Like the tooth fairy

Julie still thinks it's a bad idea to encourage Lyla's delusion that she has a baby in her belly. "No no, Lyla," she says. "Only Mama has a baby in her belly." It's so elitist.

Julie worries what will happen when our second child splats into the world and Lyla's fake one does not. What will Lyla think? Will she feel inadequate? Will she start checking her dirty diapers for babies? Will she have nightmares about the horrors of childbirth?

Here's what you do. Humor your daughter when she says she has a baby in her belly. Then buy her a baby doll and keep it hidden until that fateful day in late January when her brother or sister arrives. The morning after you all come home from the hospital, sneak into her bedroom while she's asleep and carefully stuff the baby doll up her pajama shirt. She'll wake up and be so, so happy.


It's like the tooth fairy, only psychotic.