by Brandi Riley posted in Pregnancy

My daughter Ayva has been an only child for 7 years and 11 months. During that time, she has been doted on as the first grandchild and youngest family member, and has gotten used to most holiday events and gatherings revolving around her. I was an only child for nearly as long as Ayva, and I can still remember what it felt like to be the singular apple of everyone's eyes before my siblings started to arrive. It was great!
When I found out I was pregnant nine months ago, I was obviously excited. The emotion I didn't expect was anxiousness about how a new baby would affect my old baby. My parents didn't do a great job when I was a kid getting me used to my role as a big sister, and there were lots of times growing up when I felt forgotten about and left out. I definitely don't want that for my daughter. Since the beginning of my pregnancy, my husband and I have been being intentional about including our daughter in baby preparations. Not only has she been a helper, but there have been a couple of projects where we asked her to take the lead. When I asked her to organize the baby's library, she read and made a list of every single book in order to know what he had on his shelf to avoid duplicates. Giving her important baby prep tasks where she is in charge helps her to know that we take her position as big sister seriously, and that she is an integral part of our family.
Besides getting her to help clean and organize, there are a lot of ...