Preparing Claire for a Sibling

Claire has been doing pretty well in her role as big sister so far. She likes to give Maggie hugs and kisses. She likes to help with diaper changes. She likes to hold her (with lots and lots of help) every once in a while. She really doesn't like it when Maggie cries! 

Of course, she's been soaking up all the extra attention from Daddy and our visitors. She's also been a lot more whiny than usual, which I think we can mostly attribute to teething (we're pretty sure she's getting her first molars), but I bet some of it's because of all the changes around here too.

We tried a few things to help prepare Claire for Maggie's arrival. Since Claire is still basically a baby herself and can't really talk much, I'm not sure if they helped or not, but just in case you're curious...

We read books about welcoming a new baby. We purchased "I'm a Big Sister" and "My New Baby" from Amazon, as well as borrowing a few other titles from the library. For the last two or three months of my pregnancy, we probably read one of these books every day. 

We looked at pictures and videos of Claire as a baby. I had lots of pictures printed from Claire's babyhood, which are now kept in one of the drawers in our end tables. She likes having the tangible pictures and will bring us photos so we can tell her which relatives are in them. She's also been a big fan of watching the video we made of her first year. 

We gave her a big sister gift from Maggie at the hospital. When Claire first met Maggie at the hospital, she got to open a present - a baby doll of her very own! She calls this doll "baby" and has been pretty much obsessed with it ever since. Every once in a while, when I am feeding or changing Maggie, she will do the same with her baby. 

Other than that, she came with us to almost every prenatal appointment and ultrasound. She helped me wash and organize all the newborn clothes. We set up the infant car seat a few weeks beforehand, so she could get used to sitting on the side instead of the middle. We talked about Maggie a lot, explaining where she was now and what life would be like when she came out. If you asked her where the baby was, she's try to lift up my shirt and give my belly a kiss. But who knows if anything really sunk in. Being a toddler must be weird, huh?