Tuesday, June 5, 2012

I Knew This Day Would Come

Well, it finally happened. This morning on the way to school, I was asked a question all parents dread being asked. One of the "top 5 most loaded questions", I'm sure.

Brady is a very inquisitive boy and has a great understanding of things far past his maturity level, so I'm actually very surprised that it took this long for him to ask... but here it came:

"Mom, how do you get the baby out of your belly??" 

Now that I type it, I guess I should be happy he was asking about how we will get it OUT instead of how it got IN. I wonder how long I have 'til that one pops up?!

Anyway-- I was caught off guard and wasn't sure how to reply. I hadn't even had my coffee yet! While I'm pretty good at spinning little stories, part of me was afraid to come up with something so fantastical that he'd be spreading it around school in no time. And he's far too intelligent to believe that some giant bird will swoop down from the sky and drop his baby brother off in a basket on our doorstep (no offense to anyone who's kid buys that whole stork business). So I thought to myself, "how do I answer his question so that he's satisfied, but without going into too much detail?"

The answer: I sort of told him... the truth. About his birth, that is. (For those of you who do not know/remember, Brady was born via scheduled c-section after learning at 41 weeks and 1 day that he was breech.)

I told him that Mommy went to the hospital to have surgery on my belly and out came baby Brady! Somewhat gruesome, yes. I wanted to suck it back up into my mouth as soon as it came out, but how else do you describe a c-section?

I am continually amazed at his capacity to grasp things so well. He immediately understood the simplicity of it all and only asked, "did it hurt when the doctors cut open your belly?"

To which I replied, "No, the doctor's gave Mommy lots of medicine so that I didn't feel any pain."

There was a few minutes of silence, and then he just said... "I'm sorry Mom". My heart broke. He is such a compassionate little person, why didn't I think of that before I spoke?? My mind was racing... I didn't just scar him for life, did I?

I said, "You don't have to be sorry. That's just what Mommies have to do to get their babies sometimes. I'm okay."

Then he said, "Look at that huge cement mixer!"

Aaaaand we're onto the next thing, which thankfully, does not involve me, my baby or my vagina.

Has this happened to you? What did you say? Did I handle it all wrong? And better yet, how do I prepare for the "getting IN the belly" question, because I won't be caught unprepared for that one, that's for sure!!

The joys of parenthood!

1 comment:

  1. I think you handled it perfectly! And he is the sweetest ever! I can't believe he apologized! You'll have to remind him about that when he's older!! :)

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...