January 24, 2006

• Yay! I have nothing helpful to add. But yay!
• I have The Pregnancy Book and What to Expect the First Year. Both are useful -- and I'd recommend them purely for their thoroughness -- but the most important thing to stress is that she doesn't have to follow the books' advice to the letter: each baby is different and so is each parent. She can use books to find things that work best for her. Congrats, Uncle StoryBored!
• I'm told Dr. Spock's "I Am Spock" is great for first-time babies. He writes under the pen name Leonard Nimoy, though so you might have to search by that.
• Swift.
• Penelope Leach is great. Well, was a dozen years ago, anyway!
• congrats!
• Congrats! Don't have any book ideas but if I were pregnant, all of the "mommy blogs" that I've read would be invaluable for the real life experience in helping to quell some pregnancy fears and have good laughs too. Sundry and Amalah come to mind. They also mention the good books/websites that they found helpful as well.
• "What to Expect When You're Expecting", and the whole "What to Expect...." series are good choices. ...and congrats!!!
• Are you in the US, maybe near a Publix supermarket? I signed up for their Baby Club and they sent me an *excellent* book that covers the first 5 years. Plus, I get grocery coupons every month, and not just for baby stuff.
• I would get them these books that teach their baby how to make martinis or bacon and eggs. I just got them for a pair of new parents, and they loved them.
• I second tracicle's two choices. I had both of those and found the second one to be of, almost daily, use. Also, virtually anything by Dr. Sears is going to be excellent. Some people don't like the Dr. Spock book(s), but I did. He likes mom's and dad's to use their instincts. Anyway, congratulations!!!
• This is a good one to have on hand, too.
• Dante's Inferno provides a pretty good roadmap, or so my mom tells me.
• I second "What to expect when you are expecting". You might want to get later ones in the series for toddler years etc. too as this will be the last chance for her to do any extended reading. Someone gifted us a subscription to "Parenting" magazine and I can truthfully state that I have never found the time to read a single article all the way through. My contention is that if you're finding time to read "Parenting" then you're probably not being an actual good parent.
• another vote for dr. spock's baby and child care book. there are lots more, but the spock one is broad and thorough.
• I remembered a book called "Our Babies, Ourselves," which was based on or by the Boston Women's Collective, whose "Our Bodies, Ourselves" was a damn fine resource, but when I a9'd that title, it was by somebody else and more about biological issues than child rearing. So forget me, cuz my babies are so old that they regularly post to MeFi and ilxor.com Oh--watch out for any of those Dr. james Dobson books. Although, if you want a completely disconnected child...
• yentruoc, those are the COOLEST BOOKS EVER. I may just have to get me them. I've got an amazon voucher burning a hole in my inbox -- but they don't do the two-book bundle. Hmm. Amazon has the rest of them, too.
• Hi StoryBored and Pals, The books are not about child-rearing (sorry!), but my friend is a very good children's writer and illustrator. His name's James Rumford, and he's published more than a dozen wonderful, worldly stories. Something for the kid. =)
• Whatever you send, include a coat hanger in the box. And try to work "Whatever you choose" into the card somehow.
• Almost all the childhood fucking-up-of-me occurred courtesy of conservative xian parenting advice a la Dobson. Avoid! Avoid! I've never been pregnant. The book I bought for my best friend when she was pregnant was the Hip Mama Survival Guide. It's probably not appropriate if your sister is in a strong, committed relationship and the child is planned. There's a whole section in it on "what you can do if the father bails on you." It has pregnancy information too, but it seems geared towards single and low-income mothers. Which is good, because most of the other books just aren't. OTOH, I know several women who were pretty traumatized by the "What to Expect" books when they were pregnant, and I'm not sure I'd recommend them either. I have heard that Vicki Iovine's "Girlfriends Guide" books are decent, but she's not a medical expert. My guess is that a selection of books is probably the best idea... maybe Leach and Iovine together.
• Congrats to you and your sis, StoryBored! The only book my sister has is What To Expect The First Year that Tracicle linked to; it's quite good. You should also emphasize to your sister that while books are helpful, she should trust herself and her instincts. The best(and cheapest!) gift I gave my sister was lots of encouragement and love and reinforcement. I'm sure you and your sib probably have a great relationship, but my sister's confidence was really boosted knowing that the evil brat who used to reduce her to tears 'lo those many years ago was in her corner. The first step to being a great uncle is to be a good brother. And while we're on the subject, happy two month birthday, Quinn! (She's so advanced, I'm sure she's already reading MoFi.)
• Congrats. I agree on avoiding Dobson, The Baby Be Useful books look cool.I have heard praise from all camps on Spock. Baby babies are tough to get sleep with, until they sleep thru the night. I vote for a lullyabye disc. Put the kid to sleep, calm the parents nerves, and will work when older. I used to be a nanny, and I found rocking to be a great help, with singing, or humming. A rocking chair would be a great gift. But in terms of books, I vote for spock.
• I have a coworker who could only get the wee one to sleep by vacuuming. Eventually, she recorded the sound of the vacuum and played it in the nursery at night.
• more votes here for what to expect... series and the penelope leach book fish tick linked.
• Thanks a lot everyone for the tips! I got lots of followup to do, starting with the "What to Expect" book, Spock and Leach with appropriate caveats. Also the martini book and um, Dante's Inferno...... I'll be checking out those websites too and erm, avoiding the Parenting magazine and Dobson. You guys are great.
• Also, the rocking chair idea mentioned upthread is a very good one. All mommies need a rocking chair.
• Oof an update: I have a new nephew! As of last week. 8lbs 2 oz, name of Alexander. All parties in great health. Good grief, i have to get my life in order to act as a suitable role model. BTW, i ended up getting several of the books you folks recommended (muchos gracias) including the hilarious Baby Make Breakfast.
• Congratulations Uncle StoryBored!! I have a new nephew too, born Friday night. Maybe we can compare nephew stories as they grow. :)
• Duelling nephews!
• Thank you Auntie Tracicle and congrats to you too!
• Oh, CONGRATULATIONS!!!! to both of you!
• Congratulmulations!
• Congratulamultiplications!
• Happy uncling, StoryBored! And congratulations on achieving auntdom, Tracicle!
• Pins *World's Best Uncle* medal on Sgt. StoryBored's uniform* SB, That whole "role model" gig is totally overrated. I'm taking great pride in being "the weird and reclusive aunt on Dad's side". That way at least I'll stand out from their other 256 aunts and uncles (sister-in-law's family is Irish Catholic).