When Juan was expecting Daniel, I got her two books from Child’s Play to prepare Samuel for his little brother’s arrival. So when it was my turn to prepare Anya for her little brother, I also used the books, ‘Waiting for Baby’ and ‘My New Baby’, to talk to Anya about what was happening and what was going to happen.

Both books have only pictures and no words so they allow the parent to explain the pictures according to the circumstances and with appropriate terms that are familiar to the child. ‘Waiting for Baby’ shows mummy gaining weight, going for ultrasound scans, the parents buying things for the nursery, the child going to stay with the grandparents when it was time for mummy to go to the hospital and the child visiting the mummy and new sibling in the hospital, etc. ‘My New Baby’ shows life after the baby arrives with mummy feeding the baby, daddy changing diapers, baby crying loudly, baby sleeping, etc.

I feel that the books have been really useful in showing Anya what to expect when mummy is pregnant and when a new baby comes along. She enjoys looking through the books and when I need her to understand that we need time with Adam, I just have to say something like, “Remember? Like in the picture in the book?”

I bought the books from Books Depository (my absolute favourite place to buy books these days) and they are also available from Amazon.