By the time I got those two pink lines on a stick last summer, my daughter had already been asking us for a sibling for years. My first thought (after, of course, “Holy cow, is this really happening?”) was, “My baby is about to become a big sister.”

Even now, at 8-months-pregnant, her elation has not died down. If anything, she is certain that this is her baby, and I’m just carrying him for her. 

Since telling her the news that we were having a baby, we have watched her grow into a caring, protective older sister before our very eyes. Throughout these 8 months, she has randomly and frequently asked to hold or hug the baby. By this, she means lifting up my shirt (to my horror, often while in public) and hugging my bare bump. 

She asks for pictures of her and her brother when something exciting is happening in her world, which means at any point while walking through a park or shopping at Target, you may witness my husband crouching down to exclusively take pictures of my daughter and my stomach. 

Sometimes while I’m taking a bite of something, she will tell me, “Actually, mom, baby brother doesn’t like that.”

It has been so charmingly sweet to watch her form an alliance with this baby that she hasn’t even met yet, but I know the best is yet to come. 

I know this from my friend Amanda, a mom of four, who describes what it was like to watch her firstborn become an older brother. “All of our kids are two years apart. I remember when our second was born, our first was young but he gravitated towards a helper position. He immediately wanted to help and give and change diapers (even though he couldn’t change a diaper).

All of those things, as a tired mom, you don’t want them to have to help (especially because he couldn’t change a diaper), but you see it as such a special thing. This child so badly wants to help out because yes, they want to help their mom out, but they also want to help their little brother out.”

For a long time, we weren’t sure if we would have another baby. Now our second child is almost here, and although the chaos will double, as well as the laundry, I know the love will, too.

My friend Amanda went on to say, “As a parent, you wonder, ‘How am I going to love this second human being as much as I love this first one?’ But it just comes so naturally, and then, because it comes so naturally to you, it comes so naturally to the firstborn, too. At least it did in our case, and to this day, their bond is super tight.”