Tag Archives: pregnancy

Review: The Joy of Pregnancy

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The subtitle of The Joy of Pregnancy says it all, “The Complete, Candid and Reassuring Companion for Parents-To-Be.” Written by Tori Kropp, R.N. with a forward by Michael Scott, M.D. (yes, his name made me giggle),  this is one of two pregnancy books I would highly recommend. The other is Your Pregnancy Week by Week.

The chapters in this book are arranged by month of pregnancy, which is a nice change from other pregnancy books. Each chapter includes information about what is going on with mom’s body, baby’s development, stretches and exercises, as well as things you may be thinking about in preparation for baby’s arrival, like finances and what items you should buy.

There are also “Dad’s Corner” parts of each chapter that are fairly typical dad advice, like be nice to your pregnant wife. I found those sections to be a nice addition, but not necessarily helpful. Hubs and I didn’t read the books together, but maybe if that’s your goal, then the setup would be great for you.

The book talks about potential problems, high risk pregnancies, and bed rest, but without being scary. There are sections specifically for mom’s carrying twins. I didn’t experience that, but these sections seemed like they would be really helpful. They could have also included a chapter on how to view the pictures taken by sonogram and ultrasound technicians.

The lists of things to buy and Tori’s personal recommendations are helpful. They’re not too lengthy, like most retailers try to “help you” buy everything they sell for babies. Tori considers herself a minimalist in this department, but recommends things like a wipe warmer.

I found that holding a wipe in my hand for a moment worked great with a newborn. After about a month, he didn’t even care if it was cold. My thought was, plenty of babies have survived without wipe warmers, so why would I need one? I didn’t. Just like any list of stuff you need for baby, take it with a grain of salt. Now that we have the internet, you can always order and use overnight shipping if you find you can’t live without something.

Each chapter features an “Ask Tori” section. These Q&A parts are nice and informative without being too lengthy. The Labor and Delivery parts of the book are quite detailed. I found that some pregnancy books almost gloss over this (really important) part. There are diagrams, explanations, tips, etc. and nothing that will completely freak you out. I was unable to take any kind of birthing class, so the last part of this book was really helpful and I’m glad I had it.

This wraps up my reviews of pregnancy books, but I welcome anyone who has a particular favorite to post about it here or leave a link to your own blog review of the book. I know how helpful it was to read about other people’s experiences with pregnancy books while shopping for them, so come on and share!

Review: Your Pregnancy for the Father-to-Be

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This is the daddy companion book to Your Pregnancy Week by Week. My dad bought it for my husband shortly after we announced that I was pregnant. I was surprised that he sent it and more surprised that hubs read the whole thing. In fact, he brought it out the field with him (Army) during super boring training times. I was so impressed that he didn’t feel weird about reading this pregnancy book in front of other guys (*swoon*).

John liked this book. It’s quite a bit shorter than Your Pregnancy Week by Week and it doesn’t follow the weeks of pregnancy structure, which is probably good (if I wasn’t the pregnant one, a weekly structure would have been annoying). They specifically do not cover serious problems that can happen in pregnancy. They also keep it pretty simple (self-described by Curtis/Schuler as “elementary.”) Each chapter contains “In the Doghouse” segments to score “Brownie Points.” It seems cheesy and maybe a bit condescending to your preggo SO, but the information in them, like “If your partner excercises during pregnancy, do it together!” and “Don’t take the attitude that all the medical decisions about labor and delivery are your partner’s to make,” is great.

The chapters:

A Letter to Expectant Fathers

Note to Readers

You’re Expecting, too, Dad!

The Big Picture

1. Essential Pregnancy Information

(includes “Pregnancy-related terms for Expecting Couples)

2. Lifestyle Changes for You as an Expecting Couple

3. Ways to Support Your Pregnant Partner

4. Changes in Your Life as an Expectant Dad

5. Your Couple Relationship

6. You’re Part of this Pregnancy, Too!

7. The Financial Realities of Parenthood

8. If There Are Pregnancy Problems

9. Preparing for Baby’s Arrival

10. Childbirth Preparation, and Labor and Delivery

11. Now You’re a Dad!

12. Before the Next Pregnancy

Some of this book seemed like it might be oversimplified, but the language is direct and the information isn’t overwhelming. This is definitely a great book for any dad-to-be, especially first time dads.

Review: Your Pregnancy Week-by-Week

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When I was pregnant, my dad bought this for me (and bought Your Pregnancy for Father’s-To-Be for my hubby). It was by far one of my favorite pregnancy books. It was well-organized and written without any of the terrifying “everything that could possibly go wrong and probably will” kind of language. It’s also written by actual medical professionals, not just some person claiming to be an expert on pregnancy. Not that you can’t write a book about pregnancy without a medical degree, but I tend to trust someone more if they do. “Glade B. Curtis, M.D., M.P.H., is board-certified by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the father of five. He lives in Utah. Judith Schuler, M.S., has worked and cowritten books with Dr. Curtis for more than twenty years”

The first chapter is “Preparing for Pregnancy,” which is great for people who want to plan ahead. I jumped right in at nine weeks, so the preparing part wasn’t of much use to me. It includes information on stopping contraception, current medical problems, fertility, ovulation monitoring, women who are active duty military wishing to become pregnant, etc. It is informative and helpful, but brief.

The bulk of the book, not surprisingly, follows a week-by-week run through of your pregnancy. Each week features a safe exercise for you to do, information about baby’s development and your own, potential problems at that stage, and tips for dealing with pregnancy annoyances, like heartburn and morning sickness. The big difference between this book and the bible of pregnancy “What to Expect” is that there aren’t any huge chunks of Q&A (so disorganized) and the information included for certain stages of pregnancy seems to follow a normal pregnancy much better. I found a lot of information in “What to Expect” was discussed far after the stage when you would want to know that information.

The end of the book includes some really helpful information about being in the hospital and coming home after labor. There’s stuff about caring for yourself and baby at home, premature and late babies, c-section and vaginal delivery, breastfeeding, bottle-feeding, and what you can do to help your recovery along.

As far as pregnancy books go, this is one I would absolutely recommend and would definitely purchase it as a gift for a friend. It’s comprehensive, well-organized, and I found it helpful and interesting all through my pregnancy. If you’ve ever read a pregnancy book, you’ll know that is a glowing review.

More on “Your Pregnancy for Father’s-To-Be” to come soon. It’ll be more of an overview than a review, since hubby is the one who read it. I’ll include his short, sweet opinion, too.

The Best Laid Plans…

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I had planned to pre-write about 20 posts this week to fill in the time after my baby arrived. He was due Dec 20th. However, he decided not to wait around and I went into labor Tuesday the 24th. Connal and I are doing well and are at home now, but I never did manage to get those posts written in advance.

SO, posting will likely be pretty scarce around here for a while. But I can’t think of a better reason not to sit at the computer for hours than this:

Connal

Connal


Review: Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy

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I should start out this review by saying that I didn’t have high hopes for this book. I’d heard all kinds of wonderful things from pregnant or recently pregnant people about it. I heard it was hilarious, sarcastic, kind of scary, honest, and a fun read. Most importantly, I had heard nothing negative about it, which always kind of worries me. It especially worries me when women who are just as hormonally imbalanced and, let’s face it, practically psychotic as I am ALL loved this book.

I recalled from my MTV days that Jenny McCarthy’s humor is pretty comparable to that of an inebriated 19-year-old, frat boy. However, I thought that might make for a pretty damn funny book about pregnancy, which is by nature pretty disgusting at times. Unfortunately, this book didn’t even provide that kind of humor. Maybe the publisher made her tone it down. I don’t know. What I do know is that I would have to be drunk to find this even remotely funny (and if I were drunk, I’d probably find something way more entertaining to do than suffer through this terrible book).

McCarthy attempted to create a conversational tone. You know, like what you’re reading is really just like talking to your best gal pal on your cell. Only problem is that kind of tone is like, totally difficult to swallow when its obviously forced. In fact, both the language and tone is this book made me wonder whether McCarthy hired someone’s preteen kid to write it. No kidding; it is that bad.

My final word on this book: I’m so glad that all I paid for it was $1 at a yardsale. Jenny, I know you’ve written half a dozen books now, including ones about autism (don’t even get me started, lady) but maybe this is not your calling. Perhaps –and this is just a suggestion– you should leave the writing to people who are actually writers, the doctoring to people with MDs, and go back to doing whatever it is you did before.