[name]Morning[/name]/[name]Afternoon[/name]/[name]Evening[/name] everyone!! As I’ve mentioned before, my cousin is pregnant with my cousin-to-be, my [name]Little[/name] Roo! I’m absolutely thrilled, of course! Her birthday is in [name]December[/name], about two weeks before [name]Christmas[/name]. All she wants for both is stuff for [name]Little[/name] Roo (which is what i was going to get anyway, lol). I’m saving necessities for the baby shower. For her birthday, I really want to buy her a few books because she’s mentioned having “nothing to read.”
A couple that she can read about her pregnancy and then a few that she can read to [name]Little[/name] Roo when she just feels like talking to him. Also a pregnancy journal (which i’ve found). I’ve never been pregnant so I have no clue which books are helpful and which are just annoying. Any ideas?
These are the books on pregnancy that I’ve considered:
*What To Expect When You’re Expecting
*Oh [name]Baby[/name]!
This is the book for [name]Little[/name] Roo:
*Ma! There’s Nothing To [name]Do[/name] Here: A word from your baby-in-waiting (i just adore this book to no end!!)
I dislike most pregnancy books, but I found one I love called “Pregnancy for Modern Girls: the Naked [name]Truth[/name] About Being Pregnant” by [name]Hollie[/name] [name]Smith[/name]. And “Your Pregnancy Bible” by [name]Anne[/name] Deans is great too.
I hate “What to Expect…”, wasn’t helpful at all.
[name]Baby[/name] books for [name]Little[/name] Roo:
I was recommended this on amazon when I did a huge baby shop, haven’t read it yet but it looks cute:
“Oh baby, the places you’ll go!” by [name]Tish[/name] Rabe
I also got “The Expectant Dad’s Survival Guide: Everything You Need to Know” by [name]Rob[/name] Kemp for my boyfriend.
edit: I also got baby books for when [name]Baby[/name] is here, the most essential ones from baby-gurus [name]Annabel[/name] [name]Karmel[/name] and [name]Gina[/name] [name]Ford[/name], as well as “Your [name]Baby[/name] Week by Week” by dr [name]Caroline[/name] Fertleman and [name]Simone[/name] Cave.
I agree. I’m not finding the “What to Expect” books very helpful or relevant to me. I read “Belly Laughs” and “[name]Baby[/name] Laughs” by [name]Jenny[/name] [name]Mccarthy[/name]. My husband also has the books by [name]Rob[/name] Kemp
I’d suggest that once the babies born, read poetry to him. Babies and young children love poetry and it keeps their attention because of all the rhyming words. Anything Dr. Seuss and [name]Shel[/name] Silverstein is great!
I just made a long list of books for a friend who asked the same questions so I’ll just quote that here for you:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by [name]Eric[/name] [name]Carle[/name]
Goodnight [name]Moon[/name] by [name]Margaret[/name] Wise [name]Brown[/name]
[name]Brown[/name] [name]Bear[/name], [name]Brown[/name] [name]Bear[/name], What do you see? by [name]Bill[/name] [name]Martin[/name], [name]Jr[/name].
The [name]Rainbow[/name] [name]Fish[/name] by [name]Marcus[/name] Pfister
Corduroy by [name]Don[/name] [name]Freeman[/name]
The Snowy [name]Day[/name] by [name]Ezra[/name] [name]Jack[/name] [name]Keats[/name]
The Runaway [name]Bunny[/name] by [name]Margaret[/name] Wise
Guess [name]How[/name] Much I [name]Love[/name] You by [name]Sam[/name] McBratney
For strictly educational try:
Now I Eat My ABC’s
Spotted Yellow Frogs by [name]Matthew[/name] [name]Van[/name] [name]Fleet[/name]
What Makes the Seasons by [name]Megan[/name] [name]Montague[/name] [name]Cash[/name]
Because a [name]Little[/name] Bug Went Ka-Choo by Dr. Seuss
When You Give a Mouse a Cookie
[name]Little[/name] [name]Blue[/name] and [name]Little[/name] Yellow by [name]Leo[/name] [name]Lionni[/name]
So you both agree? Scratch “What to Expect…” Got it! Lol. Maybe we’ll just watch the movie for a good laugh.
ottilie, I searched for the book you suggested by [name]Hollie[/name] [name]Smith[/name]. That book sounds right up my cousin’s alley! So that will definitely be on the list, thanks! And when I was ordering “Ma! There’s Nothing to do Here” Amazon recommend the Dr. Seuss book to me as well, so I will definitely look into that.
dantea, Great list! Thanks! I love the “If You Give A ______ A _____” books! They are so cute and I just love how it wraps all the way back around to the beginning. I definitely want to get some books for [name]Little[/name] Roo for once (s)he is finally here. I’ll definitely get the classic fairy tales, folk tales, and fables. But I also want to incorporate the fun and modern books as well. Your list is great! And you’re so right, I will definitely try to find a good amount of Dr. Seuss books!! Can’t go wrong with him! Also, I love [name]Jenny[/name] [name]McCarthy[/name] so I’m sure that would be a fun choice for her!
What To Expect is only decent for describing symptoms. Otherwise it engages in frank scaremongering and exceptionalism (the take-home message is that the entire world needs to accommodate your pregnancy, that everything can and will kill the baby, and that every new symptoms is probably a sign that you’re in grave danger). It’s full of great advice like not getting your nails painted (as nail polish suddenly is absorbed systemically!), that you should get “your boss” to let you work half-days, only do desk work, and maybe take naps in the middle of the day (because no one reading the book actually is the boss, nor do they have jobs where this is ludicrous like waitressing or being an emergency room nurse or something), etc. It’s also written in this unbelievably irritating style, like the entire thing is a quiz from [name]Cosmo[/name]. My favorite section by far was the one that teaches you to perform basic emergency care, like having a penlight on hand to check your baby’s pupils if he bonks his head. (Because you magically gain the ability to both interpret subtle cranial nerve findings, and neurosurgically evacuate a brain bleed, once you become a mom?) The woman has no qualifications whatsoever to write such a book, and it shows.
After birth-- my favorite and most useful book, by far and away, is “Your [name]Baby[/name]'s First Year” by Shelov et al. It’s very comprehensive and focuses primarily on monthly development. There’s a medical section in back for basic pediatric conditions so you can be reasonably educated about them, and the opening hundred pages or so are about adjustments and newborn care. Absolutely no scaremongering, with very objective and accurate information. I love how detailed it is about development-- and everything is spot-on.
blade, I must say you have made my morning! I couldn’t stop laughing at your sarcasm (yet honesty) towards “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.” I literally LOL’d the who way through! And what you’re saying makes all the sense in the world. If those are the types of things advised in the book, that’s definitely not what she needs! She needs a book based on practicality. Half-days and scheduled siestas? Not even a possibility! Thanks!!
All of you made suggestions on getting books for once the baby arrives. That makes sense! I’m going to go find reviews on your suggestions now (“Your [name]Baby[/name] Week by Week,” “[name]Baby[/name] Laughs,” and “Your [name]Baby[/name]'s First Year”). Be great if she can be reading them now and just used them as reference guides once the babe is here.
I highly suggest little robin red vest, it’s a story about how the robin got his red tummy and it is the most lovely book in the world. It’s more a toddlers and children’s book, but you should just get it anyway it’s perfect for a [name]Christmas[/name] baby named roo!
I read several books available at the library that didn’t leave enough of an impression to remember the names, but then I read Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth and I found it extremely helpful. I borrowed some other books from my birth class, [name]Ina[/name] [name]May[/name]'s Guide to Childbirth and The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth, but I just got them so I can’t say yet how good they are.
I like anything by Dr Sears. [name]Ina[/name] [name]Mae[/name]'s stuff since I am into that sort of thing, and I agree on “[name]How[/name] to freak out when you are expecting” as I fondly like to call it.
Anything on board book form while they are little is great, especially simple books with bright colors. I was given a book called “Freight Train” by [name]Donald[/name] Crews when [name]Seb[/name] was a baby and I cannot tell you how many times we replaced it, its a favorite around here maybe because all but one of mine were train obsessed at young ages. I also like the Priddy brand books, lots of pictures of actual animals, vehicles etc, all my kids have loved them. Dr Suess is obviously great, and while the whole “your baby will be smarter by watching our DVDs from infancy on up” claim has always annoyed me, the baby einstein series of books is actually pretty nice. Didn’t get into them until Vio was little because apparently there is a mouse named [name]Violet[/name] and so a friend got her a book with “her” as the title character as a bday gift. We have such a varied book collection in pur home these days so I have to think hard about “baby” books. If I think about anything else I will let you know.
it’s perfect for a [name]Christmas[/name] baby named roo!