Reed are you Ready?

Other than "how are you feeling?" the question I've received most often while pregnant is "how is Reed going to handle having a new baby in the house?" To be honest, I really don't know. It's going to be a huge adjustment for all of us and probably most significant for him. I worry about my ability to pick him up and give him cuddles while I recover and care for a newborn, but luckily he has a Grandma and a Nonna who he adores and who I know will be around to help us out.

We have done a few things for Reed over the last seven months that we hope will help him embrace his new role as a Big Brother. We told Reed early on I was pregnant and that there was a baby in Mommy's tummy. While he was confused for a bit and thought there was a baby in his tummy too, he's been very sweet about giving my belly hugs and kisses and saying hi to the baby. He's felt the baby move a couple of times as well. We also started working on the nursery pretty early. I knew we were going to have a busy summer and wanted to be able to work on things as we had time. This worked out great because Reed has loved showing the "baby's room" off to visitors, likes going in there to play with some of the toys but completely understands he can't take them to his room, and even brought some books from his room he said he wanted the baby to have (melt my heart). We also worked on a special art project for the baby's room that he thought was really neat.

Just need one more foot-print to complete our family

Other than some toys, etc. that Reed has outgrown we plan to move his changing table and crib into the nursery. This involves getting him into a big boy bed and this past weekend he gave me the perfect opportunity to do some furniture rearranging when he requested his crib be under some paper decorations I have hanging from the ceiling. This is exactly where I want to put his bed so I jumped at the chance and Reed and I quickly went to work rearranging furniture in his room. He's still in his crib, but I'm hoping if he gets comfortable with its location for a week or two the transition to the bed might be easier. The rearranging also means the changing table is out of his room. He's not in love with the idea of putting it into the baby's room so it's in the hallway for now, but I hope in a few days he'll get used to the idea and let us finish the move. I'm also hoping he gets excited about the new bed and we can work out a deal that he only gets the bed if he lets us move the crib.

Since Reed is so into books we've done a couple things in that department too. First I bought a small ottoman for the nursery that I plan to use to rest my feet on when nursing, but it also serves as a great seat for Reed when we read stories. He usually likes to be cuddled up next to me, but in the nursery he's more than happy to hang on the ottoman to hear stories. Jon and our family friend, Lisa, both got him books about being a big brother that he LOVES (like to the point that I hide them sometimes because I'm tired of reading them). Yesterday we were reading one of the books and there is a picture of the new family complete with the baby so we were pointing to Mommy, Dad, etc. and Reed looked at me and said "Dodger too?" I'm going to blame the pregnancy hormones, but I couldn't help but get teary eyed over his comment - such a sweet boy!

Reed talks a lot about the things he's going to do with the baby. On the top of his list are taking a bath with and riding next to him/her in the car. There is also an abacus in the nursery that he's dying to play with but I've told him that it's a special toy for him to play with when the baby comes and Mom is nursing. He's also obsessed with the swing and loves helping to buckle in stuffed animals and using his whisper voice because the "guy" is sleeping.

We have two friends due to have a baby before Baby McClarty arrives so I'm hoping Reed will have the opportunity to be around them a bit too. I think seeing a baby in action will lessen the blow a bit when a real life one comes home to stay! I know there will be bumps in the road and that Reed will probably have a few melt downs over the baby's arrival, but hopefully we've prepared him as best we can. We honestly can't wait to meet our Little One, but I think the best part is going to be seeing our two children together and feeling like a complete family.