The Big Sister

The timing of Vivienne’s birth couldn’t have been better if we had planned it. I mean, my water broke and we were able to eat breakfast with Nora, leave the house as we normally would on any given weekday, drop her off at daycare… and go to the hospital to have a baby. And because she was born at 2:00 in the afternoon, we had a few hours after her birth to go through the normal postpartum stuff and have a few visitors (our parents), all before Nora even needed to be picked up from daycare at the end of the day. And then we still had time to bring her up to visit, too!

My mom ended up picking up Nora from daycare for us since she was already out and about after her ortho appointment. When she got to the hospital, Michael went and met them so he could bring her into the room.

Nora immediately took to Vivienne’s name, telling us over and over again that her sister’s name is Vivienne May [Last Name] and even going so far as correcting any of us when we shortened it to Viv or Vivi. :) And although she didn’t want to kiss her or hold her right away, she was such a good girl. She was gentle, referred to Vivienne as her baby and her sister, and seemed genuinely excited about this new little person’s arrival. I couldn’t have asked for more from her, really.

Shortly after Nora arrived at the hospital, it was time for me to be moved from my labor & delivery room to a postpartum room. My nurse, Julie, moved the crowd first—taking all of my family AND Vivienne to the new room before coming back to help me get a little more cleaned up and moving me, too. Julie told Nora that she had a very important job for her—she needed to help move Vivienne to the new room by pushing the cart.

When I got to the postpartum room, I found Nora sitting in my bed, looking over at Vivienne in the bassinet. SO CUTE.

We had dinner together, changed Vivienne’s first diaper, took our first photo as a new family of four, and then Michael took Nora home for the night.

The next morning, Michael went into Nora’s room when she woke up and asked her what she wanted to do that day. Nora replied, “Go see Mommy and Vivienne!” The two of them and my dad came up to the hospital to have breakfast with me, and we hung out in my room for most of the day. By this time, Nora had graduated to giving Vivienne kisses, but whenever we would ask if she wanted to hold her, she’d say, “I can’t! Too heavy!” and we didn’t push the issue.

Later that night, my whole family came up to the hospital for dinner—pizza in my room. After we ate, Hunter—who has a sister of his own on the way, due in October—wanted to hold the baby. We propped him up in bed and allowed him to do so. And sure enough, seeing this prompted Nora to want to do it. She still said “Too heavy!” at first, but I told her, “No, she’s not too heavy. Look…” and plopped the baby in her arms.

She was a pro. And she loved it.

My heart could burst. They are so cute together.

I honestly did not have a preference about having a boy or a girl, but I am smitten with the idea of having two girls—sisters—since I never had any sisters of my own. Don’t get me wrong, I love having brothers and don’t feel like there is anything “missing” from my life because I don’t have a sister, but I’m still excited for Nora and Vivienne to have the potential for the special relationship between sisters.

Now that we’ve been home for a week—Nora has been nothing but great with Vivienne so far. She asks to kiss her, hug her, see her, etc. all of the time. If Vivienne is in another room with Michael or me, Nora will ask where she is and go looking for her. When she wakes up in the morning, she wants to see Vivienne. She asks me all of the time, “Is baby sleeping or awake?” I love hearing the way she says Vivienne’s name. She’ll also say “my little sister” a lot in reference to Vivienne, which is adorable, too. Nora has a special high-pitched voice that she uses to talk to Vivienne which I find hilarious and heartbreakingly cute.

When the baby gets to the point when she actually smiles and/or laughs at the things Nora says and does? We are going to have a very, very happy big sister. She’s already off to such a great start!