Parenting Packs: New Baby in the House

For an overview of the Book Bundles and Parenting Packs early literacy kits, please visit the original post. The cost listed is the list price of each item, regardless of whether or not we got it on sale/discount. The activity sheets and resource guide amount was calculated by cost of binder clip + lamination sheets.

Itemized List

• Carrying Tote ($15.99) — The Container Store
• I’m a Big Brother by Joanna Cole ($6.99) — Baker & Taylor
• I’m a Big Sister by Joanna Cole ($6.99) — Baker & Taylor
• Peaceful Parent, Happy Siblings by Dr. Laura Markham ($15.95) — Baker & Taylor
• There’s Going to be a Baby by John Burningham ($7.99) — Baker & Taylor
• We Have a Baby by Cathryn Falwell ($6.95) — Baker & Taylor
• Baby Bear Set (Bear with t-shirts; diapers; bottles — all pieces sold separately) ($28.97) — Amazon
• Mesh Bag ($3.99) — The Container Store
• Activity Sheets & Resource Guide ($3.00) — created in-house

Total: $96.82

For the kids books: I’m a Big Brother and I’m a Big Sister, There’s Going to be a Baby, and We Have a Baby. I wanted to provide a range of times that this Pack could be checked out: before baby or right after baby arrives and chose titles that reflected both time periods. I also included suggestions on the Resources Guide for specific titles (big brother welcomes little brother, big brother welcomes little sister, big sister welcomes little sister, big sister welcome little brother, and older sibling welcomes twins) to reflect different situations.

For the caregivers book: I chose Peaceful Parent, Happy Siblings because it includes a very helpful chapter on how to handle the transition between single child and multiple children. It also provides a variety of tips on parenting multiple children and is a popular series at our library.

I created the baby bear set by purchasing two sets each of the “I’m a Big Brother” and “I’m a Big Sister” bears. I have two bears in reserve in case one of them needs to be replaced I also purchased baby bottles and LaLaLoopsy magic diapers (yes, seriously) to make this set. Kids can practice on their own animals as caregiver is changing the real baby or as caregiver is preparing the child for the baby to arrive.

It’s the end of May and the New Baby in the House Parenting Packs have gone out 4 times each since launching at the end of November! I’m very happy with my decision to create two of these Packs however because they’ve often been out at the same exact time.