Book Report: "Your Pregnancy: For the Father-to-Be"

by Glade B. Curtis & Judith Schuler, 2003

This was the first book I read after we confirmed the Monster was a reality. Not because it was recommended to me or anything, but simply because it was small and thin (and therefore easy to take to work and hide from people), and because it was a library rental and therefore had to be read fairly quickly. As it turns out, though, this was a great first book to read.

To begin with, Your Pregnancy . . . is not a large reference tome, but that's probably a good thing. Anyway, it was a helpful starter book for someone like me who has only the most rudimentary idea of what's actually going on and going to be happening inside Stef. Not that the book got into the science of the Monster or anything. Instead, the book focused on some really helpful, practical stuff, like the jargon of pregnancy, what all those pregnancy tests are going to be looking for, and what symptoms I should expect (and when). It also let me know what symptoms are normal and what are abnormal enough that we should call a doctor, putting my mind a bit at ease. More importantly, the book gave advice on what I can do to help regarding certain symptoms, particularly in the areas of health and nutrition. So now when I plan meals or go grocery shopping I'm a bit more confident that I won't be endangering the Monster or grossing-out Stef.

Less useful (because they were more generic) were the parts of the book dealing with paying for and saving for the baby, but at least it put the idea in my head that we should be thinking about all that stuff now. Also, although it touched on the matter, the book didn't get too much into what equipment and "stuff" we're going to need. It did help focus our decision-making regarding the birthing process, but it kind of fell short regarding everything subsequent to labor.

Perhaps I only feel that way because I'm having a hard time mentally grasping, you kow, actually having a kid. Or maybe I was simply overwhelmed by all of the info at the beginning of the book that my attention wandered towards the end. Who knows? The book is called Your Pregnancy . . ., after all, not Your Child Rearing . . ., so overall I think it was a good read that was well worth the effort.