One of the best things about my pregnancy with the twins was sharing it with our big kids. Evie was with me at my 20 week ultrasound when we found out it was twins! Vivian and Ben came with me to a fetal non-stress test. Mack attended a routine check up with my OB. It was easy to include everyone in the pregnancy.
The day after Elinor and Juliet were born my mom brought the other kids to the hospital for a visit. The first thing Vivian said to me when she saw me was “Mama, why is your tummy still so FAT?!?” Rather than take unreasonable offense to her perfectly reasonable question, I answered it honestly: it took my body 36 weeks to prepare for the babies, and it might take my body another 36 weeks to look “normal” again. Satisfied with that straightforward response, she moved on to marveling at the twins.
Thanks to this pregnancy, my kids are pretty well versed in pregnancy lingo. They know the definitions of words like uterus, umbilical cord, placenta, c-section, ultrasound, to name just a few. We keep a couple books around the house for the kids to browse though and talk about:
How You Were Born by Joanna Cole:
A Child Is Born by Lennart Nilsson and Lars Hamberger (the photos in this book are incredible!)
I want my kids to have an appreciation and respect for the miracle of life, so we answer every question honestly. No need to sugar coat, gloss over, or skirt around the truth. This is the business of LIFE, after all!
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