Second time around.

Good night everyone. Hope your weekend was filled with Play dates where you just had to drop your child off, stain free cream carpets and grandparents who visited with food. My weekend definitely wasn't like that, but I hope at least one parent had it so easy.

A lot of soon to be 2nd/3rd time parents have been asking me how was I able to transition my 3 year old into being a big brother.

My first son (Anthony) is 10 years older than my middle child (Antonio) so that transition from being the only child was pretty easy. Anthony always wanted a sibling so when we told him that he was going to be a big brother he was surprisingly excited. We included him in mostly everything we did from picking out baby stuff to taking him with us the day I delivered his little brother. NO HE WAS NOT IN THE DELIVERY ROOM. But he was in the waiting room and was the first person to see his little brother in the nursery. He was and still is a GREAT help when it comes to his little brother.

Now Antonio we had to treat differently. He was only 2 when I became pregnant with baby #3. So his understanding about what was going on was totally different from his older brother. But we decided to do the same thing we did with Anthony and include him in every aspect of my pregnancy. At least once a day I would have some alone time with Antonio and talk to him about the baby. We showed him sonogram pictures, took him to doctors appointments to hear the heartbeat, allowed him to rub my belly and encouraged him to talk to my growing baby. When we found out it was a girl and figured out her name we made sure every time Antonio spoke to my belly he called her by her name. He became so attached to my belly that he would point to my belly and tell people "That's my Ariana in there".

The days leading up to my delivery we explained to him that the doctors where going to take "His Ariana" out of my belly. When he came to visit me at the hospital he knew right away that the baby in my hands was the baby that was in my belly. Even after Ariana was born we made sure he was still involved as much as possible. Even to this day he gets her pampers, wipes, and makes sure to tell me when she is ready for her tea (Baby Formula). I even caught him telling her that she was his best friend. (AWWWW WHO KNEW????)

So my advice to second/third time parents get those older siblings involved in your pregnancy. Don't keep your pregnancy a secret from them.  You would be surprised at how helpful and loving they are when you keep get them involved. There is nothing worst than you showing up one day with this little screaming human who has to share your room.