What to Expect Books
When pregnant, and even with my first child here, I have found the 'What to Expect...' books by H. Murkoff invaluable.
During my pregnancy the
'What to Expect When You're Expecting', Third Edition
Book helped me understand what physical and emotional changes I, and my baby, would be going through. It gave me a month by month summary, although I did often skip ahead to see what would be happening in a few months time as I became so engrossed in it.
Now that my daughter is here, I use the
'What to Expect the First Year', Second Ed
to give me some insight into development and growth. I've never been a mother before so it's really handy having something to refer to when you have questions that need to be answered and reassuring when you find out it is all quite normal.
My daughter is 7 months at the moment, so before she passes that first year, I'll be looking at getting the
'What to Expect the Toddler Years'
book to again, give me some indication of what to expect, like everyone else, it's a whole new learning curve for me still, and I learn more and more every day.
I'm sure I'll be pulling these books out again when I fall pregnant with my second child to re-read them, and pass them down.
For those guys out there, here is a good book for you to understand your wife's changes throughout pregnancy
'What To Expect When Your Wife Is Expanding'
, this is by Thomas Hill, I haven't actually read a copy of it myself though.
The books are written in plain English, anything technical is explained well, you don't need a degree to understand these books.
They have given me a lot of assistance and reassurance, and I always keep my current book close at hand.
Labels: baby, h murkoff, pregnancy, what to expect, what to expect in the first year, what to expect in the toddler years, what to expect when expecting
MAYBE BABY/MAYBE MOM
Trying to conceive? The Maybe Baby/Maybe Mom is here to help you.
MaybeMOM Ovulation Tester with Mini Microscope
will help you determine when you are ovulating. The ‘average’ woman ovulates 14 days into her cycle. That is, 14 days after her last menstrual period began. But really, who is average? Research shows that only 30% of women actually ovulate in the middle of their menstrual cycle.
Finding the fertilization time for you will be different to the woman you see behind the counter of the shop, different to the lady living across the road, different to your beautician, it is an independent.
Determining YOUR independent fertilization time is crucial for you to be able to conceive as you will only be fertile for 24 to 36 hours in each cycle, therefore leaving a small window to conceive, and if you don’t know when your fertile time is in your cycle then you are given a difficult task to conceive.
It is more difficult for women who don’t have regular 28 day cycles to determine when their fertile period is. Most women are fertile between days 10 to 17 of their menstrual cycle.
MaybeMOM Ovulation Tester with Mini Microscope takes away the anguish of when you will be fertile. All you need to do is simply place a sample of saliva on the microscopic lens, leave it for a few minutes, and then look through the lens. It is amazing, I have used this product myself and fell pregnant with my first child within months, after realizing that my fertile period was at day 10 of my menstrual cycle (and not the average 14 days into the cycle), once day 10 hit there were fern leaves showing up on the microscopic lens to indicate that I was fertile, a picture I truly appreciated.
MaybeMOM Ovulation Tester with Mini Microscopeis by far the most effective and reliable method to determine a woman’s fertile period, and thus making it easier for a couple to conceive without having the added pressure that some couples have to endure for the most memorable time of their lives.
Labels: baby, conceive, conception, fertile, fertilization, maybe baby, maybe mom, menstrual cycle, ovulate, ovulation
Sleeping Baby
When my husband and I went to our GP to confirm our pregnancy, one of the first things the GP said to us was to try and develop a
sleeping routine BEFORE baby was born.
We did a LOT of research into baby sleep routines. Of course, it's hard to know what to expect when you haven't had a child before, so we gathered as much information as we could.
I think you learn so much from friends with their children of what to do and what not to do, and having some proven theories behind you is also a good idea.
We followed a great
sleeping routine, and fortunately our 6 month old daughter sleeps wonderfully. She was sleeping through the night at about 6 weeks, and after developing a good routine she began going down well for her daytime naps. I know some people whose babies are older, and they're waking every 3 hours during the night for feeding! I enjoy my sleep and definitely could not handle that!
Now that she is 6 months, she sleeps 12 hours at night, and she has 3 naps during the day, 2 of those naps are 2 hours each and the third nap is about 40 minutes (one sleep cycle) but it's fantastic as I get a good night sleep and I also get to do my own things during the day while she is napping (in fact, I even get bored sometimes, which is why I get so much time to spend on the computer writing about things that I know about health and family).
We were fortunate enough in getting our daughter to self settle and not having to rely on rocking, pacifiers or any other comforters to get her off to sleep. She is on a 4 hour routine during the day (pretty much on the dot) and whenever she does wake up during a 2 hour nap or is thrown out of a 4 hour routine is when she's going through a growth spurt or teething, which is only for a couple of days and then she's back to herself again.
We have a lot to owe to having established good
sleeping habits so early on.
Labels: baby, self settle, sleep, sleeping baby, sleepytime secrets
