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Announcing a New Baby

Adding to your family is such an exciting time! Telling your older child(ren) about the new expected arrival can be more fun with a little planning and a few small gifts!

When we told my son that he was going to be a big brother, he was 13 months old! I didn’t think he understood much, but we got him a special big brother t-shirt and did a lot of talking about the new baby! My favorite resources were the Daniel Tiger New Baby books (The Baby is Here and Big Brother Daniel) and episodes (On Amazon these are in season 5, the first 4 episodes are GREAT for talking about the new baby. My favorite is The Baby is Here, it’s like a musical 🙂 Unfortunately they are no longer free, but you can try looking up the titles on YouTube!)

We are currently expecting our third baby, and my sons are 2 and 4. I bought my 4 year old the book pictured at the top of this post, 9 Months, because I thought he would be interested in more details about the process and what was happening. I was right, and he loves the book! I used the hand-me-down big brother shirt from before for my two year old, and got my 4 year old a new brother t-shirt as well! We also made a “Party of Five” letter board with the ultrasound picture, and they loved calling family members to show it to them and surprise them with the news! My friend made the announcement bags, which were so cute, and we bought blue balloons to tell everyone that we were having another boy!

Here are a few more ideas I think are great when it comes to fostering a positive sibling relationship:

• Baby Doll: We bought my son a baby doll to play with, and both of them have used it and love it. It’s nice to see them pretend to take care of the baby, and gives us a way to talk about the daily tasks that will be associated with the new baby (feeding, diapering, soothing crying, putting down for nap, etc…) I LOVE the Corolle doll we have (girl version here). It’s a pricier baby doll, but worth it in my opinion — it smells so nice and is just a really nice doll!
• T-Shirts: I love Children’s Place for t-shirts because they always have free shipping, the shirts are usually under $5, and they usually have some kind of big brother shirt (though not always!) I also have found some at Amazon and Target! The second time around I found a great one from H&M (which I got on their Free Shipping Day — follow Naptime Deals for updates on these exclusive sale days!!!) These sets from Etsy are really cute for when the baby comes!! See my kids wearing them and get more gift ideas here!
• Books
  • 9 Months (best for ages 4 and up)
  • Daniel Tiger: The Baby is Here and Big Brother Daniel (great for ages 2-4)
  • Hello in There! (great for a big sister — ALL the books in this series from Jo Witek are EXCELLENT!)
  • Big Brother or Big Sister (I have the Caroline Jayne Church one but I’m sure the Joanna Cole one is great too!!)
  • What Brothers Do Best (I still love reading this one to my boys!)
  • My New Baby — great for explaining what the day to day will be like!
• Gift from sibling when he/she arrives — I saw this idea floating around the internet and I got my son a special Daniel Tiger book from his new baby brother. When he came to see us at the hospital, I gave it to him and we read it together. It was really special, and I will find a book to do the same with for the next birth.