A personalised book about a new baby in the family

When a baby comes home, the rhythm of the whole family changes. The nights get shorter, the visitors more frequent, and suddenly there is a tiny person everyone talks quietly around. A book about it can do one of two things. It can welcome the baby itself – a story about those first weeks, with the family's faces all around, to read aloud long before the words mean anything. Or it can be about an older child in the family, a sister, brother or cousin, who watches everything change and finds their own place beside the newcomer.

There are two ways to make this book. One has the baby as the main character: the first days at home, the first bath, the first walk in the pram, everyone who comes to say hello. It becomes a welcome book the family can read aloud straight away and that your child can leaf through later to see how it all began.

The other puts an older child at the centre, who gets to hold the baby, choose its first cuddly toy and discover that there is still room on a lap. If you would like to give the book to a newborn, there is more under newborns and christenings.

Put in what you want to remember: the name and why you chose it, the date, who held the baby first, a song that always settled them. If the baby joined the family through adoption, arrived to a single parent or to two mums or two dads, write it the way you talk about it at home. The book follows your story, not a template.

Small things become big memories over time: how the baby lay in someone's arms, which song was sung at bedtime, who changed the first nappy and laughed. Brothers and sisters, grandparents and the family pet all have room in the pictures, so that later on the baby can see who was waiting for them.

A newborn cannot follow the plot, but hears the voice, the rhythm and the calm of whoever is reading. That is why short, repeated sentences work best when the book is about the baby.

If the book is made for an older sibling, it turns out differently. A three-year-old needs to hear that the baby cries because it cannot talk yet. For an eight-year-old it can be boring sometimes and lovely at other times, and a ten-year-old can be the one who teaches the baby something. After reading, the older child can show the baby the pictures and explain what is happening on each spread. Keep a copy for the day the baby can point at the pictures themselves.

You fill in the child's name, age and what they like, and upload a photo. The story about a new baby in the family is written for your very own child, and the thirteen pictures and the cover are drawn from the photo in the style you choose. Brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents or the pet can come along, up to five characters. If you would like to include something that has happened lately, a trip or a lost tooth, just write it and it is woven in.

The eBook is ready a few minutes after payment. Read it, change the text and ask for new pictures until you are happy. Then order it as an A4 hardback book, printed and sent to your door, or straight to the child as a gift. Do add the colouring pages. Start creating the book or read more about the prices. Would you like to see a finished book before you decide? Browse our example books.