A Baby Story

Photo taken March 2008.





Buby's four-year-old mind wants to know where babies come from. Or more accurately, how they come out. I wonder if his curiosity is sparked by the fact that ALL of his closest pals {Gilly + Nat, Lillian, Grace, and Reagan} are due to become big sisters sometime after Christmas. Who knows.


So we were walking to the post office the other day when out of the blue Buby interrupted our banter about "Dandy Lions" {as he calls the weed} with the following: "There is no crack in the belly for the baby to come out. So how does a baby come out of its mama?"


I was all... Oh. Um. Okay. My old standby goes something like, "Well, the mama goes to the hospital when she's ready, and the baby doctor helps the baby be born." To which Buby replied, "I KNOW, Mama. I know that. But HOW? If there is no crack in the mama's belly does the baby come out?"


Wow, I thought. He wants specifics. I'm not one to lie about the basics {like anatomy}, so I wanted my answer to be G rated but honest. For better or worse, I told him that babies are born one of two ways. The doctor uses a special tool, makes a small crack in the belly, and lifts the baby out. Then he sews the crack right back up. OR. The baby comes out on its own where the mama goes peepee.


Buby got quiet. I guess my answer sufficed. Or scared him silly. Either way, we found our way back to "Dandy Lions" and I bought myself some time to figure out better responses to this question and many others on the horizon.


Two days later while I was cooking dinner the kiddos sat at the kitchen table stenciling animals onto paper. Buby made a cow with a peculiar-looking tail.


He told me, "I made the tail extra fat. That's because the mama cow has to poop out her new baby."


What?


"The grandma and grandpa cows are standing there watching. They were babies, too, a very long time ago. The grandma and grandpa can poop out 100 babies at a time. Two of them will be the mama and daddy ones. The rest can be the babies."


Oops.


Have you ever explained the birthing process to a preschooler? I obviously stink at it. Please do share.