Ideas 4 telling 3 YO she will be a big sister?

[tmarie]

I want to make this as special for her as possible. Hoping she'll be as excited as we are! :)

[SnuggleBuggles]

Congratulations!! I'm sure someone will have a good idea. I only can share how we told other people. I had ds hold a sign that said he was going to be a big brother, took a picture and mailed to everyone with instructions not to open it till a certain day (Mother's Day to be exact which was that week). They loved it. :)

Beth

[s_gosney]

We just told our dd (4 y/o) a couple of weeks ago that she was going to be a big sis. We went out to eat and at the end of dinner we gave her a card saying "congrats you're going to be a big sister" and talked some about how we can't wait to see the fun and love they share or something. We also gave her this book: http://tinyurl.com/yotxz3 which is *perfect* because it's so sweet and it's simple enough that she could read it to the baby herself after I went through it once with her. She reads it to my belly at least once daily now. :) I wanted to give her a big sister tshirt as the gift but couldn't find one at the last minute, but I'm so happy with the book we wound up with anyway. Also, after dinner we took her to build a bear and let her build a bear for the baby. She loved that as well.

HTH!

Sherri

[tmarie]

Thank you for the great ideas! I love that book...I'll have to order it. DD loves books so it will be a great way to teach her about being a big sis! :)

[sarahsthreads]

LOL. When we told DD it was shortly before Christmas, and she goes to a Catholic preschool so she was completely obsessed with the whole nativity story. I asked her if she knew what it meant to be a big sister and she had no clue. So I told her that when the summer came again a new little baby would be coming to live with us. And she gasped and said, "is it going to be baby Jesus?!?" Umm....no. ;)

But we got her a t-shirt from etsy.com that said "I'm going to be a big sister" and made it her responsibility to tell people (i.e. over the phone or by wearing her shirt). She was thrilled - even if her Nana misinterpreted "I'm going to be a big sister!" as "I'm going to be an assistant!" and then "I'm going to be a big kitten!" She still asks to wear the shirt often.

The other thing we got for her (more recently) was "Baby on the Way" by Dr. Sears. I really like how it discusses morning sickness and other aspects of pregnancy - I think DD has started showing a lot more understanding and empathy when I'm just not feeling up to doing something with or for her since we got that book.

Anyway, congrats!
Sarah :)

[CiderLogan]

I think a gift of some sort - one of the many books about becoming a big sibling and/or an "I'm Going to Be a Big Sister" shirt - would be fun. Wrap it up and make it festive! My DD was just 2 and still managed to get SO, SO excited about having a baby sister - I can only imagine how much fun it would be with a 3yo.

Congratulations!

[spanannie]

My DD is 3.5, and we recently told her that I am expecting. She did not care a bit, actually, and I don't think it would matter how I presented it to her. I think she doesn't truly understand or isn't able to wrap her brain around what is going to happen.

Now, my 5.5 year old was a different story. He was thrilled! I showed him the ultrasound picture and asked him if he knew what it was. He said "that was me as a baby."
I said "No."
He said "It's Grace as a baby."
Again, I said "No." Then I told him that it is our new baby . . . the baby in mama's tummy. He was so excited.

Congratulations!