Riley becomes a big sister.

First of all, can you believe how little Riley was when we first found out she was going to be a big sister???

Anyway... one of my concerns with having a second baby was how Riley was going to react.  For 19 months, she has been my baby.  My main focus, my only little munchkin.  And then all of a sudden there was going to be a new little baby in our lives, and I wasn't sure what she was going to think or how she would react.

As my pregnancy progressed, it became clear that she loved babies.  And also that she didn't get jealous or have any issue with me holding other babies.  Obviously that's different than me having a baby and bringing him home, but it was a promising sign.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how to prepare her for a brother.  She's only 19 months old, so there's only so much talking we could do, but we tried to tell her all about her baby brother before he was home.  She caught on pretty quickly, but still I wasn't sure how much she really understood.  She liked all the baby's toys and blankets and things in his nursery, but did that mean anything?

Resting in "baby's bed!"

I debated whether it was a good idea for Riley to meet Jackson while we were still in the hospital.  I didn't really want her to come to the hospital and then have to leave without me and Jackson coming home with her, but since we had to stay a little longer in the hospital, I also didn't want to not get to see her for 3 full days.  So we decided once Jackson was out of the NICU, we'd bring Riley to meet him.

Riley was absolutely smitten with her little brother.  She kept saying "baby!  hi baby!" and "Baby Jack Jack!" She wanted to kiss him over and over, and asked everyone else in the room to kiss him too.  She pointed out his eyes and ears and toes, she showed him all her toys.  She wanted to hold him and stand next to him and see where he was at all times. 

I wanted to be sure I got her first interaction with Jackson on video, and I'm so glad I did.  This video is kind of long (almost 5 minutes), but I just couldn't cut more of it out, it was just too precious!!

Anyway, we've only been home less than 24 hours, but Riley is still in love with her baby.  She wants to see him and hold him and touch him.  She "helps" with diaper changes by giving me way too many wipes.  She tries to give him a paci (which so far he's not really in to), and then she happily steals his paci when he doesn't want it.  She wants to climb in bed with him, she gets sad if he cries for too long (like when getting a change of clothes).  She kisses him so many times a day.  She hasn't been acting up or showing any signs of jealousy, although it's early days so we will wait and see!