Hi all,

I recently found out that I am preganant, due in March.

I have a little boy who just turned two.

Do any of you have advice as to how to prepare my boy for a sibling? When do you think we should tell him and how?

Any stories and advice woudl be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jen

my daughter was just about 2 and a half when we found out we were having another, she was always very spoilt and demanded alot of attention, so we were pretty worried.
we deceided to tell her after i reached 12 weeks, she didnt really understand until i started to show. but we always tried to involve her in everything. when i went shopping i would ask her if she wanted to buy (with mummys money of course lol) anything for the baby.
when we found out the sex of baby no2, we asked her what she would like him to have as a name, (of course this may not work with some names 2 yr olds come up with lol) and she picked Jake (from the tweenies) so we decieded to call him Jacob with Jake for short.

Mia also had her eye on a specific toy, so we bought it for her and hid it until he was born, then when he was she was the first visitor to see him, and he gave her the toy she had wanted for ages, so i think she was over the moon with that.
the main think is to not let your older child feel neglected when family and friends come to visit, luckily mine were understanding, and if they bought they baby a present the would bring something for mia aswell.
things turned out pretty good, Jacob is now 16 weeks old and Mia always introduces him as ''my baby Jacob Matthew'' lol
and when he cries she is the first to tell us or to run over to him and pull funny faces and make silly noises lol

my advice would be to just involve him as soon as possible so its not such a huge shock, and at that age they alsway love to help, so maybe get him to help you wash the new baby clothes, or decorate the nursery etc etc

hope this helps, and congrats on your pregnancy :)

I have 3 children. My oldest wasn't too affected when my second son was born. He was about 17 months at the time and really didn't care. I have just had my 3rd, a girl, and he seems to have a few issues this time around. I had just potty trained him when he turned 3 and has since had tons of accidents after our baby girl was born. Like the prevous poster said, just really involve them My oldest came up with our daughters name (Charlotte) from Charlotte's web of course! He loves to help feed her and he is like a proud papa whenever we go anywhere, telling strangers that this is his baby sister. I think he pees his pants for attention. It has since stopped for the most part. My middle child doesn't show much interest in his sister (He's 2). Good luck and congrats on your pregnancy!

Hi and thanks.

I asked him if he would like to have a baby in the hosue and he said yes. He even said he wanted a girl! I told him there was one in my tummy and now he says, "hi baby" to my stomach. We will just try to involve him as much as we can. Thanks -jen

Congratulations!

here's my standard new sibling advice: :)
my girls are exactly two years apart, and my first was very used to getting ALL my attention (i had nothing better to do at the time, and we did EVERYTHING together... when i found out i was pregnant with my second, i started VERY slowly working on doing less with her, so she could learn how to entertain herself! i also gave up on the idea of hard core potty training, or taking her binky away, until after the baby was born and weaned from nursing... because most kids will regress in those areas after a new baby comes and disrupts their happy little lives! so my daughter was 2 1/2 before we tackled those two obstacles (she always sat on the potty from about 18 months on, and i'd let her if she asked, but i didn't push it...).

let him be involved in everything if you can. mine came to all the doctor's appointments with me (if dad wasn't available to come too, i'd bring her in her umbrella stroller and had her strapped in so she couldn't get loose, and during the actual pelvic exams, we'd put her up at my head, so she didn't get a visual!!!). she thought it was so neat that the doctor was checking on the new baby in mommy's tummy, and she LOVED hearing the heartbeat! not sure she really understood what she was hearing, but she thought it was cool!

we also talked to her about the difference between babies and big kids to ease the necessary transitions. like, "now that you are a big kid, you don't need this baby crib anymore, why don't we give it to the new baby and get you a brand new big kid bed?" we actually got an old twin one of my siblings had in college, and we got an old chest of drawers from somebody else in the family, and we fixed them and painted them and let our daughter be part of the painting process (in spots that nobody will ever see!!!). if you aren't crazy like we were, let him "help" pick out new furniture or decorations for his room... whatever... just as long as he is involved.

anyway, i find even now (my kids are 3 1/2 and 19 months) that the whole "big kid" thing is very effective in helping my oldest understand that her sister isn't out to destroy her!!!

congrats again! :)

Congratulations Jen! I'm so happy for you!

My daughter and son are 23 months apart to the day. And she always pointed to my tummy and said "hey you baby" and she was excited to see babies and to go shopping for him. But ultimately NOTHING prepared her completely. She was not a happy girl when he came home from the hospital and she realized that he was staying for good. But we just tried to include her as much as possible, but also we didn't push the whole helping thing on her either. And most importantly we tried to keep her routine and schedule the same. And after about 1-2 months she started taking to the whole having a baby in the house. But from our experience, nothing really helped a ton. She was a little young to grasp the whole concept of it. But we did get her a book that had a ton of faces of babies in it, and at least that somewhat helped her. And we showed her how to hold her baby dolls, although you have a boy, so I don't know if he has too many dolls, but maybe a stuffed animal or something. My biggest piece of advice would be to keep the same routine with him all through your pregnancy and even after the baby comes and that will show him that everything is still the same. And by the way, my DD is 4 and my DS is 2, and they are the best of friends. So even if he doesn't take right away to the baby, eventually he will and it will all work out. Congrats again!