Ways To Prepare Your Family and Home, For Baby #2

Goodbye Summer, Welcome Fall! That makes me 37 weeks and 3 days pregnant! I Loooove being pregnant. The experience for me is such a magical, beautiful state of being. You really feel like superwoman accomplishing every task, especially if you have other babies to love and care for.

As of yesterday, I can officially say I have fully prepared and wrapped up everything on my To-do list before bringing our newborn home. What a wonderful feeling because if you're like me, the preparation process seems never ending and doing it in the 3rd trimester, gets extremely difficult at times. Especially during the evening when you're feeling all the aches and pains that come along with pregnancy. Summer is my absolute favorite season but I'm loving the cooler temperatures now that I'm weeks or days away from my due date.

EIGHT ways I've prepared my home + 21-month-old for the arrival of her baby brother are,

1. Curate activity centers in different spaces of the house to entertain your toddler while making it easier to play together with your newborn and older sibling.

For example, I brought my daughters ball pit downstairs and moved the carpet to be able to have my newborn playing on the carpet while his sister plays in the play area I created, full of exciting books, puzzles, and toys. 

              

2. Read children's books to your toddler that introduce and help inform your little one of the wonderful news throughout your pregnancy!

3. If baby and toddler will be sharing a room, convert the toddler room well before baby arrives to introduce the idea of sharing with a sibling, so it doesn't feel like the older sibling is being pushed out.

4. Place diaper/ necessity caddies around your home for accessibility. Especially if you have stairs!

5. Prepare a special and thoughtful gift for sibling for when baby comes home so they feel loved and thought of!

6. If able, explain to sibling every day that a new baby will be joining the family. If you see a young baby while out and about try to point out what a newborn looks like, so they become familiar.

7. Purchase a baby doll or two and play together with it so your first born can learn what it will be like to have a newborn around. Try purchasing doll size diapers and accessories to role play and when baby comes home, sibling can take care of their baby doll like you care for your newborn baby. (I got a water baby for bath/pool time + a 14-inch Madame Alexander doll)

8. Move all of toddlers' clothes to the lowest closet rack so they can independently decide what to wear and become familiar with the process of dressing themselves. I introduced this idea to my baby soon after I became pregnant. Doing this will be helpful for morning routines with 2 littles!

These are a few steps I have taken to prepare for baby #2 while including my toddler every step of the way. Throughout my pregnancy I have stressed the importance of sharing and including my little girl in the process, and she is so so excited anytime we talk about her baby brother. I definitely take pride in intentionally raising our daughter and also guiding her to be as independent as able. All of which we will do for all of our babies!

Happy First Day of Fall!

X, That Edgy Momma