Welcome back to quality time, today's episode is sponsored by BABYBJÖRN. So you are going to have another kid. What's the best way to tell the soon to be siblings, stick around and find out. The way you prepare them is very important. Now you and mom want to tell the kids about their new baby brother or sister in a very comfortable place and make sure you let them know how special they are and also tell them that you love them.
Think back to what a life change and experience it was when you and mom had your first child. Now imagine what's it's going to be like for your kid when you bring a baby brother or sister home. When you talk about the baby, always say our baby and for younger kids think about linking the coming of the baby with the certain time that they understand. The baby is going to be born around Thanksgiving or the baby is going to be here on Valentines Fay. And a good idea is to let the kids tell grandma or grandpa or aunts or uncles. They buy in, they feel like this is a new edition for our whole family.
Now reading books together is a great way to start the discussion. This is one of my favorites called "Baby On The Way", it's from the Sears Medical Library. The cool thing about this, it talks about a new baby coming and also talks about pregnancy. But it has sidebars which are suggestions for parents about how to talk to your kids, about having a baby. It's a good book.
Next talk about what it's going to be like when the baby comes home. Tell them there is going to be lots of crying and lots of diapers to change, tons of work and ask them if they will help you. You can even practice with a doll and diapers. Now when you decorate even nursery, let them help you do that as well. Now it might be a good time to bring up the baby pictures of them and talk about when they were little, and just come in home.
You can take a little field trip to the hospital, show them round the maternity ward. Say this is where mom is going to deliver the baby. Here is the waiting room where grandma and grandpa will be and you can also take them to an OB/GYN visit, let them hear the heartbeat when they used the Doppler and then, you are there for the rest of the visit or you take them outside in the waiting room while mom finishes. If you are not already doing so make sure you spend some consistent time one-on-one with your kids before the baby gets there and even when the baby gets there, make sure you maintain that time with them.
Here is a cool activity you can do, get some of these, like this, get the baby wear and some fabric paint and then paint some stuff for their new baby brother or sister. When the little kid comes home, they can put this on and say, hey I made that. Well that's all for this episode of quality time. Thanks to BABYBJÖRN our sponsor. If you have got a really good way to tell your kids that you have another baby, go to dadlabs.com join the community and let us know.
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