Preparing for number 2

First, congratulations! My only advice is to prepare as many freezer meals as you can to make your life easier. This may sound weird but as July gets closer keep up on laundry and stuff. Like I wish I made sure to do laundry every single day and keep the house as clean as I could. My son came a month early and it made things harder since I was a little behind on that stuff. Our oldest isn’t potty trained either. We honestly are waiting a little longer until our baby is sleeping a little better before tackling potty training.

Following because I’m in the same boat!

Following I’m in a similar position except due in April and I’m honestly freaking out. My daughter isn’t potty trained and is very attached to me and I’m worried it’s going to cause issues.

Congratulations!! For me, establishing boundaries with our oldest was very helpful. Our oldest has been sleeping through the night since we sleep trained him when he was like 6 or 7 months old. We got him a toddler bed at 18 months old, so that way he was comfortable in it by the time baby #2 came when he was 20 months. Having his own bed gave him more independence. And we encouraged self play since he was an infant. Those boundaries helped immensely. But I wish we also helped him prepare for how much our lives will change with a new sibling. We read a ton of books about it and bought him a doll. But I think if we did more role play with the doll that would have helped him more. He is still struggling to adjust to his baby sister. We also made sure to keep to our oldest's routines as much as possible so that he felt some sort of normality and so that our newborn would adjust to our routines and know what to expect early on. This helped us and I hope it can help you!

Has he had the opportunity to be around babies/see you or dad holding them? I just had my second and I think something that made a huge difference was that my daughter goes to a daycare with two young her babies. It helped her learn to be gentle (though she still needs reminding) and it doesn’t phase her in the slightest when he cries. I recently saw a post on social media where a couple babysat their niece for a day to see what life might be like with two. I thought that was GENIUS!

I also read books to my daughter about the baby “growing in my tummy” and being a big sister, so she was very excited for “Baby Brother” to come. She hasn’t been jealous at all!

Change is hard for toddlers, so I think as much as he can practice and mentally prepare before hand, the better.

https://dev.biglittlefeelings.com/how-to-prep-your-toddler-for-a-new-baby-sibling/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA44OtBhAOEiwAj4gpOUNVeQtpHrTGe7WxNFoNWvJVBCupM5uTQL8mB5a4ZbQa1lumfFn-8hoCRXIQAvD_BwE