Best Books for New Moms

I remember when my first child was born that I was afraid to be alone with him for more than a few hours for the first 6 weeks of his life.  It was hard, I was in pain, and it was not the blissful existence I had envisioned.  I was fortunate in that both of our parents were able to stay with us at different times, and they helped me so much.  When I look back on that time, it is amazing to me how low my confidence level was in my ability to parent!  I remember thinking that my mom was so much better at calming my baby down, and it was a long time before I felt like I could care for him as well as she could.   I don't remember exactly when it was, but at some point, I remember thinking (finally!), "I've got this!  I can do it!"  I have also been fortunate to have friends who have helped me and imparted wisdom along the way, and I derive so much joy from sharing what I've learned with other new moms!  In my opinion, these are the best books for moms-to-be or new moms.  I hope they will be helpful to you or someone you know!

The first book, Bringing Up Bebe, was written by an American journalist who was living in Paris when she had her children.  She noticed some positive differences in how Parisian children lived, slept, and ate, and she decided to share what she learned.  This is a very interesting, memoir-type read, and I highly recommend it!  Some favorite topics she discusses are sleeping through the night by 3 months, getting kids to eat real, adult food, and getting kids to live and play more independently instead of relying on parents to entertain them all the time!  She also highlights some really neat differences in French preschools.  I read this after my first child was born, and I really wished I had known about it before!  Shout-out to Nissa Vogel and Becky May for introducing me to this book in book club!

The next book is Moms On Call (0-6 months), and it really helped me to get my second child to sleep through the night by 3 months, which was awesome!  The ladies who wrote it are super positive, and they help instill confidence and joy in parenting.  They also have versions for older kids (6-15 months) and (15 months-4 years), but I have not explored these as much.  They are written by two pediatric nurse moms, so they include a lot of good health information as well, such as common illness symptoms and when to see a doctor, etc.  I also found out about this book after my first child and wished I'd known about it sooner!  Shout-out to Courtney Beaudry for recommending Moms On Call to me!

The next book helps with scheduling, but I must warn you that it is not the most interesting thing you'll ever read, and it doesn't really help with practical tips on how to get a baby to sleep through the night.  That being said, the schedule is AMAZING and has worked well with both of my boys so it's definitely worth the read.  I like Babywise's schedule better than Moms on Call's schedule, but Moms on Call gives advice on how to actually get the baby to sleep, so they are both very helpful and they complement each other well.  This was one of two books that I used with my first child.  Shout-out to Jennifer Craven and Leslie Hege, who not only recommended Babywise to me, but were also lifesavers in helping me implement it! 
 

Last but not least, Baby Bargains is an awesome book that helps you navigate the best products for your new bundle of joy!  It is absolutely priceless when it comes to creating your registry.  It is kind of like a consumer reports for all things baby.  It gives you information and ratings on different brands of EVERYTHING, and they update it every year or so.  They also help you realize you don't actually need every baby product on the market.  It really put my mind at ease when trying to choose the safest car seat and other items like that.  They are very reasonable and give you ratings in different price categories so whatever your budget is, you can know that you are making a safe choice for your baby.  Shout-out to Kristen Beavers for recommending this book to me!

* All images courtesy of Amazon.