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Welcoming a New Baby

July 31, 2018

Expanding your family is a crazy yet wonderful time. Luckily, there are picture books for almost every situation that can help ease the transition for your little ones.

We are adding a new baby to the family this fall and have been exploring tons of picture books with my daughter to help prepare her for the transition. The library has so many options to choose from and the Main Library downtown even puts them all in one place for you. Here are some of my favorites!
 

This simple board book is great for introducing little ones to the idea that they will be a big sibling. It shows some ways they can interact with the baby and has a great positive tone throughout. Also check out I am a Big Brother!

In this story, a girl asks her mother many questions about her growing belly and all the changes that will come when her new sister arrives. The illustrations are beautiful and it is a sweet story about their growing family.

To be honest, this book made me cry. BUT it also shows the importance of the firstborn and may help an older sibling understand that they will always have a special place in your heart, even when a new baby arrives.

Those last few weeks of pregnancy can be rough as everyone waits and waits, even soon-to-be siblings. Each day, Max tries another way to get the baby to come out and the light-hearted tone might make the waiting a little bit more tolerable for you as well!

Ballard focuses on a young girl who spends summers with her father and stepmother. When the stepmother becomes pregant, the girl has lots of questions about how things will change during her next visit.

There are several great books about adoption out there but I love the way this one approaches it from the sibling's point of view. Universal themes are mixed in with culturally specific details as a little boy tells us about his new sister coming home from India.

If you are trying to find a way to answer the where do babies come from question, I really like this book. A little girl goes around all day asking different people where her new sibling is coming from and gets a different answer each time. At the end, she gets a simple, yet factual explanation from her parents that works well for younger audiences.

Sometimes, our fur babies are the ones getting new human siblings. In this book, Bobo the dog's parents bring home a baby and he has to learn how to interact with the new addition.

 

These are just a few of the many books available about new babies. Check with your local librarian for other recommendations on this topic or any other transitions that your family may be going through!

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Amber

Amber loves learning more about her city and the world through books and stories. She currently works with Bringing Books to Life! where she gets to share stories with boys and girls throughout Nashville.