Sweet Baby Doll

It is August 10th, and my due date is exactly one month away. I will be 36 weeks on Tuesday, and I have my next OB appointment on Wednesday. After that, I am supposed to see my doctor weekly until delivery.

As many of you may recall, I had a c-section with Emrick because he was in a breech position. I have gone back and forth on whether I wanted to just schedule a repeat c-section for this new baby, or if I wanted to attempt a VBAC (vaginal birth after Cesarean). As close as I am to my due date, I STILL don’t know for sure what I want to do. But it probably won’t matter because if I am not mistaken, this baby is breech as well. That has not been confirmed by ultrasound, but I am pretty sure I can feel her firm, round head at the top of my abdomen, just like I could with Emrick. I guess it’s possible that what I am feeling are her buns of steel, and not her head, but I doubt it. Anyway, if she is breech, and is still breech in a few weeks, then a c-section it is.

Either way, we are in the home stretch. We have a new crib (Emrick is still in his, and it converts into a toddler bed anyway, so he will probably be using it for a few more years) and a new mattress, and I have dug out Emrick’s newborn onesies and washed them and put them away in the baby dresser. I also may have caved and bought a five-pack of girly-looking onesies to go along with Emrick’s old gender-neutral ones, and I may have bought a little dress last weekend at the Carters outlet store. But other than that I have been very restrained, which is easy when you already have everything you need. In short, we’re ready. I think.

And by “we” I mean me and Marcus. As for Emrick, well, we’re working on it! He’s known (or rather, he’s been told) since Janurary that Mommy has a baby in her belly, and for a few months now, he has been able to feel and sometimes see, her moving, So it seems like it should be real enough to him, but of course, the only way to know for sure is when the baby actually gets here. In preparation for that, I bought Emrick a baby doll from Target a few weeks ago. I thought it would be a fun and easy way to show him how to hold and be gentle with a baby, and how to get used to having a “baby” around. We’ve just been calling her “baby doll” (I can’t even come up with a name for the real baby, never mind a fake one!), and she is by far Emrick’s current favorite toy.

Isn’t that sweet? And isn’t he doing such a good job supporting her head and being gentle and affectionate? He was smitten from the start, and when it came to teaching him the proper way to hold a baby, Emrick was a quick study.

But the next day, when I asked him to show me the right way to hold Baby Doll, he was a little rusty…

… but still affectionate.

Awwwwwwwwwww.

He hangs out with her, cuddles and snuggles her, and even “tucks her in” at nap time and bed time. He puts a blanket over her, kisses her on the face, and says, “Sa-weet Baby Doll.”

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Don’t they look like a brother and sister posing for sibling portraits?

They even take baths together!

Of course, we’ve only captured the cute stuff. In addition to hugging and kissing and saying sweet things to her, Emrick also does plenty of dropping, squeezing, banging, sitting on, etc. All in the name of love! I try to get him to be gentle with her always, but I don’t make too big a deal about it because I don’t want him to get confused and think she’s a real baby or that he’s done something terrible when he drops her on her head. So whenever he is really rough, I just remind him that he needs to treat his toys with care or have them taken away.

“If I am rough with Baby Doll, Mommy will put her back to Target.”

“Well, I think it’s too late for that and I don’t have the receipt anymore, so I would just take her away and put her in my room.”

“Mommy will take Baby Doll away to Target if I am rough with Baby Doll.”

“Yes.”

Whatever. 🙂