Preparing Older Sibling for New Baby: Scripts, Hospital Plan and a Keepsake Letter. For the Bigger One
Twenty-four pages for the family adding a second. Big-sibling welcome scripts, the regression expectations page, a "what to do during feeds" list, a first-week-with-two playbook, grandparent scripts so the older one is not eclipsed at the doorway, and a small page just for the older one.
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Look inside
Pages from the file you'll download, not a mock-up.
Adding a second baby is not “double” the first. It is its own new event, where the experienced parent is also the new parent, because there has never been a version of this family before.
This pack is for the family in the in-between weeks. The third trimester, the hospital stay, the first six weeks home, the first three months. With a focus on the older sibling, who is doing more emotional work than anyone is acknowledging.
What’s inside
Twenty-four pages:
- Telling the older one. When, how, and (just as important) what NOT to say. The advice that says “the baby is your friend” sets up a difficult moment in week three when the baby cries non-stop.
- The hospital day plan. Who watches the older one. What they bring to the hospital. The first meeting. The gift-from-the-baby (yes or no, opinion-free).
- The first week home script library. “I’ll be with you in three minutes.” “I’m feeding the baby right now, and I’ll snuggle when I’m done.” “I know. This is so much.”
- The regression expectations page. What’s likely. Bedtime regression. Toilet regression. Baby talk. Wanting to be carried. None of these are problems. All of them are signaling.
- The “what to do during feeds” list. Twenty things the older one can do, alone, for twenty minutes, that you do not have to set up in the moment. (You set them up once, in week 35 of pregnancy, in a basket.)
- Grandparent scripts, two pages. So when grandparents arrive and rush to the baby, the older one does not have to learn that lesson.
- The night-shift plan. Who handles night wake-ups for the older one in the first six weeks (it should rarely be the birthing parent).
- A one-on-one time page. How to bank the small moments with just the older child. The bath. The grocery store trip. The bedtime story.
- A page for just the older one. Print it. Read it together. Or read it and don’t show it. Or wait until they’re older and show it then.
Who this is for
You, in the third trimester with a toddler at home, dreading the announcement-of-the-new-baby that you keep being told to make.
You, in week two with a newborn AND a four-year-old who has stopped being a four-year-old and is now a one-year-old again, briefly. This is normal.
You, with kids three years apart. Or five. Or eighteen months. The pack works across the range. The script density just shifts.
You, the grandparent or aunt who is trying to help and has not been in this house before. (Hand the older-one page to the new parent. Then ask them what they need.)
Format
Instant-download PDF, US Letter + A4. Personal use only.
From Soothemade Notes, a small apothecary of printables, planners, and cards for the unphotographed parts of new parenthood. Made slowly, in plain language.
