Customer Reviews

The New Baby (First Experiences Series)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased this book when I was expecting my second child and was very pleased with it. It shows a family preparing for a new baby, the arrival of the baby, as well as what takes place when there is a new baby in the house. This book gave my toddler a good idea of what to expect and gave me a jumping off point for discussing what would happen when I left for the hospital, when she would get to come see me & the baby, etc. I was also very glad to see a book that (tastefully) showed a mother nursing her newborn instead of giving it a bottle, as most "new baby" books do. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has a young child and is expecting a baby.

The book is well written for younger children and very nicely illustrated. However, much of the book didn't apply to our family. The Bunn Family has two small children. Granny & Grandpa come to visit and stay to care for the two children while Mom is in the hospital. Mom paints the crib (while Dad sits in the rocking chair and drinks a cup of coffee -- very bad message here, although to be fair Dad does give the baby her bath). After Mom has the baby, she's in a room with two other mothers. Our toddler likes the book, but since it doesn't parallel our situation very well, it spends a lot of time on the shelf.

I really like this book only a few comment's about it. I would have liked for mum and dad to have to ring grandad and grandma or the neighbours in the middle of the night when baby arrives as in most set ups where a new sibling is due to arrive there is not "in house" baby sitting service available, and this is a point that is very important to get across. The book is great it makes a lovely read and has some great drawings that you can spend a lot of time talking about and I loved the fact that mummy is breastfeeding baby rather than bottle feeding. I would reccommend it to anyone with a young toddler and expecting again..

My son loves to read this book again and again. My family has home births, so the book isn't very close to our own experiences, but the book works great as a starting point for further discussions. I like the fact that the book presents a realistic view of what it's like to have a baby in the house. I was four when my own sister was born, and I expected her to come home from the hospital and be ready to play games with me. If I'd had this book I'd have known better what to expect. In this book, when Mom and the new baby come home from the hospital, they are tired and need the help of the other family members.

The book does a very good job of telling a child what to expect, in terms easy for a child to grasp, such as "Mom wakes up in the middle of the night. She feels the baby will be born soon."

I very much like the fact that the book shows the baby breastfeeding.

But the very best thing about this book is that my son loves it. He asks us to read it to him again and again.

We just started to read this book (and a few others on this subject) and our 23 mth old loves it. She wants to read this one and a few other baby related books a few times each day. I like the nursing pictures.

When we were preparing for our second child, this was one of the dozen or so books we used to help prepare our first child to an addition in the family.

While many of the books we used dealt with the relationship between the older child and the new baby, this one deals mostly with what goes on at home in preparation for having the baby, the arrival, and some of the work of taking care of the baby.

My daughter enjoyed the book quite a bit. While the dynamics of the events may not exactly match your own, it still works well as you can discuss what differences there are/might be. For instance, in the book the grandparents watch the kids while the parents are off to the hospital while we had our daughter sleep over at a friends house the night of the event.

Each page or two has a title that points out some aspect like Preparing The Baby's Room. There is then a brief description of how the Buns handle it. As a nice addition to the book, there is a game included where the reader can try to find the little rubber duck that is hiding on each page spread.

This is a good book for preparing a child for a new sibling, but like all of the others, it should not be your only resource. Get several or more on the topic.