Isaac stuff

[mamajoan]

Isaac's latest thing in the car is to pull his hat down over his eyes and then yell "I can't see!" The first time or two, I freaked out like "omg what happened???" before I looked in the rear-view mirror and realized he was playing. LOL.

I wrote up a flyer to post at daycare asking for someone to help chauffeur Isaac to and from daycare during my maternity leave. I gave it to the director and she posted it in the staff breakroom, but no luck. I don't know what we're going to do about that. My mom is willing to do some of the driving, but she's certainly not going to drop him off AND pick him up three days a week for twelve weeks! (I've decided to drop him from four days a week to three, mostly for financial considerations. Probably go back to four when I go back to work.) I'm reluctantly coming to admit that I'll have to do some of it too, but I sure don't want to be doing a lot, not even half of it really. So I really want to find someone else, but I don't know how. Sure, I could post an ad on craigslist or such, but then there's the whole trust issue. Sigh.

I ended up not enrolling Isaac in the sibling class that they hold at the hospital. Mainly because it's $40 and I just couldn't decide whether I thought that would be worthwhile. They talk about what babies are like and have diaper-changing demonstrations (using dolls and teddy bears) and then show the kids a real live baby. I don't know how much Isaac would get out of that, that we can't get from books and just talking between us about babies. They also do a tour of the postpartum area and nursery, so the kids can see where mom and baby will be after the birth; I doubt that would do Isaac any good because he would spend the whole time racing around the hallways like a madman, and I would have to chase him, potentially disturbing a bunch of poor sleep-deprived new moms. I don't really think he needed it in the sense of familiarizing himself with the location, because he's pretty much happy to be wherever he happens to be.

Anyway, the class is this coming Friday and I didn't send in the registration form so I guess we're not doing it. We'll manage without. I'm hoping to get to the library soon and get some kids' books about what life is like with a new sibling.

People keep asking me whether Isaac is excited about the new baby -- or, from the more clueful types, whether he understands what's going to happen. I generally say that we are talking about it a lot but it's hard to be sure how much he understands. I mean, the whole notion of some nonspecific baby, which we can't now see, coming to live with us is pretty hard to grasp -- even for us adults who have been through the process once before -- so how can we expect him to understand it? Don't get me wrong, I do think that talking about it is helpful and useful ... but it's still going to be quite a shock to him when it actually happens.

Comments

[woobiewoobster.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I think you are right, Issac is still rather small to "understand" in concrete terms what is going to happen. You both will have changes to make and new adventures to travel so all you can do at this point is talk about it and hope for the best. : ) He'll do fine!

[tiffanygrrl.livejournal.com]

My nephew took the tour of the hospital with his sister's birth. He learned how to operate the buttons on the bed!!! And for all the "prep" his keen observation of the situation was: 1) when asked if he LIKES his new sister "uhm, all that baby does is POOP" and 2) after meeting her, "can we go home now?" and I don't think he at ALL meant with the baby.

They now are typical siblings though... and there's another one now too... he adjusted! And I don't know if paying someone to teach him how the bed works was worth the money! Much harder to tell him to leave it alone!!!

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

LOL! I don't expect Isaac to "like" his new sibling any time soon. I'll be satisfied with him not actively trying to harm it. ;) And as for operating the controls on the bed, I think I can teach him that myself, thanks. ;)

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

If you're going to be at Mt Auburn again
(I think perpmot told me we used the same midwives) You could take him to a "Meet the Midwives" night and then go on a tour of labor and delivery with them all and then he could get to see it for free. ;-)

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we did go to a "Meet the Midwives" already which is where I got my assessment of how he would do with the sibling class. ;) During the sitting around and talking about the midwives' philosophy part, he climbed up and down the stairs of the auditorium, talking loudly, and my mom kept having to take him out into the hallways. Then during the tour part, he just ran around the L&D area like a madman, several times trying to run into a room where a woman was in active labor ;) and really showed no interest whatsoever in actually looking at his surroundings. ;)

I know that the sibling class would be different because it's more geared toward kids and they would try to adjust it for his developmental stage. But I just decided it didn't seem worthwhile.

Still, he definitely did absorb some of it, because since then he'll often randomly announce that "we went to the hop-sittal" and "we saw where the baby will come out." So I feel like that's all he really needs and he'll be fine.

[tiggrrl.livejournal.com]

Do you have Siblings Without Rivalry? I would recommend it for you to help you and Isaac adjust to having Cosmo as a new family member. We used it a lot and got a lot out of it when we were suddenly forced to become "parents" to the kids who lived with us last year.

[azurelunatic]

Dad told me that my little sister would be a "red, wrinkly, crying baby," and that was pretty good expectation management.

I loved her until she got big enough to crawl through the toys I was playing with, bulldozer style.

LOL!

[nigita.livejournal.com]

"I can't see!" (because of hat over eyes, rather than stroke, seizure, other let-mom's-imagination-go-wild kind of event...)

Kids *are* funny.
*g*