Lendle

ABOUT THE BOOK The handmade booties from your great aunt, the trendy stuffed animals you picked out on a leisurely Saturday afternoon and the softer-than-anything-you’ve-ever-felt baby blanket you kept petting during your pregnancy to remind yourself this whole thing is real, are all great to have. But they’re about as useful as a hand towel in a tsunami when the first year with your first baby actually gets going. What you need is a personal strategy to batten down the hatches of your life and stock up on resources to turn that tsunami into a fun-filled day at the water park. What you need is the forecast. I’ve heard more than a few moms talk about what they wish they had known that first year. In the quest for your life to normalize, and even more than that, to reach a new level of satisfying energy and the larger-than-yourself joy that parenting promised, I suggest giving prioritized focus and gentle awareness to five key areas, enabling you to become the balanced and beautiful mother that you knew you could be as soon as you peed on that stick. I’m telling you what we all wish we could have told ourselves.MEET THE AUTHOR After studying print journalism at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, Brit moved to New York City with matching luggage, a wedding ring, and high-rise expectations. She studied magazine writing at New York University, and worked as an assistant editor for CBS television network, where she mostly opened mail and ate bagels. It wasn’t long after she moved to Los Angeles that she received her master’s degree in writing from the University of Southern California. After graduating, she traveled Europe and Southeast Asia with her husband and noticed the morning sickness somewhere between Bangkok and New Dehli. Brit writes on any topic that promotes self-analysis and personal growth, but pregnancy, parenting, and travel are where she routinely finds the big lessons in the seemingly small things. Now a recovering small-town idealists, she lives in Manhattan Beach with her husband and their one-year-old son. She hates jeans shopping, paying for parking, and the phrase “inside voices.”EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK Three days after my son was born, I went to a lactation consultant to help me with breastfeeding. I knew it was three days not because I had enjoyed my morning coffee three different times, or because I had tucked myself into bed on three separate occasions, but because that’s how many times I had witnessed the sun setting and rising since leaving the hospital. Plus, I knew I had cleaned the baby’s belly button, a daily task, thrice. Actually four times, but that’s just because I had forgotten if I’d done it yesterday, so I did it again at 3 am, halfway between the two days, just in case. My baby was beautifully mushy and alive with lovely wriggles, and I had learned how to bathe his wrinkled little body with cotton balls soaked in lukewarm water. I had written down thirty-one feedings and forty-two diaper changes. I had sixteen questions for my pediatrician, and my husband had dozed a million times while I hadn’t managed to find such peace even once. My nipples were on fire and I desperately needed a smoothie, or a latte, or a pillow, or a shower, or maybe a good cry. Is the baby getting enough milk? Is he breathing okay? Is the swaddle too tight? Does he need socks and a blanket? Was that pee dark yellow, or pale yellow? Is it Tuesday or Sunday? Am I wearing mascara? This passing of hours was nothing like the normal continuum of time. No, this was newborn time, the first-baby version, and I was shell-shocked. I arrive at the lactation consultant not a moment too soon. CHAPTER OUTLINEMotherhood?! How to Survive and Thrive After Your First Pregnancy + Introduction + How to handle those "new mom" feelings + Your toughest motherhood questions, answered + Solutions for your worries + How to re-enter the real world, when it's all over + ...and much more