High Maintenance Mom

I was so excited to be pregnant the first time that I was asking for advice from complete strangers well before I had to move out of my "skinny" jeans. Throughout the pregnancy I read the GirlFriends Guide and What to Expect but I didn't realize that I wouldn't have as much free time to read after the baby was born. Here is my list of books that helped us through the first year. All can be found on Amazon.com and most likely at your local bookstore...
What to expect in the First Year

I didn't buy this one until I came home from the hospital and once I did I realized that I would have liked to have read the introduction before I came home. I also used this book to learn about the upcoming doctor's appointments and help with illnesses. I found the month structure in the book to be difficult -- I still have to count and then guess if month eight refers to the period of time before my child is eight months or the period of time afterwards. This book was not as helpful for determining what to do when I walked into my son's room around 7 months and he had his finger stuck in his eye, which I was able to pull out before collapsing in the hallway. I called his doctor for the eye incident and the parent hotline at the hospital when he fell off our bed at three months (everyone tells you they can roll but you don't believe it until you see or hear it...)

Girlfriends Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood

I found this book to be amusing and provide necessary relief. I didn't love it as much as the Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy but then I was really too tired to have an opinion about anything that didn't directly help me sleep more.

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child

Almost everyone lets their kids cry it out at some point. Weissbluth lets you know that it's okay to do it earlier rather than later. I highly recommend this book and I still refer to it at three years. We followed a mixture of advice from this book and from Babywise. Both our kids were going twelve hours between feedings at twelve weeks. But, I had to let both kids cry it out along the way and it was hard. Both of our kids cried in their sleep and I forced myself to not touch them from day three on unless I could see their eyes open. Another way to make crying it out easier is to be totally sleep deprived yourself so you physically can't get up to go see them. I would stare at the clock and then let them cry for five to ten minutes at which point I would fall back asleep. If I went in to see them, I would have to start all over again. I understand that this doesn't work for everyone but it's been good for us.

BTW - we're now letting our three year-old cry it out again to make his bedtime earlier after having him push his bedtime out to 10 PM while he learned to use the potty.

BabyWise

This is a great book to read while you are pregnant and still don't realize how your life is going to change. It begins by telling you that you are in control and that you are adding a new person not someone to rule your life. There is truth here but I've heard people refer to this book as a cruel way to bring up kids. The main idea is to let kids learn to fall asleep on their own. It talks about breaking the day into cycles - eat, play, sleep - eat, play, sleep. Once our son was a few days old we didn't put him to sleep right after feeding so he could learn to put himself to sleep. And magically he did. And he slept a lot. And he didn't need a bottle before bed or nap. We didn't follow a strict schedule for either child but I know people who have and they loved it.

Becoming the Parent you Want to be - A Sourcebook of Strategies for the First Five Years

This book was recommended by a few our our teachers at GeoKids. I've found it very helpful in my quest to learn how to talk in the positive -- (It looks like you want to hit something. We can hit pillows, but I am going to stop your body from hitting your little brother with your new baseball bat). I should be forced to reread it all the time because I find myself yelling at our three year-old now and it's not working for either of us. This book has been very helpful for dealing with siblings, food, body parts, communication, potty learning, dealing with family, and probably numerous other things I've forgotten. What this book didn't help with was the longest temper tamtrum in our lives which started at 10:30 with a plea to watch a video. I had every book we owned out and nothing really helped. I knew not to give in to the request but that was pretty much all I knew. After two hours we read a book and he finally fell asleep. The next morning we all went to the doctor who identified the raging ear infection.

Child of Mine - Feeding with love and good sense

This book has been helpful for me to feel better about trying to provide a healthy eating environment for my kids. Many of us grew up in what may not be recognized as not so healthy environments when it comes to food. I want my kids to be able to make good choices on their own and it's frustrating to hear that friend's kids love all their vegetables or eat everything their parent's make. This book has helped me begin to figure out how I want to approach my childrens' quest for autonomy at the dinner table and it makes me feel better about how my kids behave.

Breastfeeding

Sears is the all-time cheerleader for breastfeeding having breastfed for about 18 years. I expected her book to make me feel guilty but instead, her cheerleading section about how wonderful breastmilk is for babies helped me get through three months of excruciating pain. Also, a friend told me that the pain could last that long, which really helped. Much of the advice I received was that I wasn't doing it right if it hurt. Somehow, it took me until both boys mouths were a little bigger (almost three months) for us all to figure it out. Sears has lots of good advice and also the longest time I've found for keeping breastmilk in the refrigerator - eight days. I found that both kids preferred "fresh" milk so I followed her advice and didn't freeze the milk until day seven or eight. I also read The Nursing Mother's Companion, Fifth Revised Edition (Nursing Mother's Companion (Paperback)) when I was trying to figure out how to breastfeed with our first. For some reason I didn't like it as much with the first but found it helpful with the second.