Reading Lately...

-Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman. A book about an American journalist who becomes a parent while living in France. She realizes that, among other things, French babies sleep through the night earlier and that French children are better eaters and more well-behaved than American children. She also notices that French moms lose the baby weight more quickly and are generally happier and more relaxed. This book is her assessment of what they do differently and why it works. It definitely made me think differently about what children are capable of and how I want to raise Noah. I would never try some of the things French parents do (it's apparently normal for five-year-olds to go on a week-long trip with their classmates, no parents, just a teacher and one or two other adults to supervise), but it was still interesting to read about parenting in another culture.

-The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. This book is chalked full of research on how habits are formed an how to use that information to your advantage. A few interesting things I learned:

• 40% of our daily activities are based on habit.
• A habit cannot be permanently eliminated unless it is replaced with a new habit.
• All habits involve 3 things: a cue, an action, and a reward. If you can identify the cue and reward, you can use that information to help change/replace the habit (the action).
• Case studies of people who have made huge life changes (think overweight, divorced, unemployed smoker to marathon-running, happily married, non-smoker with a stellar career) have found that the key to changing your life is setting and achieving very small, manageable goals. Accomplishing these small goals gives you a boost of confidence, which encourages you to set and achieve more small goals. Eventually, all of these little things add up to big changes.

-Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr. This book covers the basics of a plant-based diet and also includes information on juicing, dry brushing, detoxing, probiotics, why the pH of the foods you eat is so important and so much more. She also shares her favorite vegan and raw food recipes. It's interesting, informative, and easy to read.

This & That

Wearing this:

Zoya polish in Neely. I love it because it's a little bit of a mint color but is still subtle. 

Ate that:

Pizza is one of the things I've missed the most since eliminating dairy from my diet. This cheese free pizza is awesome!

Watched this:

Politics, a strong female lead, and a presidential love triangle?! I can't get enough.

Read that:

This book is like taking a really interesting, informative nutrition class from a girlfriend. She's funny, down to earth, and it was an easy read. The author found out she had incurable cancer in her early 30's but it was progressing slowly and she was given 10 years to live. She decided she would dedicate all of her time to learning about how to keep her body healthy and slow the progression of the cancer, and this book is a compilation of what she discovered. It ultimately made reconsider the widely held views I had about what is "healthy" and I'd definitely recommend it!

Cooked this:

Vegan Stuffed Avocado Pesto Quesadilla. Delish! Even Josh, the ever-wary-of-vegan-food-guy loved it.

Listened to this:
The Glee version of Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now). Something about Blaine and a piano just rocks my socks. Fantastic! The fact that I already have four versions of this song on my iPod may indicate I have a bias, but whatev.

8 Must-Read Baby Books

When I was pregnant with Noah, I spent so much time reading baby books. Here are the one's that I found to be most helpful:

Get Ready to Get Pregnant: Your Complete Prepregnancy Guide to Making a Smart and Healthy Baby by Michael C. Lu, M.D., MPH. This book is full of great info on preparing your body for pregnancy. It includes information on a healthy diet before and during pregnancy (like foods that are beneficial for fetal brain development and toxic food that should be avoided), what to look for in a prenatal vitamin, how to eliminate toxins in and around your home, and how to strengthen your immune system.

The Baby Name Wizard by Laura Wattenberg. What I love about this book is that in addition to giving you what a typical baby name books does (popularity, nicknames, etc.) it also provides a short list of similar names, so it's great for brainstorming. So, if you look up Noah, for example, it gives Hannah, Maya, Chloe, Ivy and Abigail as similar girl names and Jonah, Ethan, Caleb, Owen, and Eli as boy names that go well with Noah. I spent hours looking at this book!

Hypnobirthing: The Mongan Method by Marie F. Mongan, M.Ed., M.Hy. If you read our birth story you know that we prepared for a natural birth by taking Hypnobirthing classes. This book has great information about proper breathing, positive affirmations, and relaxation techniques. I loved the positive tone and the "you can do it" attitude of the author. It was a great complement to the five week course we took.

The Breastfeeding Book by Martha Sears, R.N., and William Sears, M.D. I read this book cover to cover while I was pregnant and have referenced it many times since Noah was born. It covers everything you could possibly need to know about breastfeeding your baby, from basic information about lactation and how to properly latch to more specific topics like pumping and how to deal with things like engorgement, thrush, and mastitis. Next to lactation consultants, this book has been the thing that has helped me most while nursing Noah these last 5 months.

The Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp, M.D. The information in this book helped us more than anything else in the first month or two of Noah's life. Dr. Karp converted us to the 5 S's: Swaddling, Shushing, Swaying, Side/Stomach, and Sucking. This stuff works!

The Vaccine Book by Robert W. Sears, M.D., FAAP. Vaccines are such a hot-button issue and I feel like there's so much information out there (on both sides) that is based on opinion. This book is the most unbiased discussion on vaccines that I've ever encountered. Each chapter is dedicated to an individual vaccine so that you can learn about and make an informed decision regarding each one individually. Each chapter is set up like this:

• What is the disease and what course would it take if your child were to get it?
• How common is the disease?
• When is the vaccine for this disease given?
• How is the vaccine made and what ingredients are in it?
• What are the different brands of the vaccine and what are the ingredients in each brand? (This is helpful if you're wanting to reduce your child's exposure to aluminum, for example, because you can choose a brand that contains less of the ingredient)
• What are the side effects of the vaccine?

I love this book because it's full of research, not popular opinion. If you feel like you want to know more about vaccines and are interested in learning about them in an unbiased way, I'd definitely recommend this book.

                        

Love in Spoonfuls by Parenting Magazine. We're getting ready to start Noah on solids in a few weeks and this book has provided me with a lot of good information. Along with lots of general information on feeding babies (when to start, how often, how much at each sitting) it also contains over 70 fun recipes (like pea-mint puree and asparagus with applesauce) divided by age group.

Be Prepared: A Practical Handbook for New Dads by Gary Greenberg and Jeannie Hayden. Josh is not at all the type to read a baby book, but he finished this one quickly and loved it! It's written like a boyscout manual and is a mix of practical information (deciphering baby's cries, bathing basics) and funny stuff, like "bidding farewell to the breast". Ha!