What to Read

Well I know I've seemed dormant for a while now.  But I've been thinking about the blog & what my next post should be for weeks.  And to be honest I wasn't really sure what to say because most of what I've been experiencing lately has been very much internalized.  Only just yesterday did I voice to Darren some of the thoughts that have been brewing in my mind.  So since I'm still brewing here, I thought that I would share with you the books that I have been reading, & what I've learned or taken from them thus far.

In my first trimester, before the nausea set in, I read Jenny McCarthy's Belly Laughs.  I appreciated her candor.  And Darren & I both laughed at all of the "symptoms" of pregnancy that would eventually come.  With chapter titles like: Honey, Your Sperm Really Do Work! (Pregnancy Tests) & Poopin' on the Table (The Dark Side of Delivery), who wouldn't love to kick back in the beginning & simply lighten up on the major life changer that's growing inside.

Starting in my first trimester, & carrying on into the present, I have been reading What To Expect When You're Expecting.  Sometimes Darren would read it to me.  I loved that; when he was so excited & inquisitive to the growing changes to our baby.  We have continued to check in with this book at the beginning of each week.  I like it's format & readability.

Then towards the end of my first trimester, you may remember from an earlier post, I started to feel well again.  I was left with my thoughts & fears of what's to come.  So I started to read Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Childbirth.  Ina May is a Midwife on The Farm, a birthing center, in Tennessee.  She opens the book with positive & empowering birth stories.  Stories of women who labored & birthed without the aid of pain medicine or medical intervention.  These stories helped me to overcome my fear of the birth plan that I had chosen.  I knew it was right path for me, but couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the opinions of other women who do not agree with my natural birth plan & feel the need to tell me so.  I haven't finished this book yet.  I've only read the birth stories, but I plan to go back to it this week.

In the beginning of my second trimester I began reading Birthing From Within.  This is another book that supports the natural birth approach & nurtures a nervous insecure momma to be.  This book touches upon ways in which we can meditate & tap into our most creative & primal selves.  It's a homeopathic guide to childbirth preparation.  Suggestions include choosing empowering words to meditate to during pregnancy, & to apply that practice to your labor.  This practice in meditation & belief in your empowering words will help carry you through to the birth of your baby.  I have not finished this book either.  I plan to pick it back up in about a month, when I feel that my head space will be ready to absorb the information.

The Girlfriends Guide to Pregnancy I picked up in my second trimester & felt that it was a repeat of What To Expect When Expecting.  Same book, different layout.  I liked the flow of WTEWE, so I put The Girlfriends Guide down.  It would be great for a lady who doesn't like the bullet point and Q & A method of WTEWE.  

The book that I just finished reading, & so far was the last book that I picked up is, The Official Lamaze Guide, Giving Birth with Confidence.  This book is very informative & has helped to solidify some of my opinions about our birth choices & parenting style to our growing baby.  The book is a strong advocate for natural "normal" birth.  It speaks in great length to the importance of breast feeding, and that, if possible, to not introduce the bottle for 6 weeks, and to avoid formula if at all possible.  The book certainly explains that this is not 1978 or even 1987 for that matter, so move over Baby Boomers there's a new sheriff in town.  Babies are now encouraged to sleep in the same bedroom as their parents in either a crib, bassinet or as co-sleepers in a safe bed environment.  The idea is that attachment parenting fosters trust between baby & parent.  It also helps the new parent to more quickly pick up on their baby's early cues.  Sleep schedules are outdated advice & based on research done on formula fed babies of yesteryear.    

I've read two pamphlets sent to me from Mamma Boo, Lamaze & Breastfeeding.  Both are great for a quick uptake of the information.  The Lamaze pamphlet has a section on the "Supporting Cast," how to choose who's by your side.  That's something that's beginning to come into question for me.  I would love to have a Doula, but cannot afford one.  So I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I will discuss with Darren about having a friend be available to be with us to act as our advocate in the delivery room.  I will want Darren to stay with me always, and hopefully the midwife will not need to leave to care for another laboring woman.  But if I want or need anything from the outside world, like say maybe a bowl of fruit, I could ask our friend and labor advocate to go get that for us.  So maybe we will open our delivery room to a close friend who can handle being invited in & potentially asked to leave too.

I've also been reading the amazing letters sent to me from Mamma Boo.  She's on a journey to share all four of her birth stories with me!  So far we are up to birth number two, Sarah.  My mom was present for her birth, where the grand finally occurred in the Safeway Parking Lot on the way to the hospital.  I knew her birth story well from my mom's perspective, but I greatly enjoyed reading & learning about it from her mother, Momma Boo's, perspective.  Boo's kind words & encouragement have been well received and greatly appreciated by both me & Darren.

So what's next.  Well, Darren wants to dive into The Happiest Baby on the Block.  So I guess that's where we are going.  We have 16 weeks to go, so I'll be busy reading and attending birthing classes.  Oh and nesting, lots and lots of nesting.