I promise this has not turned into an all-baby-all-the-time blog. But lately that's pretty much been the norm. We have baby poems, and baby birds, and of course a baby sister. There is some other stuff going on around here, but before we get to that, I just want to say one more thing about babies.
I have heard parents explain that they were stopping after one child, because they didn't think they had enough love/time/energy to split between more than that. Since I was raised in a family of six kids, I do know a thing or two about what that's like. It's true that sometimes we didn't get enough of one parent or another. And it is certainly true that if my parents had tried to spend equal time with each of us every day, there would have been no time left for anything else. But still the split-time reasoning has never made sense to me.
To be honest, I was not a very good mother of one child. I felt like I was constantly learning something just after I needed it. Like, what to pack in a diaper bag. (i.e. diapers.) And how much I should have been reading each day to my newborn/infant/toddler... Did you know experts expect you to read to them everyday!? I remember being frustrated, guilt-ridden, and exhausted. Being a mother to one child is overwhelming.
But something has happened in our family of three children this week. My kindergartner is reading to our newborn. In Esther, Emma now has a captive audience with whom she can read as slowly and haltingly as she pleases. An audience who isn't watching the clock, prompting her impatiently, worrying about what needs to be done, or saying "NO!" when she asks if we want to hear that book again.
Having siblings doesn't mean that the time/love/creativity/energy is divided. With a big family, those things are multiplied. It's true that Esther won't have as much of her parents' attention as Emma had. But Emma didn't have a loving sister and brother to fill in the gaps--and then some.
Having another baby has already blessed our family in so many ways. And I know her brother and sister will be a blessing to her as well. At the very least, this is one newborn who'll get a few bedtime stories.
