September 15, 2005
what not to read when you’re expecting
Okay, show of hands–who read What to Expect When You’re Expecting at SOME point during your pregnancy? I will admit to owning and dog-earing my copy; since we never took a childbirth class (oh, it’s a long story, remind me to tell you later), Wade’s only preparation for Henry’s arrival was a speed-reading of the chapter on labor and delivery. I liked the how-your-baby-is-developing-this-week bits, although I didn’t find much else useful in it, with either baby, and that diet? Ugh. I swear to god I remember reading that if you were particularly virtuous, you could reward yourself with HALF of a PLAIN bagel. Some reward.
And then there are the What to Expect the First Year and What to Expect the Toddler Years–someone gave us the first, and I used to browse the second at the bookstore. For us, useless. Henry, who was all kinds of developmentally slow, hit every single marker in the books, including talking–despite the fact that my pediatrician, who I trust more than god, had serious concerns about his verbal delay.
The Times article criticizes What to Expect for focusing too much on the bad; instead, I felt like it glossed over the real concerns, like just how damn hard breastfeeding would be or how deep the trench of postpartum depression could get, in favor of emphasizing how extra wheat germ on your salad would fix everything!
Which it won’t you know. Now, a nice martini . . .
Edited to add: I hadn’t had any coffee when I wrote this, or I would have told you all that when I was pregnant with Henry, I followed that damn eating plan TO THE LETTER. No caffeine, no white sugar, vegetables EVERY SINGLE DAY (broccoli–ugh). Henry was premature, has bad vision, AND is vying for the title of Universe’s Pickiest Eater.
With Charlie, I lived on Starbucks coffee and brown-sugar-and-cinnamon Pop Tarts. The boy was full term, eats everything, and is the only member of our family not to have spent a DIME of his health care allotment for the year.
I’m just saying.
Posted by Susan @ 4:57 am • Uncategorized
RSS feed for comments on this post.
TrackBack URI
September 15th, 2005 at 8:14 am, Nicole Says:
I have all three (which I got at various thrift stores, so I don’t consider $1.50 for the three a bad investment).
All in all, if you’re going to regular doctor’s appointments and you/the kid are relatively healthy, I don’t think you need much in the way of books.
I think that in all three books too much was focused on stupid questions that any half-wit would know the answer to and not enough on hands-on stuff. My (born-again) in-laws got us a Focus on the Family childcare book that was actually quite good and wasn’t as James-Dobson-insane as you might think — complete with informative drawings of how to use rectal thermometers, a very helpful chart of diseases with primary and secondary symptoms, etc.
September 15th, 2005 at 8:29 am, MamaChristy Says:
They are total diet nazis in WTEWYE! Are you kidding me!?! Ice cream was a once-a-month treat in their eyes. I know very few pregnant women who didn’t eat ice cream daily. If Gweneth Paltrow can’t stay with a macrobiotic diet why she was pregnant, how I am I supposed to start one?
I did find “…Expecting” and “…the First Year” to be interesting refernce material, but I’m quite glad that I purchased them at the used book store and didn’t get sucked into paying full price.
September 15th, 2005 at 8:36 am, Candace Says:
I hated them. I thought they were stupid, boring, and unrealistic.
I loved the Touchpoints books by Brazelton, because he’s so freaking laid back.
And then when I found Quirky Kids, the heavens opened and the angels sang.
But mostly, I just took it day by day and if, at the end, the kids were still alive and they liked me, I considered myself a sucess.
September 15th, 2005 at 9:50 am, Redhead Mommy Says:
I was way more addicted to BabyCenter.com than What to Expect. And the diet part? As soon as I realized they didn’t want me eating Eggo Waffles and syrup daily (my “ice cream), I didn’t glance at it again!
And I also think that is where I found out that in the last trimester, the measurement of your belly is supposed to match how many weeks you are….hehe….my doctor stopped telling me the measurement of my belly for like the last two months. I had an 11 lb. 3oz. baby…haha!
September 15th, 2005 at 9:55 am, McSwain Says:
I had What to Expect, got a lot from it, but took all with a grain of salt (or 2 or 3). Best source of pregnant/baby advice was my Mom. Not my ex’s mom, who believed all that stuff like “Don’t raise your arms over your head; you’ll strangle the baby,” but MY mom. He’s six, and I still call for advice.
September 15th, 2005 at 12:13 pm, Homestead Says:
I actually posted about that stupid book. My doc’s office gives out a copy and my doc warned me about the “mixed” advice it gave….
If anybody wants some pregnancy/child birth/child care advice… just ask me…. Anything I can MAKE UP has to be better than what is in some of those books.
September 15th, 2005 at 2:38 pm, Susan Says:
Okay, Homestead, start making stuff up. Because I know that you will at LEAST be funnier than ANY pregnancy book ever written. (Why ARE the pregnancy books so humourless? Wade and I just cracked ourselves up with all our witty pregnancy banter. We had a whole routine about how he was going to cut the cord with his . . . oh, I’m going to save that for a real post.)
September 15th, 2005 at 8:31 pm, MamaChristy Says:
Yeah, let’s make stuff up! That would be fun! How about the one where toe-nail polish (no, no - polish on the fingers doesn’t have any effect) can give your baby birth defects. Of course, if you plan for your child to grow up to be a tortured artist, it might be helpful to have a third ear.
September 17th, 2005 at 1:23 pm, jill Says:
Alot of people don’t like this book I guess. People are entitled to their own opinions..but in defense I have to say that it was useful for me at times, and it did not make me paranoid.
At the same time, I agree…there is no need to go overboard with the dieting.