Activities for LO1 when LO2 Arrives

ebd08

Hello ladies!  My little boy will be 23 months old when Baby #2 arrives.  Right now, he doesn't do so well at playing by himself, but I'd like to come up with some activities to keep him occupied while I'm dealing with a newborn.  What were your go-to activities for your older child in those first few weeks/months of having two under 2?

shj5u

Ditto the wrap or carrier idea.  We hardly slowed down and DS2 just nursed on the go!

To be honest, I didn't really plan out a lot of separate or special activities for DS1 while I was nursing, etc.  I kept snacks handy so I could just hand them out on the fly, and I made sure to have several stashes of diapers throughout the house bc I wasn't going to haul 2 kids back and forth to the changing table upstairs for every diaper change.

I tried to involve DS1 in as much as I could.  He loved putting diaper cream on DS2, snuggling up while we nursed, and sometimes I would read to him while I nursed LO.  

I would have used TV as a babysitter, but my DS1 wasn't into it.  

I think you'll find that LO2 isn't the same baby as LO1.  Now, I look back and wonder how/why I was so tired/overwhelmed/overworked, etc. when I only had just one.  It's like an added ability to multitask just came along with the second baby.  I don't think you'll be needing too much special time to be dealing with newborn stuff.  You're a pro now.

jf198400

I agree with all the pp's. I would also make sure your older child has a toy baby doll so he can take care of his own baby just like mommy. Honestly it wasn't nearly as hard having 2u2 as I thought it would be. DS2 just kinda tagged along on all the fun activities I was doing with DD1.

RyanandManda

I second what everyone else said but wanted to add that you can create a special box of toys that are specifically for certain times when you need quiet/both hands/20 minutes/whatever. If the toys are separate from the rest and are only used once a day (or so), they're much more likely to hold his attention.