Ways to Prepare my 18 month old for New Baby???

JENVALENTINE1981

I am due with our fourth baby in March and am starting to wonder how our youngest will adjust when the baby arrives.  I have never had two this close in age, they will be exactly 24 months apart.  My sons are 7 and 11 so the age gaps have always been pretty easy where the kids understood what it meant to have a new baby in the house, but this time I don't know how it will be for our youngest.  She is 18 months now, are there any things I should start doing now to get her a little prepared, I realize there is only so much I can do.  She seems fascinated with babies right now and loves her baby dolls and is actually pretty gentle with them, she hugs them alot and sleeps with them in her crib.  Your tips are greatly appreciated!

naturelle25

Mine are 19 months apart and I didnt really do anything to prepare my DD bc she didnt really get it. She knew there was a baby in my belly but that was about it. We were able to switch her room and get her in a toddler bed well before DS arrived which was nice. Im sure it would have been really stressful having to do that with a new baby.

I think one of the perks of having them that close is that they really have no idea how much their little world is about to be rocked. Things seemed to sink in after several months and thats when trouble started (j/k, kind of) Good luck!

AnnapolisLari

Joanna Coles' "I'm a Big Brother" book was pretty valuable. She has a girl version and I think you can get it at Target or on Amazon. DS and DD are 6 days short of exactly 2 years apart. He made us read it 3x a day before DD was born.

There really wasn't too much of an adjustment until DD got older and started to get into his stuff.

JENVALENTINE1981

Thanks everyone, I think things will be fine I am just nervous!  The babies will be sharing a room so I plan to start working on it as soon as we find out the gender next month...I will find that book for sure!