Tuesday, December 9, 2008

The story of your birth

We usually tell Leigh a story before she goes to bed. Often the stories involve Baba (grandma) and Baba kitty (grandma's cat) and usually a lion and a giraffe who have to go potty before their naps. But one of her favorites is the story of how she was born, which I thought would be interesting after the discussion about divulging who is the birthing mother on yesterday's post. FYI, I am "Ima" and Lyn is "Mama."
Before you were born, you lived in Ima's belly. We were very excited to meet you, and we were waiting for you to come out for a long time. Finally, it was time for you to be born. You were working really hard and Ima was working really hard, and then Ima gave a big push and you came out. Mama caught you in her arms and held you. Mama and Ima wrapped you up in blankets so that you wouldn't be cold, and then we thought you looked a little scared so we sang you a song, the same song we sing you every night before bed [we then generally launch into our bedtime song (here's an elaborate version of the same song) and it's off to bed].
Leigh will bring up this story from time to time or ask about the time she lived in my belly, but she doesn't seem to think it's a big deal. I'll be interested to see what happens when she figures out that Lyn has a baby in her belly. We haven't talked to her about it directly, but she's clearly picking things up because she told us the other night that she was going to have a baby and her sister was going to get it for her!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lovely. What a great tradition for your children. Thanks for sharing. I will be curious to hear about her reaction as she starts to understand more and more about the new baby living in the tummy.

Alayna said...

That is such a wonderful way to tell your daughter about her birth and being welcomed into the world. We always tell our son that that after he came out of my belly, his mommy gave him his belly button (by cutting the cord). It's a fun story that he loves to hear and it also gives him the idea of a physical connection to both of us right from the very beginning.