My main focus is on preparing Milla for a little sister, we're reading her books on babies, having intentional play dates with babies around, talking about her little sister all the time and what a great big sister she'll be.
We've been doing all the theory with her, but I'm still not sure how she will respond when she wakes up in the morning (or comes back home) and there's a little baby all of a sudden!
We dont plan to have her at the birth, I'm not the most graceful birther and I dont think she's old enough to understand that Mum's still okay. In saying that, we want to keep things as normal as possible for her so we'll be trying to avoid an over night stay anywhere and anything completely out of the ordinary. It will mostly depend what time of day I go into labour and how quickly it progresses. We'll call it as we see it but Nanny Moo is on hand to come over and keep Milla entertained.
Millas favourite baby book:
My New Baby by Stella Gurney & Fiona Freund
As soon as we came across this book in the library Milla has been obsessed with it. The pictures on each page are bright and engaging, there are little cartoons that are perfect for Millas stage and development to draw her attention to a page. She loves finding the flowers, hearts, sunshine, guitar, birds etc.
The words are mostly in caption form, short little sentences that I will pick and choose what to read. Milla knows the book completely, she'll see the page with the baby scan on it and will point up at our wall with our scans on it and say "baby".
On the page where it says "Grandma will come and look after me when the baby is coming" she says "Nanny!"
She sees the little boy kissing his little brother and she leans forward and kisses the book.
The book says a few random things, like babies looking like aliens and the baby not being able to each icecream or lollies (Milla doesn't know what either are) so I swap and change words as we go. I also add in "Mum and Dad" because the book doesn't mention any dad throughout. I want Milla to understand that the whole family is getting a baby, not just her and not just me.
I highly recommend this book for your 1-2 year old!
Mums favourite baby book:
Hello Baby by Jenni Overend
This book is way above Millas head, its wordy, the pictures are (beautifully) hand drawn. It would suit a child older and more developed (Milla is currently 21 months old).
However, I love love love this book. When I first bought it online ($11!) and it arrived and I read it I cried my way through it.
It is a beautiful, realistic and detailed account of a normal home birth.
(put this picture in for kicks, MrMoo said "wow, a family show" when he saw it)
Its a story of a new baby being added to an already established family. Each member has a part to play, they lay out the clothes, stack the fire wood, help mum through her contractions, Dad is encouraging and available, the midwife is just another member of the family, she is kind and professional and fits in perfectly. The sister arrives for the birth bringing flowers and food. The family lays out bedding infront of the fire and tucks in together when its all over and are thankful for their Little One.
Its a beautiful home birth and just what I am hoping / preparing for ours to be like. I am enjoying just reading the book for my own encouragement and edification.
Do you have any tips on helping us help our soon to be 22 month old meet her little sister? Leave a comment and let me know! I am so encouraged by your words of wisdom and experience!
You know, we tried to prepare Eleanor too - reading her books (including Hello Baby - agree - was WAY over her head), but in the end there wasn't much we could really do to prepare her. As it happened, she was perfectly okay with having a baby in the house, we just made sure to spend some quality time with her each day. It was particularly helpful having two parents in this respect, Zan could take her for an adventure while me and G caught up on sleep...
ReplyDeleteGood luck!! Eeeeep, exciting!!
SO good to hear Stel! I'm hoping for the same! G was totally bored when he was off work the first time round, but this time I think he'll have plenty to do with Milla each day :)
DeleteIn our family each new baby arrived with small gifts for his/her older siblings. Sort of a congratulations now you're a big brother/sister kind of present. We also let the older child get acquainted with the new baby in their own time.
ReplyDeleteI know we've already talked about things that worked for us when H was born, but in case they've been lost in the fog that is pregnancy brain:
ReplyDelete~ let her cuddle/kiss the baby in her own time, when she's ready - this made all the difference with J, and he just accepted that there was a baby in the mix now.
~ make time to cuddle/read with her each day - special mummy-Milla time, when the baby is out of your arms. Also special daddy-Milla time, so she feels even more important, and also so she gets used to daddy solving her problems instead of mummy.
~ show her right from the start that you can still read to her when feeding the baby - AND that you can still tell her off! She will test the boundaries; it's a huge adjustment for her.
~ try and have the baby out of your arms when Milla first meets her so you can greet her with the biggest cuddle imaginable. Be prepared for tears from yourself at this point!
EEEEEEP! Not long to go xxxxx