New Parents Have Lots of Questions
I’ll never forget the first few days and nights of being a new mom, those first few days were a mix of overwhelming emotions and tons of questions. The safety net of the hospital and nurses on staff that were obvious baby pros didn’t come home with us from the hospital and as new parents we felt like fish out of water. Although both my husband and I had the ability to call one of our moms to answer our gargantuan list of newbie questions, sometimes questions would come up at 2am when calling was out of the question. My husband and I were figuratively fumbling in the dark when it came to our newborn son’s needs. We turned to What to Expect When You’re Expecting to answer basic questions about our son’s skin condition, umbilical cord stump care, breastfeeding, bathing and what we thought was inconsolable tummy issues. Without a doubt I read What to Expect When You’re Expecting so much the first year I referred to it as my “mom bible”.
What to Expect When You’re Expecting…and Beyond
What to Expect When You’re Expecting made the first few days and nights of parenthood easier for us to understand and reading the nonjudgmental advice helped ease my new mom anxiety enormously. But then eventually my tiny newborn wasn’t a newborn anymore and my questions changed.
As my son got older I relied on What to Expect the First Year to help guide me through child transitions. Having had absolutely no experience with babies, I had no idea what to expect and when transitions should happen in general. When should I switch from a bottle to a sippy cup? When is a child generally too old to be using a pacifier? When should my baby sleep in a toddler bed? Why is he screaming at me? Those are just a few of the questions I had for my copy of What to Expect the First Year.
Just as What to Expect When You’re Expecting eased my brand new mom fears, What to Expect the First Year eased my toddler parent years as well.
Timelessly Helpful
Even to this day and four crazy kids later I still refer to my copies of What to Expect When You’re Expecting and What to Expect the First Year because every child is different with different needs…and a whole new set of questions. What to Expect books are timelessly helpful whether you have one child or 100.
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
