Preparing child number 1 for the imminent arrival of child number 2 - TIPS PLEASE!!

[Mandymoo]

DD is 3.4 yrs and is a well-behaved (most of the time) little girl and we have had relatively little problem with her. In 6 weeks i am expecting number 2 (a boy) and was wondering how best to prepare dd for his arrival.

We've obviously spoken about it with her during the past few months and she knows that a baby is coming but i really want to make his arrival as easy on her as possible (i know it will be hard at first but here's hoping!)

Any tips or advice on how best to do this?

TIA X

When my dd was born, there was a 5 year age gap between her and my ds. like others, when she was born we brought ds a present from her. and before she was born I took ds shopping and brought her a toy from us, they exchanged presents when she first arrived home. I made sure that ds got as much attention as her which I was worried about beforehand. It was quite easy as she slept lots and the birth was easy so I was back on my feet really quickly. also, alot of family who visited brought ds a present as well as her [well, most!]. He loves her and is very protective of her and they get on great! don't worry...kids are super smashing and very loving, whatever!

Hi Mandymoo. We have same age gap but boy first. I can tell you, I found it MUCH harder than he did. I.e. my ds never really got stressed about having a little sister but I got really upset about not being able to spend so much time with him (first few weeks - probably hormones as much as anything).

Anyway. Things we did that may have helped:

-Explained he could give some of his baby things away to the new baby & bought him more 'grown up' toys.
-Explained the new baby would never take away his special teddy bear.
-Let him come into our bed for short periods if he wanted to (he only did this for a few weeks when his sister was newborn).
-Bought a present from the baby
-Got our freinds to buy him a small present as well/instead of for the new baby
-Got him to 'help' with things like giving her a bath (he got bored with this quite quickly).

• Tried hard to avoid ever pushing him away (which was really hard when new baby became distractable when feeding & refused when her big brother was around!)

Good luck.