Managing your Toddler while your Newborn Baby needs your attention.

My daughter’s first birthday has arrived.
When she was newborn we listened to numerous suggestions on how best to integrate her into the family, with other siblings and in particular, with our toddler boy. Sammy came to the hospital the first day Rachel was born with my parents who were staying at our house with him.

With an 18 month old, I’m not sure that was necessary. Sam was used to being taken care by his grandparents for a few days at a time and it may have been more confusing to him than if he had just stayed at home. As he then had to leave the hospital with my parents while my husband and I stayed there for another 2 days
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When we came home I made sure that everyone else was holding Rachel most of the time and I spent my time playing with Sammy. My biggest challenge was that I had a c-section which meant that I couldn’t carry him for 6 weeks and as an 18 month old he still wanted to be carried up and down stairs. We struggled through, with some tears from Sammy and from me as well. I wasn’t worried about giving him too much attention and creating a monster because I could tell from his behavior that he was struggling to adjust. So patience, a lot of help from family staying with us and lots of hugs and kisses made it all okay. We got him a baby doll so he also could take care of a baby and it was sweet to watch him take care of her. It was also a good training tool for teaching him appropriate levels of ‘gentle’. It was a nice experience and I think because he was learning how to care and dress her some cute infant clothes we picked up at Little Loungers boutique online, so learning to be soft and gentle with Rachel was an easy progression. If he had been a little bit older, even 6 months older, conversations beforehand about what was going to happen would have been helpful and I have also heard that putting photos of your toddler in the baby’s bassinet at the hospital is a nice touch when the toddler comes to visit.

I suppose the most important factor is throwing all of your love and attention to your toddler/child daytime because you’re going to be up all night with your infant anyhow so they can have attention from you then and having many hands will ease the transition.

It is so nice to be at the end of the first year and seeing how much my two kids love each other.