Preparing big brother for baby

RIngReady

I will be joining this exciting club in about 7 months, but am trying to prepare (like that's possible) the best I can. 

DS will be 18 months when baby is born, he is a mom's boy and is very used to getting all the attention all the  time at home. 

He does go to day care 2 days a week so he is learning to share and how to play with other ect, but I want to start preparing him for the baby. He is obviously too young for any of the sibling classes, and he does have a baby doll that we got him to start talking about babies ext, but are there any other tricks to help my big boy prepare to become a big brother? I am mostly worried about him sharing attention and of course 'gentle touch' and the like, but I worry that it is going to be such a huge life change for him. 

krazyinsane

There isn't a whole lot you can do besides working on "gentle", talk about HIS baby (you're not having a baby in their eyes..they're getting one ) and pointing out other babies.

Make sure when you intro them for the first time you're not holding baby and you greet DS and such and THEN introduce them...
HTH

spinsoffresonance

Mine are 18m apart to. Honestly we didn't do much to prepare DD1. We told her all the time (once I was obviously showing) that there was a baby in Mommy's belly and she was going to be a big sister. We pointed out babies at the playground and told her we were going to have a baby at home soon. I don't think she ever got it. She did start to show interest in babies though and got super excited when DD2 came home.

vettymama

Mine are 17 months apart. DS1 had a doll qe talked about as his baby, got him the "I'm a Big Brother" book, and that's prettt much it. When he came to the hospital, no one else had met DS2 yet. DH met his parents and brought DS1 up. I wasn't holding DS2 and greeted DS1 a big hug, etc. Then we showed him his lottle brother in the bassinet. We spent about an hour together just the 4 of us before anyone came in. We also had a little present for him and said it was from his little brother. He didn't understand but now when he plays with it he know where it came from.

RIngReady

Thanks mommas. We are starting to use the words big brother more and more. We will keep at it.