Breastfeeding/baby book recommendations?

[SkylinesTurnstiles]

Hi guys,
Now I’m in the 3rd trimester I’m starting to think I need to get my arse in gear and start doing some reading!
Does anyone have any recommendations for general books for a FTM to read or any about breastfeeding?
Thanks in advance :)

Making More Milk is excellent

I would sign up to a free class run by La Leche

The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by La Leche League is extremely comprehensive and I found it great to read cover to cover whilst pregnant then good as a reference when I had issues or questions.

The Food of Love by Kate Evans is also very good and shorter/more accessible. The LLL book mentioned above is excellent but somewhat overwhelming!

For general babycare stuff I quite liked Your Baby Week By Week, although some of it really annoyed me when my own baby didn’t conform to their predictions (I got irrationally cross when the book blithely said ‘by now your baby won’t be pooing at night so you’ll almost never need to change nappies in the night’. Mine did NOT get that memo). You have to take everything with a pinch of salt, I guess...

Agree re the womanly art of breastfeeding! Don’t be put off by the old fashioned title!

I read the positive birth and positive breastfeeding books in pregnancy /first few weeks

I'm now reading the wonder weeks book as the idea development leaps was new to me when she went through her first at 5 weeks old!

@Superscientist the wonder weeks stuff is a load of rubbish - the authors were sacked from their university because the research it was apparently based on turned out to be a load of rubbish. I can’t remember the details now but google will tell you.

@piglet81

The Food of Love by Kate Evans is also very good and shorter/more accessible. The LLL book mentioned above is excellent but somewhat overwhelming!

For general babycare stuff I quite liked Your Baby Week By Week, although some of it really annoyed me when my own baby didn’t conform to their predictions (I got irrationally cross when the book blithely said ‘by now your baby won’t be pooing at night so you’ll almost never need to change nappies in the night’. Mine did NOT get that memo). You have to take everything with a pinch of salt, I guess...

Ha ha ha, @piglet81 I have that book and hated the phrase “by now, your baby should be sleeping for stretches of 6/7/8 hours a night”

Really? My baby also didn’t get the memo on that one

@FolkSongSweet the controversy relates to the notion that all babies do exactly the same thing in the week as one another and they were dismissed from their uni for blocking the publication of work that didn't show the same findings as their work.

I don't buy into the idea of all babies doing the same thing at the same time anyway. When "full term" covers 5 weeks in pregnancy, and we understand much more of that than we do baby development, it is illogical to imagine a baby will stick more rigidly to the book. That said as a rough development guide I like the way it is set out and so far has backed up advice I have had from midwives and health visitors.

We came across the book at 4-5 weeks when she became extra clingy and cried more the midwife and health visitor both said it was normal for this age and corresponded to when their world expands beyond 8 inches. After the few days of extra crying (she has colic and reflux crying is her default) she was interested in things on the otherside of the room that she hadn't been before.

She's 10 weeks now and looks to be going through leap 2 the book says 7-9 weeks but whose keeping score. We have also been through the 2 month check list with the health visitor and it is almost identical to the leap 2 checklist. I can already see that she is more interested in her hands and feet than she was last week. Last week she stared at the toys in her baby bouncer this week she tries to hit them.

I wouldn't both with the corresponding app or signing up for the leap notification emails as I think that is beyond the scope of their findings and would create more stress - if I had done that I would have had 3 weeks of fretting that she hadn't found her feet! Using the book I knew at around 2 months give or take she might go through another restless period before becoming more aware of her limbs. When she started to get clingy and cry-y again I didn't panic like I did at 4 weeks as I knew she was probably about to learn something new. I had a peek at the corresponding book chapter and got some ideas of what to look for

Ah @Superscientist that’s ok then - sounds like you have put it in its proper context. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve heard people say ridiculous stuff like they’re not available for a coffee next week because their baby “will be going through a leap” etc. It tends to be used by parents as an excuse (together with teething) any time their child is a little more unsettled than normal. I think, especially with first babies, parents forget that their babies are little people, not necessarily following patterns or books or rules, and sometimes you can’t actually explain changes in mood or behaviour. It clearly provides some reassurance to people though and probably no harm done.

"What Mothers Do" by Naomi Stadlen
"The Food of Love" is quite good

NOT "Your Baby Skin to Skin", terrible and annoying book with stupid bits about cave people

@FolkSongSweet yes I can imagine some people could easily take it too literally and assume babies follow it to the letter.

Critical thinking is something that is greatly lacking in the British education system!

That does remind me, OP treat everything you read in these books as a maybe. They do have good advice and can be use to inform but don't assume it is 100%true for babies. I read in pregnancy that don't expect your waters to go with a gush with no previous signs of labour and then the baby be born soon after like it does in the movies. Guess what...mine did!