We're coming down the home stretch and I think it is time to declare my favorite baby readings for the past eight months.
Yes, it's cliche, but this book was extremely helpful (especially the index) in the weeks before my first doctor's appointment and since then for brief weekly updates and a quick reference guide. I most definitely did not read this the entire way through, but the set-up of the book makes it really easy to skip around to where ever your interests fall during a certain day.
#2 - Baby Bargains
This book was passed along to us by some friends who had also recently had their first child. It has been an invaluable resource for all the baby shopping and researching that has happened in the past few months. It covers everything from maternity clothes, cribs, mattresses, baby clothes, you name it, this book covers it. It has actually surpassed Consumer Reports as our go-to guide for baby ratings. The book gets updated on a regular basis and there is an accompanying blog: http://baby411.typepad.com/babybargains/ with updates, recall notices, etc. If you're my friend and will be having a child in the near future, you will probably get this book as a gift =P
#3 - On Becoming Babywise
We'll see how effective this book becomes once Baby Bing arrives, but the principles in the book make a lot of sense to us so far! We have known parents all over the spectrum described in the book and have see the differences in their children so we're optimistic for the effectiveness of the principles we're learning.
#4 - What's Going On In There? (Hubby's personal favorite)
This book was recommended by my mother-in-law who was a pre-school teacher for many years. While the length of the book was daunting for Hubby, once he realized this covered brain development from within the womb through age 5, it became more approachable. It's been great not only for learning what to be doing or not doing, but for the why. Traditional baby interactions explained in a way that makes you appreciate how God's wired us all when you realize how many "maternal instincts" actually serve a very legitimate purpose in the child's brain development (everything from labor and delivery to rocking/swaying a baby). This book was a total winner for the engineer in the family ;-)
And there you have it. My reading list has been predominately baby-related over the past few months, but I think in the end it'll be worth it and it has definitely helped combat any first-time-parent anxieties that we were feeling...or at least helped to make a dent in our feelings of inadequacy ;-)
