Oh, Baby!
In these 23 original stories, mothers and fathers from all walks of life–straight, gay, single, surrogate, biological, adoptive–explore the challenges and rewards of parenthood.
Here, among other adventures, they fall hopelessly in love with newborns, secretly fear having made huge mistakes, race to finish birthing at home before the paramedics arrive, struggle with the bureaucracy of international adoption, despair of ever getting a one-year-old to nap, are nearly broken by colic, encounter other judge-y parents in birthing class, learn how to parent children with special needs, and more.
Together, these thoughtful, searing, often hilarious essays map the grand (and sometimes terrifying) journey that begins with each new life.
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Praise
“Thoughtful, often funny … This collection’s wide range of topics should resonate with an equally wide range of parents.”
—Publishers Weekly
“This thoughtful, vital examination of new parenthood is a sharp alternative guide from the literary trenches.”
—Foreword Reviews
“A literary lifeline for new parents.”
—Ann Imig, editor of Listen to Your Mother: What She Said Then, What We’re Saying Now
“This is not a book about babies—it is a powerful, often moving reflection of the shards of who we were before these babies came into our lives.”
—Barbara Katz Rothman, author of A Bun in the Oven: How the Food and Birth Movements Resist Industrialization
“Offers witty, charming, and brutally honest commentary on becoming and being a parent. These eclectic and diverse first-person accounts will be treasured by anyone who is or hopes to be a parent.”
—Theresa Morris, author of Cut it Out: The C-Section Epidemic in America
“Inspiring and joyful, humbling and heartbreaking, this collection of essays reminds us that becoming a parent is the biggest, blindest leap any of us will ever make.”
—Cynthia L. Copeland, bestselling author of The Diaper Diaries: The Real Poop on a New Mom’s First Year
Table of Contents
Introduction
Editor’s Note
Schrödinger’s Pregnancy
Birthing Class
Push
The Beginning of the World
Quiet Enough
Skin Time
Boothville
How Little
Becoming His Mother
Blue Pools
I Know Where He Got That Hair!
Hungry
States of Permanence and Impermanence
Apocalypse Now
Just Colic
Baby Card
The Eleven-Minute Crib Nap
Babies don’t cut deals, and right now my tapping keyboard sounds like the clicking heels of an efficient secretary leading the negotiators into the boardroom. The last thing I want to do is engage.The Shell of Your Ear
The Dune at Night
Another Mother
Four Early Lessons in Parenting
Up and Above Us
The Baby Room
Additional information
| Weight | 0.60625 lbs |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 8.5 × 5.5 × 1 in |
