Preparing an Only Child for a New Baby

For the majority of parents, teaching an only child, or first born child, how to handle a new baby is something that we have to go through. This is something that I am going to have to go through in a couple of months as I have a 4 ½ year old son and will be delivering another baby boy at the first of August. I am starting to see that my son will have quite a bit of adjusting to do when the new little guy arrives as he’s not used to younger children following him around and messing with “his” toys. As a result, I have been doing a lot of research and have started to prepare my son for the arrival of his baby brother.

I know that I’m not the only woman out there who is about to go through this and so I thought you may find it beneficial to read a few tips for how to prepare your only child for a new baby sibling. Below are some of the ideas I have found and began to implement.

Get the child involved as soon as possible. Many experts believe that it’s best to get your first-born child involved in the pregnancy as soon as possible. For me, that was after I was already past the 12 week mark. My son is one who doesn’t like surprises, so telling him early was something we needed to do. To help him get excited about the new baby, we made sure that we included him in on the name-choosing process. We allowed our son to pick out the middle name for his brother. We’ve also taken him to several stores with us and let him pick out some little boy’s outfits for the baby as well as…

Are you expecting your first baby soon?

Congratulations! Babies are truly little blessings for anyone who comes in contact with them…especially their parents. While you are probably over joyed with the idea of how much your life is going to change in the months after you bring the baby home, you do need to realize that while babies are fun (and a blessing), they are a lot of work. Bringing home a new baby can be difficult and stressful when you have unrealistic expectations. Below are just a few things that are good to know before you bring home your new little bundle of joy.

1. It may take months to establish a “real” schedule. When I was expecting my first baby, I was determined that I was not going to be one of those new moms who ran around looking ragged because I was going to make sure my baby was on a schedule. Looking back (five years later), I actually laugh at myself when I think about what I thought life with baby was going to be like.

The truth is that it took at least three months (if not more) before my son settled into a regular schedule of his own. The most frustrating thing, for me, in regards to the newborn stage was that as soon as I thought I had him and his schedule figured out, he would throw me a loop and change it up. So, don’t expect to settle into a rigid schedule right at first. Your little one is going to be calling the shots the first couple of months. Luckily for us, they don’t remember the days they had “control” over the family, giving us the ability to easily regain that control.

2. There is such a thing as too many …

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