My Introduction to Parenting Books

I love parenting books, but I learned that sometimes your own experience will be different from the experience described in the book.

I first became enamored with parenting books when I was pregnant. I read all kind of books on pregnancy and parenting, and I loved learning exactly how big a fetus was in the 18th week, or when the baby could hear the world outside the uterus. By reading everything I could get my hands on I felt like I could bring this unpredictable business of having a baby down into a more manageable, logical size.

Then my daughter was born.

Sometime in the first week of her life, amidst a blur of feeding every two hours around the clock and changing what seemed like hundreds of diapers, the midwife came by to see how we were doing. I happened to mention to her that I'd read in one of my books that babies have one bowel movement in their first day of life, two the second, and then things really kicked into gear. I'd been changing what seemed like 20 a day! Could that be right? My midwife laughed and smiled, and reassured me that my daughter was perfectly normal.

Even though I was somewhat disappointed that I missed out on that fabled one bowel movement a day that I felt I'd been promised, I was glad I had done as much reading as I had. I knew what to expect with most things, and I had now learned that not every baby will follow the guidelines in the books.

Here at Parenting Resources I hope you will find the information you need to help you find the tools, books, experts and other resources you will need in your parenting journey, whether your parenting experience goes by the book or not.