Words of Wisdom for #2 - Playa del Rey,CA

Save as long as you can for a child. When kids become pre teens they want their own clothes though. I was child number six so I wore hand me downs forever. I have heard the space saver bags are great.

the Miracle Blanket saved us from utter exhaustion. my daughter LOVED it.

I have two girls ages 5 & 8. I save ALL my older daughter's clothes. My 5 year old loves it when she fits into her sister's "big girl clothes." I get the long, slender storage bins and sort the clothes in increments of 6 months. This really helps. I keep one in my older daughter's room and stick clothes into it when she outgrows them. Then the bin gets moved to my younger daughter's room and I get to "go shopping" for her every 6 months. Works great!

The only words of wisdom I can offer is to involve your older daughter in the pregnancy as much as possible so that she feels like she has "ownership" in the baby. My daughter came to every dr. appt. and my OB let her work the heartbeat microphone, etc. We even consulted her on a name for the baby. (didn't go with her choice of "fur" though!) I didn't have one moment of rivalry after bringing home #2. In fact, my older daughter used to tell me that it was HER baby and that I was the big sister!

Best of luck to you and your precious little girls - they are the best!!

Hi K.,
I love Kidopotamaus swaddlers. They are great and can be purchased @ Babies R Us for $10!

You may not want to save everything. But save staples - like jeans; save expensive items - like holiday dresses; save like new items.

My seven year old gets new clothes, but she is also wearing hand me downs from her older sister and her two older cousins. She loves them!

I say save and reuse until she objects!

Congrats...I've actually found that having two makes some things SOOO much easier and the sibling thing is so much fun to watch!

As for clothes, I have two boys. Right now, my youngest is 15 months and the clothes from his brother still work pretty well. However, I'm thinking that in about another six months, the pants and shorts will still work, but the shirts will stop being good hand me downs. Reason being...my son played more on the playground, painted more, colored more, ate more on his own (and not with a bib)and consequently his shirts are not so stain free anymore! I plan to use what still looks good, but I know shirt-wise, my options will be slim.

Hope that helps!

-M

my fav. blankets for swadeling are the waffle texture ones.

For hand me down clothes. I kept almost everything from #1 for #2. (also 2 girls). my problem was that nothing was weather appropriate. They were born almost 6 months to the day apart (seperate years of course.) now that my little one is finally 2 she can wear stuff. naturally i do not have a lot of clothes size 3 or 4 b/c at that age it is all worn out. So I would say around then. Of course if it is still in great condition there is always play n paint clothes.

I found that any clothes with lots of elastic - especially swimsuits - didn't survive the two years of storage, so if you want to pare things down, I'd start with stretchy stuff.

The most important thing I wish I'd known before the arrival of number 2: When you stop the car, get the baby out first! Otherwise you might be in a position of having to leave a baby strapped in a car seat while you chase big sister. A mistake I made ONCE.

Most of the clothes will be worn and outgrown in the first 18 months of life. After that, as you know, the growing slows down and they start to "wear things out!" At least this was the case for my active girls. If you are done having kids, find a friend who is having a baby 6 months after you and just give her a load of clothes every 3 months that yours have outgrown. My kids are 3 years apart, and now they are one size apart (size 6 and 8) so the outgrown clothes from my first go directly into my second one's closet without any storage time at all. My little one is 5 now, and she has not really complained about wearing her sister's clothes yet. Also, once they start school, mine are wearing uniforms, so that cuts down on the volume of clothes that they need, too. Congratulations on your growing family!

keep saving hand me downs-my son is 6 and the clothes are all new to him!

my fav swaddling blankets came from the gap. they were a thin flannel and bigger than everything else.

my advice is to give lots off attn to #1. #2 wont know the difference.

K., I am the mom of two girls that are 3 years apart. I saved the hand me downs always. As they get older (mine are now 11 and 8) there isn't as many hand me downs because they wear the clothes out before moving to the next size. For my younger one, I did get some new outfits for special times but most of the time she had hand me downs and is still getting them. That will soon end as my older one is staying the same size longer and not out growing things. I see nothing wrong with hand me downs and it this day of going green it is a good way of recycling.

I used the velcro swaddlers from Babies r Us. They hold down the baby's arms and stay put. I used them on my son until he was about 3 months old.

The clothes....I got hand-me-downs for my son from my 2 nephews. I had tons of stuff! I actually didn't even really buy much new stuff that first year because of this. But recently, I've gone through all of the hand-me downs & did a clean-up. I gave to the thrift store things I wasn't really attached to and saved (in case of another boy or baby) anything that still looked nice (no stains)or some of the more name brand clothes.

I ended up getting the Miracle Blanket because it came so highly recommended from a number of my friends. All of them said that it was the only swaddler that their child was not able to get out of.
It can be purchased on Amazon and I also believe it is available on BabiesR'Us.com

My favorite swaddling blankets are the thermal "waffle-weave" knit blankets. They stretch well and you can swaddle super tight, which both of my babies loved until at least 6-9 months. Now they both use them as snuggling blankets and they are their absolute favorite "comfort" items (so we keep lots of them on hand so we always have some clean ones!). As for hand-me-downs, my boys are only 4-1/2 and 3-1/2 so it hasn't been an issue (yet?). My younger son recently noticed that I was putting a shirt on him that he remembered was his brother's. It was a memorable shirt so he protested that he couldn't wear brother's clothes, but I told him it was his now and that was the end of it. I have 2 older sisters and I remember that I always hated that I never had new clothes, but I'm sure those memories are from when I was a little older. I think it is all about what you can afford. In my family growing up, we could not afford to buy me new clothes, so that was it. I can't afford to buy my 2nd son a whole new wardrobe if he protests someday, but I try to buy something new just for him when I can afford it, and that is just how it will have to be. There won't be so many clothes to store as they get older because they grow much more slowly and wear the clothes longer, but I would say to save them as long as you can!

The only other thing I can think of as far as general words of advice, is regarding the rooming situation. I don't know if you plan to have them share, but I highly recommend it. My boys are only 15 months apart and I plan to keep them in the same room until they are close to teen years (at least I think so at this point). I separate them for naptime, but they have slept in the same room at night since the younger was sleeping through the night (about 5 months). We have always had the rule that they must stay in their beds (except to go to the bathroom) until we come to get them up in the morning, so there is always a bit of time that they are awake and alone together in the room. They talk and sing and tell stories (and frequently make mischief) but it is the cutest thing and I think they have such a special friendship because of that time alone together before they go to sleep and after they wake up. No adults there to supervise (except within the parameters that we have set and trained them to) but they have that time all to themselves and it is so adorable - the things that they will come up with. We still keep a monitor in the room and sometimes at night, after we have put them to bed, we will listen just for fun. Our boys really adore each other and are both extremely protective and affectionate with one another. Sure, they "fight" and have their moments, but the prevailing theme is friendship.

Congratulations and I wish you all the best!

For swaddling blankets, the Miracle Blanket was the best for us. We had the swaddlers with velcro, but our son got out of those really quick. For the Miracle blanket we used it until he was just over 5 months old. I let my SIL use it for second child and she wished she had it for her first child.