Advice needed for 22 month old toddler (BOY)

[momos26]

I have a 22 month old and in two weeks I am due to have a baby girl!! My husband and I both work full time and we are taking off a week of work when she is born but we don't know whether to keep our little boy home as well from daycare??

Were worried if we don't, he will be jealous which isn't the start we want for him. But on the other hand he is settled at day care so we don't like breaking his routine......

He understands that I work from home, so I think it might upset him that the baby is at home with me whilst he hasn't to go to school?? Also he knows my husband goes to work early in the morning and if he is home when my little boy goes to school he puts on tantrums because he wants to stay with us for the day.

Any advice in this area would be great. THANKS

[Arimeh]

I'm not sure if this helps, but we are planning on keeping DS in day care for one day, and then one day with MIL and one day with my mum - just like he does at the moment so it keeps him in the same routine, so he sees that having a baby doesn't really change his life too much!!!!!! Thats the plan anyway... plus, it will give me one on one time with the new bub.. Good luck!!!!!

[DoubleK]

could you perhaps take him for a couple of hours a day? so that he can also spend time at home with the new baby? or let him have a day off? im not really sure, as Krystal doesnt go to daycare!

good luck with the new arrival!!

[Snoopea]

When I had my son my daughter was 2.5 years old, she was attending daycare during the week. We kept her home for the first week with us, she was devistated and kept getting her day care bag out. The second week we placed her back into daycare and her mood improved. The last thing she was worried about was her baby brother, she wanted to be off with her daycare friends.
Every child is different, but if i was to do it again, I would still send her to daycare. She just didn't cope with the change of routine was upset all the time and didn't enjoy being home with us. You could always send him into daycare and pick him up if any problems arise. I found that most children are more upset by a change of routine than a new addition. Hope this helps.

Snoopea

[momos26]

thank you all for your comments - i know he absolutely loves his day care friends so I think i will keep him in his usually routine and maybe pick him up a little earlier so he then still gets some time at home with us.



You all had wonderful advice and I will take all of it on board.

M

[~Trish~]

I recommend keeping his routine too. Although our 3yo DS wasn't in daycare, he found it very overwhelming to have his daddy home as well as having a new baby in the house. Having DH home was actually disruptive to him because DH didn't follow our normal routine and there were lots of tanties going on. When DH went back to work I found our DS calmed down too. I guess children find security in routine so it is probably best not to throw too many changes at them at once IYKWIM.

Best of luck with your new baby!

[Lulu]

Yeah don't worry about DS - it's DH you have to worry about! I am one of several friends begging for their husbands to go back to work...

[Mollygirl]

I agree with keeping him in daycare. My son was 2.5years old when my daughter was born and we kept taking him to daycare, two days a week.

He didn't like it if DH was home from work but didn't seem to notice that I was at home.

I am going back to work when DD is 9mths old and I think it will disrupt him less when I go back to work because things won't change for him again.

All you can do is see how it goes and take it from there.

Personally, I cherish those two days with DD, because she gets one on one time, which she will never have again when I go back to work and he had 6mth fulltime of it.

Goodluck!

[momos26]

I was surprised to see the comments about DH being more painful than DS.

I must be really lucky, because DH and myself keep the exact same routine all the time. We all about working together not against.

It was orginally my DH consideration as to whether or not we sent DS to daycare or keep him at home...... It really was an after thought for me.

I must be really lucky because I couldn't survive some days without him and with my pregnancy insanity he seems to cope really well.

[~Trish~]

Ooh, let me just say I don't think my DH is more painful! He was a wonderful help when DS2 was born and he took care of DS1 the whole time. It was just that DS1 wasn't used to having his daddy at home (that in itself was a change of routine) and DH didn't handle him the same way as I would have because he doesn't normally spend all day every day with him. Just wanted to say I wasn't having a dig at my DH in the slightest! I don't know what I'd do without him