How to introduce the new baby to 25 month old

[Sara79]

Hello
I am expecting my second baby in October, when my daughter will be 25 months old. I am worried about how my daughter will react, she is the only child in our extended family, so gets a lot of attention from us and grandparents/aunties etc and of courese has no other children to compete for attention with! Does anyone have any advice tips on how to introduce the new baby to older siblings and how to avoid the child getting too unsettled? She will still be young, so doesn't understand quite what's going to happen yet, so it's not like I can explain to her that we still love her just as much and that her new little bro/sis will be her best friend in years to come etc.
Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

Just make sure the focus is on her and not the new baby. That is all the advice I would give. She will survive though

My DS was 24 months when my DD was born. DD was born at home during the night so the first DS knew about it was being shown a new sister had appeared in the crib (we had told him this would happen but I'm not sure how much he understood) and there was a new toy for him underneath the crib, the toy got him excited, he didn't take much notice of DD for months!

Re the wider issue of no longer being the only child in the extended family, I guess you need to look out for situations in which the new baby is getting a lot of attention from family members and try to be quick to step in to make a fuss of her. I'm sure your DD will be fine and the age gap is small enough that they can have a great time playing together later on

I had this age gap between my first two and will have between 2 and 3 (also due in October). I would suggest that you remember that they take a lot of emotional cues from you. If you expect them to be upset then there are more likely to be IYSWIM.

Good luck!

There is 21mths between my two girls ( now 23mths and 8 weeks)

I was suprised quite how much my DD did understand, so dont under estimate your DD.
Do talk to her about the new baby and get her involved in the preperations.

We got a few "new baby" books which she enjoyed reading and could relate to alot of things from the books when DD2 arrived. She was very clingy but one book said about granny coming so mummy and Daddy could go to the hospital and she was suprisingly fine when Nanny came and we went.

Before baby came I took her to buy baby a present from her. We bought a little teddy comforter and she gave it to baby when she firs visited in hospital. She loves the fact thats she bought it and insists that DD2 has the bear with her.
We also bought her a present from DD2. A new dolly and pushchair. She loves it and pushes it round saying "Lucy buy it for you". She also replicates what i do, ie feeding, nappy changing with her dolly.

Involve her in daily activities with the baby, ie nappies. DD loves to fetch the nappy/wipes for me and give her "big girl" jobs. ie Look after DD2 when both in the back of the car together.

Be aware that the actual introduction may be a bit of a non-event (ds1 gave ds2 one quick, disinterested glance then wandered back to his train set). At any rate the person she'll really want to see is you, not the baby, so be as available for her as possible.

def focus on her. the first time you see her when the baby is born make sure you are able to give her a big cuddle, and let her have a cuddle with the baby if she wants to

do not make the mistake i made with my 1st/2nd which was letting ds1 go off with grandma every day for about 3 or 4 days.
it was nice for us to spend time with the new baby, but i think it affected ds1 as although he adores going to grandmas he found it hard acceptiong his new brother and i wish we had spent the first few days togehter at home

We had a larger gap but did lots of preparation, like reading bedtime books about new babies.

We also made sure that when DS met his little sister neither of us was holding her and she had a present he really wanted wrapped up in her cot for him.

My cousin gave me a good tip too, she told me that if we had any visitors not to allow them near the baby until they had made a HUGE fuss of DS.

And lastly, get your DH to take as much time off as possible after the birth.

" She was very clingy but one book said about granny coming so mummy and Daddy could go to the hospital and she was suprisingly fine when Nanny came and we went."

Which book was this? TIA

Libra- It was this book

Is this the same Libra from the July 08 antenatal thread?? Are you expecting again?

Hey Pigley thanks for that, yes it is Libra from July 08 thread and yes I am expecting again after a m/c last year. Due a girl at end of Oct, very excited. Hope things are going well for you and congrats on your second DD.

Ah bless.. Thats great news. Congrats

Not sure if you've heard or seen the july 08 thread but theres quite a few new babies..

Myself, Sweetkitty, Mcchesers, Heffa

We used this book with DD1, which seemed to work well. The stickers meant that she really took notice, iyswim. I liked that the baby is breastfed as well.

(I now sell those books, so it must have made an impression on me!)

Thanks everyone. That's really helpful. I feel much better now about how to deal with it. I'll definitely get my daughter a present from the baby, and I like the idea about getting the baby a present from my daughter too.
Just off to waterstones to get some new baby books now too.