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Pre-School and Daycare
moms of 2+: any recs?
It sounds like a long time...20 weeks. but i know it will go by fast.
I'm getting all the clothes out of storage and wash and put everything out.
We're getting the room ready slowly - changing table, PNP, etc.
We're not really buying anything because we have almost everything we need.
What did you need to buy that you didn't anticipate?
any suggestions for how to prepare for Baby #2 in the next few weeks? I'm trying to do everything now before I get too big.
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Re: moms of 2+: any recs?
It sounds like you are doing good getting ready. I think things go a lot more smoothly with the second baby since you already know what you are doing.
Maybe you could get dd1 a big sister book and a new doll(maybe baby alive or something) to give her when the baby comes.
i was going to mention involving O as much as possible, with everything. my sil and bro did not do this with my niece (stupid) and she had a VERY tough time with my new nephew for about 4 months.
right now we are talking to her a lot. She knows she's having a little sister. We've asked her to help us diaper the baby. And we are going to pick 2-3 names that DH and I like and let Olivia pick the name.
She has a Dora Big Sister book, but I don't really like it.
I like the idea of a present for her. thanks!
I just saw you are having a GIRL!! Congrats! Two girls are soooo fun.
I just thought of another thing you might want to consider, a white noise machine. We just bought one a couple weeks ago and I wish I bought it a long time ago. It just helps to drown out some of the noise(aka big sister) when the baby is sleeping in her room.
There is a lot of them out there that are good. We got a marpac 980A which sounds like a fan.
I took dd out and let her pick out a gift for her baby brother... then I bought a gift, so the day he came home , she got to open both, show him his and had fun with her own.
ditto the infant carrier rec. it was more handy than a double stroller the first 9m/o of ds life.
1. Make sure you've got a good carrier. It's a life saver with #2. Plan to wear the baby so you can stay active with the toddler.
2. Do what ever you can now to prepare her for Mommy not being available to her exactly when she wants.
Practice delayed gratification if she's not already good with it.
ie: She wants milk. "Sure Honey. Mommy will get your milk as soon as I (insert random delay here - empty the dish washer, etc). Start with smaller increments of time and at this age maybe even tell her how long she'll need to wait. Up the delay as she's doing well with it.
Also practice "playing" with her without your body. Sit on the sofa on your hands and pretend you're doing a 20-30 minute nursing (or bottle) session. What works for her? Books? Songs? Magna doodle? Coloring? The less she finds that length of time without you being "hands on" an unusual event, the better.
Start telling her now that there will be times when Mommy will need to sit and feed the baby for a while so it's not a shock to her when it happens.
And if all else fails be prepared to feed/nurse on the move. I can tell you first hand that it IS possible to nurse while playing soccer in the living room. Nursing isn't as relaxing an experience the 2nd time around but it makes you really cherish the alone times in the middle of the night when it's just you and the baby with no other distractions.
3. I'm in the opposite camp with asking for help. We never asked any of our kids to help with the new babies. If they wanted to? Cool. But I never asked them to fetch me diapers, etc. My oldest (now 15) clearly remembers his first sister coming home from the hospital and resented the hell out of the fact that his mom asked for help with things like fetching diapers. It may be cool to them once or twice but I think for most it becomes a chore. It's not fun for them to fetch diapers unless you turn it into a game and make it fun.
4. If you're not comfortable leaving O alone in another part of the house without you consider how your day will flow with the baby and prepare those areas with small toy buckets for O. In the beginning it wasn't a big deal but eventually I wanted to nurse the baby in his room to put him down. I put silent toys in a bucket in the baby's room for the older one. I also discovered that a box of shoes I needed to store provided just enough entertainment to get me thru a quiet nursing session.
We also ended up with a bucket of toys in our room so I could put the baby in the exersaucer or bouncy, have the toddler occupied with toys, and buy myself a few minutes to brush my teeth, hair, etc.
Along these lines consider general toy rotation. If you go to sit down to nurse it helps if you can pop the top off a bucket of toys she hasn't seen in a while so she's occupied with them for a while.
5. Consider your house lay out and contemplate picking up an extra bouncy or travel swing for another area of the house. I didn't rely on bouncies or swings as much for #1 because I could easily hold him all the time. With #2 I wanted places I could plop him in more areas of the house. We got a second bouncy for upstairs and a cheap travel swing (garage sales) to keep the baby happy as I did things like put away laundry, brush teeth, get toddler dressed, etc upstairs.
6. We had 2 big brother books that I really liked. We read them before the baby came but he really started asking me to read them to him more once the baby was home. I'll look for the titles for you tomorrow if I get a chance.
7. Ask those who are close to you to help you out by acknowledging O and making a big deal out of her when they first come to your home. It's natural for people to be anxious to hold and love on the baby but it goes a long way if people are getting down on her level, make good eye contact and making her feel important first instead of racing in and fawning all over the new born.
My DH would essentially ignore the baby for the first 30 minutes he was home from work each day and just shower the toddler with Daddy time. The baby is fairly clueless and won't remember or notice if Daddy cuddles come later on but the toddler will notice and might become resentful.
Total score: 6 pregnancies, 5 losses, 2 amazing blessings that I'm thankful for every single day.
There were a few things I needed to buy... burp clothes, binkies, tub sponge, new/better breast bumpm, etc. They were born in different seasons so I had to get some clothes for her too. I had S when M was only 15 months, so I already had a lot of stuff out. I didn't have to get too much ready, just the bassinet, swing, boppy, I don't know. I washed everything I would need right away a couple weeks before.
As far as preparing M, well... I didn't really because she was so little. No advise there. : )
oh and freeze meals.
for a month or two before ds was born, I'd make double batches of meals and freeze half . between it and the wonderful playgroup mommas... I didn't cook for ds first month.