Encouraging Siblings To Bond With A New Baby

Thankfully we have never experienced sibling jealously in our house. When a new baby is born all the children are just ecstatic to welcome their brother or sister. I will admit our oldest son had to work through a little disappointment that this latest baby was a girl again, but he is just as loving and excited as the others now.

I’ve pondered why we don’t experience sibling jealousy and I feel a big reason is how we approach the coming of the baby during the whole 9 months. Instead of talking on how the baby is going to take so much time, or mama won’t be available for the children as much, we focus on all the positives. Outings we will do with the baby, how the children will get to hold and help care for the new baby.

We give realistic expectations on what each child will be able to do with the baby based on their age. Some of our children were hoping they could walk around with the baby at church, like they see their friends do with their young siblings. We talked through who was mature enough to do that and who still needed to grow a bit before that would be allowed. 🙂

Once a new baby comes we have to walk a fine line of letting our children hold and love the new baby and helping them understand that a new baby frequently needs it’s mama, especially if you are a breastfeeding mom trying to establish a good milk supply.

When you have a larger family it can get overwhelming with multiple children clamoring to hold the baby. It’s ok to set a timer for a few minutes per child, or simply pick 1-2 children to hold the baby at a time.

We encourage the children to sing and talk to our new little one, and they love being the one chosen to go get her up out of bed.

Something new that we have for our latest addition is a Boppy® Newborn Lounger! I really didn’t expect the newborn lounger to be helpful in this way, but it’s been great to put Sophia in the lounger and let the children all coo and talk to her as she sits on the living room floor. She is safe and secure, and everyone can see her. I just love it.

The Boppy® Newborn Lounger is very comfortable for the baby and has soft, wipeable fabric. Plus it comes in super cute prints! I like the convenient carrying handle that is on the pillow as it makes it easy for my children to go grab it and take it wherever it needs to go.

Sophia is snug and secure in this pillow as it has a unique recessed area in the pillow that fits a new baby perfectly. This pillow is good for babies up to 16 pounds, and is supposed to be for awake time only, let your baby sleep in other places besides this pillow!

Another plus about this pillow is it works great for taking baby photos at home! I draped a white blanket over it and snapped some super cute pictures of Sophia in the Boppy® Newborn Lounger.

You can watch a video about the Newborn Lounger here. The Boppy® Newborn Lounger can be purchased at Boppy, Babies ‘R’ Us, and Target.

You can follow Boppy on their social media platforms here: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube.

I’d love to hear if you have any special traditions of welcoming a new baby in your house! I know some families do special gifts for the new baby and the siblings, others bake birthday cakes…do you do something special?

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Boppy via Burst Media. The opinions and text are all mine.