Prepping an Older Sibling

Bedtime tickles

How Daddy takes Million on a walk...Wears him out!

Million's First Woodworking Project, an M to paint and hang in his room.

What Million chose in the store as a present for November Boy. 

We/I let Million buy a present for his little brother.  It should not surprise anyone who knows Million that he chose two items with stars on it (there was a shortage of "moon" items, so stars just had to do.)  Our little Galileo.

We've been working on prepping Million for being a big brother.

We don't read him books specifically written about the topic, because none of the books are satisfactory, in my opinion.  They all try their best to prep kids for reality, but end up making a new baby sound like a terrible thing---subliminally.  The messages are "Mommy and Daddy will still love me.....but..."  and "Baby will be a fun thing someday...but..."

We've been talking with Million about what he'll get to teach November Boy and what November Boy will and will not be able to do.  Maybe that's not the best way to go about it, and maybe he'll be completely traumatized when November Boy comes, but it's working so far.  He knows from his cousins that November Boy will be wearing diapers and not big-boy undies.  He also knows from his cousins that November Boy will likely cry a lot.  He further knows that November Boy will not be eating pizza right away.  But he's excited about teaching November Boy how to eat oatmeal someday and that BonAmi needs to be treated with gentle hands.

We're working on ideas for labor and delivery time: getting Million a special toy to play with when he spends the night (or two nights depending on how things go) with my parents.  We're also going to have him sleep over there next month to test it out.  We're thinking about having a wrapped present at the hospital for Million so meeting his brother will be a fun experience.  (Michael's actually thinking one of those little bean-bag chairs so Million can have a comfy place low to the ground for when we allow him to hold November Boy.)  One good thing about our healthcare facility now is that they really stress rooming in with your baby instead of sending him down to the nursery.  My parents have home movies of me wailing "But he's MY baby!" repeatedly as a little girl because my younger brother was behind a glass nursery wall, and I couldn't take him home with me.  Michael is planning on taking Million on a big-boy date to get mommy some non-hospital food at some point during my two-day stay.

Obviously, we know that a lot can change in our plans depending on how my labor/delivery goes.  We just want things for Million to be as smooth of a transition as possible.  He has really developed quite the "first-born" personality, so we know that he'll be a great big brother.  We tell him when we see him doing "big-boy" things how proud we are of him.  

He talks about "baby ___________" a lot.  Whenever we talk about our family, he says "For Mommy, For Daddy, For Me-yun (his cute mispronunciation of his name), and for Baby ________."  Sometimes he adds "Baby 'Opia" in there.  He's got a definite grasp that November Boy will be a part of our family "when he gets borned."

As far as the rest goes, we'll just have to wait and see how he does.