Meeting Furry Sissy

Here's Rebecca meeting Meadow for the first time. Or maybe Meadow meeting Rebecca... They pretty much ignored each other until Rebecca started eating real food (six months). Now Rebecca sits in her little booster and tray and reaches out for Meadow. Meadow dutifully licks Rebecca's hands. It's adorable and I'll get a picture of it soon.

Katie has adopted the southern expression of "Sissy." I hated it when I first heard it. I thought it was way too southern for my northern ears. But I think it's cute now and I use it when talking to Rebecca about Katie. So Katie and Rebecca are Sissy and Meadow is Furry Sissy. Thanks again for my nickname creating husband!

Sisters!

Here is Katie holding her baby sister for the first time! Katie wished and wished and wished for a sister. The girl was obssessed with sisters. I mean her favorite stuffed animal is named Sister. Though Sister Puppy is actually named for the Berenstain Bear Sister. Katie's shirt says "big sister katie." I ordered it ahead of time, but couldn't order a corresponding one for Rebecca.

We had told Katie that it would be her job to tell her grandparents what the baby was. Peter went out to the waiting room after Rebecca was already born and told everyone that the c-section was delayed and he wanted to take Katie to see Mommy before she went in to the operating room. She walked into the recovery room and there I was with Rebecca. We had to tell her what the baby was and when she went out to the grandparents, Peter had to prod her to tell them that the baby had already been born.

Now obviously a healthy baby and a healthy mommy were the priority, but I not-so-secretly wanted a girl because I wanted Katie to have a sister. I love having sisters. There's a definite give and take having sisters, but I value them because of their individual traits and personalities, or maybe in spite of them... My mother always felt that she was missing something by not having a sister. Oma used to tell me all the time that I had to love my sisters because someday they would be all I would have (how's that for Jewish guilt???). But of course when I saw that Rebecca was a girl, the first thing I thought was we could reuse all of Katie's clothes, especially kona, her turquoise coat. And honestly, I wasn't even sure Rebecca was a girl because her labia was so swollen.

It was quite a surprise because everyone told me I was having a boy. Peter points out that they all said this because I already had a daughter so they figure the next will be different. Peter and I weren't convinced. Sometime around December I had a dream that everyone told me I was having a boy and I was in the OR and the baby was a girl and I said, "Rebecca, it was you all along."

And it was

Brister is a Sister!

Rebecca Helen Bogdanow
February 25, 2010 at 7:50 am
7 lbs.

Brister!

Brister!

We decided not to find out the sex of Katie's little sibling ahead of time, the same as we did for Katie. So for the majority of the pregnancy, the baby was Brister. Brister - a combination of Brother and Sister. Meadow actually called Katie Brister in utero, but Peter can take the credit for the name creation. This worked pretty well and we were happy that so many people embraced calling the baby "Brister." Katie's teachers, our friends, and all the family talked about Brister. And it was nice that Katie had a concrete name to call it. Brister had its own personality. Brister was nocturnal and hated peppers, fish and chicken. Brister loved pizza (like "Pat" did - Katie's in utero name), sauerkraut and apples. Brister gave me braxton-hicks contractions for 2 months.

The funniest thing was that Peter sent pictures of Brister with the name and gender reveal at the end. The title of the photo album was "Brister Release." I can't tell you how many people thought that the baby's name was really Brister!