When am i supposed to PLAY with my baby?

[MandyBOO]

Get up with DD and DS
Take dd to playgroup and come home for ds to sleep
DS wakes and we go to pick dd up
Come home, have lunch and put ds down for afternoon nap
Play with dd
DS wakes, i start to prepare tea etc etc
put ds to bed after bath

Er........ when the hell am i mean to play with him?????

how old is he MandyBOO? Sounds a lot like the routine I was in a year ago So DS didn't get that much playtime himself. Now he gets loads -- all morning as DD is in Yr1 & he doesn't sleep anymore in the morning.

How old is baby? I can remember taking 6 week old to zoo, library and constantly reading books to him for fear of stunting his development. Now I laugh at myself and wonder why I just didn't let him sleep and watch me peel carrots from his bouncy chair ! Your DS probably loves just watching his older sister play - I think at a young age they just like to sit and watch the world go by....

DS is 5 months - guess i just think back to when dd was 5 months and all day was just one long play sessions!

He won't lose out - he's got a big sister to hero-worship. Before ds was born I used to worry that he would lose out by being second. Now heis nearly 2, and I worry that dd missed out by not having a sibling for the first 3 years!

Yes, when you have one they get lots of playtime. No 2 ends soaking it all in . In a few months you'll get a bit more play time. Somehow DS has managed to learn his shapes, colours, some counting, even some letters (due to DD learning her phonics last year) without any input.

A friend of mine with 3 DC said that by number 3 she had absolutely no time to spend with him and so she left him to fend for himself - very happy child -picked everything up very quickly - early walker, talker etc...just by watching the eldest two...

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I 'play' with mine (16wks) all the time- when i change him for example i play peek-a-boo. I talk to him during the day about what i'm doing, and we read him a picture book each night before bed. You can fit things like that in anywhere really.

I don't think you need to 'play' with him Mandyboo, he has an older sibling for entertainment, and you are obviously rushed off your feet. He's not going to suffer for it. He'll probably learn to be quite self-sufficent, which is a brillaint thing. Don't worry about it.

Don't 'play' you are an adult, just interact. I don't like seeing people doing 'playing' with babies, it looks so contrived. Too much reading of baby books and watching baby progs.
Having had a number of babies now I realise that they need you just to 'be'with them. They need stimulation from you yes, but leave playing to other children, that's what they are good at.

MandyBOO simple things like chating away to your ds while you're preparing the tea or changing nappies or bathing him. He'll pay such attention to you and what you're doing and this interaction is perfect. Don't feel like you have to tumble around on the floor with him. When he's a bit older he won't want to sleep so much and his naps might get shorter and you'll find you have more time. I used to sit dd in her comfy high chair with a blanket behind her while I was cooking away and chatting to her telling her what I was doing. She's 10 months now and she still stops playing to just sit there and watch me when I'm doing dinner, smiling and chatting to me, in her own lingo of course!

thanks for the replies - guess i just need to stop worrying and enjoy being with my children!