Parenting book recommendation (for first-time parents)

[bumbeeno]

I totally second all the posters who recommend Baby Love by Robin Barker. I wish I had known of it before my baby was born - or even before I had read all the other books! I read it when my bub was about 6 weeks old and it taught me a really important thing: how to relax. How? By providing much reassurance to first-time mums who have no idea what to expect. I really like the author's approach in addressing concerns because she starts off by laying out what is normal - and you find your fears assuaged. I also learned that there are a lot of weird, wonderful and inexplicable things that babies do that you totally needn't worry about. Somehow she manages to address the typical, almost-trivial concerns a mother has - missing in many of the 'how-to' books, IMHO. She also doesn't send you off on a guilt trip if you don't practise a particular method of looking after or playing with your baby (she just tells you what is being done out there and that it's fine whichever you choose to do) and recognises that new mums are generally quite stressed so why add to the mix? She says you don't need to sit down and read it from cover-to-cover either - you can just jump to the section you want, using the contents page.

It's important to manage your expectations with regard to how your new baby will grow, develop and behave/respond. Mine were raised really high after reading a few books out there (brought down to earth with a crash after the first night home and buried 6 feet under within 3 weeks).

 

[thanka2]

I think that Secrets of the Baby Whisperer was by far the best book I read and I wish I had read it before I had given birth.

But, honestly, I've learned more from talking to other mothers (ones with grown children and ones with babies still at home) than I have learned from the plethora of books and self-help guides out there. Also, anything you really want to learn/know is already on the internet. Not a big fan of the "What to Expect" series of books--find them to be a better doorstop than anything--I've never actually gained anything helpful from any of them but they are a really popular buy for first-time moms. (All of mine were given to me by first-time moms who bought them and found them just as useful as I have). I've heard that "The Girlfriend's Guide to..." series of books is hilarious and a great, fun way to relax into motherhood but I haven't read them yet.

I guess, I never found myself too paranoid over anything in my son's first year, apart from the disastrous first six months until I picked up Secrets of the Baby Whisperer and got him on a good schedule. My husband, however, would be a good candidate for "set-your-mind-at-ease" baby books--well, he would have been in the first year but by now he's adjusted.

I have a friend in the States who took her baby to the emergency room so often she was on a first-name basis with the staff there--because every little thing she would over-react about. I guess it also comes down to personality then too, right?