Read your way to a healthy pregnancy

I'm not enrolled in a Lamaze class to prepare for the late May birth of my baby (is that a mistake?). However I was checking out the Lamaze Web site and found a quick sheet you can reference of "2008 Recommended Resources for Pregnant Women and their families" that may be of interest if you're expecting too.

A few books I hadn't heard of before that stood out to me:

• Nurturing Baby and me during Pregnancy (book and CD with ways to bond with your baby)
• Breathe your way through birth with yoga
• Mama Knows Breast: A Beginner's Guide to Breastfeeding (One Amazon reviewer called it a "Fun Breastfeeding 'Manual' for Moms." Received five stars from six customer reviews.)

I'm all about utilizing free resources - that's what you get for being raised by teachers - so I'm looking them up at the local library now. Otherwise I'll add to my Amazon wish list. I'm most interested in the breathing book for labor. Let me know if you recommend any of these books.

Ideas on how to connect to your baby

I'm such a nerd - I LOVE the library! Some of my meditation and pregnancy books I reserved online were available for pick up yesterday. One was Magical Beginnings, Enchanted Lives by Deepak Chopra, which is a "holistic guide to pregnancy and childbirth." So far, I've read the first chapter, and it explained a lot abou the development of the fetus, but more deeply than other books. Such as babies can smell in the womb and exhibit preference for smells and tastes exposed to in the womb - my baby is going to like some spicy food!

I really enjoyed this excerpt from the book:

"Throughout your pregnancy your body is your unborn baby's universe. You are the rivers, sunlight, earth, atmosphere, and sky for this being growing within you. your baby's body, mind and soul are intimately intertwined with your own. Together you express the flow of life."

So far there are also suggested exercises and suggestions on how to connect with your baby such as journaling, touching your belly throughout the day and send loving thoughts to your baby. One that really sounded cool, and I wish I would've read this before the ground froze, is to plant a tree or flowering bush to symbolize the growth of your baby in the womb. Once the child is bigger, you can take care of it together.

A new book for new moms

Yesterday I received books ordered online at Hay House Publishing's site for a steal at $5 each (a holiday special). Some of the books usually sell for $15-$30 so I felt like I found some bargains and wonderful gifts as well. I found one for myself called The Mommy Chronicles by Sara Ellington and Stephanie Triplett. It's a collection of real e-mails between two girlfriends who both are pregnant for the first time a few weeks apart. They keep in touch through birth and new motherhood via electronic mail since they live in different areas of the country.

I started reading it last night, and it's really entertaining. Reminds me a lot of e-mails between myself and some of my friends who are pregnant or have already given birth. In fact, my good friend Shannan had her second baby yesterday morning! It's a boy, and they named him Drew Miles! (She didn't find out the sex and kept the name a secret.) Now she has a boy and a girl, which is awesome because it sounds like she's done with pregnancy, no matter what they ended up having! Congratulations Shannan and Kurt!

Back to the book. Seems like the pregnancy section of the book must be a small percentage of the actual content, and the book is more focused on being new mothers (I'm on page 25, and they are both over halfway done with the pregnancy. The book is 231 pages total.) Not sure if I'm quite ready to read about the baby actually being here - I'm definitely more nervous about taking care of the baby versus the labor. It's basically a simple, time comparison; labor, hopefully, will take hours versus child rearing, which is FOREVER! OK, breathe deeply - inhale, exhale. I'm better now... I'll keep reading and will let you know what I think, but so far so good.