How do you prepare a toddler (2 to 2 and a half y/o) for a new baby?

Question

I have no clue how to start incorporating it into her life, or when to.

Answer

Some of the best advice I ever heard was that it’s going to be so much easier to adjust a baby, who’s never had a schedule to follow, to your toddler’s schedule. Baby doesn’t know that their nap time or bath time or daily walk is at a certain time. But your older child does. If baby threw up right before snack or lunch time, wipe their face and make the older kid’s food; then change or clean baby. That way, your older child sees the baby as less of an intrusion and the baby just learns that life is like this. Obviously if it’s an emergent need, handle that first but baby will already have more attention and needs; it’s best to accommodate by keeping life as normal as possible for the baby

Answer

My daughter was 10 months old when I found out I was pregnant and I just started talking about the baby daily with her and telling her I had a baby in my tummy. When. She was like 15 months old I got her a baby doll and treated it like a real baby to show her how to be gentle and love a baby and she would always kiss my tummy and say baby. By the time her little sister came along and was so excited and obsessed with her and she's always been an amazing big sister.

This was the first time they met. 🥰😭🤤

Answer

So my daughter just turned 2 2 weeks before we had her sister. We got her dolls, and she would take care of them, and was SO good with them. We’d say there was a baby in mommy’s belly, but I don’t think she ever really understood that one. But we brought baby home about a week and a half ago, and she’s been great. You can tell she’s noticing all the attention is off of her, but my husbands been doing great playing with her, and having her help him take care of the baby. 
This is today, she was watching him burp the baby, so she did the same.

Answer

I read a book of how to be a big brother. Taught him what a baby was, how small the baby would be and how careful he had to be around the baby. Everytime we see him play with his stuff animals we pretend it was a baby with him so he got that idea as well....now I read that when something is changing in toddlers life not to change too much b4 that change is coming...for example 2 years old toddler might want to start training to potty or want a toddler bed...but doing both b4 the baby comes could be too much and might withdrawal in one or both so time it wisel. By the time my second child came my first was almost 3 so we trained him with the toddler bed b4 the baby came and waited a few months after the baby came when he was more comfortable with the baby to potty train him. When the baby comes and its a new schedule just make sure to make time especially those first few weeks to make alone play time with the toddler...I couldn't most of the time but my husband would take him out shopping or to the park or whatever just the 2 of them. Be patient with the toddler...the kid will follow your lead as long as your patient....

Answer

I have a 14 month old and as soon as my bump was showing and she knew the word baby, I’ve explained that there is a baby in mummy’s tummy. She’s taken to it very well.

Obviously will be different when he arrives but she at least has an idea.

Answer

Highly recommend the Daniel Tiger episodes around having a new baby coming/after Baby Margaret's arrival. My son was fascinated, and they do a nice job of working through some of the struggles of adjusting (but that's my crib, why do you always have to help the baby, etc). The trick with my daughter this time around is getting her to watch the right episodes- girl has opinions!

Answer

Sleeping schedule will be the hardest. Just try your hardest to talk to her about the baby in your tummy a lot. Have her interact with your tummy, let her know her sibling will be here soon. Just try to create a bond from the get go basically. That’s what we did and it worked out perfectly. She was so excited when we brought her brother home. If she isn’t, don’t be worried! I know it’s stressful but she will adjust in her own way on her own time really. Kids are weirdos so sometimes we just gotta let them have their moment. We also brought a gift for her from her brother when we came home

Answer

My daughter is 27 months and from the time I found out I was pregnant (she was 19 months at the time) we told her mommy was having a baby. . She’s gone to ultrasounds with me so she could see sissy, I always let her look at the ultrasound pictures and she knows it’s a baby/sissy. She likes to play with my belly and with me getting everything prepared she knows the baby stuff is for sissy. She helps me sort her clothes and put them in and out of the wash and she always asks for baby and I tell her she’s still in my belly and she’ll point to it and kiss it or hug it. I know it may be a bit different when she’s actually born but for now I just include her in as much as I can when it comes to doing stuff for her little sister so she gets used to the idea of her being here.

Answer

We talk about her daily. We make sure tonuse her name. Sometimes we will sit at the table and ill go "ouch your sister just kicked me from inside my tummy!" Or "oh boy your sister has the hiccups again!" 
We have different big brother books we read nightly. And he got a baby doll and bottle and he helps feed it and I showed him how I burp it.
We look at pictures of him when he was a baby and discusse how his sister will be that small. 
We also decided to give him a new room as we got into the final weeks, that the baby will take his old baby room but now he's a big boy and gets a big boy room. We decked it out in his favorite thing (cars) 
Baby is also going to bring him a special gift when she gets here and hes very excited for that. 
He helped me clean the bottles and old toys, ect. 
We went shopping and I gave him choices when picking out a bath towel for her, and some other things.

Answer

We talked about it and pointed to my belly and said there was a baby. We bought him a big brother book to read and his own baby doll to take care of. He helped take down his crib and put up his big bed. After baby arrived, we praised him extra when he was helpful with the baby and we made sure to give him undivided attention when baby was napping. Our son is 2yr 4mo and our daughter is 2mo and he really enjoys her :)

How do you prepare a toddler (2 to 2 and a half y/o) for a new baby?

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