Reddit mentions of Great Expectations: Your All-in-One Resource for Pregnancy & Childbirth

I am 23 and just had my first on NYE. Go out and get the book Great Expectations: Your All-in-One Resource for Pregnancy & Childbirth. This was my life saver. It goes over everything from symptoms week-by-week to safe foods and medications during pregnancy, how to talk to family, what to consider in case your families are different religions, what to expect from birthing classes, how a typical delivery/c-section goes, what you need to buy before baby arrives, baby shower game suggestions, etc. Literally EVERYTHING you can possibly think of. I don't think I had a question all year that it didn't cover.

Does she have a doctor? She needs a doctor, and to be on prenatal vitamins. She can get those from a drug store. I like Nature's Choice gel prenatal, they were a lot easier to digest than the solid multi-vitamin style.

Just be there for her. Listen to her problems and concerns. Talk to her about child support.

As far as when the baby gets here, don't worry too much. Babies are easy. They sleep, eat, and poop for the first few months. And when I say sleep, I mean all day. Just stay happy and love her, hold her, talk to her, let her know she's safe.

I honestly founding reading the posts in babybumps here really helpful. Anytime I worried about something, I could just go to the search reddit search field, check limit to /r/BabyBumps, type in a word, and normally someone would have already worried about something I was stressing about lol. I also was given a sort of straight forward book about what to expect week by week. Probably not the best book out there, but it was easy to read and to the point, which I find works for my ADD addled brain lol.

Anyway, I dunno how much this helped, but I hope you can find some comfort here like I did.

My favorite was the Big Book of Birth by Erica Lyon. It's easy to read and full of practical information to prepare you for the stages of labor (and managing each of them) and the various paths labor can take. It also addresses the many scary things that can happen during childbirth but in a way that is more reassuring and informative rather than frightening. Also there are a ton of birth stories included throughout. Besides driving home the "be flexible" approach to childbirth, these stories also gave me a very wide perspective on can happen during labor. For example, I might have been a little freaked out by all the shaking my body was doing in between contractions if it had not been for the fact that I had read a birth story that mentioned it. So when it happened to me I understood that it wasn't a problem and that is just one of the things that may occur.

I also enjoyed reading Homebirth in the Hospital by Stacey Marie Kerr for more great birth stories and tips for attempting natural childbirth and Pregnancy Sucks by Joanne Kimes who gives us permission to not love every second of growing child and showed me how really good I had it during my own pregnancy. Finally my week by week guide and general information book of choice was Great Expectations by Sandy and Marcie Jones. Happy Reading!

Great Expectations: All in One, it doesn't scare the crap out of you like What to Expect, it isn't as repetitive, and tracks the stages of development during pregnancy. It's the only one I went back to and recommend to friends.