When did your older LO 'get' your pregnancy?

[macmars45]

I don't have an older kiddo. However, I teach preschool so I got to tell 38 (19 in an AM and a PM class) 3-5 year olds I was pregnant. When I told them (at 19 weeks) they were all pretty meh about it, but as I've gotten bigger they've been talking about it a lot more. The phase where they all thought they had babies in their tummies was my favorite so far. Now their eyes get huge when I say my belly will get bigger before baby's ready to come out. It's a new laugh everyday.

They don't really get what's going to happen after I have baby though... (that I'm not coming back to finish the school year with them).

[Cicero]

M would pat my super pregnant belly and say baby at 24/25 months but he was also patting my no longer pregnant belly saying baby at 27/28 months so I'm not sure he did actually get it.

[cricketwife]

I'm 23 weeks and we haven't told DS yet. I just felt like 9 months in the life of a 2 yr old was for.ev.er, so we decided to wait. We will probably tell him early June, at which point I'll be about 32 weeks. He will be nearly 2.5. I think he will get it because several of his daycare friends just had/are having siblings in the next month or two.

[brady2012]

DD got it about a month before DS was born. So around 21 months. It was only when we moved the crib into DS's room and gave her a bed that she really got there was a real baby in my tummy. She started moving some of her baby toys into his room voluntarily which was so cute.

[winecheery]

Well, I found out I was pg just before DD was 24 months. She seemed to at least appreciate that I had morning sickness and fatigue, and "there was a tiny baby growing in mamas belly." She'd often ask if I needed a blanket or say things about "mama being pregnant" and that she wanted to take care of me and the baby. Not sure she really got anything at that point other than that things were changing.

As we've gone on though, well, I believe she actually gets it. This is going to make me sound all twy sentwa, but she's a very sensitive, perceptive child, and we have very good communication. She is very verbal and seems to understand quite a lot for her age. I suspect she really has some sense of what is happening.

We talk about it a ton, and she knows I will go to a hospital and the baby will be pushed out, and mommy's body will go back to how it was before, after it heals, and her brother will come home to stay.

Just yesterday we discussed that he's in a balloon of sorts in there, and she was asking if the balloon needed to pop for him to come out. She also put it together that if he's eating inside there, then he must be pooping too, and she asked me "how I was going to clean the poop off the inside of my belly?!" (she was mortified he was pooping in there lol) We talk about what newborns can do (sleep, cry, eat, poop) and we discuss breastfeeding a lot too, since I weaned her at 6-7 months and she has no memory of it. I didn't want her to be surprised or confused. She told me that "my baby brother will come out of your belly, and chomp on your nipples mommy" yup, pretty much, kid, lol

She knows that daddy put the baby in there...because she asked that too. She does not and will not get any further specifics on that one for a while!

She has two books we love to read:
-Little Miss, Big Sis, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal: Perfect for us because it's about a girl becoming a big sister to a little brother, and we already had the companion book "Plant a Kiss" so the character was familiar
-Waiting by Kevin Henkes: Simple, beautiful, and subtle. About the concept of waiting for all kinds of things, and then at the end there's this sweet little moment that touches on waiting for something you can't see/articulate. DD got it right away, her comment was, "oh she's waiting for her babies!!!" when we got to the point in the story that is symbolic of that. I cried lol

She has felt his kicks all along, and talked to him. Actually, the baby moves whenever she talks, typically. Yesterday she was talking to my bump, helping me try to bribe him out of there with the promise of soft blankies. She tells him he's going to sit in the car seat next to her. She helped me pack his diaper bag, and chose which of her old toys to give him.

I am full on rambling here, so I'll shut up! But I think that she gets it better than most kids her age might. And she has been so sweet about the entire process. I just hope she likes him when he's actually OUT, and here to stay!!!

[winecheery]

HOLY CRAP my post was long...sorry!