My husband and I are having a baby, but my toddler is too.  It’s been fun trying to explain to him that there is a baby in my belly.  We’ve read books and looked at drawings of babies in the womb.  While he seems to understand that there is a baby in there and that it is growing and that when it gets big enough it will come out, he also thinks there is another baby in his own belly. 

He will notice my belly and say, “Your belly is a big belly.  There is a baby in there.” and just when I think we’re done with that conversation, he’ll pick up his shirt, poke out his tummy and say, “I have a new baby in my belly too.  It is growing.”  For some reason, his Dada is also pregnant, but is having a sister.  Jack and I are having babies, but Dada is having a sister.  I am not sure what he thinks he is saying.

While this is all totally adorable and we’re all pumped about our growing “babies”, I wonder what Jack will say when his sibling arrives and he is still a solid nine months pregnant?  Will he remember?  Will he think his baby will make its debut any day?  Will he totally forget about the whole thing?  Will he pull up his shirt and ask someone to remove his fetus?

He has been playing with a baby doll that we bought him when we found out I was pregnant.  He feeds her a bottle and sings “You Are My Sunshine” and gives her a paci.  I didn’t intentionally purchase a girl, by the way, but there really aren’t that many boy baby dolls at Walmart-and she was only seven bucks.  Her name is Phyllis.  Jack sleeps with Phyllis every night.  It’s pretty adorable.  Sometimes, he’ll make up songs for her and tell her she’s okay and that everything is fine.

I wish I could get inside his little head.  Does he realize an actual human being is growing inside me?  Will he be totally shocked when he arrives at the hospital and meets a moving, breathing, crying child and is told that its the new baby?  Is he expecting another doll?  Does he think it’s going to sleep with him?

I realize all these questions sound a little fearful, but really it’s just curiosity.  I wish I could explain to him that we are getting a new family member.  That he will barely remember life as an only child.  In a few years, it’ll be hard to believe that for three years, it was just us.  Life will seem like it would have been incomplete without them.

The baby has just started moving, and as opposed to my pregnancy with Jack-who wasn’t real to me until he was a few days old-it’s feeling real.  I think it’s easier to imagine when you’ve already experienced that deep love for your child.  I have no problem believing that I will have a special bond with this next one and love them just as much because Jack is my everything.  Even when he’s a whiny, little, dingus, he is mine and he is a perfect creation that belongs to me.  This baby will be the same way.

While I don’t exactly know what’s going through my toddler’s head, I do know that he’s excited that we’re having a baby-and he’s had an incredibly easy pregnancy so far.