Children's Books to Help Prepare 3-Year-old for New Baby?

My girls have a book called 'Big sister, Little sister'... it's cute, but doesn't explain a lot, it just shows sister's bonding :)

I'd also let her help set up baby's room to help her get excited!! Make her a part of it... that's the best way to mentally prepare.

A girlfriend of mine, her daughter is also 3, and she got her a baby doll to take care of while mom takes care of the new baby. It's SO CUTE to see them side by side with their babies, changing them or feeding them :)

CONGRATS!!

I used 2 books from a series:

Waiting for Baby by Rachel Fuller
My New Baby by Rachel Fuller

The first deals with pregnancy -- great at this time because you are showing, helps explain what this is all about. The second is for after the baby is born.

I love these books. My son still reads the second one and my new one is 6 months old! I love them because they are easy to read -- and they open a lot of room for discussion and pointing to the pictures and stuff.

I also happen to like them because in one, the child is of mixed race, and in the other, the mother is breastfeeding (I am African-American and am breastfeeding) -- every mom is different but for me I thought that was a nice way to demonstrate to my kids the normalcy of breastfeeding, and I thought it nice to finally have a book like this with characters that are not white for a change.

With my son, we used a book called "I'm a Big Brother Now" (they have a sister version of it. It goes through all the things a baby can't do, and what they can do to help out with the new baby, and how they have to be careful. We also checked out some from the library -- I read through them first to make sure they were giving the message I wanted to send to my then 2.5 year old. I will say, that if you foster love between your children it will not quell sibling rivarly, but it will make it a bit more friendly.
Congrats to you!!

Julius Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes
The big sister doesn't like the first baby at first, but comes around in the end. It also covers how the baby is different than what she expected.

The New Baby by Mercer Mayer is simple and perfect.

There is a Dora one too that my daughter loved. I went to barnes and noble, there is a whole section of them many more than my library had. There is even one made by the "what to expect when you're..." people that shows some wonderful pictures of what is happening inside mommy. My girls are 25 months apart so I didn't read that one to the oldest we would just look at the pictures and talk about it.

Ditto on the baby doll thing. My little one had tons of dolls, but this summer on our first family trip we went to the cabbage patch hosptial and my 2 1/2 year old got a baby doll, she is constantly with this doll it's now our third kid. But DD1 loves to take care of her baby when I am taking care of DD2 all they way down to sitting on the couch with a pillow and lifting her shirt to "feed" her baby. It is the cutest thing I have ever seen. I would maybe have one with you in the hospital to give her. DD1 has also "given birth" with this baby more than once (sticks it up her dress talks about a baby in her belly and when it falls out of her dress it is born) kids are so perceptive and just adorable! I love the things she comes up with! With your daughter being a little older I imagine you are in for some big laughs to come!

Congrats! Aren't little girls just the best? :)

I got my daughter two books: "The new Baby" and "I'm a Big Sister". Not sure about the authors but I searched and found them for very cheap on amazon.

My son was 2 when we had our daughter, and we used "I'm a big brother", and then also got him a present to open when we brought her home. He opened the gift and knew it was from the baby... kind of eased the strangeness for him. He did real well b/c he could play by himself well.
Now we are having #3, and we'll do the gift thing again, but we also got our daughter things specific to a baby so she can 'mimic' me throughout the day. She has a baby doll but isn't real interested in it, so we got her a miniature set of stuff from Target to use with her baby doll (has a packnplay, carseat, bouncey, highchair, etc) and hopefully she can do things with her doll while I have to do things with the baby.... we'll see how that goes! I can let you know if you want to send me a personal message-- I'm due in 3 weeks but will probably be induced earlier. Good luck!!!

My kids are 4 years apart.
My eldest, my daughter, was 3 when I was pregnant with her brother.
For me I didn't use books.
I simply talked with her and spent my entire pregnancy, on prepping HER.
I explained to her, in simple terms, what a baby is, what it does, that it cries and wakes at all hours, that Mommy breastfeeds him, that Mommy will take care of him and wake up so she doesn't have to "worry"... and that HER routines will not change.
Also, every month, I took photos of her WITH my growing belly. She loved that.
She also talked to my belly (her brother) and sang to it.
I also took her to ALL of my prenatal appointments (which my OB/GYN encouraged) and he even taught her how to use the Doppler heart monitor on my tummy. She loved that.
I spent all of my pregnancy, prepping her. It was not just about "me."
It was about her.
And when her baby brother was born... she was all adjusted. She adjusted like a Champ. And she was ALREADY bonded with him... because she had bonded with him even while he was in my tummy.

I ALSO explained to her, that once she has a sibling, that her things are HERS. I will not expect or 'force' her to 'share' EVERYTHING. Its okay. But I always told her to tell me anything about how she feels. I am there for her. I also told her, I will NOT make her an 'example' for her baby brother, nor expect her to be all grown-up... just because she is the eldest. That I KNOW she is a child herself.

We also made, special hand-shakes and head nods, between us. So that... when I am busy with her baby brother or breastfeeding, she CAN do that with me and feel special. Even if we are across the room from each other.

ALL of these things, helped my daughter adjust.
It reassured her.
And she KNEW... that it was okay to just be herself. Even if going through her own, age-related phases.

I suggest you check out the books available at the library. Our library has a section titled Parenting which has many such books.

There is a Joanna Cole book - I think "I am a Big Sister" (also one for boys "I am a Big Brother") that is great. My son loved reading big brother one with me before my daughter was born. Really sweet books. I totally recommend.