Baby Books

I got this book right before my 3rd child was born, and ended up reading it mostly after the birth. Most of his answers are very good, but I was taken aback when he answers questions about labor and birth in water. He says that water birth is safe but that water won't help with labor pain. I had just experienced immense relief from labor pain when I got in the hot tub at the hospital, and wondered why this doctor so casually dismissed the potential relief warm water can bring. I can only guess it is because he has never experienced it himself!

I remember Dr. Poliakin giving me this book when I first saw him while pregnant with my first child. I already had a stack of pregnancy books but this is the one I ultimately referred to throughout the pregnancy. Dr. Poliakin gave straightforward advice that went past current trends and was based on his extensive knowledge and experience. Unlike the What to expect books - his book actually allowed you to enjoy pregnancy while knowing that you were doing everything in your power to keep your baby safe. Plus, he's a great cheerleader when it comes to trying to get pregnant and going through pregnancy!

I highly recommend this book to all expectant mothers and fathers. This book gives you straightforward and down-to-earth answers to all your questions, without causing undue concern as some other books tend to do. The Q&A format makes it easy to read and refer back to. Buy this book!!

More of an easy to read reference book than one of those long-winded pregnancy "manuals," this book is fantastic! Every possible concern and question I had was answered clearly and quickly. Dr. Poliakin also addresses hundreds of things I hadn't thought of and I'm sure I will go back to this book over and over again for the answer to different questions. I highly recommend this book to any woman who is expecting. As a side note: I left the book laying around the house and my husband picked it up and has since read it cover to cover - so he liked it too.

I got this book from a friend as a gift and I absolutely love it. It has answered so many of my questions and I constantly refer back to it. This book by far has been my favorite pregnancy book and I would recommend it to everyone.

I'm recommending this book to all my clients. It provides a 'scientific' confirmation of parents' inner wisdom, and many people need that.
Trusting and knowing how to access our own best instincts (and sometimes that instinct is to seek help from a professional or other outside source) are solid and effecive parenting tools. I'm glad to have more confirmation that learning to express love and affection in all its many forms to our offspring is the essence of good parenting.
[...]

I've found this book a great insight to many areas of human brain development and all its "issues".
This book should be read in conjunction with many other books which also look at psychology. I do not feel this book will answer questions standing on its own as you will get a one sided view - as in the author talks about her situations within her life. But in saying that MANY people will relate to what she is talking about and many people will find her scientific information very interesting.
I enjoyed this book and found that I was able to explain to many others who "poo poo" our parenting methods the reasons why...but you will always need more information so don't stop at just this wonderful book.

Everyone has seen a mother kiss her infant. Who would have thought such a simple gesture would be needed--very much needed.

Gerhardt explores all the recent scientific research on infant brain growth, and has come up with a book that's desperately needed.

Mothers who are angry, depressed, or cold, can alter the actual structure and growth of their child's expanding brain. "Early experience has a great impact on the baby's physiological systems, because they are so unformed and delicate...Even the growth of the brain itself...may not progress adequately if the baby doesn't have the right conditions to develop" (p 19).

There are some scary facts here. Mothers who do not adequately love and interact with their children create babies with a smaller than usual prefrontal cortex, babies likely to grow up to suffer from depression and social problems.

Another consequence of poor mothering can be narcissistic personality disorder (p 157).

One third of our children today are born illegitimate. How many of those poor mothers can cope, work jobs, and provide a truly loving and interactive home for their children?

An excellent source of information for everyone. Would be extremely helpful for mothers-to-be. Helps you understanding your developmental psychology. Gives you more information on you and why you turned out the way you did. Should be required reading for high school students who will be parents of the future. It would give them a better overview on how to interact with their children in a more positive way.

This book really opened my eyes to the fundamentals of brain development in infancy. I had no idea how much the actual physiology of the brain is affected by infant experience, not just the psychological. Sources are well cited, ideas are well backed up in scientific research, and the information is presented in a way which benefits lay readers as well as researchers (with an introduction about brain structure and development).

I suggest every parent-to-be get a hold of this book. One reviewer was dissapointed by the lack of specific exercises to play with. However, I don't think they are necessary because this book gives specifics about why certain strategies affect infants. I think understanding why certain types of parenting work better than others makes parents more likely to come up with the kind of adaptive spontaneous strategies which come out of such a way of thinking. You could also check out Brazelton for more specific info about exercises to do with your baby.

As a side note, once you read this book and make decisions about parenting based on the exhaustive research cited within, you will not only feel more confident about your parenting, but you will be able to defend against attacks from helpful but persistent grandparents, in-laws, and friends - should you want to engage in such discussions.

This book has great pictures of animals. The little one loves it. I do wonder why some of the previous reviews talked about different textures on the pages that the child can touch. The copy I got was just a plain old board book. It is still great and the munchkin loves it. I'm just wondering if there are more than one book with a similar name and someone got their reviews mixed up or if I ended up getting something else than what I clicked on. No big deal, just something I noticed.

I just love ALL the books in this series. My children just loved them when they were little, and if you've ever had babies you know how valuable a good book is -- you get to sit down for a while! They were fun for me to read and really fun for them to explore. In fact, I've already packed them away in their hope chests for when they grow up and have children.
Now, whenver I know anyone who has had a baby, these books (as many as I can find) are my gift.
Julie Clark Robinson, author of Live in the Moment

All of the DK (publisher) books have gorgeous photographs, and this one is no exception. The photos are sharp and bright and the animals are highlighted against a white background, which makes them look like they are about to jump off the page. The textures in this book are really unique too. So many of the touch and feel books have all the same textures (fur, sandpaper, etc). This book has really unique and interesting textures (e.g. a cool, rubbery, soft, smooth surface for the dolphin - it really feels like the skin of sea mammals I have touched; and a bumpy shiny surface for the lizard skin). My 14 month old daughter really enjoys feeling all the different textures and "reading" this book to herself. Highly recommended.

This book has the greatest variety of different touch sensations that I have seen anywhere. My 2 year old son received this for Christmas last year and it has been his favorite. The sticky tree frog was the best page for him. It did lose the stickiness quickly, but I found an adhesive at a craft store that was specifically for tackiness. I just put it on the spots whenever they wear out and then we have weeks of fun again.

My 4-month-old loves this book. She expecially loves the lion's long fur. She grabs it and will hold on for a long time. Needless to say, we spend most of our time on the lion page! But the other animals are neat too; a bumpy lizard, a smooth dolphin, a frog with sticky pads on its fingers, etc. This is a nice book to share with your child.

This book does a wonderful job of explaining where babies come from in the context of a loving family. It's written on more than one level for more than one age group, so it can meet the needs of different children and families. This is one of my standard gifts to young families, because the subject always comes up sooner than you would expect, and it's nice to have this on the shelf so you're prepared!

The school teacher of my son recommend it to me. It was so helpful for explain my kid the many ways that the families could be. He feel so comfort to know that he is adoptive at the same time that he is so special for us. A book full of wisdom and love. I really recommend it!!!

We have used this book to help educate and explain the sensitive topic of intimacy and reproduction to 3 of our children. It is the best book we have found on this topic. It is impressive that the book is written and presented in two ways; to be read to younger children, and also for older children to reread on their own.

My only criticism of the book is that, at one point, the book explains that God created us to be like him, then just a bit later, it says that "nobody knows what God looks like". This is a little confusing to children, so we crossed that line out and solved our problem.

We recommend this book to anyone struggling with or unsure about explaining "The Birds and Bees" to their children. We also recommend it as a useful tool for those confident about talking to their children but searching for an appropriate way to explain it to young children.

Hi y'all, I'm StoryMaker. Me and my mom just recently read The Wonderful Way That Babies Are Made and it is simply a wonderful book. It is a christian book about how babies develop. It is made lovingly and is a good approach to the topic. I also like how they have multiple sets of text. One style is sort of poem in a sort of big font. If you're older and can understand more, you can also read the slightly smaller boxed text for more information. The paintings are beautiful, realistic, adorable, and touching. It is completely kid-friendly and great for all ages. If you love God and babies this is highly recommended! Signed, StoryMaker. "Gotta trust the kid's review!"

I highly recommend this book for any parent who wants to make Sex-Ed no big deal! I grew up with this book... and it is ***Awesome***!! The illustrations are gorgeous, but more importantly I think it gives enough information without either grossing the child(ren) out... or leaving them wondering. It's from a Christian perspective and it is written in two parts. The main part is in the larger print and is geared for the younger age level, and the smaller print is for the older ones, and goes into a little more detail. The older text it talks about saving intercourse for the person you're married to. The whole subject is framed in the context of creation, creating families and creating babies. It also has a section on adoption and the fact that Joseph adopted Jesus. Momma started reading us the larger print when we were about three or so, and the larger when we got closer to 10-12 years old. When we were little, she treated it like any other bed-time story.... she kept it up on our shelf, and pulled it down every so often to read it to us before bed. Because she kept it such a casual thing... sex was never was a big deal! I definitely plan on purchasing this book, and using it with my future family!!!

I found this to be a wonderfully inspiring book. It's a book of birth stories broken down into sections of natural childbirth, from homebirths to hospital births and in between. Each section has an informational portion at the beginning. I'd planned only to read the sections that I thought pertained to me, but ended up reading the whole thing and loving it
all. It gave me so much confidence and made me laugh more than once
as well. Reading birth stories online is wonderful too, but this book was
exceptional. :)

I loved this book. The stories were so incredibly encouraging. It's a must-read for women wanting to have a natural childbirth. The stories are very real and there is something in this book that every mother can relate to. I loved it. It was wonderful.

This book opened my eyes to how the birthing process can work with the mother's body rather than against. This is my second child and I didn't read anything with the last. I enjoyed learning about other women's expierence with birthing in other atmosphere's rather than the hospital. It was a great book that I couldn't put down right away. The book went into detail about the midwives and doctors and what the differences can make. I recommend this book for women who want to learn more about birthing naturally.

I really liked the diversity of stories in this book. They weren't all perfect as planned but offered a realistic and optimistic look at natural childbirth. I appreciated the different types of mom's. Single moms, different backgrounds, first timers and old pros. I have enjoyed reading the stories as I lead up to my own birth experience. I would recommend it to anyone considering natural childbirth.

I believe in the power of narrative, particularly for those of us pregnant women who are bombarded by unwanted horror stories. This book is the perfect antidote. My husband gave it to me soon after we got our BFP. It contains 39 women's birth stories. All of the women wanted a natural childbirth going in -- not all of them got what they wanted, which was valuable to read in and of itself. The book contains good information about choosing caregivers (you may want to steal some of the questions to ask when interviewing potential caregivers). It organizes the stories by which caregiver the women used -- OBs, midwives, doulas (OK, doulas aren't usually the primary caregiver, and here they are in addition to OBs, but giving them a separate section hightlights their value), and a small final section on unassisted childbirth. Some of the stories are a play-by-play, some a little more atmospheric. If you are planning a natural birth and you want some encouragement, you want to read this book!! Or if you are in search of a gift for a pregnant woman who wants a natural birth, this is an overwhelming vote of confidence -- my husband got it for me as a congratulatory gift.

I loved this book. I cannot recommend it enough.

If you are considering buying it (either as a parent of a Preemie, someone who knows someone with a Preemie and wants to understand a little more, or someone who is just interested in a well written story of life and survival) then this is well worth your time. The book tells it how it is so don't expect a sugar coating but it is all the better for that.

One word of caution though - as the mother of an IUGR preemie I am glad that I did not hear about this book until after we were out of the hospital and had some sort of certainty. Essential reading now but may have been a little too raw back then.

I loved this book. It puts everything about life into perspective. I found myself checking my own life - am I doing the best I can as a father? Am I truly supportive of my family in the things that matter? Do I see the best in my children? This book challenged me to grow. I found too that I felt inspired after reading. It is an awesome source of hope for families.

I can say I'm the proud mother of a preemie - 22 wks, weighed 397 grams (14 ounces) and 11 1/2 inches long. He spent the first 5 months of life in the NICU. He (Zuri - Kiswahili for 'beauty') is doing well now. He's 2 1/2 yrs old and is a strong toddler. He has some minor developmental delays but otherwise he's here and healthy! Hang in there parents and read all these stories. You ARE not alone...you didn't BRING this on yourself and you WILL survive it!

Having an ex-preemie myself, I was so relieved to find the truths in this book, the ones the Hallmark Card Preemie Books don't say: what it's like to bring home a sick child, what it's like not to know his future, what it's like when the doctors turn out to be wrong or to have lied. Many many preemies end up like Alex with disabilities (mine did) and it's so important for their stories to be told. Right on, Jeff.

I am a grandparent of preemies, so I know that Jeff Stimpson's book is an honest and moving account of what it's like to watch a brave tiny baby go through medically necessary procedures that you can't bear to watch, and then what it's like to take a preemie home who is extremely fragile and on various medical equipment. Coming through an experience like the one related in "Alex: The Fathering of a Preemie" is something that changes your perception of the world forever, and makes you acutely aware of the fragility of life, and how poignant every day is that we have with our loved ones.

Hey, wouldn't it be funny if you saw an alligator wearing shoes who talks? You should read Alligator Shoes by Arthur Dorros. This is a silly story about Alvin the Alligator who tries on a lot of different shoes. This is a funny book that will make you laugh!

This is a funny story about an alligator. You have never seen an alligator like this before! The pictures and story are fantastic. If you like to use your imagination, buy this book! It is an awesome book that young children will love to read!

Alligator Shoes is very interesting. We liked when the lady picked up Alvin's feet and thought they were shoes. It is a funny book. It is a cool for 1st and 2nd graders to read.

Alligator Shoes is a funny book written on the kindergarten level. Older children will also enjoy this book because Alvin is funny. It was funny when the lady fainted in the shoe store. It was also funny watching Alvin try on all those shoes, especially the basketball shoes. The illustrations were good and the ending was terrific.

Miss Chamberlain's summer enrichment class thought "Alligator Shoes" was a very funny book. We especially like when the alligator gets locked in the shoe store and tries on all the shoes. We laughed outloud at all the funny shoes he tried on becasue alligators don't really wear shoes. Check this book out for a funny time.

I bought many books for Zara, our 7 month old, and none interest her as much as this one.
She really enjoys it each time I read this book to her, she smiles and gets all excited the minute I put her on my lap and take this book out.
Every time after reading it, and I put it aside, she'll reach for the book, takes it and places it on her lap, and then leans back against me, indicating she wants me to read it to her again.
Yesterday, when we reached the page KISS KISS, I LOVE YOU. She just leaned forward and kissed the baby photo on that page!! And when we reached the last page with the mirror on, she leaned forward again and kissed her own image on the mirror!
She did the same thing again when I re-read the book to her. It's just amazing!
Later, she gave me a pack on the cheeck when we're done with the book, and I asked her for one.
She just learnt how to kiss with this book!
This book is a must have for babies!

I bought this book for my daughter when she was 7 months old because she pulled it off the shelf at Barnes and Noble and couldn't stop looking at it. The faces of the babies featured in the book are adorable!

Now, she is 19 months, and both she and I have the whole book memorized. Her favorite page is, "Baby, Baby, Where are you?" Then when you turn the page, it reads, "Boo!" in gigantic letters! She giggles every time!

This book is definitely a great first step toward literacy, and it is a lot of fun. Be prepared to read it over, and over, and over, and over...

Babies love to look at other babies, duh! That's why I bought this as a gift...the recipient claimed this as her favorite book, and now mine feel the same! This is one's their fav., because there is just enough happenning to keep there attention (3-6 months) and not too much to dissinterest them. I'm sure the babes will love this for a long time in the future.

My son loved this book as an infant. It was the book that he first started turning pages in at 8 months old. We wake him up with "Wakey wakey sleepy baby" (first page of the book) and he still loves it at 19 months. A must have for all babies. I also recommend Clever Color from the same series.

Our son has loved this book ever since we got it for him when he was 6 months. He loves the pictures and he loves the text. Sometimes when he's fussy we'll just say, "Baby, Baby, Where Are You?" and he'll calm down!

About a month or so ago, he dropped Baby Boo in a dirty diaper (he was reading it while I was changing him) and Baby Boo had to be retired. I ordered a replacement, it was backordered...anyway, I finally got it today.

Our son (now almost 16 months) was so excited to see Baby Boo again that he started shrieking and waving his hands! He smiled and laughed as I read him the book. Then he sat and turned the pages for the longest time...and when I looked over, he was kissing the babies, on the mouth! He'd turn a page, smile, look at the baby face and give it a big kiss. He recommends it to all babies everywhere!

Superb book, great pics .. left a great impression on me and as i reflect
much of my childhood growing up with this plane..i just felt so nostalgic
a must get and not to be missed for those who need to close the chapter
of the tomcats in their hearts.. will never be forgotten

ps..amazon's delivery was super fast considering im half way round the world,,. many thanks

Every thing was just fine except the mistake the authors have made by calling the Persian Gulf the "arabian gulf" which is kinda like an insult to the Iranian readers as Iran is the only country that is now operating F-14s (even though it is in fewer numbers). But all in all, this was a great book with lots of awesome photos. I liked it!

This book has some of the best tomcat photography you will find. The text, while interesting could be a little more heavy on the history of each of the fighter wings it covers. Hildebrandt's effort is nonetheless stunning. I only wish I could do this kind of photography for a living!

If you loved the Tomcat with passion, and miss the sound of those two General Electric jet engines on a hot clear day, this is the perefect book. Beautiful photos , it was a fitting tribute to one of the greatest fighters ever built.

I must be getting old. I remember when the F-14 Tomcat was just being designed and adopted by the Navy. Now we are telling them 'Good Bye.'

The F-14 entered service with the Navy in 1972. It was retired from the U.S. Navy fleet on 22 September 2006, having been replaced by the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. As of 2007, only the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force still flies the aircraft. Where did those 34 years go?

This book is a memorial to the Tomcat. It's a photographic essay of the last seven squadrons (down from over thirty) to fly the big bird. The photography is beautiful, mostly in the air, but quite a few on the deck of the big ships, and a couple very sadly showing the old birds sitting out in the field, stripped of unit ID, stripped of their soul.

It's a beautiful book, and an excellent tribute to the men and their very beautiful, very high performance machines.

Great Baby book, thinking about getting one for my 2nd child as well. Truly had never considered it a puppy book, and not a human baby book. Who knew!

There's just something to be said for Wegman's puppy images being juztaposed with images of your own baby. This is my favorite baby book I've seen out there and I really shopped around. I didn't want a "traditional" baby book, but I did want to add in all of the usual information somewhere. Wegman's Baby Book let me do all of that, provided me with a super cute height ruler that I can use for longer than a year and all with pictures of shiny, silver weimeraners. So adorable. And, the cover is really soft as a bonus.

The best thing about this baby book are the ADORABLE photos of puppies in it. It also has pages for everything: family tree, lock of hair, growth chart, ultrasound photo, first birthday, etc. etc. I looked around for the perfect baby book and this one is it. I have bought 3 more copies since for friends who have had babies.
This is just the BEST baby book I've seen!

This is the cutest baby book I've seen. I hate the cheesy ones you see in the store. Perfect size for what I wanted.

I just bought this book as a gift for my cousin who is pregnant. It is absolutely adorable. If you like animals or are familiar with Wegman's work, it is just precious. I think it is a perfect gift for anyone expecting. There are the traditional baby book things--foot prints, family tree, firsts, etc. accompanied by terrific pictures. I would really recommend this to anyone--and the cover is this wonderfully soft velvet that makes it all the more lovable!