Motherhood

Multiple Blessings: Surviving to Thriving with Twins and Sextuplets

Kate Gosselin tells the amazing story of how she and her husband, Jon, have survived the overwhelming odds of birthing not only twins but also sextuplets in three years, and how they continue to strive every day to honor Christ while he teaches them to thrive in spite of emotional, financial, social, and physical exhaustion.

Porn for New Moms: From the Cambridge Women's Pornography Cooperative

I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids: Reinventing Modern Motherhood

"I don't know how she does it!" is an oft-heard refrain about mothers today. Funnily enough, most moms agree they have no idea how they get it done, or whether they even want the job. Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile spoke to mothers of every stripe working, stay-at-home, part-time and found a surprisingly similar trend in their interviews. After enthusing about her lucky life for twenty minutes, a mother would then break down and admit that her child's first word was "Shrek." As one mom put it, "Am I happy? The word that describes me best is challenged." Fresh from the front lines of modern motherhood comes a book that uncovers the guilty secrets of moms today . . . in their own words. I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids diagnoses the craziness and offers real solutions, so that mothers can step out of the madness and learn to love motherhood as much as they love their kids.

Naptime Is the New Happy Hour: And Other Ways Toddlers Turn Your Life Upside Down

Once the zigzagging hormones and endless, bleary-eyed exhaustion of the first year have worn off, you're left with the startling realization that your tiny, immobile bundle has become a rampaging toddler, complete with his or her very own, very forceful personality.

Just as Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay helped debunk decades of parenting myths to offer honest advice for the first year, Naptime Is the New Happy Hour is a voice of reason for every woman facing questions such as: Will refined sugar make my toddler's head explode? Is it wrong to have a cocktail at two in the afternoon? And what exactly is a Backyardigan?

With biting wit and boatloads of common sense, Stefanie Wilder-Taylor addresses all these concerns and more. Whether it's planning easy outings that are fun for both of you (fact: your child will find the local Target just as scintillating as the Guggenheim), dishing the dirt on preschool TV (those mothers who swear their kids don't watch television? Liars or psychos, every one), or perfecting the art of the play date, readers will find advice, anecdotes, and a reassuring sense of camaraderie to help them survive -- and even thrive -- during each hilarious, frustrating, and amazing moment.

A Child Is Born

This completely revised edition of the beloved international classic is now entirely in color, with historic, never-before-seen photos in every chapter and an entirely new text.

The Rookie Mom's Handbook: 250 Activities to Do with (and Without!) Your Baby

Bookshelves abound with activity books for babies and toddlers, but The Rookie Mom's Handbook is the first designed exclusively for first-time mothers. Here are 250 enjoyable activities to help rookie moms maintain their individuality and boost their confidence about leaving the house, socializing, and doing things they've always liked to do—either with or without baby.

Inspired by the popular Web site www.rookiemoms.com, the book offers bite-sized activities arranged according to the baby's age. Some are crafty, some are adventurous, and some simply help get a meal on the table.

Written in a lively, supportive tone and decorated with cute illustrations, The Rookie Mom's Handbook is the perfect gift or resource to remind new moms that there's more to life than dirty diapers and 3 a.m. feedings.

Don't Make Me Count to Three: a Mom's Look at Heart-Oriented Discipline

Baby Laughs: The Naked Truth About the First Year of Mommyhood

Jenny McCarthyÂ’s hilarious, no-holds-barred personality has made her an instantly recognizable TV personality and a bestselling author. In Baby Laughs she examines the full range of challenges that new mothers face, including:
• The humiliations of postnatal “numbing spray,” Tucks medicated pads, and adult diapers; jelly belly, balding, and gum disease; and becoming a “five-foot puke rag” for the baby
• Heart-stopping terrors, such as baby manicures, breathing checks, and burp failures
• Inadequacies, such as lullaby illiteracy and the need for a “heavy rotation” of toys, videos, and mobiles
• Daddy antics, such as infant wrestling, home-movie mania, sleeping like a log, and expecting sex
• Dueling grandmas, germ-ridden guests, Olympic-class competitive mommies, anorexic pets— and much more.

Mothers and fathers will find much-needed relief and insight in this sometimes touching, sometimes gritty, but always perceptive and outrageously funny account of what it truly means to have your very own small bundle of joy.

Buddhism for Mothers: A Calm Approach to Caring for Yourself and Your Children

Addressing the often-overlooked spiritual needs of mothers, this book discusses Buddhist teachings as applied to the everyday challenges and stresses of raising children. Offered are ways for mothers to reconnect with their inner selves and become calmer and happier-with the recognition that a happier mother will be a better parent. This realistic look at motherhood acknowledges the sorrows as well as the joys of mothering and offers real and achievable coping strategies for mothers to renew their lives on a deep level.

The Girlfriends' Guide to Toddlers

Beyond child development theory and experts, beyond the "shoulds" and the "don'ts" that guilt-ridden parents constantly hear echoing in their ears, there's Vicki Iovine, America's favorite "girlfriend" and mother-in-the-trenches. In The Girlfriends' Guide to Toddlers, Iovine's third addition to her parenting panoply (The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy and The Girlfriends' Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood) Iovine focuses, for the first time, more on the child than on the mother. (Toddlers always get all the attention, don't they?) Iovine is wise, and not just because she's read all the current parenting literature (she has) or heard it from her famous mythical "girlfriends." Iovine knows what she's talking about because she has four young children and she's been through it all. In her ongoing vision of parenting, humor and a network of friends play an important role, bribery has its place, discipline is sensible and loving, and advice is grounded in the practical rather than the theoretical. From "Eating (or Not)" to "Discipline" to "The Comfort Zone" (Binkies, Bankies, Loveys and Thumbs) to Potty Training ("What's the Big Rush?") to "Sleepy Time" to "Fashion" (yes, it's an issue for toddlers), Iovine continues her mission to inform the contemporary parent, to tell the truth, to boldly go where many child development experts have gone before, and to keep her readers laughing while she does it. --Ericka Lutz

With a combined total of over 300,000 Girlfriends' Guides in print, Vicki Iovine offers the kind of tongue-in-cheek humor and straight-from-the-hip advice that has made her one of today's most popular authorities on child rearing. Now she takes the next step in the Girlfriends series by helping mothers deal with that mysterious, baffling, often adorable and frequently alarming being their baby has become--a toddler.