by Laura Falin posted in Pregnancy

One of the things that surprised me most about my second pregnancy was how much I worried  my son would feel less loved. He'd gotten all the childhood attention so far, and I knew the changes coming were going to be big ones.
I didn't want him to ever think we loved him less just because our family was bigger. I tried to include him in a lot of the preparations for the new baby. He and I went to Build-A-Bear and made a bear for his little sister, which became a tradition before every new baby. All the older siblings would traipse in together, and we'd pick out a bear and all stuff it together.

But I knew the baby would be getting a lot of attention and new presents,  so when she was born we made sure we had a special toy for our son as well. We got him a Thomas the Train that he'd been wanting, and he was quite happy with it. Since then, I've seen some excellent gift ideas from other parents. BabyCenter blogger Kelly Wilbanks got her preschooler a camera for a sibling gift, and I love her story of the pictures her daughter took! She also gave one of her daughters a lifelike newborn doll so they could practice changing diapers and soothing "crying" babies at the same time as their mom.

There were some really sweet sibling present ideas in this  BabyCenter community thread:
One mom got this Super, Incredible Big Brother Personalized Name Book for her older son. Another got a book and lollipop for her older child so he coul...