Books for New Moms & Dads

We had a super great meeting today in Mount Pleasant and we talked a lot about books. We believe that moms know their babies best and they really just need to trust their baby.

We often say "watch the baby, not the clock" and similar expressions because we really believe if you watch your baby, he or she will give you the answer more than any book. But we do have ones that we really feel help mothers and fathers to find their way to trust themselves.

Information is power for you to make the best choices for your family.
Here are a few of our favorites!!

Naomi Stadlen has written a gem of a book for all new moms entitled "What Mothers Do: Especially When It Looks Like Nothing." Get ready for some tears and feeling that she legitimizes what we do all day. It is more than you give yourself credit for. This is a must read for all new moms!

Kathy Kendall-Tackett has written two wonderful books that many new moms will find helpful at some time or another: “The Hidden Feelings of Motherhood” and “Depression in New Mothers.” If you are feeling more that just those few weepy days of baby blues don't hesitate to please pick one of these up and give us and your health care practitioner a call.

"The Breastfeeding Cafe: Mothers Share the Joys, Challenges, and Secrets of Nursing" by Barbara L. Behrmann is filled with stories from moms in their own words about their feelings about breastfeeding and mothering...from love, to ambivalence, to dislike. You will feel like you are at a meeting like ours reading it.

Most of our moms have heard of William and Martha Sears. They have so many books..."The Baby Book", "The Baby Sleep Book", "The Breastfeeding Book" and many more. One thing that many moms like about these books is the encouragement to follow your heart and not always follow their books. You may find you like bits and pieces of their ideas and you may find you've heard many of them at an LLL meeting before!

I can't forget to mention "Womanly Art of Breastfeeding New 8th Edition" By LLLI. This new edition is wonderful, warm, up-to-date, modern info for today's mom. You will love it. We feel it is a meeting in a book!

All new families go through that sleep deprivation stage. It is a badge to be proudly warn! Yet we all need to take care of ourselves too. Here is the book we talked about today. It is entitled "The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night" and it is by Elizabeth Pantley. She gives lots of research based information for those of us who just feel letting a baby cry themselves to sleep is wrong but just don't know what else to do. She is gentle and non-judgmental and has a ton of ideas. Some may work for your sleepy family.

Here are a few great ones for new dads too:

While on a Sears kick, I'll add a couple for the dads. One popular one in the LLL circle is "Becoming a Father: How to Nurture and Enjoy Your Family". My favorite for dads that I buy for gifts for family and friends is "Father's First Steps: 25 Things Every New Dad Should Know" by William and Martha's sons James Sears and Robert Sears. It is a great little book that is fun and quick to read. My husband even read it and liked it!

Leave the book by your bed or next to one of the chairs you nurse in or pump in and read a chapter at a time or a page at a time. Happy reading!