Blended Families
Nineoceans
member
Options
Pregnant Stepmoms
Nineoceans
member
How are you keeping your Sks involved in your pregnancy? I think we're going to take SS to one of those elective u/s places to find out the gender all together. We will also get him one of the stuffed animals that they sell with the baby's heartbeat recorded in it. We also got SS and the dog shirts that say "best big brother" lol
What are some other ideas you ladies are doing/ have done?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Pregnant Stepmoms
In all honesty, I haven't had time to get involved in my pregnancy. I've been swamped at work, finishing up spring semester in grad school (exams Mon and Tue and then I'm DONE! Until summer semester, lol), and planning a shower for SIL. I sometimes go all day and forget that I'm pregnant.
DH talks to the kids in the car on the way home so I'm usually not there but he tells them about the baby and asked if they wanted to see the u/s pictures but they didn't seem very interested. When they were here for spring break they were picking out baby clothes everywhere, SD1 designed a baby room (she like fashion and interior design stuff), and we let them give the baby it's "baby name" so we can call the baby something other than "it". They picked Pumpkin since it's coming right at Thanksgiving. I think in the summer they will be more psyched. We find out the sex while they are here this summer and my hospital has a sibling class too so if they show an interest they can take it.
Depends on their age. My SK's are 10 and this is #4 for me so they are over it and just said let us know when he gets here. LOL I've learned that as they get older, you dont shove it down their throat and let them come to you if they're interested in something concerning the baby.
Now when my sk's were 5 and I was pg with the twins, they came to some u/s's and loved to feel the babies kicking in my belly but that was about it. They couldnt really understand the u/s pics.
My ss is 15 but special needs and we were really worried how he would deal with the babies and the changes with them. I actually found the "what size is baby" list on here and i told him how the babies were blueberry sized back a few weeks ago and he LOVED it now every Monday he asks what size are they now. We printed out the list and hung it on the fridge and he checks himself then asks me anyways! He asks a lot of questions about what they're doing too. It really worried him that they didn't have ears or eyes in the ultrasound so we looked at some other pictures online and explained development to him a little bit.
I think we'll ask if he wants to go to one of the u/s appointments later on in the pregnancy and I know he's excited to feel them kick and move so we're hoping his excitement continues well after they're born.
Lurker in -
We got my SD (3) a big sister shirt and let her open a present in front of our families that told them what we are having. She also tells the baby goodnight and good morning when she is at our house. We have maternity pictures next weekend and she will be in those with us also.
Nothing? SS is 12. He has a younger half-sister at home with his mom. His mom is remarried and SD brought two kids into the house as well. So he has two sisters and a brother already at his house.
DH and I have one DS, 19mo, and another on the way. When we told SS we were expecting again, he said, "What? Another one? But I already have too many brothers and sisters!" So I'm not making a big deal of this one. We didn't make a big deal out of DS coming either.
That all said, I can only hope this new LO loves his/her big brother (SS) just as much as DS does. Zane ADORES his big brother and has so much fun EOW when SS is here or the times we go see SS at his mom's house. I know as SS gets older, he won't be as tolerant of his littlest siblings, and that's okay. There are a lot of years difference in ages, so I expect it.
Once this LO gets here, we'll make sure SS has special one-on-one time with his dad like we did when Zane got here, but until then... Eh. He's a 12yo boy and could care less about my pregnancy. We don't hide anything, of course, and answer questions when he has them. But for the most part he really doesn't care.
What PP's said about taking him to the anatomy scan. We also would talk about names and let him throw out suggestions (Watermelon iPhone was one). We also took him on a tour of the birthing center so he could see where his sister would be born in case she decided to come in the middle of the night (she did).
What I didn't see mentioned that we did was let him pick out one of the coming home outfits. I picked out the newborn size and he picked out the 0-3mo size in case she was on the bigger side. She ended up coming home in the newborn one but when he came to meet his sister I made sure she was in the one he picked out, even though she was practically swimming in it!
When I was pregnant with my (currently) youngest son, I did a project with my two older kids and my two stepkids making "big brother/big sister" t-shirts. They each drew their own pictures of what they were hoping to teach their new baby brother. It was a fun way to connect with all of the kids, and get them thinking about the fact that the baby was really coming.
This time, the kids are a little older (ages 2, then 8-12), so I'm not quite sure what we'll do this time- who knows, maybe we'll do NEW "big brother/big sister" t shirts.
My SS (10) and SD (13) were so upset when they found out that their mother let them stay home from school for two days. My SS is doing a little better now and I think he's actually kind of excited, but my SD won't speak to me and is not the least bit happy. Things had been going better for a while lately, so it's sad that she is reacting this way.
Advice?
Make a pregnancy ticker