Tips for introducing a newborn to a toddler?

[spritesoright]

DD will be 2.5 when the new baby is due. Does anyone have any good techniques they used to ease the transition? Like most 2 year olds, DD thinks the world revolves around her and I'm anxious to make things easier for all of us.
She can tell you that there's a baby in mummy's tummy but I'm sure she has no idea what this will mean for her shortly.

What worked for you and what didn't?

I have that exact same age gap between my dcs and its lovely! Lots of good suggestions here, we did the present from the new baby and that was very well received We also made sure all the visitors made a fuss of dc1 before meeting the baby and we talked lots about how lovely it is to be a big brother. Ime dcs of that age love to be helpful so if you can give your dd a special job to do that should help her to feel involved - ds used to fetch a clean nappy when dc2 needed changing and I used to heap praise on him for being so helpful. I was expecting lots of jealousy but there actually was none at all and they really are the best of friends

I have a 2 year gap, DC2 now 8 weeks

we:
-had lots of books with big sisters in them
-bought a dolly to give her in the hospital
-took her to buy a present for the new baby
-I have a photo of DC1 at hospital and by my bed now that she hadn´t seen before and that made her very happy
-didn´t push her to be nice to the baby (apart from no violence) now she kisses her without being prompted :)
-asked her to help

I have found that as I recovered from my c-section that I can have a lot of fun with DC1 that I haven´t had for months as it was hard picking her up and having tickle rough play

she is very into me after being more split between me and DP which is tough at bed time because I am breastfeeding and DC2 has a 7-9pm meltdown or when their night time waking coincide. If you asked DP he would say we should have formula fed as that would have taken some of the pressure off but I wanted to breast feed DC2 and for most of the time it is OK!

My dd will be 2.4 when lo is due and I'm going todo what my mum did for my sister... Buy her a dolly so that she has a new baby aswell as mummy so when I need to change or feed to can do the same and feel involved and important and I know she loves dollies anyway so I think this will work for her :) x

DD2 was also born at home, DD1 (3) walked in when DD2 was three minutes old. She just accepted her as part of the family.

She was never faintly jealous, despite DD2 BFing a lot and for a very long time.