Sometimes, the only thing more stress-inducing than having a child, is bringing that child home to meet your other child. Ahhh, siblings. There have been chapters of parenting books dedicated to their first meeting, aisles of toy stores specifically geared towards “older children gifts,” to prepare them for a new lifetime spent splitting their parents’ attention. But with these new sibs comes a new level of love…. and craziness - from two bedtimes to two bathtimes to two different Nanits saving the day as usual.
Here, Nanit’s senior director of brand, Melanie Bond shares with us all the details from her first night back from the hospital with her new son Beau, and how she and her husband carefully introduced him to two-year-old daughter Louie. The result? Lots of love, excitement and a new lifetime of built-in besties.
On Coming home from the hospital:
“We were able to time our coming home from the hospital during my older daughter’s nap which was ideal. We had two hours to settle in before she woke up.”
On the moment her children met for the first time:
“Our children did not meet in the hospital because we wanted to keep our older daughter on a routine. Everyone is different, but here’s how we introduced them: we put our newborn son in his crib in his nursery (and felt so comfortable doing so since I had my Nanit set up and ready to go) and my husband and I both greeted our daughter as she woke up from her nap in her room. We hadn’t seen her for a few days so we were so excited to see her! We spent some time with her as she woke up and got her excited to meet her brother.
We asked her if she wanted to see a surprise in the nursery and she was thrilled. We had put some balloons in the nursery (her favorite) and walked in together with her where she spotted her brother asleep. We then asked if she wanted to hold him and took her downstairs with the baby together. It was a really happy moment for all of us and I wouldn’t change a thing! We also had her new brother gift her a few toys - that was helpful but certainly not necessary.”
On the first night at home as a family of four:
“Our first night time routine was all about learning. We had it down to a science before welcoming baby brother home, so it’ll take some time to figure out our new routine. We kept my daughter;s routine mostly untouched, which is easy for now since our son is so young he doesn’t have much of a routine just yet. We still did bath time with our daughter, and I held our newborn in the bathroom so we could all be together
When we went into our daughter’s room after bath time for her bedtime routine, we asked her if she wanted to read the baby a book! She was excited. I fed our son and my daughter had her cup of milk as we winded down for her to go to sleep.”
On how Melanie’s using Nanit for her older child:
“We have been using the Nanit Sound + Light and always play the lullaby during wind down and then switch to brown noise right as we put her in the crib. We leave a very soft red light on as her night light. On that first night, she was happy to go to bed at her normal time of 7:15 pm! She gladly waved bye bye and said night as we left the room.
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On how Nanit works for her newborn:
“We’ve also been using the Nanit Sound + Light with him - the red light is perfect for middle of the night changes and feeds. It’s soft enough to not wake up a sleeping partner (if you’re splitting shifts!) - and it’s also soothing to a little baby.”
On the added comfort of Nanit’s audio functionality:
“I started using the audio monitoring functionality when my son is in his bassinet during the day when I leave the room. It’s nice to know I’ll hear if he starts crying - added peace of mind even if I’m only running downstairs for a few mins.”
On the beauty of Nanit’s split screen:
“Gone are the days of constantly switching between cameras or monitoring apps. With Split Screen, I can view live feeds from my two Nanit Pro Cameras simultaneously from my iPhone. Being able to monitor both kids at once is a total gamechanger.”
