waughblog

In the few weeks since we found out/announced about this baby adventure we have received, inheritted, been prescribed or otherwise come into possession of quite a lot of baby/pregnancy related literature.  There is a ton of this stuff out there, which is not all that surprising, but what is curious is the scope and/or depth of topics that some of these authors attempt to cover in one volume. 

100,000+ Baby Names.  As the title implies, this book contains a whole bunch of names that are all sorted in various ways.  Some of the best categories of names in this book are: Food & Beverages (Alfredo, Ginger, Pepper, Clementine, Saffron), Crime Fighters (Elliott, J. Edgar, Sherlock, Starsky), Lord of the Rings Characters (Giladria, Gimli, Theoden, Balrock), Harry Potter Characters(come on - you know these), Tycoons (Warren, Donald, Ted, Sam & Bill), and my favorite Mythological Figures (it's been a while since I ran into my buddies Prometheus, Ulysses, Aesculapius, Dionysus, and Romulus).

The Expectant Father.  This book has 260 pages that mostly describe the ways in which the mother of your child is going to be mean to you over the next 10 or so months, and how much it is all going to cost.  There are also a number of not-funny cartoons.

What to Expect When You are Expecting.  This book is just rivetting.  It claims right on the back cover to have "Comforting answers to hundreds of questions". I haven't actually read any of it yet, but I have flipped through and looked at the pictures, and they tell quite an interesting story.  For example, if you are "expecting" to give birth to Chunk from The Goonies, you would want to check out page 134.   If you are "expecting" that your woman may to go into labor near the beginning of college football season and think there may be a Mizzou game on during delivery, then you'll want to teach her this technique on page 201.  If you are "expecting" that your husband might try to watch the game in the delivery room and you think you might have to karate chop him in the throat or kick him in the shin, then you should check out page 191 (see Keeley reading this chapter in the picture to the right). If you think that you might give birth to a White Dwarf star...a giant ball of flames and gas, then you can "expect" your stomach to look like this picture on page 291.  There are also a LOT of various pictures of female anatomy that are too disturbing for a PG rated blog.

On Becoming Baby Wise.  Haven't even cracked the cover on this one, but I bet it tells you how to have a really smart baby.

Keeley also has a book that is basically a very detailed journal to write in (that's what blogs are for).  We also got a bunch of books and pamphlets from the doctors office.

I have yet to find the book on How to Hold a Baby when both hands are playing Super Mario Galaxy.  One piece of advice that I got verbally but haven't found in a book is: Don't try to shoot waste-basket hoops using dirty diapers as the basketball (both insightful and relevant).  There may be other pieces of advice along this same line, but I haven't found them yet.