Books About Babies

A few weeks ago I reviewed the books that I read while I was pregnant, which were mostly about pregnancy and breastfeeding. I think it's only appropriate that I also review the books I read (or tried to read) about the first year.


The Happiest Baby on the Block (this one was also in my original post, but I found myself referring to it often in the first months) - this one helped a lot for us. GREAT suggestions for calming pissy babies! The 5 S's work like a charm on Baby Charlie. Baby C loved being swaddled. We had a few of the SwaddleMe wraps, 2 lightweight ones and a fleece one for when it got colder. Once he was done with the swaddle I was still too paranoid to put a blanket in his crib, so we bought Halo Sleepsacks - they're wearable blankets (he does have a blanket in his crib, now!).

Your Baby Week by Week - Same idea as Your Pregnancy Week by Week, a developmental account of where the average baby is at each week. I really like this one, too. My BA is in child psych and this book is basically an Idiot's Guide to the First Year from every perspective (social, cognitive, motor, etc). We started off reading it every week, but started to slack off as Baby C become more mobile and active. It was much more fun to play with him than to read about him. I probably should have kept up with it, but what are you going to do.

Girlfriend's Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood - I didn't pick this book up until we were on our first outing post-baby and I wish I would have read it before I had him. It's by the same woman who wrote "Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy," and it's written in the same informal but informative style. She's definitely into giving you all the good, bad, and ugly details about childbirth, breastfeeding, and those first few postpartum weeks. I recommend this book to all of my pregnant friends! It's a quick read.

What the Other Mothers Know - lots of good and practical info for the first weeks and early childhood, but probably not a "must read" before the baby comes. It talks about play groups, parenting, potty training, preschools, daycare, birthdays, pretty much everything that you don't think about until you're in the moment. I'm hoping it will be helpful down the road.

I wish that I had read some books on work/life balance, aside from the research materials I read in graduate school. I have a list of books I intend to check out on that subject, so once I get my hands on them I'll certainly put them up for review.