Thread: A baby... what's that?

As these things occur from time to time, and especially with the members of this forum, I find my wife and myself expecting.

Like all good first-time fathers-to-be, after a couple of days of freaking out and planning the rest of my life, I find that I really do not know much about what is going to occur and what I need to know.

My wife's doctor recommended a book called "What to Expect When You're Expecting". I looked it up on Amazon, and the reviews are mixed; some say it's good and others say it is alarmist and will have your wife freaking out daily.

So, ladies and gentlemen, I ask you for your opinion. Since so many here already have a legion of children, would someone be able to point me to a good book/books?

Any recommendations are welcome. Looking mainly for my wife, but if there is a good book for both mom and dad I am open to it. :^)

There will be many and varied questions to follow as things progress, I am sure.

Thanks so much in advance,
Joshua

It's been too long, I can't remember what I thought of that book. I don't remember freaking out.

Congratulations!!

I don't have any children but Congratulations!

Thanks! And even though we don't know much, we are both very excited!

I'm reading it, since I had half a dozen recommendations to read it and only one friend who admitted to freaking out. I'm reading it no more than one month ahead, and I haven't even seen anything to concern me. If anything, it's pretty reassuring about little minor symptoms--it's my our first pregnancy, too, so other than general knowledge (drink more water, take prenatal vitamins, don't scoop cat litter), I was pretty ignorant about when I would "show", when tests would be done, when I would feel Peanut kick, etc.

Congratulations and I pray for the health of both your wife and your new little one.

My children are grown and gone. I didn't read that book. They (and we) lived through their childhoods.

Congratulations. Prayer and diligence are better than any book (other then the Bible).

My wife has just about memorized that one. We have a friend who I honestly think has memorized it (8 pregnancies).

She recommends it, but it is not written from a Christian perspective, read with filters on.

Red flags: perspective is fairly PC; takes non-judgmental tack on genetic testing, abortion, etc. Questions on 'should you continue with the pregnancy' are in there. Elizabeth considers it just about the best book of its kind out there, caveats notwithstanding.

Alarmist? No. Complete? Yes. This helped get us on track to the fact that Elizabeth had pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure due to pregnancy, can be extremely serious) during one of her pregnancies.

By the way:
Congrats!

oh congrats!

What to expect when you're expecting, i would also give mixed reviews. Other than dittoing (is that a word???) on the obvious things the PP stated, it does cover several good things she and you will be having questions about all throughout the pg. but there were always questions i had that the book just never addressed. for that, i would recommend joining the ovusoft.com forums. You can ask/find just about anything on there. back to the book, i can't imagine it making someone be an alarmist, though.

i also could not have lived without "baby bargains." truly. it covers everything (ok, a lot) you need to know about baby gear. i wouldn't even attempt to make decisions about cribs, swings, monitors, etc without the book! also utilize the baby bargains messageboards.

for birth, "the birth book" by Sears takes a good, fair, IMO, look at birth options and "what to expect" (as far as you can).

for breastfeeding, i would highly suggest, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. Don't just start the book once baby is born. Tear into it ahead of time. also utilize La Leache League's website.

thats all i can think of now. i will maybe add more later if i think of things. this is fresh on my mind since our first born is about to turn 4 months!!!

just thought of another one. i think dr. sears also has "the pregnancy book." (yes, i just looked, he does) i can't actually vouch for it since i've never read it, but based on the way he covered "the birth book" i would expect this one to cover a lot of great things, too. also, in saying this i am not necessarily endorsing or saying one thing or another about dr. sears' profession of faith. i felt the need to say that because i know some people question his Christian beliefs. I don't know the man and haven't read that much of him to say one thing or the other, but just felt the need to throw that out lest anyone be tempted to flame for me suggesting such of his books.

Congratulations! If your wife is the 'freaking out' type, I recommend you buy the book, but YOU read it, then impress her with your amazing breadth of knowledge.

There were one or two times where the book actually made us worry, but in reality, it's a wonderful resource...the most complete I've found.

I'm a big researcher, so when I had my first I had just about every pregnancy book on the market. What to Expect When You're Expecting is fine, it has a lot of good information, but its not my favorite, and I wouldn't buy it for a friend. It comes across kind of condescendingly sometimes, but maybe that was just me. I really like The Pregnancy Book by Martha Sears, and she and her husband's book The Baby Book is hands down my very favorite book for new parents (if you want to read ahead!). These are the two books I often give friends expecting their first babies. Dr. Sears is a pediatrician, his wife is an R.N, and together they have 8 kids, including a special needs baby and an adopted child. So to me they have great credentials, and I find them to be quite even handed. I'm not sure why their faith would be questioned, although they do take an anti-spanking approach, but they don't demonize those of us who don't, at least from what I've read.

There are also lots of free resources online for the week by week development and that sort of thing (BabyCenter | Homepage - Pregnancy, Baby, Toddler, Kids). Check your library too - even my small library had a ton of pregnancy books so I read through a bunch and only bought my favorites.

Congratulations!

I am on my third time reading this book, and I like it. I didn't like What to Expect as much. I think I prefer the weekly information.
Congrats!!!