Big Sis Gift

By now you know that I was pretty worried throughout my second pregnancy on how having a new baby in the house would affect our first born.  I wondered if our relationship would change.  I wondered how she would adjust.  I wondered how we would adjust.  We are still figuring these things out, but I have been very conscious to her and her feelings and have been trying my hardest to "get back to normal" so that it seems as if nothing has changed...well, except for the fact that we now have a sidekick!  I figure the sooner we jump in as a trio, the sooner it will become our normal.  So far, so good!

Over the last few weeks, prior to Maya being born, I had been collecting various items for a little gift basket for my big girl.  I was super impressed with how it turned out and had the intention on gifting it to her when she came to visit us for the first time at the hospital for becoming a big sister.  (I figured there was going to be a lot going on, so some much needed focus on her would be good.)

A collection of lots of her favorites!

Bundled and wrapped!

Add a cute card and BOOM!  Big Sister Gift Success!

When Brian's parents called and let us know they were coming to the hospital with Kate, we both thought it would be a good idea to send Little Sis down to the nursery.  That way, when Kate came in, we could discuss getting her together, if she wanted to.  So that's where Maya headed right before Kate arrived.

When Kate saw us, we were kind of standing in our room, right at the door.  We had just dropped Maya off and I was very conscious about sitting in the hospital bed.  I didn't want to scare her.  (I had tried to think of everything.  Seriously.  My brain hurt.)

Kate came running up to me and gave me a huge hug!  I picked her up and loved on her a lot.  All was normal, except we were at the hospital.  Brian got his hug while I was holding Kate.  She didn't want to let go, and after we showed her our room, we asked her if we should bring Little Sis down to our room.  There was no hesitation.  She said, "yes.".  [Insert my heart smiling here.]

We all walked to the nursery right down the hall, Kate was still in my arms.  It wasn't too far from our room.  There were two little babies in the nursery at the time and when we asked Kate if she saw Little Sis she said, "that one," and pointed to the baby that was not ours.  We all had a little chuckle and pointed to our real Little Sister and brought her out in her rolling bassinet.  We all went to our room and parked Little Sis next to the bed.  Kate sat down with me and got comfy and we introduced Kate to Maya and Maya to Kate.  Sisters forever.

This again.

We enjoyed the moment for a few minutes, answered any questions Kate had, who, by the way, was unusually quiet, and then gave her her big sister gift.

Getting excited at all the fun stuff peeking through!

Where to begin?!

We'll start with the bow!

Reading the card!

Diving in at all the fun stuff!

While Little Sis sleeps soundly next to us!

Speaking of sisters, Kate also came to the hospital with a little butterfly that she made for Maya.  I mean, it was the sweetest!  (Thank you, Mimi, for the help with this!)  We promptly put it in Maya's bassinet to let her enjoy and kept it there for the remainder of the time we were at the hospital.

Butterfly love.

I'm so glad we put this together for Kate.  It was a nice distraction for her and me and it was nice to spend some wonderful time with her.

Leaving the hospital was hard on both of us.  Kate was sad to leave the times that she visited and I was sad to see her go.  I did my best to be a strong Mama on the outside while she was with me but the moment she was out of the door, I lost it, both times.  I'm talking crying, sobbing, tears and tissues.  At one point, one of the nurses asked me if everything was ok and checked on me several extra times.  It was sweet of her but I couldn't even get out what was wrong.  I just cried.  Brian had to explain that our older daughter just stopped by and I was sad to see her leave.  Ahh, hello, Hormones.

Becoming a Big Sister is a huge milestone.  I know that Kate is going to be wonderful!  Maya is going to love her to pieces.

Congrats, Big Sister!