Becoming a Big Brother

Hello S.,

We had our daughter when my son was also 4yrs old. Big adjustment to being a Big Brother and having a new addition to the family! My son thought the world revolved around him, and that changed as soon as we brought my daughter home! Before my daughter was born, we attended a Big Sibling class that was offered through the hospital that I delivered at. When we brought my daughter home, we made sure to include him with alot of the baby things...constantly telling him how great of a helper he is. We made sure that if one of us was with my daughter, ther other was with my son so he didn't feel left out. It will take some time, but eventually your son will adjust. My daughter is a little over a year now and my son is 5. Other than a few bits of jealousy here and there, he has adjusted pretty well. Good luck and congrats!

One thing we did was have the 'baby' give the sibling a present the first time they saw the baby in the hospital. Try to include them in everything from picking out outfits to change the baby, getting diapers to helping with the bath. It takes time but everyone adjusts!

My son just became a big brother. One thing that helped him was I bought a book (he loves books!) and wrapped it up very nicely. I brought it with me to the hospital when I went into labor. When he met his brother for the first time, little brother gave big brother a book. They've been best friends since.

I now have a 5 1/2 yr old son and a 1 yr old daughter - when my daughter was born my son was 4 1/2 yrs old. It will never be easy but we involved him in a lot of our decisions and always worked into conversations what a great big brother was - and kind of explained what that meant (i.e. taking care of his little sister, etc...) Of course, there were some difficulties but not that much and he's done pretty well. Once she got here we tried to love on him and do things with just him to make him feel special. I think that no matter what you do - things will change but just make sure that you continue to give love to him and all should be well. Good luck.