little worried about all the changes in DD's life, maybe you can ease my mind

I am pregnant with m 2nd. Due in September. My DD is 4, she'll be turning 5 in August and will be starting kindergarten in September - new school, new kids, new teachers, new baby .
She has been the only child for almost 5 years , has been in the same school since she was 3. There is no way we can leave her in the same school, it's a private Catholic school and very $$$. We can't afford their kindergarten tuition. So that's out ...
I am so worried how all the changes will affect her .
I am just wondering if there are other parents here who were in the same boat and what your experience was like. Could you share?

Thank you

Message edited 3/12/2012 8:05:58 PM.

Re: little worried about all the changes in DD's life, maybe you can ease my mind

Re: little worried about all the changes in DD's life, maybe you can ease my mind

Kids are extremely flexible, adaptive, and resilient. DD will handle the changes much better than you will...
Yes, there will probably be an adjustment time, but there are 10s of millions of kids who had to go from a preschool to Kindergarten. There are millions of kids who were only children for years, then had a new sibling.
DD will adapt, and end up enjoying the new "big girl" school, and being a big sister.

Re: little worried about all the changes in DD's life, maybe you can ease my mind

My DD isn't going through school changes --- but I can relate to your worries because I am worried that she is going to have a hard time adapting to the new baby in the house. We've got a week to go...she's 6.5 years old and she has always been the center of our universe. She has flat out asked me..."Are we still going to love her when the baby is born? Are we still going to pay attention to her? Are we going to love the baby more then we love her?" I hate that she is wondering about those things.

And she has started to have some seperation anxiety -- she's having a hard time going to sleep at night, wants me to sleep with her which I have never, ever done. Last night she was up from 4am-5:30am saying she was "scared" and I think it is all related to baby anxiety.

I am just hoping that when the baby gets here she will realize that even though the baby needs my attention in a lot of ways, I still love her, more then ever. The way I feel --- we've had 6.5 years together, iwonder if I could ever love the new baby as much as I love her! I feel like we have such a close bond but I don't know if she will ever realize how strong it feels for me!

Re: little worried about all the changes in DD's life, maybe you can ease my mind

When I lost my job in Sept we pulled DD (4) out of daycare and put her in a PT preschool program. She had been at that daycare since she was 18 months. These were her friends. I felt so bad-I felt worse about pulling her out than I did about losing my job!

However, she did great. And that's the thing, kids almost always do better with this stuff then we think. Your DD will be fine.

I also had my 3rd DC a month after all this and she was awesome; my son too.

Re: little worried about all the changes in DD's life, maybe you can ease my mind

Posted by GoldenRod

Kids are extremely flexible, adaptive, and resilient. DD will handle the changes much better than you will...
Yes, there will probably be an adjustment time, but there are 10s of millions of kids who had to go from a preschool to Kindergarten. There are millions of kids who were only children for years, then had a new sibling.
DD will adapt, and end up enjoying the new "big girl" school, and being a big sister.

Re: little worried about all the changes in DD's life, maybe you can ease my mind

I am five years older than my brother...he was born at the end of August and I started school two weeks later after being home with my mother until that time.

Just speaking from my own experience and what my mother has said to me was that it worked out perfectly. I went to school, made friends, and sort of developed my own life and interests and didn't even really realize that there was a new baby taking up my mother's time.

I know I was little but I never remember being jealous but rather it was like having a new toy in the house and my mother said I adjusted fine...so I think everything will work out okay.

Re: little worried about all the changes in DD's life, maybe you can ease my mind

We are in the same boat! I already see changes in Michael, he is very clingy and wants to be babied so much.

Re: little worried about all the changes in DD's life, maybe you can ease my mind

Re: little worried about all the changes in DD's life, maybe you can ease my mind

Posted by GoldenRod

Kids are extremely flexible, adaptive, and resilient. DD will handle the changes much better than you will...
Yes, there will probably be an adjustment time, but there are 10s of millions of kids who had to go from a preschool to Kindergarten. There are millions of kids who were only children for years, then had a new sibling.
DD will adapt, and end up enjoying the new "big girl" school, and being a big sister.

Re: little worried about all the changes in DD's life, maybe you can ease my mind

Re: little worried about all the changes in DD's life, maybe you can ease my mind

I also think it depends on a child, my DD has a very outgoing personality, she isn't shy and makes friends easily, but she is also a very sensitive child and has a hard time adjusting to new things, it took her a while to get used to our new place when we first bought it, it took her a long time to get used to school when she first started preK and same thing with dance, when I went back to work and so on, so I think this is why I have this weird almost like a fear of what's going to happen and how she is going to adjust to so many changes. But as many of you have already stated I'm sure it'll be fine and maybe she'll surprise me ....

Thanks so much everyone !

Message edited 3/13/2012 1:32:54 PM.

Re: little worried about all the changes in DD's life, maybe you can ease my mind