The “Big Day” is coming quickly and
as excited as I am for it to be here, I'm also a bit scared. Not so
much for having two kids to raise, or for the added stress and yet
less sleep that's sure to follow, or even for the financial
responsibilities that adding a family member will cause. I'm scared
that I won't be as good of a mother to Olivia now. Maybe that sounds
stupid, but I just worry about giving her the love and attention she
deserves while going through “newbornhood” again. I feel like I
need to do so much more with just her and I before Evelyn gets here but that seems impossible with how sick and sore I've been lately.
I've been thinking a lot about Olivia's
birth and how hectic it was and realize that I want it to go a lot
differently this time around. I don't want anyone but mine and Jim's
mothers there until after I get time to bond with the baby and I
definitely want to make O feel like a big part of the day by getting
to be there too. She'll hang out with the grandmas until I'm back
from surgery and will be one of the very first people to meet our
littlest love! Assuming Evelyn stays in until her scheduled c-section
date, the whole “birth” along with getting my tubes tied
shouldn't take more than a couple hours including check in time, prep and
all that jazz. Those will probably feel like a few very long hours for
the anxious grandmas and I'm sure Olivia will be going insane
wondering what the hell we're doing and where mom went. Soooo to help
the time pass a bit more smoothly and to make O feel special, I've
made her a “Big Sister Bag” for the hospital!
What is in this Big Sister Bag, you
ask? Well most importantly, the kit includes a Big Sister t-shirt and a certificate to honor O as a new big sister! I think
she'll enjoy the attention the shirt will bring around the hospital,
she's such a ham and I'm sure will be showing everyone haha. There is
a bottle of hand sanitizer for when miss Dirts McGerts holds E, a set
of mini play doughs, some fruit snacks, other goodies and a coloring
book with crayons since, ya know, she doesn't already have enough
broken pieces of those at home... I've also included some other
random kid shit that's sure to entertain her at least for the little
bit of time that she'll be with mine and Jim's moms.
Making the bag and shirt themselves
were super easy. I found the tote at the Dollar Store and
actually got a premade "big sis" shirt from Gigi! For the bag's letters, I cut out pieces of scrap felt to
spell out “Big Sister.” I suggest pencil tracing the letters on
the fabric before cutting out or you'll probably end up with a free handed
mess like I did before starting back over lol. I then stitched an outline of
sorts to make the letters a bit nicer looking. I'm not a great needle
worker by any means, so I decided to hot glue the finished letters
onto the bag and then hot glued the crap outta some buttons and bling
to make it truly a bag a big sister would love. The shirt was even easier as I merely glued on some blingage too (I swear I don't use this word as often in real life haha) and used some extra fabric that matched that on the bag to finish it off perfectly. I
then filled the bag with all the fun above mentioned items (some
bedazzled to match the rest of the goodies) that will keep O busy and feeling super
special on what is going to be a big day for ALL of us.
It's my goal to spend as much quality
time with Olivia as possible, now before baby and definitely after,
since I want to maintain a great relationship with EACH of the girls
forever and ever. I hope that my anxiety about O resenting me or the
baby dissipates soon, since I'm sure the reality will be that they
will be the best of friends and bring all of us more joy (and
irritation haha) than we ever could have imagined. I can't believe
there's a little under a week till all of this becomes a reality, I
am so ready and excited and just ahh! I'm a ball of nerves and
emotions haha.
So have you or do you plan on making
your own Big Sibling Bag? Do you have any other suggestions on what I
should stick in Olivia's? I'd love to hear about it in the comments
section, drop me a line and let's chat! Have a Happy Hump Day
everyone and keep counting with me... ONLY 5 MORE DAYS LEFT!!
