A GREAT book to introduce siblings/pregnancy to other children

[BrightSparkles]

It's called
Theres a House inside my Mummy. Written by Giles Andrae and Vanessa Cabban.

It talks about the house she has inside her tummy thats helping the new baby to grow and all the things the baby is doing.
DD is 20months and she LOVES it..it's a kids picture book. The last page is about how the new baby has come to meet it's new family and now the house in mummy's tummy is empty until she grows another baby.

It's cute, but beautiful and really helps the older kids to understand. DD points to the mummys tummy in the book then to my tummy and says bubba

[Miss.September]

That's awesome! It's a fantastic book - I worked in a specialist children's bookshop and we'd recommend it all the time. The other good one was Daddy's Having A Horse by Lisa Shanahan and Emma Quay and it looks at Dad's involvement too.

Corelly x

[*Beema*]

Oh Brilliant!! I am definitely going to go and hunt that one down, I have been thinking we need to find a book to introduce DD to bubba.

Thanks for posting this thread!! xxoo

[Sequoia]

We've got it too, DS loves it and I love to hear DH read it to him.

[BrightSparkles]

Just bumping this thread because everytime i read it to DD lately it reminds me how good is. I think I know each page word for word now the amount of time we've read it since we got it.

[Shanti]

oh thanks for the recommendation!! Might have to get that one!

[LimeSlice]

now the house in mummy's tummy is empty until she grows another baby.

Wow... That has just made me incredibly sad!

This is our last...

And the house in my tummy is going to be empty forever...How incredibly sad.
I can just imagine my ovaries covered with white sheets and dust accumulating on everything, a boarded up uterus, graffiti on my cervix...

[meow]

This is our last...

And the house in my tummy is going to be empty forever...How incredibly sad.

This is our last too and I find that part of the book a bit odd as I don't want my son thinking we'll just keep having more babies. I think leaving out any reference to more babieswould have been better.

Unfortunately my son doesn't really enjoy this book so it doesn't get much airtime in our house. He likes "Hello Baby" by Jenni Overend better but I makeup our own simplified story as it's a bit verbose for his age. The pictures are great though and we smile and get excited together when the baby is born

[onthefly]

How does it explain the baby's arrival? Does it talk about birth or does baby just arrive?

[BrightSparkles]

How does it explain the baby's arrival? Does it talk about birth or does baby just arrive?

In this one this one the baby just comes....quote from book " I just can't wait to meet him, I hope that his alright. My Daddy says be patient as his door is rather tight. Look what Mummy made for us, my lovely little brother. There's no one in her tummy now until she makes another."

I found this book useful in the lead up to the baby arriving and why mummies tummy got bigger. I thought at the time Miss J was too little to understand the birth process. She used to touch my tummy and say bubba etc.

This is our last too and I find that part of the book a bit odd as I don't want my son thinking we'll just keep having more babies. I think leaving out any reference to more babieswould have been better.

I just make stuff up now like Mummy's tummy house is broken or old now so it won't be able to have any more babies grow. Miss J goes "oh no - broken" LOL (yes I know, little white lie, we'll explain it when shes older)

Wow... That has just made me incredibly sad!

This is our last...

And the house in my tummy is going to be empty forever...How incredibly sad.
I can just imagine my ovaries covered with white sheets and dust accumulating on everything, a boarded up uterus, graffiti on my cervix...

I feel the same. I still look at Miss S and feel a little sad that we'll be having no more.

[M22]

It is a great book- depends on childs age as well Mr was only 18months we miss arrived.. so just used pictures really. We never really had any probs with him adjusting to her- he was full of love. The only thing i really focused on was getting them to nap at the same time!!

[meow]

How does it explain the baby's arrival? Does it talk about birth or does baby just arrive?

If you're looking for a book that explains the birth then "Hello Baby" is excellent. I bought:
"There's a House in Mummy's Tummy" to explain pregnancy
"Hello Baby" for the birth and
"The New Baby at Your House" and "My New Baby" for the new baby part.

[jackrose]

I am a big fan of books to introduce the idea of new concepts for children and we loved "Hello Baby" as we prepared for the birth of DD2. I don't know you book Sunshine but it sounds lovely.

BTW, is there a good book on birth & the new baby? I think DS is ok with the pregnancy idea, but might be nice to talk more bout what's coming next

I found that most books about dealing with a new baby focus on the jealousy issue. Not a bad thing mind you, but if there is no jealousy you need a few different options.

I bought:
"Peter's Chair" - written by the author of "whistle for willie" Ezra Jack Keats (does anyone else remember this gorgeous picture book??) Peter gets a bit jealous when all of his baby furniture is painted pink for the new baby.
"Za Za's Baby brother" - Lovely bright picture book by Lucy Cousins of the Maisy fame. Simple and sweet, good for little ones. Confusion for Za Za about not getting any attention are resolved with cuddles when the baby is asleep. Za Za also realises that his baby brother can be fun to play with. This one came with a DVD animation of the story too. Bonus!
"My new baby" - One of the Jeannette Rowe series. Really simple bright picture book with flaps to lift simply listing things about babies. Good for younger children.
"Too small for honey cake" - Gill Lobel and Sebastien Braun. A little fox gets a little angry/jealous of all of the attention the new baby gets. I liked that this book resolved the jealousy issue and resolved it with a practical mummy still loves you angle. It is a little complex, but it is amazing how much little ones take in. It does help open up discussion if a sibling is getting all those big scary angry emotions and is having trouble processing them. DD1 at 2.5 made no comment when we read it to her but a week later, came up with amazing insight after DH and I had a little argument. I said to DD afterwards, "sorry, honey. I was just really angry with your dad but I do love him and I do love you." She replied matter of factly, "just like the fox in the story."
"I'm a big sister" - One of the Joanna Cole series. This was a wonderfully simple one with no focus on the emotions such as jealousy. This one mentions the "I'm special because I am a big sister" and takes the I can do things the baby can not because I am big angle.

The only issue I have with most of these books is that the images of feeding the baby are usually bottle feeding. This doesn't make much sense to DD as she has only ever seen breast feeding.
I did find a $3.00 book at Dimmys/Forges "My new baby" by Annie Kubler. No words, just images of life with a baby and mum is breastfeeding in two images. Not bad!