18 month-old adjusting to newborn?

[Galatea]

Ds1 was an angel - until his new brother was about 2 days old. Now he hits and throws and destroys things and says no to everything we say and wants to touch everything we touch and does whatever he can to be bad. Oldest story in the book, I know. But when will this end? What can we do? He is fine to the new baby and loves him and kisses him and never tries to hurt him. He is just a beast to us and we are having a hard time being nice to him when he is unkind and difficult all the time. I am trying to spend time with just him but it is hard having to nurse and hold the new baby all the time. Dh has taken him on special days of just them to have lunch, go shopping, etc., but he just misbehaves all day until dh is even more annoyed and the special day had the opposite effect.

[MamaBug]

Sorry no advice, my #1ds was 23 months when #2 came and he was fine all around. What about a special basket of things for him to do while you nurse. Have the baby give him little gifts to praise him. I agree alone time with mommy and daddy is probably crucial. :hugs: Hoping it will get better for you very soon

[MsChatsAlot]

What you've described sounds a lot like normal 18 month old behavior regardless of having a new sibling. My youngest ds was very physical at that age, threw alot, started to bite & hit, etc. It's pretty normal for kids at that age.

Make sure you can give him all the attention you can and help him learn other ways to express himself and re-direct the behaviors that aren't working to ones that are more positive.

[letabug]

my kids are 18 months apart and this happened, when we brought home the baby, he LOVED him so much, but he would try to bite me, he NEVER did that before, throw things at me...again something new, and look at me and scream, he never did that before either. Now the "baby" is almost 8 months old and they "play" together the best that a 2 year old and a baby can play. DS1's behavior lasted about a month or so. It was so bad I would just cry b/c my angel turned into a demon in a matter of about 6 hours! It was REAL rough but like I say now it is all good, don't get me wrong now he acts up for other reasons...baby brother taking his toys, and when baby brother gets to ride in "his" sling. I had to buy different slings b/c if I put the baby in one that he rode in look out!

Bottom line is, it does get better! :)

[famousmockngbrd]

My birthday is the same as your DS2. :D

Well, my DS was 2.5 when DD was born, but he acted out against us a lot for the first couple of weeks. Then it seemed to get better for a little while, then worse, then better again...etc. He's doing OK now but he still does have some issues, like he was almost out of diapers when she was born but now he uses them full time again. He plays a lot of games involving babies, so I think he's still processing it.