Think about preparing your child(ren) for a new baby as a long game.

I know I said above to consider waiting to tell them about baby until a little closer to the time, but you can still prepare them for the concept, and do the necessary things with plenty of time ahead of the new arrival.

Books – we love books in our house, so these are always a winner for introducing new ideas gently. We particularly liked “There’s A House inside my Mummy”, and also bought “Topsy and Tim: The New Baby”.

There are tons on the market / available to borrow from the library, that you could explore together. You could change the words a little to make it more relatable / realistic for our own circumstances (changed the babies to girls, said the babies were breastfeeding, etc.)

Talk about babies and make it relatable – Do you know anyone else your little one’s age with a younger sibling? Who else do you know with siblings? Talk about what the babies do – they need to sleep a lot, they can’t do very much at first and need to sleep, be held and feed a lot – what can they do to help? Open up the conversation!

If possible, try to do any big changes no closer than 3 months before baby is due. If bigger children need to move bedrooms, move into a big bed to give the cot to baby, potty train, move to a new room in nursery, move house etc. Try to leave at least 2-3 months between that change and the new baby. It’s not always possible, but they’ll be less likely to link and changes that might feel hard, to the arrival of their sibling.

As I say in the eBook, some days will feel like the hardest thing in the world, but some days you’ll feel like you have everything mastered.

It’s a journey.

Sometimes, the jump from 1-2 is less of a shock than 0-1. Sometimes it’s the other way round. 2-3 can seem unmanageable or the baby can slot right in.

It is all normal.

And temporary x