Reading While Pregnant
Where to spend your energy
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Gosh. My friends have been such a blessing to me in this parenting journey (and before – obviously).
Their help and words of wisdom have been incredibly motivating and inspiring no matter how I was personally feeling.
One of the most useful nuggets a friend shared with me when I was pregnant was where to spend my energy when it came to reading books while pregnant.
Specifically: don’t expend your energy reading books about being pregnant.
What?
Sure, books like What to Expect When You’re Expecting are great (I own it, and if you have time and energy, by all means go for it).
But as she pointed out, you’re already pregnant. You’re body is already going to do its thing whether you read about it or not.
And you have Google, friends, family, apps, and your doctor to question when you don’t understand all of the weird stuff that comes with pregnancy.
What you’re body doesn’t automatically understand and guide you through is everything that comes after pregnancy.
For example, when I’m super tired and my baby refuses to sleep— what do I do? IS that really the best time to start reading about sleep training? How do I get him or her to sleep better?
Or he/she is all about that boob life and REFUSES to take a bottle.
Or even a million other things that you’re body is not just going to do on it’s own.
There are so many things that feel overwhelming and unmanageable when you’re a sleep deprived zombie.
Your body has just been seriously beaten up after labor and you’re responsible for keeping this little person (or little people for those moms of multiples— bless you) alive.
Do you really think that’s going to be the appropriate time to read a stack of books on parenting and sleep training and everything else that books help coach you through? I hadn’t thought about it that way, so like I said, thank God for friends and their words of wisdom.
So I took her advice.
Instead of focusing on What to Expect When You’re Expecting, I focused on What to Expect Your First Year. I also read Happy Baby, Sleepy Baby. And you know what? Our kid sleeps!
And while I honestly recommend both of these books, I really recommend first exploring what you think you’re parenting style will be and finding books that are going to help achieve that.
Also, it wouldn’t hurt to talk to your pediatrician (yup, you’ll need to pick one BEFORE the baby comes— more of that soon) about any books he/ she thinks will help give you a leg up.
So, while I agree that pregnancy is hard, maybe make the beginning of parenting a little easier on yourself?
Good luck, momma!
