As my due date gets closer, I'm becoming more anxious by the minute about how my skids will react to the new baby. So far they've seemed excited and haven't expressed any negative feelings about it, but I can't help but shake the feeling that this could change once she arrives. SD8 can be quite jealous and possessive of having "her time" with me and DH, but she's the least of my worries at this point (I feel like we'll be able to work out a balance fairly easy, she's a great kid overall).

What's really bugging me is SS6. About a year ago we got a kitten. We were all excited and loved having him, but about a week in we started to notice the kitten was getting small injuries here and there. We didn't think much of it at first, chalking it up to him exploring his new home and bumping into things here and there, but then we started to notice a pattern. When the skids would come over, the kitten would hide in our room and we wouldn't see him for the rest of the weekend until they left. And then we caught on.

One afternoon when SS thought DH and I were both in the shower, I walked out of the bathroom and caught him in the dining room holding the kitten down by his neck He was obviously in distress, meowing and trying to squirm away...but SS had a good grip on him. I ran over and snatched up the cat and told SS he wasn't allowed to touch him at all until further notice. DH dealt with disciplining him because honestly I couldn't stand to look at the kid after seeing him hurting a small animal like that. I never did see exactly what happened, but the kitten's eye got all red and bloody and he could barely open it for a week. We ended up giving the kitten to my parents because we were afraid of what else SS would to him.

Fast forward to today, my due date is less than 2 months away and I'm starting to panic that the same urges that caused SS to hurt the kitten will apply to the new baby as well. I've heard all the horror stories about serial killers starting out hurting small animals, and while I'm not thinking the issue goes THAT deep (by no means am I calling a 6 year old a serial killer!), it still scares me to think about him doing anything to hurt his little sister.

So my question is....Is this fear completely irrational? I haven't spoken to anyone about this, not even DH (I don't want to accuse his kid of doing something to our daughter before she is even born, but I can't get it out of my head) so I have no other perspective. I know it's natural for me to have over-protective feelings about this child, especially since she's my first bio, but is it possible that there are some deeper issues that caused SS to hurt the kitten, that could cause him to do the same to his new sibling? Anyone dealt with anything similar?