My girls said, “Wait, grampie talked to me while I was still inside your tummy!”
I know, this might sound weird, but all three pregnancies, my dad did this. My parents live in Texas so they didn’t get to be a daily part of my pregnancies but that didn’t stop my dad from talking to all my babies.
Each phone call, unless it was for a quick question, my dad would talk to me and then ask me to put the phone down on my stomach, he would then proceed to talk to his growing grandchild. This started early on in my pregnancies and continued until he got to hold them and talk to them face to face.
Sometimes the kiddos would move around, other times they would stay still, or at least I couldn’t feel them flipping around. A lot of times I would roll my eyes and say, “Seriously dad” and he would reply with “put the phone on your tummy” so I obliged.
With my first, I thought it was kind of silly but also very cute. My husband and I talked, read and sang to our little girl all the time. Poked at her when some body part would show up on the outside of my growing belly and even shone a flashlight on my tummy to see if she would react.
I knew that she would recognize my voice because she was used to the sounds I made and hoped she would recognize her daddy’s but I was so shocked when she finally met my dad.
I’ll never forget how utterly shocked I was when my dad walked through the door at my grandparents’ house, completely bypassed me, and asked “Where is she? He started talking to her and immediately she turned towards his voice. He scooped her up and continued talking to her like he always had.
I never questioned his intentions again with my other two and occasionally reminded him that he needed to talk to his grandbabies before we disconnected. He was there with my second delivery, cut his cord, held him first and kept us all waiting on his stats. Instant bond again!
When my third was born, she too turned her head in the direction of his voice when he walked into the room for the first time.
Now, I couldn’t hear all that was being said but I am pretty sure he talked to them in his regular voice. He’d say something to the effect of “Hi (insert nickname) this is your grampie talking to you. I want you to continue growing big and strong and be nice to your mommy. I am very excited to meet you and can hardly wait…….” They weren’t long conversations but he talked to them at least weekly and sometimes more frequently.
First time, maybe it could have been a fluke, but not three times. All my dad had to do was talk to his beloved growing grandbabies from 652 miles away via the phone and they immediately turned his direction upon hearing his voice for the first time. My girls love to hear stories about this and LOVE their grampie with all their hearts. THANKS DAD!
That was just one of the ways my parents stayed connected to my pregnancies being far away. What are some fun things that your loved ones did while you were pregnant?