By Mommy Niri,
When I was expecting my second child my older girl was barely 2 so I was (understandably) paranoid about whether my “baby” would accept the new “baby.” In addition to all the transition a child approaching 2 has to deal with, having to share your parents with a new member of a family can be tough for anyone to handle.
We devoured anything we could set our hands on to make the adjustment seem fun. Books depicting big sisters and cute t-shirts celebrating the new title were all carefully stocked up on. In retrospect part of preparation is truly futile, I mean who can really tell how they will react, and just when you think you got it figured out they change (and normally not in the direction you want it to). The one thing I did do and I managed to get right (yes, surprise-surprise that does happen on occasion) was buy a little dollhouse for my little girl. Now since she was quite little I did not want to buy her a huge one to overwhelm her, my small home or the wallet, we picked one that was sized appropriately.
We added to the collection characters that would be a mom, dad, big sister and little baby. By further naming the baby character with the name of the unborn baby, the big sister got used to hearing her name and the baby being part of our family. By play acting out several scenes the idea of having a little sister be part of the family slowly became a reality. Being able to visualize helped plenty and three years later both girls look fondly (and still play with) the dollhouse and characters.