The Imperfect Community

[honeybee]

did any of you experience really bad acting out from your dc when baby#2 arrived?

We didn't...Ethan really adjusted easily. It wasn't until Owen started walking that we had issues with Ethan.

But my bestest friend just had a baby last weekend. Her older son turned 2 in February and he is having a really hard time adjusting. He is sulking, sitting quietly by himself in corners, throwing toys, hitting & kicking, not listening...all totally out of character for him. He keeps telling his mom, "bebe all done", "bebe go ninight"...whenever she holds him or is nursing him.

She has been reading and playing with him, one-on-one, whenever she can (a lot through the day, since the baby just sleeps all the time), and it's not helping.

I'm just really worried for her. She is feeling a lot of guilt and sadness over it. She is (what I think to be) feeling some little ppd, something she never experienced with her first baby.

So anyway, if anyone has BTDT and can offer some suggestions, I'd like to pass them along. It's only been one week, does it get better, or will it get worse first?


...but on a nice note -- she had this baby 2 weeks early (first son was almost 4 weeks early) and was only in labor for 3 hours! From the moment she felt her first contraction, to the time she pushed him out -- three hours! Isn't that amazing? And she did it totally natural -- not by choice -- but it happened so quickly there wasn't time to do anything. In fact, the baby was delivered by the nurses before the doc could arrive! She is the biggest wimp I've ever known (I love her dearly, but she truly has no tolerance for pain whatsoever), and she said that it wasn't that bad! LOL! Ah, anyway, I just love her to pieces and wanted to share . He's just the cutest little 5 pound peanut.

[Rebecca_R]

How much is the dad around, does he work a lot? Mike took a month off of work when Aaron arrived and did most everything with nathan. I think that's why our transition went so smoothly. Mike would take Nate to preschool in the mornings. I had a slow start to my dad and then would go get Nate from school. We would trade off too, when Mike had Aaron I would tend to Nate. Both the kids got plenty of one on one attention.

They still do! Which is why we decided the kids shall not outnumber the parents in our house.

[Princesso]

We didn't have any trouble with Avery, but then, he was only 17 months. Plus, I was on bedrest for 8 weeks prior so he was already used to not being picked up by me and whatnot. Mike stays home too, so there was always a parent around without the baby.

[Sewingsiren]

Check out what the Angry Baby has to say about sibling rivalry:


How do you handle a 2-year-old who seems to be acting out because of a new baby brother?
Oh, tell me about it. My older brother is the same way. He's going along, all happy as a Teletubbie because he gets all the googly eyes from mom and dad, then -- WHAM!-- I come along, and he has to go and be a big dick about it. He's always taking my toys away, throwing food at me... like I asked to be born into this freakin' family. "Oh, please, can I come live with you?" That ain't how it went down, bro.

And the whining whenever mom has to take her eyes off him for one goddamn minute because I have a poopy diaper or whatever... whahwhahwhah... oh, Maddon'! Heeeeeellllllooooo?!? I'm a baby, it's not like I can just feed myself or wipe my own butt. Man, what a pain in the ass.

[honeybee]

[DietCokeHead]

Jack hardly even notcied when we brought Molly home! He had just tured 2 the week before. We didnt go out of our way to smother him with extra love or gifts or anything. It was kind of like "here's your sister, that's life!" LOL! He didnt complain about her until she started getting into his stuff....

I dont have any good advice for your friend, just sympathy!

[Jessica]

[JuneMama]