up most of the room. I'm sure it will all come together.

Note on the birthing pool, after the guys showed their strength and determination to inflate the birthing pool with only bike pumps, we bought a pump at a local camping supply store which did the rest of the job in seconds. Best $10 we've spent this week.

Parker and Dema both want to be around for the birth and they both want to cut the umbilical cord (Parker cut Dema's). We'll see how it goes. Maybe they can do it together. They both kind of fight over the baby already and it isn't even here yet. I'm sure they will figure it out once the little one arrives. They really work together well. Sure, they have their little disagreements and bug each other, but they are so incredibly close too. It is nice to see that in siblings who are four years apart. They help each other out and are usually fiercely loyal to each other. Dema, especially, would get in a bar fight for Parker. Parker is always looking after Dema and making sure he is safe. I worry a little about adding a third into the mix. I've never thought it was a good idea to have an uneven number of siblings...you get the middle child syndrome and someone is left out. We'll see. I usually try to assume it will all work out instead of creating an issue by worrying. I think children tend to live up to expectations so if we expect there to be fighting we will probably get fighting and vice versa.

Dema has asked to see pictures of his birth a lot lately. I unfortunately don't have pictures of Parker's because we had a regular 35 mm film camera then and the film was accidentally exposed (heartbreaking for me). Rob took some great pictures at Dema's birth and they can be viewed here. Dema loves to talk about how he was born in a pool, but it can be confusing to people who don't know his birth story. Parker is extremely interested in the whole birth process. He tries to explain it to Dema and anyone else who will listen. I wonder if he might have interest in being a midwife later in life. Parker has been learning about the sun lately and he came up to me the other day and said, "If your belly was the sun, the Earth would be the size of a sperm." Hmm. I don't know if the math works out, but it sounds about right. I like how he combines sex ed and astronomy. The wonders of homeschooling.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

See, it is easier to just have a baby for each older sibling :)

Good luck with yout birth.

VeganLinda said...

That is what Rob thinks. He is already talking about the next (since I'm fairly certain I'm not having twins). Four isn't really that much more than three, right? :-)