Lydia & Oliver

On Saturday, two days after Lydia was born, we asked the people taking care of Oliver to please bring him in to meet her and visit with Jim and I.  Our friends were kind enough to not tell him that we had the baby, so we could do it ourselves. 

I'm lay/sitting in bed and Jim is holding Lydia while sitting on the couch.  Oliver comes bounding in and running about, asking for drinks of water, or a snack or to watch TV....then he stops in his tracks "that's a baby." he says while pointing at Lydia. 

Jim brings her over to me and Oliver climbs up on the bed.  We tell him Lydia is his sister, she came out of the belly, and he is a brother now.  His mind was pretty much blown.

exchanging gifts

he gave her a stuffed animal he made at that
dreaded sibling class

Now we are home and Oliver continues to be interested and protective of Lydia. The other day Jim was changing her diaper and she was crying, Oliver ran in yelling "no no no stop stop."  We do lots of explaining that even if she is crying it doesn't mean we are hurting her, just that she isn't happy to be bothered or she wants food or whatever reasons babies cry for. 

Oliver's favorite ways to help....

1. Turning the music on when we put her in the bouncy seat while we eat dinner.
2. Helping feed her bottles.  (I nurse, but I pump too)
3. Using the boppy pillow to hold her. (he calls it the U pillow)

4. Teaching her how to play.

5. And teaching her how to snuggle.