My DD is 2y9m and my DS is nearly 5m. My DD was a very loving, caring and cuddly girl, very well behaved. Whilst I was pregnant we did a lot with her to prepare her for having a little brother. DS then come along... DD for the first few months adored him. I don't know if it is her age now or what, but she's changed and obviously very jealous of DS. She isn't as loving or caring as she once was and she will do 'naughty' things that she knows she shouldn't do. My main concern is her behaviour towards DS. Its started off small, like she would try to cuddle him but it's like she had too much love and would cuddle hard (we joked she is like Lenny in Of Mice And Men!), then it grew to pushing her head hard against him, now to lightly head butting him. She has thrown toys at him, one was a near miss and could have been serious if my husband wasn't there to stop it. She's started hitting him, mostly quite lightly, but still. Last night she got right up to his face and repeated "are you scared?!" to him. Today she's tried squeezing his head with her fingers.
I am breastfeeding DS; DD was breastfed to 15 months so she has had that time. DS feeds every 2 hours or so in the day, so he's on me quite a lot. But I still don't feel that I'm spending enough quality time with him as my attention is on DD most of the time. So it's not like I dont pay enough attention to DD, it just seems that she must want ALL of my attention. I also try to get her involved with DS, helping to change him, bath him, play with toys and reading together, but it was at changing time today when she took her opportunity to try to squeeze his head.
She has had a cold for the last 2 weeks and for the last 2 nights she has slept in our bed with us. 2 nights ago, in her sleep, she said "put David* down!" (name changed), so it is obviously on her mind. She has some 1 to 1 time with each of me and my husband still. She goes to nursery 2 days a week too, which she enjoys.
I don't know what else we can do to stop her being jealous? Or to stop her being nasty towards DS? I can't leave them together, it's hard enough to monitor her whilst I'm actually there with them, but also I don't want to separate them, I need to get them closer to each other.
I actually can't believe that she's being like this, based on how she used to be; she was such a darling but now she's turned quite nasty and naughty.
Has anyone had this with their children? Any advice?