Lucas Camilo

With Krista’s due date just around the corner, Lucas seems to be getting more and more intrigued and excited about the idea of being a big brother.  Granted, we’ve done a lot to cultivate that interest so that he’s not totally taken by surprise when the household suddenly has a new member.

A few weeks ago we took Lucas to a birth class for siblings with the great Penny Simkin.  In fact, Lucas’s birth owes a lot to Penny, whose birth class for adults we also attended over the last two months.  Because Krista went into labor very early with Lucas – and had to go on bedrest just to make it to 32 weeks – Penny’s book “The Birth Partner” taught us most of what we knew about labor and birth the first time around.  So it felt like coming full circle to take her birth class and then have Lucas learn directly from her about the birth process.

The highlight for Lucas was getting to practice holding a real baby.  In fact, it was a gigantic 3 month old baby that another parent brought into the class and which we helped ease into Lucas’s lap as he sat in his wheelchair.  Lucas noticed that when he held the baby she stopped crying.  It may have had to do with the mother consoling the baby right before Lucas held her, or maybe he’s just good.  Either way it seems to have given him confidence that he’ll be good at this big brother thing.

And Lucas isn’t just interested in the baby — he’s shown more interest recently in pregnancy and birth.  Now every time Krista groans when she stands up or complains about being tired, Lucas points out that its probably because she’s pregnant.  And then he follows that with “being pregnant is hard work.”  Even if he’s just parroting us, he says it with a sincerity that actually feels like he understands some of our current limitations.  We’ve even explained to him that Krista can’t pick him up right now because of the pregnancy, and he seems fine with that.  (note from Krista: It probably helps that Daddy remains his favorite parent!)

All this positive association with pregnancy and birth from Lucas is also wonderful given how hard – and sometimes scary – it is to imagine what it will look like to parent Lucas and a newborn.  Or Lucas and a toddler.  But since that’s something we’ll just have to figure out when we get there (tomorrow or next week or four weeks from now), for now we’re thoroughly enjoying ourselves as a family – two proud parents and one absolutely hilarious, goofy, and growing-up kid… who we happened to catch on camera in a moment of candor:

http://youtu.be/vLIcvOCODQk