Moving house with new (second) baby - tips needed!

[Ellytom]

Hi
I am 34 weeks with my second, my daughter is 2.5 yrs old.
We're also in the process of completing on a new house - unfortunate timing but couldn't be helped if we didn't want to lose the property.
I've read lots of horror stories about toddlers falling apart with a house move. And equally with a new baby. I'm getting concerned that doing both in the space of a month is a REALLY bad idea.
Has anyone faced this one? Any bright ideas for how to mitigate?
Would really value your ideas.

We moved when ds1 was 2yrs 4months and ds2 was 10 weeks. It was along time ago but I made sure I talked about the new house and took ds1 to see it and talked to him about his new bedroom and he chose a new duvet cover etc for his room etc. We move 3 hours drive away from our old house and he missed his friends but he knew we would go back and visit them. We had a reasonably smooth move - I think we worried as much about the practicalities of transporting animals and tropical fish as we did the boys.

Emphasise that they bring all their stuff with them. My ds (he was older) seemed to think that toys and bedcovers etc.,etc., were part of the house, and we were going to move into this other little boy's bedroom and have all his toys. Most disappointed he was when I twigged, and explained the other boy would be taking all the things in the house we showed him, to his new house, and we'd be bring all our boring old stuff with us from the old house to the new.

I have done it three times! First time dd1 was 22 months and dd2 was 3 months old. Second time dd1 was 4 and dd2 was 21/2 and I was pregnant with dc3. Third time we completed on the house when dc3 was 3 days old (but did not move until he was 6 weeks old as we were in a rental!). No major traumas any of the moves. Kids are quite resilient and get used to new things surprisingly quickly. They take their cues from you.

Thanks all - hopefully I'm worrying about nothing here. It guess I just want to make sure that the newborn sleepless nights aren't compounded with DD starting to play up! Appreciate the reassurance.

My top tip would be to get the removal company to pack for you! We moved when DS1 was just 4 (the day he started school!) and DS2 was 1.9. They both viewed the house a couple of times with us. No traumas. Mind you, we moved within the same city not miles away so same CM etc.

We moved when DS1 was 22m and Dd2 only 7m. I packed our old house with the help of a (paid) friend and then took both kids away to my parents while DH basically did the move with the help of removal company and got the house ready with the odd friend helping. He took about 4 days off work and we came back to a fabulous ready house.
Tips:
Definitely get help with packing. It takes longer than you think and you always need more boxes. If you can't pay for removals to do it then try and find a responsible 'student' who'd appreciate the cash.
Is DD at nursery? If not, try and have someone take her out while you pack. Impossible otherwise.
When you move in maybe try and make her bedroom as similar to her old room so that it's familiar to her.
Finally we didn't visit our old house/neighbourhood for some time to get him used to the new area.
Good luck.