Baby care books

[susiemj]

Do you think I'm being naive not to want to read books about baby care before having my DC. I've got one on the basics but friends keep suggesting ones about routines etc that I 'must' read.

I know I might want to read one or two when I'm tearing my hair out, but I really just want to see what it's like without loads of other people's opinions on my shoulders.

Am I being naive? Will I be floundering desperately?

Not naive at all. I found that baby books, whether about routines or just general babycare manuals, just freaked me out because ds didn't seem to be doing any of the things he should be doing (sleeping 18 hours a day, LOL). Or they failed to answer questions I had properly and made me feel even more frustrated.

You can always buy some afterwards if you find that you do want them after all.

Thanks Muffin!
Anyone else gone without?

I read them and found myself thinking I'll never do this. I ended up trusting my instinct and taking bits of advice from different books. IMO if you try and follow the routine books to the letter you'll end up stressed when your baby has a routine all of its own! for example they will tell you only feed every 4 hours etc, what total tosh with my dd she fed every 2 and didn't sleep. Decided to go with the flow, the only bit of advice that was any good was take everyones advice and then ignore it and do what you feel is right.

I've got two books - the baby whisperer, and what to expect, the first year. Both of these are fact based books and I'm reading them (well, scanning) with a very open mind

I went without at first and then, my work said there was money leftover from my collection and did I want anything else.

By this time DD was about 6 weeks and I was struggling. So, I asked for the Baby Whisperer book and it was a godsent. The main thing about it was that I put DD in the recommended routine and then I knew what she wanted more straight away. Like, if I'd fed her 30 mins ago and she cried, then I knew she wasn't wanting to be fed and this just made it easier for me to work it out.

Also, sometimes you just need someone to say 'your baby can now miss out the ** feed' before you have the confidence to try missing it out, so also can by handy in this way.

I wouldn't bother with any before birth though, just wait and see if you need one. My very very young neice managed just fine, she was a total natural (put me to shame)

Libby Purves - How Not to be a Perfect Mother

very sane