If you have other children in your family when your twins are born, you have the extra challenge of preparing them for the new additions.

I’ve talked before about how to prepare your older children for twins. One key component of that is setting expectations of what life will be like with twins.

Words and discussions can only go so far in these preparations.

I was excited to get copies of some children’s books specifically written to help siblings prepare for twins.

The publisher of I’m Having Twins and My Twins are Coming Home sent me a copy of each of these books to review.

They are written from the perspective of the older sibling. In fact, these books are written by Paris Morris, who was the older sibling when her twin siblings arrived.

Although our twins are already a part of our family, I read these books with our kids and they liked them, the twins and their brothers alike. The approval meter merited many repeat readings.

Each book walks through what the older sibling is seeing, feeling, and thinking and how the twins fit in with her life.

I’m Having Twins explores a 3-year old girl’s adjustment to the reality that twins will be joining her family. View the twin pregnancy through her eyes and see how she comes to terms with the twins’ pending arrival.

My Twins are Coming Home focuses on Paris’ experience once her twin sisters were born: seeing them in the NICU, waiting for them to come home, dealing with their arrival, etc.

These books are short and fully illustrated and will fit nicely with your other children’s books. Check them out on amazon.com (see I’m Having Twins and My Twins are Coming Home) and use the “look inside” feature to see if you feel the illustrations and wording are a good match for your kids.

These two books are part of a series so if you like them, there are other books chronicling other milestones in a child’s journey with new twins in the family.

Preparing older children for your twins is vital to a smooth transition to an instantly bigger family. Try one of these books by Paris Morris and your kids will have a better picture of what to expect.

Every dad of twins will struggle with raising their children. Fortunately, you don’t have to learn everything from scratch.

Here are four books that have made life with our twins significantly easier than it would have been otherwise:

Good Night Sleep Tight

We had our twins sleeping through the night by the time they were two months old. We’ve been very successful at getting our all our kids to bed around 7:00 and having them sleep until 6:00 the next morning. My wife and I love having our evenings free and owe it all to Kim West’s The Sleep Lady’s Good Night, Sleep Tight: Gentle Proven Solutions to Help Your Child Sleep Well and Wake Up Happy.

Baby Whisperer

Your kids will come with different temperaments and you’ll wonder how to react to their behavior and needs. Tracey Hogg’s Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect, and Communicate with Your Baby was indispensible to helping us understand our kids and how to communicate with them even from the time they were newborns. My wife and I also resonated with the idea of learning to treat our babies with respect.

The Expectant Father

There are very few books written by dads for dads. Armin Brott’s The Expectant Father is the example to which all such books should be written. I read this book when we were expecting our first child and it has been invaluable to review and learn from with each of our children. Even though the book is geared for parents of singletons, the principles that apply to one can be applied to two.

Every dad should read The Expectant Father: Facts, Tips and Advice for Dads-to-Be during the pregnancy to better understand what is happening and what you’re about to experience.

My wife even liked it better than many of the pregnancy and child birth books she was recommended as a mom. (Hers didn’t have half the comic relief!)

Baby Signs

One of the most frustrating things about parenting is when you can’t understand what your kids want. Before they can speak, everything comes out as grunts, cries, or screams. What does it all mean?

Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk will open channels of communication with your kids before you even knew it was possible. The gibberish of screams and cries will be replaced with meaningful sign language that will help you understand what your children need and want in the moment.

This book helped us survive the gap between infants and speaking toddlers.

What books would you add to the list?