If you are a regular reader you will know that I am expecting our second little BookBairn next month and BookBairn is going to be a big si...

Snuggle the Baby

Tuesday, March 07, 2017 BookBairn 14 Comments

If you are a regular reader you will know that I am expecting our second little BookBairn next month and BookBairn is going to be a big sister! She is obviously quite little herself, she will only be two on her birthday on Friday, and doesn't really understand what it means to have a new baby in the house. Having said that I think Daddy and I will still find it a huge shock to the system to have a newborn to love and look after again! So I have been trying to read stories with new babies in them to prepare all of us for the exciting and exhausting times ahead. I have a huge bundle although I haven't been pushing her to read them yet. But for the first time one has really appealed to BookBairn and we've read it several times since we got it at the weekend.

'Snuggle the Baby' by Sara Gillingham is truly a perfect book for little ones to introduce the idea of looking after a newborn. Completely interactive, the readers have to help play with and look after the baby in the story. Firstly, it says "babies love to play" and you have to tickle the baby's tummy, which BookBairn just loves doing. She even makes a little giggle noise for the baby when she tickles his tummy (I say his but the baby in the story is gender neutral so would be perfect for parents expecting a girl, or if you have chosen not to find out the gender - but since we know we are having a boy, we say he).

The next page shows babies playing and you have to move the baby's arms up to make him stretch. One of BookBairn's favourite parts of the book is to take the board bottle out of the page and feed the baby it's milk. For mothers planning to breastfeed, this is mentioned in the text but obviously would be hard to make interactive so a pretend bottle is the interactive part here. Then you have to help change the baby's nappy and swaddle a page-size cut-out baby. You can lift the baby out and tuck it under a blanket on the final page and sing a lullaby to help them fall asleep (if only it was that easy!).

The predominant colours in the book area bright peachy-orange and a pastel turquoise making the illustrations quite striking on the eye! Though the main and interactive baby in the book is white with dark hair (as BookBairn's brother is likely to be) the other babies in the illustrations are of a variety of ethnicites and colourings which make it appealing to all families.

As I mentioned, I have tried to read some of the other 'new baby' books with BookBairn but this one is the very first that has really appealed to her. She brings it over to Daddy and I to read with her and we are going to put it on her Favourites Shelf for her to enjoy at bed and nap times too. Hopefully, it will also help the other new baby books that we have become more appealing to her too!

I would love to hear any recommendations that you have for the big sister to-be and hopefully we will feature some other books that we have found useful as we read them (you can find them here once we add a few more)! Also please look out for a new series of guest posts that we will be sharing starting in April that will have guest bloggers and bookish friends sharing their favourite books for our new baby (if you would be interested in taking part, feel free to email me using the contact page).

Happy snuggling!
Mummy, BookBairn and the ever-growing BookBump! xx






14 comments:

  1. This looks a really great book and will be right up BookBairn's street with the interactive bits - she just loves that. Look forward to reading it with her.

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    1. Hope you enjoyed reading it yesterday amongst all the other stories she insisted upon!

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  2. This looks like a lovely book. It's so hard to introduce the concept of a new baby when they are so little themselves
    have you read 'there's a house inside my mummy'. It's a lovely book, and really helped Angus get used to the idea of a baby.

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    1. We do have that one but she's not been interested yet. Going to get them all out this weekend after her birthday and have them all over the house!

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  3. Look forward to reading these to get G'ma prepared for mini-person

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    1. I think we could all do with a little help preparing for the little whirlwind! So excited now!

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  4. This looks really cute and it's lovely for Book Bairn to have her own new 'book baby' to play with while you're taking care of your new arrival :o)

    #ReadWithMe

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    1. Hopefully it will keep her busy for more than five minutes! x

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  5. This is just so cute, what a fab book. Thanks for sharing with #ReadWIthMe

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    1. Thank you! I couldn't resist buying this one because it was so cute!

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  6. What a gorgeous book! It looks like Bookbairn is going to enjoy being a big sister. We like Pirate Pete I'm a New Big Brother (there is a Princess Polly Big Sister one too) as well as talking about looking after the new baby it focused on the big brother and making special time for him with mum and dad. It also has a sound button that makes a laughing noise so it was a lot of fun! #readwithme

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    1. I saw Pirate Pete in the bookshop this week but they didn't have the big sister one so didn't pick it up! I thought it looked fab - though I'm not the biggest fan of books that gender stereotype like this x

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  7. this looks like such a great book! #readwithme

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