Does anyone know of any good books to help prepare children for the arrival of a sibling? My son is 3 and will be almost 4 by the time his baby brother or sister arrives.
He knows there is a baby in mommy's belly but I was wondering what else we can be doing? The baby will not have its own room as we live in a 2 bedroom, so it's not like he can see us prepping the baby room. Just wondering if you had any suggestions for books or anything else I should be doing.
Thanks!
I have a few of them (my son was 2.8 when my daughter was born). My favorite is called The New Baby by Mercer Mayer. They talk about cute things like the baby pulling on the big brother's nose and my daughter did that with my son so he thought it was very cute!
Congrats!
I Love You the Purplest is nice. It's about a mom with two sons. She tells them she loves one of them the reddest and one of them the bluest (together the purplest). It's a beautifully illustrated book, and shows how children can have different personalities, but we love them so much anyway.
We loved Tiger and the New Baby
http://www.amazon.com/Tiger-New-Baby-Vivian-French/dp/075...
It was a nice way to explain the "boring" phase where the baby just lies there and the extra attention everyone heaps on the baby.
We sold my son on "his baby" for months before she arrived. Ask family members to acknowledge your son first and ask him about his baby when they call or visit. The worked really well for us and for the first year my son was so proud to show off his baby! After that, she started walking and stealing his toys so sibling rivalry really kicked in :)
Congratulations on the new family member!
We like "Meet Zorro" which is about an older dog whose owner brings home a new dog and they learn to put up with each other. Also the best thing we did was at the hospital when my 3 year old got there, we had the nurse take the baby out of the room so we could spend a moment together first. My son noticed that my belly was "empty" and he got so excited, then the nurse brought the baby in, and he was all smiles.
I have two. I'm a Big Brother Now and my personal favorite Send Harry to the Moon. Both are cute. Big Brother Now explains how life is going to change for the new brother to be. Send Harry to the Moon explains how little siblings can be a pain but that they are siblings and loved just like the oldest one and that they are an important part of the family too.
We had the same thing. My son was born in April and my other son turned 4 in June. We didn't have a book, but we just kept telling him that a baby was coming. They are also sharing a room, we got him a big boy bed (he was in the crib converted to a toddler bed before) about a month before the baby was born so that he didn't think the baby was taking his bed, and started moving things around so he understood.
Whatever we did seems to have worked well as he has never really been jealous of the baby.
We also loved "I'm a Big Brother Now!" I got it for my 1st son when I was pg with BB#2.
Show him ultrasounds
Go online and show him pictures of the baby's in utero development
Each week show him, "this is what our baby looks like right now" type thing
You can get some awesome pictures from some of those pregnancy/parenting message boards
We have an iPad an there is a really nice app on it from "Pampers" that shows great week by week pictures
I'm A Big Brother Now! is awesome. it totally helped my son get ready for his little sister.
***side note*** at the hospital, we did exchange presents from brother to new baby sister and vice versa. he gave her a stuffed pig and she gave him a thomas train. i also taped his school picture in her hospital bassinet. he was very happy to see it there, and we said she would look at it when he wasn't there. so sweet!
I loved the Berenstein Bears' story "The Berenstein Bears' New Baby".
I read it to my son when he was 2 1/2 and we were awaiting the arrival of his little sister. Loved it.
