Give voice to your love and read to the bump! Your baby can hear you by the third trimester, and there is no better way to bond than through your unique voice and its loving vibes.
Tag: book baby shower
Watch! Children’s librarian reads to her bump!
Emily LaPierre, children’s librarian on the island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, shows how much fun it can be to read aloud to your baby in utero!
A little over a year ago, we met with this dynamic and enthusiastic young woman who launched the Belly Babies Storytime program at her library when she learned she was pregnant herself and realized that expectant mothers, who can feel isolated on an island, needed a regular way to connect. We were bowled over by her dedication to both community building and the power of prenatal literacy. Read more here.
That beautiful baby, Aurora, is now 10 months old! Here’s how Emily recently responded to watching this video:
I teared up at this amazing video because it took me back to this time, that felt simple compared to now. Remembering how Aurora was moving around in my belly while I was reading this story, brings a smile to my face! Now, as she was moving around and leaning on my lap, with the same mirroring smile I had, she watched and listened to the video of me reading the story. Almost as if she remembered that moment! We read the story often, as repetition is key for babies to learn language, and she indeed LOVES it!
We’re so grateful to Emily and others like her who are making such great contributions to the cause of family bonding through preliteracy. If you haven’t yet tried reading to your baby in utero, please give this sweet and snuggly practice a try!
Ah, that new-book smell!
When Susan’s youngest son was around three years old, he made a pronouncement that is beautiful music to any teacher or mother’s ears. He had been sitting among a pile of his favorite titles, Polar Bear, Polar Bear by Eric Carle, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff, Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel, and the classic Pat the Bunny. Engulfed by books, with his favorite, an oversized Richard Scarry book called Busy, Busy Town open on his little lap, he announced “I love books!” Then, holding the book close up to his face, he added rapturously, “They smell so gooood.”
Although this same little fellow had been known to chew and lick books during his toddler years, we should not dismiss the message in his innocent wisdom. For children, reading is without a doubt a multisensory experience.
In this age of digital books and e-readers one can’t help but wonder, will the children of the future ever know that wonderful smell of a new book, the sturdy feel of a hardcover novel, or the soft sound of turning pages? Will the clichés “that was a real page turner” or “he always has his nose in a book” become obsolete? And what will become of the scratchy Daddy’s beard and soft bunny fur of Pat the Bunny? It’s just not the same, is it? The image of Susan’s young son smelling a Kindle comes to mind. Hmmm.
Think of the books you loved when you were a child. Do you remember reading One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish over and over, always finding something new in each whimsical Dr. Seuss illustration? And what about Robert McCloskey’s Make Way for Ducklings, with its full-spread illustrations, artistically placed text, and adorable ducklings marching across each page?
Every children’s picture book has its own unique design and reflects the thoughtfulness and inspiration of its author and illustrator. We are left wondering what the result will be when these well-loved titles are transferred to a digital format. Will the tangible, tactile, and multisensory qualities get lost in translation?
Chris Van Allsburg, author and illustrator of many favorite children’s books, including The Polar Express, said “on a digital platform they all get ground into the same thing.” He is referring to the uniformity of text and illustration on an e-reader, which imposes a standard font and page size. The thought of each picture book illustration being the same shape and size, shrunk or stretched to fit a standard screen, is a little unsettling for any children’s book enthusiast, or for anyone who treasures the idiosyncrasies each author and illustrator bring to a story.
Now, I’m sure you’ll agree that all reading is good reading, and that there may be times when an e-reader is appropriate for children. When traveling, for example, it might not be practical for a family to bring a child’s collection of favorite books. An e-reader would make it convenient to continue an established reading routine even on vacation. The future of digital reading in classrooms is also an exciting possibility; volumes of books could be made available to children who might not otherwise have the opportunity to read them. And if you’re reading to your baby in the womb, she won’t know the difference! From inside the womb, an e-book sounds just like the traditional one. Uploading a fun selection of rhyming and rhythmic stories to share with your expected child would be quick and easy, and if this is what you need to get started, then go right ahead.
But once the baby is born, and she’s snuggled on your lap to hear that familiar story, your Kindle or Nook is just going to look like a rectangular hunk of plastic. Of course, the familiar story read by your unique voice will calm and sooth your baby, and that’s always a good thing. However, by sharing a real book with your newborn, a book with turning pages and bright illustrations, you will get both her auditory and her visual attention. You’ll also be setting her up with those prereading skills that we mentioned in earlier blogs, such as holding a book right-side-up and reading from left to right, to name a few.
Again, all reading is good reading. But if you want the very best reading experience for your baby in the womb or your newborn, there’s no substitute for a real, touchable, hearable, smellable book. It’s the total sensory experience that just might lead your child to joyfully exclaim someday, “I love books!”
Watch! Read to your baby before birth and after!
Can’t Wait to Show You: A Celebration for Mothers-to-Be
Reading to your baby in utero is a beautiful way to bond, relax, dream, and share the magic of storytime! By the third trimester, babies’ ears are fully developed and they are able to discern and remember their mother’s voice (and father’s, too) and recognize rhythms and speech patterns — then respond to the familiar story after birth! While you read the sweet verses and page through the gorgeous illustrations, not only will you be practicing the new skill of reading aloud, but you’ll be basking in feel-good hormones from bonding with your baby-to-be.
The book-themed baby shower: A true celebration for mothers-to-be
You just heard the wonderful news: someone you love is having a baby and it’s time to celebrate! What better way to show your excitement about the anticipated arrival than to throw a baby shower? Women have gathered to honor and support expectant mothers since Biblical times (think The Red Tent). But our current-day baby showers more closely resemble those that began in the Victorian period, when tea parties were held by female family members after the baby was born (because discussing a pregnancy publicly was taboo at the time).
How times have changed! These days guests at a baby shower are often clued in to the gender and even the name of the expected little one. Another trend is the Baby Sprinkle, a toned-down shower held for second-time moms. There are now showers for expectant Grandmas and—if you think you’ve heard it all—the Daddy Shower is gaining in popularity. Yes, it’s a gathering for the expectant father and his male friends only, an idea that would have had those Victorian ladies squirming in their corsets!
Celebrating the pending arrival of a child comes in many interesting and surprising forms, but the heart of the matter remains a strong desire to support the new family as they embark on their journey into parenthood. Experienced mothers will use the baby shower as an opportunity to share advice about pregnancy and newborns. The gifts they give reflect their wisdom about what a new mother and baby 
need at the beginning of their lives together. In the times of The Red Tent, the traditional gift to a pregnant woman or new mother might be a figure of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of love and fertility (often given in secret, since idolatry was considered a grave sin at the time). Today, it’s soft onesies, musical mobiles, and glow-in-the-dark pacifiers, and although these 
offerings could not be more different, they all reflect the desire to give the new mother something she values, something that will support her as she eases into her new role.
As essential and thoughtful as these gifts are, each has a particular period of usefulness. They’ll be valued and enjoyed but very quickly outgrown and put aside. What then can you give the expectant mother that will truly express the love and support you feel and will have a timeless effect? Well, step into the children’s section of your favorite bookstore and your search will soon be over. Not only will you be giving a beautiful gift, but you’ll also inspire the new family to embrace storytime, that snuggly sacred ritual that will be treasured throughout the child’s life. By giving books you are sharing something so important, so enduring that it could quite possibly have an impact on generations to come.
Do you know what a woman does right after she finds out she’s pregnant (well, perhaps after screaming)? She reads! Pregnant women absorb information like sponges when it comes to their new role as Mommy. What better way to fulfill that need than by giving a book as a gift topper at a baby shower? I loved reading the books experienced moms told me were must-haves. It helped me feel like I wasn’t in this alone, like there really was a village behind me. You could even do cute things around a book-themed baby shower that have been trending recently, like a stack-of-books cake, a themed menu (Dragons Love Tacos), and even a guest book signing by a beloved (local!) author.
—Kristin Quinn, Misadventures in Mommyhood blog
It seems as though this idea is catching on, bigtime. The brilliant new trend of book-themed baby showers is spreading around the globe as more and more people realize the power of giving the gift of storytime. Guests are asked to bring a book to the expectant mother, sometimes in lieu of a card, favorite babies’ books are used in table settings, and images of kids’ classics are used to decorate the room—and even the cupcakes! The goal is to stock the new family’s bookshelf with a variety of titles, gifts the child will love for his entire life. Unlike clothes and toys, the love of reading cannot be outgrown. As a matter of fact, it grows alongside the child, changing and adapting throughout his lifetime, bringing new gifts and surprises all along the way.
This wonderful Book Baby Shower trend might have come about as a result of all attention given recently to the importance of reading. From Reach Out and Read to Too Small to Fail to Reading Rockets and, of course, your local children’s librarian, the message is spreading: Read to your child, even for just 15 minutes a day. Supported by lots of research, these early-literacy advocates say that daily storytime exposes children to new vocabulary, develops reading and language skills, promotes brain growth, inspires empathy, and encourages family bonding. Now that’s a gift!
There’s yet another benefit of giving books to an expectant mother. Those adorable little baby socks can be admired, but they can’t actually be used until baby arrives. Books, on the other hand, are a gift the expectant mother can start sharing with her little one right away! There’s a heap of research supporting the incredible benefits of reading to babies in utero. (Please scroll down the sidebar for links to studies, articles, and videos.) It’s generally understood that babies hear their mother’s voice during the last trimester, and remember and are soothed by the familiar story after they’re born. Those final weeks before baby arrives are the perfect time for parents-to-be to practice reading aloud, getting used to reciting bouncy Dr. Seuss rhythms and putting some silly expression into a Sandra Boynton story. This is the time to make bedtime stories a nightly routine that they’ll look forward to as much as their baby will.
Beautiful books for babies are abundant, and here are some tips for choosing the perfect Book Baby Shower gift. All the research shows that babies, inside the belly and out, drool over words that are rhyming, rhythmic, and repetitive, and get all gaga if the words are spoken by their mother. So pick a lovely, colorful book with simple poetic text. For some beautiful baby book choices, please see our December 2014 post, The Perfect Gift for Your Expectant Loved One. And of course we have to put in a word for our own Can’t Wait to Show You, created specially for reading to babies before and after birth.
How about a fun little extra to use as a party favor? Here’s a “Books We Read to Baby” reading log for expectant parents that you can print on cardstock and include in your book-themed decorations or goody bags.
The Reading Womb 