Sharing this book titles which helped me prepare my older children for the arrival of our new baby. Nicholas immediately accepted Jeff Junior while Antoinette had a hard time adjusting to the fact that she’s not the baby anymore. I just continued spending time with them and read these books several times a day before and after I gave birth. 

So there we were: 

• Woman about to use the toilet
• Toilet
• Pregnancy test kit
• Husband waiting outside of the toilet
• Daughter standing by as if she knows what was happening.
• Son sleeping soundly oblivious to what lies ahead

And then the result was revealed: two dark red lines and that was when I uttered the words: “I’m pregnant.” The husband hugged me and the daughter clapped her hands. My mind was swirling with thoughts of stretch marks, morning sickness and back pains. I looked at my sleeping son and in my mind, “How in the world would I prepare the twins for the arrival of their younger sibling?”

That revelation – that Jeff and I will be parents to another baby – happened 10 months ago. Since then, we’ve traveled to eight countries for both business and leisure. Right now, we are settled in the USA anf I’ve been spending sleepless night changing diapers and brestfeeding a seven-week-old baby named Jeffrey Peter Jr.

There was massive, back-to-back lineup of activities and mishaps leading to this day and they certainly pushed back plans of answering the question I asked myself on the night we learned I was pregnant again.

How in the world would I prepare the twins for the arrival of their younger siblings?

When things go haywire, I turn to food and…books. So  when we were finally settled in Kalispell, Montana with roof under our stubborn heads, I went on a mad dash to Amazon to look for board books talking about “big sisterhood” and “big brotherhood” which I can read to Nicholas and Antoinette in the hopes of getting their young minds wrapped around the idea that there will be a tiny creature to join us in our home and who will be calling them “big sister” and “big brother”. (I am already bent in teaching the new baby to call them Manoy Kulas and Manang Tonya to remain loyal to their Filipino roots).

The Checklist

I honestly didn’t want to buy any book that costs more than five dollars per piece and so I looked long and hard and read details about the books to make sure that they’re the right fit. I found the price range I was looking for and ordered the following board books:

• Waiting for Baby by Rachel Fuller ($2.99)
• My New Baby by Rachel Fuller ($2.89)
• I’m a Big Sister by Joanna Cole ($4.05)
• I’m a Big Brother by Joanna Cole ($4:05)

The books arrived within three days with Amazon Prime membership and the twins and I didn’t waste anytime “digging in” to these books.

With two-year-old twins in the house, it was a good idea to get board books and those with hard covers. Paperbacks survive in this house too but you never really know when cutie pies can turn into paper-tearing monsters wreaking havoc on the poor books. Our son, Nicholas, sleeps with either one of these books depending on his preference and thankfully, we haven’t had any incidents of torn pages the morning after. Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are and Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon were not as lucky – and poor me had to tape the pages back together.

The verdict

Fuller’s two books are heavy on illustrations and contain very minimal text. It’s a good material for children who are at least 18 months old as they can just flip through the pages and point at pictures of the little boy, the Mom, and the Dad.

In Waiting for Baby, the tenets of “waiting” are laid out: shopping for baby’s clothes, getting the nursery ready, seeing Mom having an ultrasound… It is, after all, a book on “waiting” so the foundations are established. The story ends with a frame of the Mom holding the new baby with the big brother watching over the baby. My New Baby is the sequeal to the waiting book and now talks about the different things that the baby can do. Questions are asked about what to discover about the baby the moment it comes home. The twins haven’t wrap their heads around this book and maybe that’s the reason why I haven’t seen this book anywhere in the house these days! I’m guessing it’s under the couch or the bed. I might just do a search and rescue operation of this book soon.

“I’m a Big Brother” and “I‘m a Big Sister” by Joanna Cole and illustrated by Rosalinda Kightley share the same text except for the changes in gender reference (brother and sister). I absolutely love these duo because I can always point at the pictures and tell my children that that’s him or her with the baby. Kudos needs to be extended to the illustrator, Rosalinda Kightley, for her fantastic handiwork in working on the books’ illustrations. My children absolutely love them and they can even the names of the fruits, vegetables, and things in the picture (e.g. apple, ice cream, balloon). To be gender specific, we bought both books because otherwise Nicholas won’t be able to relate to braids and dresses if we showed him “I’m a Big Sister”; the same thing goes with Antoinette.

Nicholas was the first one who got “it”. He points at my belly and says “baby”. He goes to the room, plays with the bassinet, and takes the Pooh security blanket I had prepared for the baby. And then, he goes to his Dad and tells him: “Baby.” He then returns Pooh inside the bassinet. It was not until the end of August that Antoinette started bringing to me the I’m a Big Sister book and literally demanded (Mommy, read this! NOW!) that I read the book to her. She has ignored this book for more than a month so to have her come up to me and demand that I read the book to her tells me something… 

Word usage in the four books are simple, clear, and direct. Fuller’s books ask a couple of questions, prompting conversations with the soon-to-be big brother/sister. Forming their vocabularies by repeating the words to them is a productive way to use these books. On the other hand, Cole’s books do not confuse young readers with complicated sentences. The way they’re said (or written) are in short sentences and can be repeated again and again (remember rhyme and repetition for each child) for familiarity and emphasis.

On the entirety, Fuller’s books – which is a four-book series – takes us into the colorful world of waiting for the baby, welcoming him/her to the family, and making sure that everyone is prepared for the arrival of a new baby.

As for the big brother-sister books, I just love how Cole emphasized in the books that the older sibling is special; that he/she can do something to help his/her parents take care of the baby; that the parents love him/her because he/she is special in his/her own very charming way. The books end with a “Note to Parents” which offers some suggestions on how parents can communicate with children on the things to expect when the baby comes home and the changes that comes along when another creature joins the gang.

While you still have time to prepare your children for the arrival of your next baby, be sure to checkout these four books. Put them down in your checklist of things to prepare as you welcome another addition to your beautiful family!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”