11 Questions My Toddler Won’t Stop Asking About My Pregnancy

To say I’m a bit nervous about the whole adding a sibling to the family thing would be quite accurate, however I’m not nearly as nervous as I probably should be. I’m taking the lead from my 3-year-old, who is more ecstatic and understanding about the idea of a baby brother or sister than I could have ever imagined.

We told my son from the very beginning of this pregnancy that he was going to have a baby brother or sister, despite knowing the risks that were associated with telling a 3-year-old blabber mouth such important things. Even though he’s young, I never wanted it to be something that people talked about over his head or without his knowledge. I didn’t want him to find out from somebody else, and I didn’t want him to start having tons of questions without hearing it from us first.

When the day came to sit him down and spill the news, I had no idea how it would go over. Would we be met with screams of protest or shrieks of delight? And just how, exactly, do you explain pregnancy to a toddler? Without thinking too hard about it, we just said it, “You’re going to be a big brother.”

I thought his response would be full of “Huh’s?” and “What’s?,” but he immediately had a look of amazement on his face and said, “Really?” in the beautiful way of wonder only a 3-year-old can muster. From the very beginning he was nothing but excited. I was convinced it’d be this great big abstract thing that we’d be trying to explain to him for months, but no, he surprised us by understanding the pregnancy right from the get-go.

He didn’t ask many questions right away, which surprised me. As curious as he normally is, I thought for sure there’d be an onslaught. But he just went off and told Grandma and Grandpa and a few neighbors and strangers that he was going to be a big brother and from that day forward, it was a fact he was proud of.

The questions started a day or two later when we were on a long road trip together, just the two of us. As we sat stuck in a traffic jam, he randomly piped up with, “Hey Mommy, is my baby in your belly?”

When I answered yes, trying (and failing) to hide my surprise at this knowledge he had, he told me it was just like our friend that we’d seen at a fall festival who was pregnant at the time. I was shocked not only at his ability to put two and two together, but also that he remembered that one occurrence from nearly six months before.

I knew then that we might be getting to the harder questions sooner rather than later. And sure enough, soon after we got home from that trip, the tough ones started coming. I have no intention of lying to my son about any of it (or anything in general), but I’m also acutely aware that he’s 3 and there’s probably only so much he should hear and know (which means I’ve had to practice my creative answering skills lately).

Without any prompting from books or friends, he wants to know everything. And as the questions pour out of his mouth, I just sit in amazement at how much of such a big concept he understands and hope to goodness that we’re not going to completely rock his world come winter.