Review: The Christian Mama's Guide to Baby's First Year by Erin MacPherson

Title: The Christian Mama's Guide To Baby's First Year - Everything you need to know to survive (and love) your first year as a mom
Author:  Erin MacPherson
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Format:  Paperback or Kindle
ISBN:  978-0-8499-6474-9
Price: $15.99

It's been two years since I reviewed Erin MacPherson's first book in the Christian Mama's Guide series, The Christian Mama's Guide To Having A Baby.  I wasn't pregnant at the time I wrote the review, but when I got pregnant with baby B, I pulled the book out to read.  Yes, it was my ninth baby and I've read multiple pregnancy books, but I wanted to read Erin's Christian Guide version while actually being pregnant.  It helped me keep my sense of humor about morning sickness, weak bladders, and fatigue in those early months to re-read her book. To be honest, it was the only pregnancy book I read cover-to-cover this time, though I did look up a health issue in other books once or twice.

Until recently, I didn't realize that Erin had written parenting books to go along with her pregnancy book, but she now has 4 books in her Christian Mama's Guide series.

• The Christian Mama's Guide to Having A Baby
• The Christian Mama's Guide to Baby's First Year
• The Christian Mama's Guide to Parenting a Toddler
• The Christian Mama's Guide to the First School Years

If you're like me, and you've read other pregnancy and parenting books, you know that some of them are very medical and factual, some are organized by topic, some by alphabetical order, and some are organized month-by-month.  The Christian Mama's Guide to Baby's First Year takes a topical approach, rather than a month-by-month or medical format.  The book begins with information on the postpartum period, and  newborn care. It then moves on to the topics of sleep, feeding, diapering, baby gear, medical care, playing with baby, and traveling with baby.  The book ends with chapters on taking care of Mommy, losing the baby weight in a healthy way, and two chapters on taking care of Daddy.

With so many parenting books out there, you might be wondering what The Christian Mama's Guide to Baby's First Year has to offer. My first response is humor.  Erin keeps a friendly and slightly sarcastic tone throughout the book. The humor helps keep the book interesting, because not everyone can focus on reading factual how-to manuals -- either because of their personality, or their new-mommy fatigue.  Erin doesn't gloss over the negative aspects of having a newborn (like diaper blow-outs) but she does laugh at them.  She takes the fear out of having a newborn.

Erin's book also offers us a synopsis.  She takes all the information out there (and you know there is a FLOOD of information out there for new parents to wade through) and she summarizes it.  She helps new parents survive the information overload, and get down to the essentials.  Rather than trying to sort through 5 different online lists, 2 magazine lists, and 3 book lists of things that baby needs, you can look at Erin's summary of things baby actually NEEDS and the things that make life a little easier for Mom and Dad.

Erin offers us camaraderie.  She laughs at herself and lets us laugh at her (and her friends) too. She even gets her husband and her friends' husbands to open up a little and offer their viewpoints.  Reading The Christian Mama's Guide books feels like having a conversation with your friends, the type where you share embarrassing confessions and laugh hysterically with each other while eating chocolate ice cream and wearing yesterday's sweatpants and a messy pony tail.  It helps to know we aren't alone as we find ourselves pouring coffee on the counter instead of into our coffee mug, while holding a wide-awake baby at 4 am.

Lists.  Erin MacPherson is a list-maker.  She likes to have a plan, and she likes to check the little boxes off.  The Christian Mama's Guide to Baby's First Year is full of lists.  Not overwhelming lists that discourage you, but helpful lists to help organize information.  Occasionally, she even offers two lists - one for the type A moms and one for the type B moms.  Which brings me to another benefit that Erin gives us ... acceptance.  Every mom is different, and every baby is different.  Erin helps us celebrate the differences rather than try to fit ourselves, or our baby, into someone else's "box".

The Christian Mama's Guide to Baby's First Year also offers us faith.  Most chapters include a "Time Out For Mom" blurb.  These brief devotions include a Bible verse and a prayer to remind new moms where true wisdom and strength lies. Her chapters also remind us that God has given our children to us, that we have a responsibility to teach them about Him, and that He will equip us to raise them.  However, Erin doesn't try to spiritualize every little thing.  She doesn't try to find spiritual applications or implications in diaper bags, leaking milk, or sleepless nights. Her book is well-balanced, and the faith aspect is there, but not so overt that it's going to turn readers off. 

The Christian Mama's Guide to Baby's First Year is a refreshing change from most baby-care books.  It's light-hearted, encouraging, and helpful.  The topical approach actually makes it easier to find information than when it's buried in snippets in a month-by-month format.  It may not include every single thing you COULD know about raising a baby, but it does cover what you NEED to know. It's the perfect gift for a new mom, trying to make sense of all the information out there ... as well as the experienced mom who can use the lists, the laughs, and the camaraderie offered in the book.

April E.

This book was provided free to me, by BookSneeze, for review purposes.  The opinions shared here are my own, and no other compensation was received.

Juggling Plates

Where have I been?  Busy.  I've opened my blog dashboard several times, knowing I needed to write, occasionally even having ideas to write about.  But I've continually been drawn away from the computer before I could write.

I've been busy trying to juggle so many plates, but I keep dropping the blogging one:

• homeschool Mom planning school, helping students, refocusing distracted kids, and looking ahead to next year
• busy mother preparing meals, supervising chores, fighting mount laundry, settling squabbles, enforcing rules, mending hurts, soothing fears, and holding little ones that cry "Me need you, Mama" and "Me hold you, Mama" 
• helpmeet and best friend to my hard-working husband - running errands, researching info, making calls, paying bills, preparing lunches for work
• mom of a newborn that needs to be held a lot, and often gets fussy so he needs to be held "just so" and seriously limits the ability to type
• mom of a graduating senior who needs to talk about majors, college paperwork, essay assignments, graduation ceremonies and prom details

I often feel as if I'm achieving very little in a day, though I know (deep down) that isn't true.  Even on days that I achieve nothing tangible other than feeding the family three meals and keeping the family safe ... I know I've been here to listen, to comfort, to hopefully point kids to Jesus, and to just love the family God's given me.  Even if I feel like my words are bouncing off the ceiling rather than being heard and remembered, I have to believe that some seeds were planted.

I don't really have anything wonderful to share, so I'll just post a photo of our latest blessing.  He is well-loved.

photo taken by my sister Sarah 3 weeks ago

One of these days I'll get back into a blogging schedule.  Thank you for being patient.

April E.

Mommy has lost her groove ...

Last week I traveled with my sister to our parents' house for our grandmother's funeral.  We spent 13 hours together in a car heading south on Tuesday, and 13 hours together in a car heading north on Friday.  During that time, my sister played me several of her spotify play lists.  Most of her musical choices, I really enjoyed.  One of the play lists, not so much.  ;)  She introduced me to several new (to me) musicians and lots of songs I'd never heard before.  One of her current favorite groups turned out to be one my daughters love, but she played different songs than the ones they are often singing, so I didn't realize it.

As I was thinking how totally out of touch I am, I wondered what happened?  I used to always have music playing and I was usually singing.  I enjoyed a variety of music styles, and I loved discovering new genres and artists that spoke to me.  Much like my daughters today, with their mp3 players.

Part of the problem is that we live in the country and my radio choices (at home) are country or a secular pop station.  (I listen to country in the car.)  The other issues is that I have a large family, and young children.  Listening to secular radio with young children around is dangerous, and we have no Christian stations that reach our home and few that even reach our town.  Add in the sheer noise level of a home with 11 people in it, and we often just can't handle the extra "noise" that even our favorite music becomes.

We also have equipment issues.  First, my sound system in the living room kind of broke. The radio receiver no longer receives and the cd player can't play above a quiet level or it just shuts off.  Next, my CD-rom drive in my computer broke.  I can still use the DVD player and tv to play music, but that means no one can watch tv.  I usually get through a CD once before someone has a tv show, movie, or exercise dvd they want to watch. I could hide in my bedroom all day long listening to that CD player, but I doubt that would go over well with my family.  I don't own an MP3 player and even if I did I'd have to use someone else's computer to rip CDs and sync them to the MP3 player since my disc-drive is broken. 

I'd love to have spotify or other online music options, but our satellite internet limits just don't allow for listening to music.  We also don't have smart phones or phones with data plans, so we can't use our phones to listen to music.  Last of all, there are the cost issues with buying CDs or even music downloads on a regular basis.  Most of the time, new music just isn't in the budget. 

So, I'm grooveless.  I rarely listen to music, and I rarely sing.  I LOVE to sing!  I miss music.  I need to find a solution that returns music to my life, but I'm not sure what that will be, or when it will be.  Steve still listens to music as he drives to and from work each day (90 miles each way) though he often chooses to listen to talk radio instead.  He can even listen to Christian radio stations for most of the drive.  Maybe I'm grooveless until more of the kids are grown and the house is quieter.  That seems really sad, though.

Missing my groove,
April E.