HOW ARE BABIES MADE?

A few weeks ago my six year old daughter got it into her head that she needs a sibling, preferably a baby sister. She has names picked out, Lily for a girl and Cody for a boy. She has even gone so far as to design how her room can be shared with the new sibling. She insists that she will be the best big sister ever and will help with every aspect of taking care of the baby – even changing diapers. I told her that it probably wasn’t in the cards for us. So she asked me if I would at least think about it and get back to her.

Later during the week she came to me and asked, “Exactly how did I get in your tummy?” I tried to respond using some vague explanation of how it is a miracle of birth. Her response was, “But really. How exactly did I get in there?” I was in a panic! Did I explain the whole process to my six year old and risk her telling all her friends at school?

I ended up going on the internet and looking up “What to tell my 6 yr old when she asks where babies come from?” I was led to several sites, but the best advice was to tell her the truth. It recommended I tell her that I had an egg that was fertilized by her dad and then go from there.

So I sat her down and I started explaining how women are born with ovaries that have eggs and that each month an egg is sent out where sometimes it gets fertilized by the dad’s sperm. She had this funny look on her face and it hit me, as I saw the little wheels in her mind turning and processing this, exactly what she was picturing. At that moment of dawning she said, “And then I kicked and kicked and broke myself out of the egg?” I had to explain to her that she was not hatched like a bird.

Again, I started over and tried to explain to her. This time she asked, “But how did dad get his fertilizer inside of you?” I was ready to give up when she said, “I know! You and dad make out!” I nodded my head in agreement and thought that would be the end of it.

Unfortunately for me, it wasn’t the end of the tiring string of questions. The next day she came up to me and asked, “Do you and dad get naked when you make out?” I proceeded to tell her that she needed to just give it a rest and that some things were private between a mom and a dad. I thought that would FINALLY be the end of it.

Oh no, I could not get off that easy. The following day she came running to me with a new plan, “Mom I am going to let you and dad make out together for 10 days and then you will have a baby in your tummy. How about that?” I chuckled and told her that it can take more than ten days of “making out” to get a baby. She didn’t believe me. That night she said, “Mom, promise me that you and dad will make out tonight!”

In the morning she got up all excited and came barging in on me in the bathroom. She was asking if her dad and I made out. I told her not to worry about it. Her response was, “Seriously, I really need to know!” Then she sat on the garbage can with her hands folded, staring at me with her big blue eyes and said, “Tell me all about it!” I was trying not to laugh as I told her to get out of the bathroom and let me have some privacy.

After all that she is still dying for a sibling and just about every day I get a plea from her to “make out” with her dad. She says she just knows I have a baby growing inside of me and she can’t hardly wait! She has even told her school friends that her parents are trying to make a baby. I can only imagine what they are passing along to their parents!

She is in for a big surprise when it doesn’t happen. In a way it makes me sad for her. I know that she sees all of her friends and their siblings and longs for her very own baby brother or sister. I never intended on having an only child, but that was what was dealt to me and I am very happy to be blessed with one child I do have.