Baby No2 due in June - things to concentrate on with DD1.

[BBW]

Hi,

Baby 2 due in June, when my daughter will be 21 months. She is currently 15 months.

She is presently a very contended wee girl. Confident moving about, signs to express herself and speech coming on well. She eats well and attempts to feed herself. She is still uses a bottle at night, but uses staw cups for the day milk.

Without fail she is asleep by 7pm, every night. I put her in her cot after she's finished her milk, and she curls up and goes to sleep, or chatters for a wee bit before she drops off.

We've always been very relaxed about bringing her up, not rushing her with anything, and to be honest have never really known at what age she should be reaching milestones. Just enjoying her growing up.

I'm starting to feel a wee bit nervous that I should maybe be concentrating on some key things before the next baby arrived to make my life easier. I don't want to rush DD1 to grow up though either.

I was thinking maybe to get her in toddler bed, and maybe starting potty training all before the next arrival.

Looking for advice really as to what other parents of 2+ children have done or would have liked to have done in preperation for another child.

Many Thanks

The only thing I would think of would be putting her into another bed, if you need the cot for the baby. Otherwise, let her go at her own pace - if you think she's ready for potty training before then, go for it - otherwise, don't bother.

Am very - 16-mo DD3 still hates being left to go to sleep on her own in the cot!

Ditto what Poledra says - only do it if you think she is ready, don't feel pressured into potty training or moving into big girl's bed as you'll only either (a) have to spend even more time than usual clearing up wee and poo and (b) spend your evenings running up and down stairs putting DD1 back in bed when really you'd rather be sat there with a big glass of wine

I think if you have a smaller age gap you have to accept that it is possibly going to be harder work for a short while. But don't forget that you can easily cram the baby into a moses basket for a few months which will buy you a bit more time in the cot if she needs it.

Otherwise, the IKEA 'wrought iron' style toddler bed is good because if you put the bed up against a wall, and a bed rail (or 'stairgate' as dd1 calls it) along the free edge, it feels quite enclosed like a cot and it is actually quite hard for them to climb out of (we managed like that for quite a while ). We still threaten DD1 (who is now 3 1/2) with the 'stairgate' when she doesn't stay in bed

Otherwise, the things that I found most helpful on a day to day basis were probably the smaller things - DD1 being able to do stairs on her own, or putting at least some of her clothes on in the morning....so perhaps work on the smaller things first?

Agree about not rushing the bed. I did that when DS1 was 22 months and DS2 was due soon . It was a disaster and we ended up going back to the cot and borrowing a second cot for the baby.
I know some people don't use cots straight away for a newborn but both mine were huge babies and only lasted a couple of weeks in a crib. Plus I had the cot right next to my bed.