The night I gave birth was the first ever night that N wasn’t with me, but he adapted really well, and didn’t fuss at all when my parents brought him back to our house from the hospital. He was pretty exhausted by the time they got home, so he fell asleep quite quickly, and we later learnt that he fell asleep just as the babies were being born.
When N woke up in the morning, he had no clue that the babies had arrived, and was happily eating breakfast at the table when my mum showed him the photos on her phone. According to her, he gasped, and was absolutely thrilled. He asked to take a closer look at the photos, and kept cooing over how cute and lovely they were. After a while though, he asked, “Are they born already?” Hahahaha. I guess he wasn’t quite sure, because we kept telling him the night before that the babies hadn’t been born yet, and that it might take quite some time before he could actually meet them.
N was extremely cooperative that morning, and got ready to leave the house quickly, so that he could meet his siblings. He actually brought the Care Bears along the night before, and left them in the hospital room for the babies. I had this whole plan on how his first encounter with his siblings would be, and tried to keep to it as much as possible. I greeted him at the hospital room’s door when he arrived, but instead of being happy to see me, his first words were, “Where are the babies?” So much for missing mummy! He ran quickly into the room, looking around for the babies, then checked my belly to see if they were still inside (my belly was still that big, thanks), before looking under the blanket on my bed.
C and I tried talking to him, asking him about how his night and morning went, and although he answered our questions, he kept asking for the babies, so we got the nurses to bring them to our room. When they arrived, N was sooooo excited, and introduced himself as KorKor to them. We didn’t give him the presents from the babies then, because at that moment, it felt right that he was so focused on the babies, and we decided that it should be about him embracing his new role as a big brother, rather than being more interested in the presents from them.
As much as I wanted him to be interested in his siblings, I couldn’t help but freak out each time he touched them, because I was afraid that he would be too rough. I kept reminding him to be gentle, and to avoid touching their heads, but this big brother was so smitten that he just wanted to stroke their heads repeatedly. He kept saying, “Oh so cute!” and would rush to check on them if they whimpered or cried. He would call out to them, “Okay okay, don’t cry! KorKor’s coming!” and told us things like, “I think they want KorKor.” I’m just glad that he was so proud to be a big brother, and didn’t seem to show any signs of jealousy at all.
Proud KorKor with his siblings
When it was time for him to go to school, he refused to do so, and asked to stay in the room with us. I thought it was because he wanted to spend time with us, but noooo. He said he wanted to watch tv. Sigh. There was no way we were going to allow him to skip school just to watch tv there, so we insisted that he went to school, and told him that he could come back again after his dinner at home. We promised that he could sleep there with us, since it was the weekend, and convinced him that he had to go home to get his Tiger and clothes, in order to stay over.
Over the next few days, N was more than happy to stay in the hospital room with us, and when the nurses brought the babies over to be nursed at night, he would refuse to sleep, because he wanted to watch. It was pretty tough convincing him to go to bed, and he refused to sleep on the mattress on the floor, so C had to sleep on the floor, while N slept on the sofa beside him. He only fell off once, but he didn’t hurt himself because C’s mattress was there, and he went back to sleep very quickly after climbing back up.
We gave him the presents from Didi and Meimei on Saturday, because he suddenly remembered about them, and asked if he could open the presents. He was really pleased with the two presents, and they kept him busy during our hospital stay, so I think the presents were still a pretty good idea.
Couldn’t get him to stay still for a “before” photo
He loved his presents!
We got him a Thomas & Friends 2-in-1 Track Builder Set, since he has been asking for a train set, and my mum got him a matching set for his birthday recently too. His other present is the Janod Rocket Magnetic Kit from My Miracle Baby, and the little space lover was thrilled to bits. He spent some time putting it together, which was quite easily done because of the strong magnets inside, and then started “flying” it around the room. He even said that he was the astronaut inside! (I’ll be reviewing the Janod Rocket Magnetic Kit and some other items from My Miracle Baby soon, so do look out for that post.)
When it was time for us to head home with the babies, N ensured that the nurses brought both babies to our car, and held one of the nurses’ hands to guide her.
Ready to go home together
We’ve been home for slightly more than a week now, and N has embraced his new role with pride. Whenever the babies cry, he drops everything and rushes to see what’s wrong. If they’re in their bouncers without their Care Bears, N will go to their cot to get the bears for them. If they’re crying in their cot, he will bring his stool or chair over, so that he can climb up to pat them, and say, “It’s okay, don’t cry, KorKor is here!”
He sings to them, tries to play peekaboo with them, and keeps telling us how cute they are. He is generally gentle with them, though he likes touching and kissing their heads, so I have to remind him to pat their chests instead. Sometimes, I find him standing quietly on his stool by their cot, patting them while they sleep, putting their bean pillows on their chests, or covering them with extra blankets. Thankfully, he knows that he can’t cover their faces, and pulls the blankets up to their chests only. N is also able to differentiate between the twins very well, and doesn’t get mixed up at all, which is pretty amazing to me, since I thought all babies would look the same to him.
Entertaining Didi
Trying to comfort Didi
I entered the room one morning and found the chairs like this
We’re still trying to get into a routine of sorts, and it’s been tough for me to try and spend enough time with N, since the babies need to be fed very frequently. On a couple of occasions, I’ve had to read to him while nursing the babies, but thankfully, he seemed happy enough with that. Every night, we pray together, asking God to help N be a good and kind KorKor to the babies, and we are thankful that he hasn’t verbally complained that we don’t have as much time for him as before, though his actions sometimes show it. Most of the time though, he is happy to be near the babies, and to “help” with them, and that’s good enough for us.
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