When Charlie comes to Hospital.

Since I found out I was pregnant I have been so excited to see how Charlie copes becoming a big brother. Being the eldest child myself I feel like we will have this little connection.

At the same time I've also been worrying. I'm anxious as to how he will take to this huge change in his life. Ideally we wanted to wait until he was a year old before we tried for a sibling, but fate intervened as always and we found ourselves expecting a little earlier than planned. This means that Charlie is still of an age where he isn't really able to communicate or understand as much as we would of wanted him to. He has obviously noticed my belly grow and I think he will miss it, he loves resting his head on it and cuddles up to it. But he doesn't understand whats going on, not to our knowledge anyway.

I'm hoping he will be able to come and visit in the afternoon if I am up on the ward by then. The hopeful plan is that Ben will be able to fetch Charlie and bring him in to meet his little brother and see me. I know that he won't really know whats going on, and that being in a new strange place will be distracting for him. As well as all the tubes I will of just had a c-section and with him not able to understand that I'll be sore and fragile being able to have a cuddle will be hard.

To ease and hopefully make the meeting more normal, I've bought Charlie one of his most FAVOURITE things. Peppa Pig books! He is obsessed with his books especially the two Peppa Pig ones he already has. Every morning we watch it and he will say 'Peppa HOR' its one of the cutest things he does. He will go to his little book shelves and bring over the books and point to Peppa, he really does love it. As he already has 'My Mummy' I bought him 'My Daddy' as well as 'Peppa goes to hospital' I thought it was a really apt as I will be in hospital. These books will be from his little brother and I will write inside a little message so that Charlie can keep them forever.

Yesterday we took Charlie in to town and filmed him picking out a teddy for his little brother, giving it to the sales assistant and he even pressed one of the buttons of my pin (with a little help). He will bring this with him when he comes to hospital for the first time. I doubt he has grasped what he was doing but by filming it we can keep it as a memory for not only ourselves, but show him and his brother in years to come. By making him give whatever he chooses to the baby it will show him that not everything is his, and will hopefully be the start of teaching him that not everything is his.

Charlie with his bag and present.

I love the idea that if we have more children, hopefully when the boys are a little older, they can take a much bigger part in preparing for the arrival. I love the idea of them choosing their siblings middle name, we will give them options as to what we would like it to be so it doesn't turn out to be something very odd but they would have that important decision to make. They can also help pick out things we buy for the baby and in doing so they would hopefully feel at ease with another baby joining the family. Its a shame that Charlie isn't more aware but I am really happy with the short age gap that they will have between them and hope it cements a brotherly bond.

As anxious as I am to see how Charlie copes with becoming a big brother and one of two babies, I am also really excited. I know that worrying isn't worth my time, what will be will be as they say and its true. I can't predict how life will be with two children, how Charlie will cope, how the baby will fit in, I just can't read the future. All I can do is hope that it goes smoothly and take each day as it comes.

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