How did you introduce your toddler to your new baby?

[moxy]

I am 38 weeks and 5 days and I plan to be giving birth at the hospital...

My mother in-law is on watching our toddler duty and will bring her in when we call her, however I am not sure about the best way to introduce her brother to her...

She loves her mummy a lot and can be protective of me but she has never had a problem when I hold another child or baby. As she is quite a loving little girl (only 17 months old though)

Is it okay of me to ask my husband to bring my daughter in without my mother in-law just so we can have a quite family moment?

Do you think I should be holding the baby??

What did you do and did it work nicely??

I just want it to be easy on my daughter!

 

[Caprikorn]

I think my plan went pretty well, here's what I did:
My mom watched our son while I was in the hospital, I stayed the typical 2 nights. I was getting induced, so I had to be there at 6 am. I gave birth at 2:16 pm, since it was early enough in the day...my husband went home at like, 6 pm to eat dinner w/ our son and play with him. We didn't want him to feel abandoned. Then he came back and stayed the night.
The next day, my mom came with our son. We let her hold the baby, while giving lots of attention to our first born. (I missed him terribly, and of course she wanted to hold the baby) Then she eventually wanted to go down to the cafeteria to eat, so we had our "family moment" then.
My best advice is to give lots of attention to the first born! Have you and your husband take turns with each child. Good luck!

 

[Flutterbye]

Have her come with ONLY your husband!! Don't be holding the baby when she arrives. Have several presents for her to open that are FROM the new baby. We gave our oldest daughter a pretty dress, a book, and some toys when she came to visit me. It was all about her!! Then she got to god the new baby and thank the baby for the presents!! Worked great!! My daughter is now 15 (was 4 when her baby sister was born), and she still talks about it with her sister!! Haha!! So cute!!

 

[TTC 19 month #1]

My sister makes her little girl come and kiss her tummy, she is still preg, and she already started to intoduce her, by asking her (were is you little sister)? and the little girl comes and put her cheeks on my sisters tummy and kisses it.

 

[Alix C.]

When we brought her home, we showed the baby to our 2-year-old daughter, Meredith, (while I held the baby, Piper). We asked if Meredith to help us pick out an outfit for the baby to wear (we gave her a choice out of two little pink dresses) for her to come home in, and when Piper arrived at home, she was wearing the choice that her sister had picked, which made Mer feel included and happy.

We asked if Mer wanted to hold the baby and she said yes, so we had her sit on the couch and my husband sat next to her and helped her hold the baby.

My mom helped for the first few days and my sister for the first week, so Mer always had lots of company to play with, so she didn't get too jealous. She pretty much loved being a big sister from the beginning and was instantly very attached to & protective of Piper (she used to start crying when Piper cried... which was really sweet!!)

With the other kids, we did pretty much the same routine, and it worked out pretty well each time.