The impending new arrival!

The last few months have been like a roller coaster ride with a “dejavu” like situation on the personal front …..that almost has us turn the time backwards to eight years ago when we first embarked on our journey to parenthood!  While I thought I could safely hang on to “been there and done that”….. I had not anticipated  that the eight year gap comes with its own set of physical and mental/emotional complications……and not to forget the added pressure of being mindful of the  huge impact  it would have on the soon to be elder brother at home! While I can’t say that Abhay is excited but is rather is unsure and insecure about being displaced from his coveted status of being the only kid in the house! Well…can’t blame him as for quite some time now…even we believed he would be the only kid in the house!!! J

Though there are several children's books available that deal with announcing the impending arrival of a new baby at home, I could lay my hands on a couple of them. There’s “Baby on Board” by Kes Gray and Sarah Nayler  which gives a month-on-month account of the growth of the baby in mommy’s tummy accompanied by the attendant changes in and around the household. This is a book for kids who are all gung-ho about becoming the elder sibling and cant wait to see the new baby! However with things being quite the opposite at home (Abhay would rather not talk about it!)… I found “There’s going to be a baby” by John Birningham and Helen Oxenbury ideal. This book features a rather nervous kid who is unsure as to what to expect when his mother announces that there’s going to be a new baby at home. The soon-to be elder brother is seen a little anxious as he wonders how will the baby be and even asks his mother if she can make the baby go away as they don’t really need the baby! Through-out her pregnancy, the mother wonderfully engages her eldest born in a conversation almost everywhere they go…..about what do they think the baby will grow up to be……a chef in a restaurant, or an artist, a doctor, a sailor or keeper at the zoo! As the mother throws in her ideas, her older child is seen imagining what the baby might do in each of those professions that echoes his true sentiment about the baby and his jaded responses follow suit – when he vows not eat anything that the baby bakes or not letting the baby make a mess of the house with the paint, or not wanting to have the baby treat him when he’s sick or hoping to be the captain on the baby’s boat and finally wondering if the baby will get eaten by a tiger at the zoo (ouch!…. that’s a nasty one!) But as the day nears…..the boy is shown warming up to the idea of a baby sister or a brother ….and the story ends with the boy accompanying his grandpa to the hospital  eager to see and love the new baby! So here’s hoping the same transformation in Abhay too…sometime in the end of May when it will probably be the time for the new arrival in our household! J