When you're having your first baby you and your partner have to get ready for that birth and that little person, but when it's your second or third or even more then there's a whole other dynamic now. How do you prepare you other child/children for the birth of another?
Here are some simple suggestsions, feel free to pick and chose what works best for your family. First, let your other kids be involved in your pregnancy. Talk about what will happen and what is happening inside your womb at the moment, there are many books out there aimed at children for this very purpose. Show your children pictures of childbirth. Ecspeically if you want them to be involved in the birth. Expalin to your other children how dependant babies are. Explain how much they sleep, and how they cry when they need or want something, and how they can't walk or talk or even crawl. Give them a lot of special attention and tell them how grown up they are, point out all the things they can do for themselves and why they can teach their new sibling to do. Show them their babybooks so they will see all that you did for them when they were small. Encourage them to talk and touch the baby in your belly. Let them feel the new baby moving around. Have them help you get the baby stuff together, have them help in the preperation of the baby's new room or if they're sharing a room with the baby. Inivite mothers with young babies over and let your kids interact with them as much as possiable. Also, waterbabies are a good doll to help your children see what it will be like, so are other realistic feeling dolls. You can teach your children how to hold a baby with these dolls.
When the new baby arrives some kids may have trouble adjusting. Again, seculsion will help your other children adjust to their new sibiling and give you time to show them that you still love them just as much. Keep reading them the books on new babies, it will help. Let them "help" with diapers and dressing the baby. Try to set aside for them to play with their new sibling. Take them on "special outings" or have daddy do it. That way they feel they are getting something special out of it. Bathe all your children together, but this is only recommended if they are all very young or all the same sex. Be sure to praise your other children lots and let them know they are good helpers. Don't forget to set aside special time each day to spend just with your other children one on one. Give your other children lots of love and baby them whenever and however they need it. In the first few weeks after the new baby is born your other children, the former youngest ecspecially, may seem extra needy but babying them whenever and however they need it will help them feel secure and eventually they will stop being extra needy. This also helps prevent sibling rivarly.
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