It’s also about the powerful transformation we go through on the journey to becoming “mama.” We created The Motherly Guide to Becoming Mama to coach and inspire you each step of the way. This is the pregnancy book we wish we’d had when we first became mothers—a mama-centered guide that doesn’t just focus on your baby’s needs, but honors and coaches you through this profound life change.Here’s the most important thing to remember: you are a phenom, and you are going to rock this.And you don’t have to do this alone. At your highest highs and your lowest lows, there is a village of professionals and peers to traverse this path with you.This book won’t bog you down with demands, give you more to be worried about, or tell you what to do. It’s impossible to know exactly what to expect during your pregnancy—after all, you are your own amazing woman with unique dreams, experiences, and needs. Instead, we’ve filled this illustrated guide with the best knowledge, wisdom, and support we have to offer, including:• Getting pregnant—planning, conception, fertility challenges, and finding the right care provider and birth strategy for you • Pregnancy month by month—how to understand, nourish, and support your own body and your baby’s health throughout your pregnancy• Giving birth—everything you need to feel empowered and prepared through the four stages of labor • The “fourth trimester”—helping you heal, process your experience, and thrive in the super-important and often ignored postpartum period • Tests and complications—no scare tactics, no intimidation; just good, well-researched information about the ways you can best prevent and prepare for challenges• Partners, friends, and family—our best tips for your whole support team• The many faces of mama—adoption, surrogacy, fostering, and the beautiful variety of motherhood experiences• Answers to the most common questions mamas have about finances, maternity leave, baby gear, relationships with family, nutrition, fitness, and much more Whether this is your first baby or your fourth, whether you’re still deciding about pregnancy or have an unplanned baby on the way, becoming mama involves your body, mind, emotions, lifestyle, relationships, schedule, spirituality, worldview—and most of all, your heart.This is an unprecedented time to embark on the journey of motherhood. You are part of a new generation of women elevating empowerment in all its forms. The Motherly Guide to Becoming Mama was made for you—a loving and supportive embrace of your unique motherhood journey in all its power, complexity, and beauty.

    Health professionals broadly discourage all forms of cosleeping, which, along with the potentially devastating consequences, makes deciding how and where your baby should sleep both confusing and frightening. Parents who cherish the closeness, security, and warmth of cosleeping are finding themselves conflicted, concerned, and exhausted. Cosleeping, a term which encompasses sleeping in the same room or on the same bed as your infant, is a common parental instinct driven by physiology and seen throughout human history. Despite mainstream opposition, thousands of parents continue the practice, whether intentionally, accidentally, or out of necessity. So, why do current medical guidelines insist that cosleeping is unsafe? What is the difference between SIDS and SUID, and are they related to cosleeping? What should parents do to make a safe sleep space for their infant? If a family chooses to cosleep, how should they respond to reproach from friends, family, or medical professionals? In Safe Infant Sleep, the world's authority on cosleeping breaks down the complicated political and social aspects of sleep safety, exposes common misconceptions, and compares current recommendations to hard science. With the latest information on the abundant scientific benefits of cosleeping, Dr. James J. Mckenna informs readers about the dangers of following over-simplified recommendations against the age-old practice, and encourages parents to trust their knowledge and instincts about what is and is not safe for their baby. This book offers a range of options and safety tips for your family's ideal cosleeping arrangement. These include variations of roomsharing and bedsharing, and introduce the concept of "breastsleeping." This term, coined by Dr. McKenna himself, is based on the inherent biological connection between breastfeeding and infant sleep, and provides readers with everything they need to know about safely sharing a bed with their baby. Complete with resource listings for both parents and professionals, this book teaches you how to confidently choose a safe sleeping arrangement as unique as your family.

    In Yeah Baby!, Jillian, along with her team of top-notch experts, will change everything you think you know about pregnancy, arming you with the most cutting-edge information available, so you can make the right choices for you and your little one. They will help you navigate the hidden dangers in your immediate environment; understand the check-ups, tests, and treatments your doctor recommends; and provide powerful solutions for all your issues, from heartburn and swollen feet to more serious medical concerns. Also learn how to optimize every facet of your child's development, from IQ and long-term earning potential to future level of physical fitness and even taste preferences! Yeah Baby! also features a complete meal plan with delicious, nutrition-packed recipes, and a one-of-a-kind, trimester-specific fitness program, to ensure you bounce back stronger and better than ever.Expert Dream Team: Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz, MD is an Ob-Gyn, a Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist, and board certified in Integrative and Holistic Medicine. Andrea Orbeck is a PregnancyFitness Specialist who holds an advanced degree in Kinesiology and Intracellular Physiology. Katja VanHerle, MD is one of America's Top Physicians in Endocrinology as named by Consumer Research Council of America. Cheryl Forberg, RD is an award-winning registered dietitian, chef, and New York Times bestselling author. Jay Gordon, MD, FAAP is a pediatrician who specializes in infant nutrition and breastfeeding.

    Everything a woman and her partner need to know about having a baby, from conception to pregnancy.

    Moving, memorable… [The Blue Jay’s Dance is] a book that breaks ground.”—Boston Sunday GlobeFifteen years after its initial publication, New York Times bestselling author Louise Erdrich’s beloved memoir The Blue Jay’s Dance is available for a whole new generation of families to discover. The first major work of nonfiction by the author of such classics as Love Medicine and The Plague of Doves, The Blue Jay’s Dance is, in the words of the New York Times Book Review, an “observant, tender, and honest” meditation on the experience of motherhood.

    Alan Greene has written the follow up to his best-selling book and offers parents a definitive guide for making nutritionally-sound decisions for their children. Offers parents green choices for feeding children from when they are in the womb through toddler years.This unique guide includes advice on how to transform a baby's eating habits that will positively impact their health and development for the rest of their lives. Dr. Greene has included everything a parent needs to know about creating healthy, nutritious meals that help avoid childhood obesity, and prevent childhood disease. This must-have resourceShows how what a mother eats during pregnancy effects her baby's health and eating habits for years after birth Provides the definitive guide to "green" feeding for babies from pregnancy to toddlers Filled with practical tips and advice for selecting and preparing earth friendly meals for babies Shows the health benefits for babies who eat "green" with innate nutritional intelligence The crucial follow-up to the best-selling book Raising Baby GreenIn addition to working in his medical practice, Dr. Alan Greene makes regular appearances on the Today show and writes articles for the New York Times.

    A gifted writer and teacher, Lamott (Crooked Little Heart) is a single mother and ex-alcoholic with a pleasingly warped social circle and a remarkably tolerant religion to lean on. She responds to the changes, exhaustion, and love Sam brings with aplomb or outright insanity. The book rocks from hilarious to unbearably poignant when Sam's burgeoning life is played out against a very close friend's illness. No saccharine paean to becoming a parent, this touches on the rage and befuddlement that dog sweeter emotions during this sea change in one's life.

    Two leading experts provide an authoritative and reassuring guide to the issues and concerns of adoptive and birth families through all stages of the open adoption relationship.

     Sleep. It’s the most precious commodity, especially when you’re struggling to find it. 'The Baby Sleep Guide' provides simple and easy techniques to help you establish positive sleep habits early on that will pay dividends in the long term. Includes expert support and advice on: • How to settle your baby • Understanding baby sleep cycles • Establishing a night-time routine • Safe sleep Designed to be deliberately concise for time-poor parents, 'The Baby Sleep Guide' offers clear solutions to ensure a good night’s sleep for everyone.

    Parents face complex information, difficult decisions, and overwhelming grief and worry -- with challenges that often extend well beyond those early days and weeks. As an ob/gyn, Dr. Jennifer Gunter has delivered hundreds of premature babies, but as a mother of preemie triplets, she also understands the heartbreak and challenges of prematurity. The Preemie Primer is a comprehensive resource, covering topics from delivery, hospitalization, and preemie development to parenting multiples, handling health issues, and finding special-needs programs. Compassionate, engaging, and medically grounded, The Preemie Primer is the first book on prematurity to combine the insight of a doctor with the experience of a mom.

    As a teenager, Cara's family home burnt to the ground. That tragedy led her on a journey that would span a variety of countries and cultures. While she was in Morocco, a woman suffered from a fatal injury. Grieving the unnecessary death, Cara resolved that, next time, she would know what to do to save a life.In this fascinating and searingly honest memoir, Cara reveals what eventually led her to support women in one of the most significant experiences of their lives. Balancing science with intuition, parenthood with her work, and sacrifice with joy, Cara shows us what it means to be alive and to live a life of purpose.Just as readers are fascinated by Carly Fiorina's or Elizabeth Gilbert's journeys, they will find great inspiration in Cara's journey to live her calling. Whether you read about her "in Vogue "or the" New York Times"; saw her in the documentary "The Business of Being Born," by filmmakers Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein; or are learning about her for the first time here, you are sure to be inspired by her remarkable story.

    This detachment is hard to repair and highly detrimental to a child's development-most children who feel they cannot rely on their parents grow up to become more emotionally insecure and less self-assured than their peers.The Attachment Connection sorts out the facts from the fiction about parent-child attachment and shows how paying attention to the emotional needs of your child, particularly during the first five years of development, can help him or her grow up happy, secure, and confident. You'll discover how your child's brain is developing at each stage of growth and learn to use reasonable, easy-to-implement guidelines based on sound science to foster secure attachment, healthy social skills, and emotional regulation in your child.

    Close to one in four American women experience the silent grief of pregnancy loss. Loved Baby offers much-needed support to women in the middle of psychological and physiological grief as a result of losing an unborn child.   In Loved Baby, author Sarah Philpott gently walks alongside women as they experience the misguided shame, isolation, and crushing despair that accompany the turmoil of loss. With brave vulnerability Sarah shares her own and others’ stories of loss, offering Christ-filled hope and support to women navigating grief.   This fresh and compassionate devotional offers: ·       Real talk about loss ·       Christ-filled comfort ·       Tips to manage social media, reconnect with your partner, and nourish your soul ·       Knowledge that your child is in heaven ·       Strategies to walk through grief ·       Ways to memorialize your loss   Whether your loss is recent or not, Loved Baby can be your companion as you move from the darkness of grief toward the light of hope.

    Cohen points out, play is children’s way of exploring the world, communicating deep feelings, getting close to those they care about, working through stressful situations, and simply blowing off steam. That’s why “playful parenting” is so important and so successful in building strong, close bonds between parents and children. Through play we join our kids in their world–and help them to• Express and understand complex emotions• Break through shyness, anger, and fear• Empower themselves and respect diversity• Play their way through sibling rivalry • Cooperate without power strugglesFrom eliciting a giggle during baby’s first game of peekaboo to cracking jokes with a teenager while hanging out at the mall, Playful Parenting is a complete guide to using play to raise confident children. Written with love and humor, brimming with good advice and revealing anecdotes, and grounded in the latest research, this book will make you laugh even as it makes you wise in the ways of being an effective, enthusiastic parent.

    This book is for you. Based on his viral blog post and addressing concerns from “my baby won’t poop” to “my boy likes girl toys” to “everything costs too much,” David Vienna‘s wise and funny parenting advice will amuse and inform—and remind you that (almost) nothing is worth freaking out about.-Includes advice from actual experts!-Great new dad gift that’ll keep him calm, cool, and collected-Paperback; 5.5 x 7.75 inches; 112 pagesEditorial Reviews“Step 1: Buy this book. Step 2: There is no second step.”—Farah Miller, editor Huffington Post Parents“If Vienna’s CTFD had been available four years ago, the money I could have saved on antacid and Grecian Formula would easily fund my daughter’s first year of college.”—Dave Engledow, author of World’s Best Father