is adjusting, but how well? I don't know. I know it's early, the first full day home with the baby. I was worried that having a small baby would be so much more work, but my 20-month-old is making me work twice as hard today with just him. I feel like the babies have multiplied, not just doubled.

I so know what you mean...we had two babies last year, and they were (and still are) a piece of cake compared to the 2-year old....three under three...yowza! He's gotten better, though, really loves the babies. But he went back to the binky for a while, and now insists on sleeping with mommy, and is still not great on the potty. Jealousy is natural, but boy, can it be tough!

Yeah, he is having a serious melt down today. And the funny thing is he keeps mumbling something. (WE don't understand all of his words at all, yet) But I keep hearing the word, "Baby" in there. He sounds really frustrated. And guess what? That makes two of us...

suzy, you have a heart of gold and your big baby boy will be OK. did you have any special ritual with him before baby? like rocking him to sleep or reading him a story? if you did, try to keep them. i know it is going to be hard but i know you don't want to lose him in all the newness of the baby. if you didn't have a special time alone with him before baby, maybe you can set aside 15 minutes for mommy/big baby time. i realize 15 minutes is like 4 hours now but it could possibly make the difference.

how is big sister?

Big sister is ecstatic! She and my older son are just so excited and really want to show the baby off, although (as I explained to them) we won't be doing that for a while. As for my 20-month-old, I did have a ritual of reading with him, randomly through out the day since he is not in day care. So, I will take your advice and be very careful to do that with him

It's funny because I realized after I read your comment, that this was the first day I hadn't done that in a long time. So, I will make a mental note to do this with him each day and maybe that will make this transition a little easier for him. Thanks for the tip!

One thing we did for our two year old last year when the babies were born was to specifically and ahead of time ask grandparents, family, friends, etc. to make sure that when they came over to visit, or we went to visit them, that they spoke to and addressed big brother first...greeted him first, complimented him first, make a "big deal" out of him first, instead of just gravitating towards the newborn first and lavishing all the attention on the baby. Baby won't know the difference if he's addressed and fawned over first or last, but big brother will. He was used to getting all the attention first. So we asked people to first address him and then lead from there into, "oh, what's this, you have a new baby brother?" It seemed to help quite a bit.

That is such a great idea and something that people would not typically think to do. I am going to ask people to do that. Yesterday, we had a really bad day with the 20-month old. Today, I am going to try to include him in everything I do with the baby, if at all possible. That, and I am going to spend some alone time with him. Hopefully today will not be a repeat of yesterday. I do not think I am ready for that.

Let's just say that if you saw me on the forums, oh around 2 a.m., it wasn't because I have a newborn. Nope, it was because I have a 20-month-old who woke up every hour last night. I had to rub his back, give him a bottle (regression) and tuck him in more than 4 times. It was exhausting! Then, wouldn't you know...we ran out of milk! So, I made a run to Albertson's at 1 a.m. And all this for the toddler, not the new baby. This morning, he wanted to watch TV, laying in "his" bathtub that we just pulled out of the garage for the baby. Oh, this is going to be fun!

Oh, I'm so with ya, sistah, on that one. My 13-month-old and my 6 month-old...cake. Two lovable little pieces of cake....go down early, sleep 11 or 12 hours straight through the night. But the three year old...he treats the night-time wind down like he's on Red Bull and espresso at Disney World. And this started? You guessed it...right after his first little brother was born last year. I know he figures that since the babies sleep through the night, that's his only real alone time with Mommy and Daddy, but....heaven help us!

My little girl is almost 21 months and I know that she is very demanding. It is all about her and I could not imagine what she would do if I brought home a little one right now. My family knows that we live in her world. Good luck!

Yes, we live in his world too. And guess what? Now there is an intruder...hehe. He is not very happy about this as you can imagine.

i wonder if you could involve him in putting the baby down for some sleep right maybe 15 minutes before you want him to go down. then he might feel some ownership in being quiet so the baby can sleep.

my daughter was much older but she rocked him to sleep at night and then was very protective of noises or anything that might disturb him.

just another thought i had while i must have been having sympathy bouts of sleeplessness around 4am this morning!

It's definitely worth a shot. Anything to not repeat what happened last night. He seems to really like to help me with the baby...get the diapers and stuff. So, maybe I'll let him "think" he's helping me put the baby to sleep. I think that's a good idea. And then maybe he'll stay asleep tonight. I hope!!

Well, we did it. We had special time together and I let him think that he was being very helpful in getting the baby ready for bed. And guess what? He is sleeping like, well a baby...heh. Let's hope he will sleep through the night tonight. No more runs to Albertson's at 1 a.m.

so, how was the rest of the night?