Andrea Canning Shares How Her Five Daughters Reacted to Baby Tripp: 'They're All Little Mommies'

"They're the most incredible sisters," Andrea Canning praises her five daughters in an interview with PEOPLE for this week's issue, on newsstands Friday

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Published on July 20, 2019 10:00 AM

Andrea Canning and family — Photo: Photos by Bella Baby Photography

No one is more excited about the latest addition to Andrea Canning‘s family than her newborn son’s five big sisters.

The Dateline correspondent, 46, praises her daughters in this week’s issue of PEOPLE for their doting nature surrounding their 4-week-old baby brother George “Tripp” Anthony, revealing the girls are “the most incredible sisters” despite some jealousy — but not over what one might think.

“The jealousy actually comes from within them almost,” Canning explains of Elle Corbin, 4, Georgia Rapalje, 5, Christina Margaret, 6½, Charlotte Brewster, 9, and Anna Katherine, 10. “They have been fighting like crazy over who gets to hold him, who gets to feed him. I was not expecting the fighting over the baby.”

“They are all little mommies,” she adds of her “adorable” girls. “Every chance they get, they want to be around him. They want to feed him, they want to change his diaper.”

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Canning’s oldest daughter, Anna, is especially maternal toward her new sibling, considering “she’s the one that really can hold him the most and she’s the biggest.”

The first weekend after Tripp’s arrival, Anna was so enchanted by her baby brother that she canceled a social event even though, as her mom puts it, she’s usually “a social butterfly.”

“She’s always going for sleepovers and she said, ‘Mommy I don’t want to go, I just want to stay with the baby,’ ” Canning recalls to PEOPLE. “It’s just really cute to see them with him.”

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Canning and husband USMC Lieutenant Colonel Tony Bancroft’s girls “could not wait” to leave school and go visit baby Tripp — in fact, “That was all they talked about for weeks,” Canning says.

“So the grandparents brought them to the hospital and when they walked into the room … we have video of it … it’s just so special when they just ran to the little bassinet and the way they looked,” recalls the proud mom of six.

“They were so happy and so excited. It brought tears to my eyes,” she reveals.

Canning is also enjoying watching Bancroft — whom she calls “the best dad ever” to their girls — bond with his newborn son. “He really, really wanted a son. Just the way he looks at him is so special,” she says.

“He’s been waking up and feeding him and he’s just an awesome dad,” Canning praises her husband. “I think he sees a future golf partner!”

For more from Andrea Canning, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.