Advice On How to Tell 3.75 Year Old He's Going to Be A Big Brother!

[ilovefelix]

I want to do everything within my power to make the transition for our 3.75 year old son to being a big brother a comfortable one. I realize there are many things out of my control--but I have the feeling that how I frame telling him about a new little sister or brother on the way might be kind of important. :) I have ordered "Siblings Without Rivalry" but I am not aware of any other books on the subject. I also got "Baby On the Way" by the Sears'.

I guess I should add that he has asked for a sister out of nowhere a couple of times. I think he likes the idea, although he really has no idea what that means. ;) Also, I am barely a month along in my pregnancy. I would prefer to wait at least a couple of months, but I know there is going to be the inevitable slip up from someone. So I would rather he hear it from us!

TIA!

[lifeguard]

We talked to ds about the pregnancy & baby pretty much from the start. He is younger than your ds though & we felt he needed the time to understand what was going on. We started with a simple 'mommy has a baby growing in her tummy' to more in depth about the process & the changes it will mean as we've come along. We really haven't made a big deal about it & we answer any questions he has as they come up.

[amberskyfire]

Before I became pregnant, I knew I wanted another one, so I spent time here and there getting DD (3) used to the idea of inevitably having a brother or sister. I read her books about babies and when we saw a pregnant woman, I would point her out to DD and would coo over how wonderful it was. When we saw babies in the store, we would "awwww" together over how cute it was. She listened and now thinks babies are pretty much the greatest thing ever.

After she started asking me to get pregnant so we could have a baby of our own, I actually did find myself pregnant. I wanted to keep it from her for a while, but the nurse at the clinic let the cat out of the bag. DD couldn't have been more excited. She's totally thrilled about it now. I'm really glad I took the time to get her used to the idea first so she could be comfortable with it and really want it before it happened. She's super clingy and I think she would have ended up really hurt by my getting pregnant if I hadn't prepared her.