Toddlers and baby bumps.

I’m 18 weeks pregnant tomorrow and for the last week I’ve had quite the issue.

My bump is starting to show. We have explained to my 3 year old daughter and 1 year old son that there was a baby inside of mommy’s belly and they seem excited, but I don’t think they really understand what it means.

My oldest has, multiple times, hit me in the stomach and laughs about it. My husband and I sat her down and explained to her very seriously that she can’t be doing that, but it seems like she thinks it’s funny. She also had her brother try it.

I don’t really know what to do with this.

We have tried explaining to her that violence is unacceptable, everytime she does it she gets time-out. However, like I said, she is very stubborn and thinks it’s a game.

Is there like a miracle solution to this? She isn’t usually like this but for obvious reasons we need it to stop.

***UPDATE***

Thank you all so much for your insight. While I do not believe in any physical kind of violence, I think we have found a great solution. My daughter isn’t really attached to any toy. If we take one away she’ll just find another one to play with. We didn’t really want to take aaallll the toys away so we decided to be a little more sneaky, if I can say that. She is enrolled in dance classes and she loves it. She always looks forward to it and the night before, sleeps with her tutu and shoes in her bed. Well guess what? No dance class for you this week! She also had a birthday party planned for today, one of her best friends from daycare. She has been asking all week when “cake day” was. You guessed what we did... no birthday party for you. We made sure she knew why these privileges were taken away. She might only be three and a half but I think she understood that good behaviour equals rewards and bad behaviours equals consequences. She’s been super clingy to me all day and won’t stop hugging me now. Hopefully it lasts😂