When to tell other children

[caitlinn]

I'm 7 weeks pregnant, had a scan in the past few days and seen a heartbeat...she said it's measuring a bit small but she isn't worried as it was a strong heartbeat. I've got a 3yr old already and wondering when others told their kids? I'm waiting until 12 weeks to double check everything is alright...or would people recommend waiting longer? I'm not the skinniest so don't have the worry of showing anytime soon I don't think!

I had a scan at 8 weeks and got a pic so I showed my son 4, then we just talked about what it would be like to have a baby in the house and talked about how he might feel if he was a big brother so planted a seed! We kept talking about a navy and after 12 weeks it was "our" baby..

We told ours after the 12 week scan (actually at 13+5). Ideally I’d have waited until after the 20 week scan but I’m quite slim and was showing early (3rd pregnancy) and DD1 (4) had already said ‘mummy you look like you’ve got a baby in your tummy’. 22 weeks now and they’re bored of waiting

I had my first scan at 13+5 and told them a week later. I wanted to get out of the first trimester first after two late first trimester missed miscarriages last year. I didn’t feel safe until I hit the 14 week mark. Some people wait until after the anomaly scan which is quite sensible.

I've got a 3 year old (4 in Oct). No way am I telling her until either I'm showing or my 20 week scan so I can tell her the sex.

Otherwise it will be a longggggggggggggg 9 months (EDD end of March).

She's been asking for a "baby sister" for over a year so she may well spontaneously combust with excitement 😂😂

3 years old is very small still and they are not really able to understand the concept of time at that age. Unless you want to be asked every single day if the baby is coming soon, I would definitely leave it as late as you can before telling your DC. Also, I wouldn't tell anyone at least until after the 12 week scan, as even after an early scan with heartbeat things can still go wrong in early pregnancy (sorry to sound blunt but this is my experience).

I've got teenagers and haven't told them yet and I'm 16 weeks!

Ours is due just after Christmas so that seems to have put a halt to any questions about when the baby is coming... they know they’ve got Halloween/bonfire night/Christmas first and have accepted that.

It’s always good start early talking about the idea of a brother or sister, lots of good story books out there that you can buy just to plant the seed, but perhaps don’t say explicitly one is coming until 20week mark, that way you don’t have months and months of is baby coming yet?

i told my DD at 20 weeks after we had found out if we were having a girl or a boy. she was 3. personally i think 12 weeks would have been too early to tell her, 6 months is a long time to wait for a 3 year old! im 36 weeks now and she asks if baby brother is coming every day.

Told the kids (2 and 4) at about 8 weeks, as my eldest was getting visibly worried about me needing to sit down and rest all the time (I was feeling pretty sh*t). Once he knew the cause, he became the most gorgeous child ever, and every time I sat down would bring me some fruit "for the baby". I'm due in early Jan so have told him it's not coming until after Christmas, which seems to have helped with the impatience as he can understand that. My younger son doesn't care in the slightest

We told DS by taking him to a private scan when I was 18 weeks & we all found out together that we were having a girl. He was just over 2.5. He loved seeing the baby move & when she waved he waved back at her. It was a lovely moment for all of us. We then went shopping & he picked the first babygro that she wore after she was born.

I would wait as long as you can as it's a very long time for them to wait for the baby to arrive, we had a few birthdays including his before DD arrived so it gave him some markers to know when she was coming.