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Preparing your child for a new baby

Carlotta Cerri
Salva

The first scan on Friday went great, baby (just one!) is where it’s supposed to be, his heart’s beating fast and everything seems fine. He’s smaller that we expected though, around eight weeks, which means we had to change the due date once again… it looks now like it won’t be a Christmas baby nor a 2016 one 😊

Everybody is asking me if I’m worried about them being so close in age as it’ll definitely be more challenging for me… but I’m not really worried about that. I’ve learnt from scratch how to take care of one, I’ll learn how to take of both together.

My biggest worry these days is how the new baby will affect Oliver.

Right now, all my free time is for Oliver, we spend lots of quality time together, we go out for lunch just the two of us, we play, we go to the park, to the beach, we “talk” a lot with each other and learn a lot from each other. He still falls asleep on me like when he was little, like a koala. I love spending time with him, he’s my bonsai friend, my cucciolo, my partner in crime, and I really feel we’re creating a bond for life. But once the new baby arrives, I won’t have as much one-on-one time with him anymore and I’m afraid it might affect our closeness.

I can’t even compare it to my own experience, because my sister is nine years younger than me, so I was just thrilled when she came (less when I had to babysit her a lot because I was big enough ;-) But Oliver won’t even understand this whole “sibling thing” with words, one day he’ll just find this little thing living with us, screaming, demanding attention, taking lots of mummy’s time and energy, and sucking on his booby.

When you can’t really prepare your older child for the new baby, how do you go about it? And if your children are close in age, how did the older one react when the new baby arrived? Or if you have a one-year younger sibling yourself, do you remember it being traumatic? Do you remember it at all?

And I know this might sound silly, but I keep wondering… how in the world am I going to love another baby as much as I love Oliver? Is it even possible? Will I love the new baby the same? Will it be a different love, maybe? I don’t know, and for once I can wait to find out. This time around, I I’m happy to have these remaining seven months to prepare, I really need them (almost more than in the first pregnancy!).

I’d so appreciate any insight… thank you!

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