Book recommendations - second baby

[HJBeans]

Not sure if this is the best place for this, but wondering if anyone has any recommendations for books to prepare my 2.4yo DS for the arrival of his brother in a few months' time. A story covering things like newborn sleeping and eating and other changes in the house. The ones I've seen are all board books for quite young kids, but my son's firmly into longer stories now (ie Gruffalo, Highway Rat, etc) so I'm not sure he'd really engage with these.

Also any books for me on strategies to cope with two that are worth reading?

Thanks in advance.

[mollsmills]

How about this one? www.amazon.co.uk/Im-New-Big-Brother-Princess/dp/1409313743?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[IAmAPaleontologist]

Little rabbits new baby is a nice one. Little rabbit is all excited but then the babies need to sleep, he gets told off for waking them up, they can't play with him and he gets palmed off onto his gran. But then he realises that there are lots of things he can do for the babies and he can be a big brother to them and he learns how to play with them and they adore their big brother.

As for learning to deal with 2, you just muddle through and learn to juggle.

[HJBeans]

Many thanks for your suggestions. The pirate one in our local shop had an irritating button that made a baby crying noise, so that was straight out. Little Rabbit sounds great, but is out of print in the UK. Got a second hand one coming, though.

And we've had a good read of Topsy & Tim: The New Baby so have made a good start. A bit too uniformly positive for my taste though since newborns are such hard work. Looking forward to reading about Rabbit's exile to grandmas!

[waxweasel]

We have the topsy and tim one, as well as I'm a big sister by Joanna Cole (her favourite - there's a big brother version too), and an usborne one called 'the new baby'. We have a couple of other even simpler ones but my 2.5 year old is bored by them. Those ones are pretty short and simple but she tends to just sit and have a chat with me about each of the pages, like 'oh look, the big sister is holding the baby while mummy does the washing, I can hold my baby sister to help mummy too' etc etc.
The usborne one is good as it reinforces how tired mummy will be and how much help she'll need!

[TheBestChocolateIsFree]

Angel Mae by Shirley Hughes is lovely.

On no account go near Three Socks One Shoe and No Hairbrush! Its title suggests a lighthearted and helpful approach to moving from one to two but the author had a horrific emotional struggle (she didn't manage to leave the house with both children for six months post natally) and reading it before you give birth will only worry and upset you. (If you are unlucky enough to have a dreadful experience feel free to read it then because it may be useful to feel that someone else understands.)

[HJBeans]

Consider the usborne "mummy is tired" one ordered - thanks for the tip.

And double thanks for the warning on the book that would scare me further. :-)

[hawaiibaby]

Thanks from me too as have just stumbled across this and have been wondering exactly the same. Also about my 2 yo who is also mega interested in stories. I am simply loving the sound of the 'mummy is tired' one

[ChicaMomma]

We are reading this one to my son to be big brother DS at the moment- he's 18 mths- we all love it!! it's so sweet

www.amazon.co.uk/Theres-House-Inside-My-Mummy/dp/1408315882?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[HJBeans]

Would need to trim out the last page of House Inside My Mymmy as my DP is really looking forward to getting the snip when this one arrives!

DS is loving both Topsy & Tim and Little Rabbit. The latter really worth tracking down as we're having lots of good talk about how Little Rabbit feels and what babies do and what life is like around a tiny baby. It's really useful.

[HJBeans]

Did spent a little while reassuring him there weren't three babies inside me, but well worth it for him to hear the line "Mama and Papa look so tired" night after night!