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By Julie
Like many kids, Alex used to assume that a baby comes out of a mother's belly button. Why kids think that, I don't know, but everytime he's brought it up, we've corrected him. "No, the baby comes out of the birth canal."
A couple of days ago the topic came up again. So I showed Alex a cross-section of a baby being pushed out of the birth canal in the book, What to Expect When You're Expecting  . Then he asked something like, "But where does this happen???" That's when it finally dawned on me that Alex had no idea where the mysterious birth canal was located on the human body. So, I drew a picture.First, I drew two buttocks as viewed from the side, one for the boy, and the other for the girl. This elicited some giggles, but it served a purpose: everybody knows where the buttocks are. Then on each figure I drew the stomach and thigh. Again, for triangulation purposes. The next part was tricky. As I drew a p*nis on the boy, I did so as matter-of-factly as possible. Ana continued giggling, but Alex just grinned a little with no other reaction, so I continued. I drew a dot to show where the uretha was on the girl to show that hey, look! They both have the parts for peeing and pooing! And then, on the girl I drew a small line between the urethra and the buttocks. I pointed to the line and explained, that's where the birth canal is. As I watched him furrow his brow in concentration, I said, only girls have this part, that's why boys can't have babies. I went on talking about what's going to happen in a month and a half when baby#3 comes. I described what contractions felt like, and when Alex expressed concern over my welfare, I assured him that the doctor will give me medicine so I don't hurt too much. I also described the process of pushing the baby out as being similar to having a bowel movement, which made him guffaw, and the need for the mother to rest lots so she'll have enough energy to push, because otherwise the doctor will have to do surgery to get the baby out. This last statement made him nod solemnly. At that point, it looked like the conversation was coming to an end, so I asked Alex if he had any other questions. He looked down at my diagram once again and said, "The boy's butt is bigger than the girl's butt." While Ana laughed uproariously at her brother's outburst, I erased the girl's butt and made it a little bigger. Then Ana took the picture and started drawing little lumps of poo beside each figure. Meanwhile, Alex left the room to start up a video game. I think it went well... Labels: kids, parenting, pregnancy 3 Comments:
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