Book Recommendations

[8abyDust]

Hiya,

I am 30 weeks pregnant and just finished my pregnancy book, I found it really helped me. I want to get one to help me with getting my head round looking after a newborn, does anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks!

Hi I'm 28 weeks and have just finished The Baby Whisperer. Lots of friends recommended it and I really enjoyed it, despite the rubbish title! She has a really common sense approach, which advocates getting into a vague routine pretty soon but isn't too prescriptive, which is what I've heard Gina Ford's approach can be. I also have What to Expect in the First Year, which is also good but sometimes a tad 'American' if you get what I mean. Good luck!

i love the baby whisperer, i thought her book was great. i also read "the first time parents survival guide" which was really useful, practical and straight to the point.

I loved Janet Balaskas's Natural Baby. She advocates a really lovely, gentle approach that supports breast feeding on demand, and getting to know your baby's cues.

A few people have recmommended Your Baby Week by Week to me for its factual rather than prescriptive approach. Someone kindly lent me What to Expect the First Year but I'm not keen, its too much of a weighty tome to plough through now never mind when I am sleep deprived! I could see me dipping into it for reference but its far too much for a day-by-day guide.

Gina Ford - even if you don't agree with her approach there's some useful stuff in there. I can't remember what she calls it, but its basically to use an extra piece of fabric across the head end of the cot/moses basket so that you can just replace that rather than all the sheets when they get a little puke. That was a top tip!
Some of the personal routine stuff was handy too - if you can wangle it, things like getting your partner to bring you brekkie in bed while you are b-feeding first thing so if all else fails, you have at least managed breakfast before lunchtime ! Hauling your ass out of bed and getting through the shower before your partner goes to work (same principle as breakfast) regardless of how bad the night. Even if you go back to bed, and I did many times, you at least can get up, do the mid morning feed and get on with your day without trying to entertain an infant while you shower.
Her weaning recipes are foul btw. Taste and resemble vomit. Lovely.

Yes, those tips do sound useful, the thing is, GF's books are so full of other, utterly erroneous nonsense that it's best not to have them in the house.

Also, it's OK not to shower EVERY morning. Just do it in the evening when DP comes home

I was going to say The Baby Whisperer as well. Used it when DS was a baby (7 years ago) and found it sooo helpful - especially the bit about interpreting baby's cries.

No idea where it went so as I'm now 22 weeks with DC2 I've just bought myself another copy xx

ooo yes, interpretting the baby's cry bit was a real turning point for me, it really worked and saved me loads of time and stress trying to work out what was wrong.

I find Penelope Leach's book 'Your baby and child' really helpful. It is also gentle and non-prescriptive, but an absolute mine of useful information and helpful tips and it is not just a baby book - it's up to aged 4 or something, so a useful reference. A bit pricey - but you'll get a lot of use out of it.

Gina Ford is maybe useful to read - if someone can lend it to you or you can borrow it from the library. It is incredibly prescriptive though and I remember being upset by it when reading it a few weeks before the birth of my DD as it seemed my cot had the "wrong" kind of bars and we didn't have black-out curtains at the time and the book made me feel I'd gone very wrong already! (Hormones may have played a part too ). It's useful to know what her method and approach is though.

Hi Bagerina - just a personal preference. My hair is skanky if it doesn't get washed every day and the shower made me feel human and a bit less sleep deprived, plus it gave my husband 15 mins of fun before heading off to work. He always seemed to come home in the middle of a cluster feed and got landed with dinner too as a result so he quite enjoyed it.
Gina Ford is incredibly prescriptive - insanely and hilariously so. I tried it for a day and then shelved it when I found that I fed, then expressed and all that took so long, it was time to feed again. What a faff and yet another thing that makes you feel like a failure. Who needs that?
I think it is more that it gave me a few odd useful tips and a sample structure to aim towards when my brain had turned to mush and I couldn't seem to get my sh*t together to get out of the house and achieve anything before it was time to feed again. In the end I found that most children end up in a similar routine naturally over time anyway (lunch time naps etc) so why torture yourself trying to force it along faster.
The biggest problem with GF I think is that especially as a first time mum, you tend to take things more literally rather than being relaxed and adapting what works for you. If you do the blackout blinds thing for example, you then need to replicate that environment everywhere you go for nap time. Balls to that though dead handy for persuading an exhausted toddler into a lunchtime nap in a sunny bedroom.

Happiest Baby on the Block has been the bible for pretty much every relative and friend I know as far as calming fussy babies. It seems to work universally and it's an easy read.

Thank you! Loads of fab recommendations!! Off on Amazon now!

The book that kept me sane over the first couple of months with my new baby DD (now expecting number 2) was What Mothers Do: Especially when it looks like nothing. Might not make much sense until your baby arrives but in those first few months, it's wonderful, and I got so much from reading it. Good luck!