When J12 is the big sibling

bcbuzzafsu

My searching capability sucks this morning so I apologize if this has been discussed at length before.

DD is coming in a few short weeks and DS doesn't seem to have a clue still no matter how much we talk about it with him.

How did your J12 babies do with the transition to not being an only or the baby anymore?  Were they miserable or nonchalant?  How long did/does it take for life to normalize?

I have 21 days left +/- so I'm freaking out a little.

Also, a semi-related question.  Did you do any special thing for them before the new baby came?  We are going to take DS to the beach, but I'm not sure how special that is since we live in Florida.

ETA J12ers who became the little bro/sis opinions are welcome too, I had a brain lapse there

OkieMama

I'm due in 5 days and curious to see what others have to say about this too!

versed

When I learned I was pregnant, we started the daddy-transition. In other words, if DH were home, he became the comforter, helper, and bedtime-doer. They did/do special big-boy time together whenever possible. Now, A is more open to DH's help and prefers him at night. We've kinda split the boys and are each in-charge of one.

It was a tough transition, but now at 6m, the good outweighs the tough. We have sharing issues, but we're trying to teach that if you take S's toy, you have to give him a different one.

ETA: if it's not an emergency, and both kids need you at same time, try to help the Big first - they'll remember it and Little won't.

sarahandeddiejune212008

My sept10 DD was 22 months when my J12 DD arrived. She understood there was a baby in mommy's tummy. We showed her all of our u/s pics. We also listened to the hb every night before bed. She'd help find the baby and then we'd listen to her heart. I have wonderful memories from that. We also took her to the new sibling class at the hospital.

I knew I'd be in the hospital for 4 days/3 nights. We had a gift for DD#1 from DD#2 each day we were in the hospital. They were her "I love my big sister" gifts. DD#1 also picked out a gift for DD#2. She also helped me pick out her homecoming outfit and she had a matching dress.

We tried to include her in everything leading up to the birth and we let her help as much as possible after.

JAck5209

Olivia was 17 months old when the twins arrived and she handled the transition like a champ. I've made her into my little helper and I think it makes her feel important. She hands me burp clothes, replaces pacis, shakes formula bottles, and lots of other misc tasks. When she's in a cranky mood there can be jealousy when I feed the babies but I try to get ahead of it by giving her something to work on, like a coloring book or a puzzle. I think she really likes having the babies around. She's a little minny mommy and loves to take care of them.