How To Prepare Your Child For A New Sibling

When I found out I was pregnant with my second child, I was thrilled! I had been able to conceive so much faster with my second than with my first so I was also a little shocked. Then I became worried. How could I do this to my little girl? She would no longer be the center of our universe! She wouldn't get my undivided attention!

As you can see, she wasn't exactly thrilled ;)

But then I remembered how wonderful it is to have brothers and sisters. I don't know what I'd do without them! Giving your child a sibling is the greatest gift you can ever give them. They have a best friend for life. Someone to rely on after you are gone.

I was still scared. How was she going to handle this? How could I prepare her? My daughter still seemed like a baby to me. How was she going to be a big sister?

So of course I started researching. I turned to the internet and read oodles of articles and blog posts like this one. I went to my library and checked out every  book they had about being a big sister or having a new baby. My favorite books are: I'm a Big Sister by Joanna Cole (They also have I'm a Big Brother), Waiting for Baby and My New Baby by Rachel Fuller, The Berenstain Bears New Baby by Stan Berenstain,  The New Baby by Mercer Mayer, The Baby is Here!(Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Julius, and  The Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes (the girl in that is even named Lily!).

She took her research seriously.

      

We constantly talked about how there was a baby inside mommy's tummy and that Lily gets to be a big sister. We would have her kiss my tummy and give the baby hugs and gentle pats. We would say we were thankful for the new baby in mommy's tummy during prayers and ask that it would be healthy and safe and pretty soon she was saying the same thing in her prayers.

The baby's ultrasound pictures hung on our fridge and Lily would always blow kisses at them. We showed her old ultrasound pictures of her when she was in mommy's tummy too.

We watched every show there was about being a big brother or sister.Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood Season 2 is the best. My little girl still watches it all the time and sings some of the songs to herself when she is frustrated, "When a baby makes things different, find a way to make things fun!" or "There's time for you, and baby too," or my favorite "I really love our baby".

A couple months before the baby was due we bought Lily a "big girl bed" and moved her crib into the baby's room. She loved it and it helped her feel more grown up.

We showed her pictures and videos of when she was in Mommy's tummy and when she was born and just a  little, tiny baby and how soon we would have a baby just like that to love, hold, kiss and snuggle.

We constantly reassured her that we loved her so much and that we were excited for her to be a big helper and how exciting it was that she was "growing up on the inside and outside." (thanks Daniel Tiger ha ha)

We got her her own baby doll to take care of. I bought a little toy doctor's kit on Amazon along with a few other little treats and wrapped it in a present and put it in my hospital bag to take with me. When Lily visited us at the hospital we gave the gift to her and told her it was from the baby because she loved her big sister so much. Then when the nurses came into take my blood pressure she could do the same thing to her daddy with her kit.

When we got home from the hospital we tried to make sure that my husband and I each spent some one-on-one time with her every day and gave her some personal attention and extra love. I think that prevented a lot of behavior problems. Luckily my husband had a couple weeks before he had to go back to work that he could really be our older daughter's best friend and give her lots of extra attention. We let her hold the baby (with our help) as much as she wanted to. We gave her little tasks to make her feel like she was helping like "go get a diaper, or a wipe, or a burp cloth or blanket, go get her binky. throw this diaper away, go get a baby toy"  etc. Her other job still to this day is to turn on and off the little sound machine in the baby's room and the big box fan in the hall.

My daughter did have some regression. She started wanting binkies all the time when she hadn't taken them since she was 3 months old. She wanted bottles. She wanted to be a baby too. So we just got rid of all the binkies when my baby no longer wanted them at 3 months as well. Then we got rid of all the bottles when my baby turned 1. I didn't think those things were the end of the world. I'm sure I could have been more strict and gotten rid of the bottles or binkies sooner. I decided to pick my battles :).

It has been so fun and amazing to see the sweet relationship between my daughters develop. They love each other so much and as my older daughter is always saying "are best friends" and then she tries to sit back to back with Lucy. She says she is Elsa, and Lucy is Anna, and they are best sisters and best friends forever! Lily has been really patient and sweet with her even when Lucy pulls her hair.I'm so glad my girls have each other and I hope their sweet relationship continues to grow

I hope this helps! How did you guys prepare your kids for a new baby?