We’ve gotten the question a few times, but now that we’ve had a bit of time to settle in, I feel like I can begin to answer it. Only begin, though, since their relationship will only continue to grow and change over the years. But how is E doing with G?
Mostly great.
He actually got to meet G for the first time in the hospital. Tom was out of commission, so Nicole went to pick up my mom and E for a visit. This had been the longest that E and I had been apart, and I think we were both getting emotional and needed to see each other. When he got to my room, he was totally silent (so unlike him!) and a bit shy. He ran over to my lap and just sat there quietly for a while, soaking up some snuggles.
Eventually he noticed what grandma was looking at, and decided to inspect the new baby. “Baby” is officially in his vocabulary, and possibly his most used word at the moment. Every time he sees G, he points and says “Baby!” It’s also the first thing he asks for when he wakes up, and he has to say “Bye-Bye” to him every night. He always knows where he is in the house, and anytime he hears him crying, he runs to give him a pacifier.
However, he does sense that something has changed. I’m not sure he knows it’s the baby, but things have definitely been off lately. Changes to routine, daycare closed, lots of visitors, time away from me. His emotions are at a 10, and he’s super clingy to me. There have been more tantrums, tears and “NO!”s coming from him, but that could also be part of being a toddler. Sometimes at night he asks for two rounds of hugs with me, and clings on for longer than usual.
It breaks my heart a bit that he’s dealing with so much, but all I can really do is give more snuggles and try to have extra patience and time for him. It’s hard to be a toddler, and it’s hard to deal with change at any age, so we’ll be trying to stick to schedules more than ever, and give extra 1:1 time when we can.
But overall, he seems to have positive feelings towards the baby. There aren’t many questions we ask right now that don’t get “NO!” for an answer, but when we ask “Is that your baby?” or “Do you want to see the baby?” the answer is always YES!
