Items for a 2 Year Old to Receive from New Baby Brother at Hospital

Hi C.,
First of all - congrats on the new addition!
My daughter was 33 months when my son was born (in April 2007). My mom kept my daughter the whole day I was in the hospital in labor. She brought her up there shortly before my son was born to "wait". I gave my mom a gift to give my daughter, to bring to the hopsital for her brother (just a thick blanket that her and I picked out ourselves at BRU). I also had a gift waiting for her in our room (a Fisher Price Digital Camera - so she could take pictures of her new little brother). I, fortunately, was able to get up and walk to the waiting room to get her shortly after he was born (about an hour later) and brought her into the room myself. My husband was holding the baby and at first, she was a little reluctant. But we let her touch him and kiss him, etc. We then told her to give her present to daddy so he could open it, and she helped. Then we let her open the present from her brother and she LOVED it!! She spent the whole night taking pictures of him and the rest of the family. My son was born in the evening (5:21 pm) so she spent the night with my parents that night. The next day, my mom brought her back up to visit with us and have lunch with us. She spent the good part of the day in our room just hanging out. I let her sit in my bed with me so we could just have "us" cuddle time while the baby lay in his bassinet. And then all 3 of us cuddled together and watched cartoons. I think including her as much as possible from the very beginning was the best for us. I've heard a lot of great advice regarding this and most of it was to let dad be holding the baby so the older child doesn't resent you. Also, they recommend that you not be hooked up to any IV's, and have regular clothes on, because that can be scary to the toddler. But I think the key is to include them in everything!! (bathing, getting diapers/wipes, reading stories when feeding the baby, etc)
Good Luck!!

Hi C.,

My son was 2 when my daughter was born & I was really nervous about how the "intro" was going to go too. I took my son to Build-a-Bear before she was born, and he made her a stuffed bunny. I let him pick it out, name it, etc. and he was SO proud of what he had made. He was also very excited to give his special gift to his sister when she was born. The pictures of him making it are priceless as well as him giving the bunny to her at the hospital.

Congratulations on your growing family! :)

Hi C.~
Our son was 2 1/2 when his brother was born. We prepared him by telling him that mommy was going to the hospital b/c it was time for the doctor to get the baby out of mommy's tummy. Everyone was really great about bringing gifts for both boys. It really sounds like you've got it covered, though. Having him to the intro. sounds like a great idea (wish I'd thought of it). In our family, the adjustment went WAY better than we planned. Connor just sort of accepted Mason and I made sure to include him as my 'big helper'. They are the best of friends...lol(only b/c Mason isn't mobile yet and getting into Connor's toys!). Good luck and Congratulations!!
~L.

C.,

My 2 little boys are 25 months apart. We actually did things a little bit differently. We took the older one to build-a-bear and he built a bear for baby, which was a special gift from him. When Jacob met Ryan for the first time at the hospital, he brought the bear to give to him. When friends/family came to bring gifts, a few had books or small gifts to give Jacob, but that was it and he never really threw a fit or anything. Jacob still feels special when Ryan lays on the floor with his bear, or will bring it to him and say, "here's your special bear from big brother". Jacob actually adjusted extremely well, without much jealousy. There was a period of about 2 weeks after we brought baby home that he would let out a loud, fake cry whenever the baby was crying, obviously because he wanted the same attention. Between my husband and myself, we made sure that he did get the attention when he desired it. At the times when there was only one parent in the house, we told him, "I'll play trucks with you as soon as I get done feeding Ryan" or "we'll play blocks as soon as I get done changing Ryan" and he was totally fine with that. When people brought gifts, we explained to him that Ryan was getting gifts to welcome him to our house and when they brought something small for Jacob, we told him that he was getting a gift because he was such a great big brother. It really worked well, no jealousy or screaming because baby was getting more than him. I hope that you find that this approach works as well for you as it did for us!

A.

We bought my daughter a shirt that said "I'm A Big Sister". They have it for boys, too. What we did was, we got the shirt and then put it on a teddy bear. She loved it! Then one day out of the clear blue she gave that teddy to her brother, who carries that thing around like nobody's business. He's about to be 4 years-old September 2! lol My son also has these small Thomas the Tank Engines that connect magnetically. Let your mind be creative. You will come up with something. Congrats on the new baby to come. Hope these helped! Take care and have a safe delivery.

C. - congrats on your growing family!!! My son was about the same age when our daughter was born. I bought Michael a backpack (he really wanted one!) and filled it with a few of his favorite snacks, a book (about being a big brother) & a couple of new cars and toys. We also bought him a shirt to wear too that said, I'm the Big Brother. While he was waiting with the family, my husband took it out to him and told him this is a gift from your sister, and as soon as she gets her, you will get to thank her yourself!! He was thrilled and it gave him something to do while he patiently waited for his first sibling to arrive!!! Luckily, he didn't have to wait that long, as she arrived pretty quickly!!
Good luck on your delivery & enjoy your new bundle of joy!!!
~L.

My girl was 2 1/2 at the time I had my second,she got a Little Mermaid polly pocket doll. I think a car or train would be perfect. She was ecstatic about the doll, and kept asking me if Brother had picked it out to give her.

I don't know how your older son is with attention, our girlie is usually very social, but all the extra attention focused on her in the hospital room made her nervous. Everyone kept asking her what she was thinking about her new brother, wasn't he cute, how did it feel to be a big sister etc???? I finally motioned to my family to back off and let her experience it without being asked constant questions. I think we were all so nervous she was going to be jealous, or feel bad if we paid attention to the baby, but it was overkill in the end. What she wanted was to crawl up on the bed next to me and see the baby up close. She just sat there quietly for about an hour, and every once in awhile she would pet him gently.

Her excitement came out when we got the baby home. Whenever someone would visit, she's run to the door and say "Come see what we got!!!" She was so proud to show off her baby brother. The pencil idea is so great! My DD loved to give gifts to ppl at that age. One of her roles was to unwrap the presents for the baby since he was too small.

I have 3 boys and with my 1st son, my sister made him a bear at Build a Bear, and then when my 2nd was born my 1 st son made him a bear, and when my 3rd was born my 2nd son made his bear., However, I also made a trip to build a bear myself, and made the older boys bears from their new brother. They had shown me what bear and clothes they wanted while makeing their brothers bear. It was great, and they all had a new bear to share the moment.