Prepping sibling for new baby

Lauren - posted on 06/05/2012

My son will be 2 1/2 when his little brother is born. Right now, he doesn't seem the least bit phased that he is going to be a big brother. I don't think he quite understands what it means, but I keep telling him anyway. He does like see my belly and lately has been saying "night night" to his little brother before he goes to bed, too. I think the best thing we can do as parents is just to love our kids as much as we can. Every child reacts differently to each situation, and we do the best we can to anticipate their needs. We moved our 2 1/2 year old to a "big boy" bed and purchased a new crib for his brother... I'm starting to see tinges of jealousy or possessiveness when it comes to the baby's things but for the most part I just re-direct his attention to what a big boy he is and how great of a brother he's going to be, and he seems to react great to that type of encouragement.

Sara - posted on 05/19/2012

We are working with something very similar. Only my daughter is 28 months. We try to keep her involved. We have her feel when the baby kicks and when the baby moves. We tell her that this is HER baby. That her little sister Luna is going to need her to protect her. We show her ultrasound pics. (We can't take her with us to the Ob/Ultrasound appointments, because it is a problem pregnancy). We tell her that Luna is her baby sister and that mommy and Daddy love Luna and Ariella very much. That we do not love the new baby anymore than we love her. She will kiss my tummy and tell the baby "I love you Luna" and she will give the baby hugs. I think it is important during this time to keep the older kid involved as much as you can. This new baby effects them too. They can see the changes in mommy, and my daughter has so nicely informed me that "Mommy's tummy bigger". Now, I am not going to say that I think she is 100% understanding or even ready for what is happening. Ariella threw a fit when I held a baby the other day, and she is very much annoyed when either me or my husband pick up my nephew. We have tackled this by telling her that mommy and daddy are practicing for the new baby. Then ask (With the permission of mommy and daddy, and depending on the age of the baby) if she would like to practice being a big sister. This works well with my nephew who is 9 months. She will sit on the floor and throw a ball with Nathan. It would be important to make sure that he interacts with other kids right now. Take him to the park, or an indoor play ground and let him interact with the other kids. Hope it helps!!!!

Christine - posted on 04/02/2012

thanks that will help a little bit. we plan on moving him about 3 months before baby gets here to a different crib that turns into a toddler bed. and we do tell him that there is baby in mommys belly. we tell him he has to be nice to baby and soft touches things like that.

Lydia - posted on 04/02/2012

my daughter is the same sometimes... she will complain if we hold another baby, but there where phases that it didn't bother her at all. so maybe he'll outgrow this anyway by the time the baby arrives.



my daughter is now exactly 2 and we are expecting baby no 2. she is all into babies, so we told her very early that there is a baby in mommy's tummy and she loved that idea. I get kisses on my belly a lot. I plan on having her a lot involved with the baby, she really loves to help me with anything in the house, so I am sure she'll be more than happy to help me hand diapers when changing the baby or soap when giving a bath or stuff like that...



I think it's really important that you tell your son that he will have a little brother or sister soon. And if there is anything that needs to change because of the baby it's good to make the change early on, not right before the baby is born. For example if you want to move him to a toddler bed, that would be good to do in advance, so it doesn't look to him like the baby took his crib away. Stuff like this really can trigger jealousy.