First-Time Parent: The honest guide to coping brilliantly and staying sane in your baby’s first year. Lucy Atkins
Чтение книги онлайн.

Читать онлайн книгу First-Time Parent: The honest guide to coping brilliantly and staying sane in your baby’s first year - Lucy Atkins страница

СКАЧАТЬ

      Lucy Atkins

      First-time Parent

      

Copyright

      Collins

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      This ebook edition first published by Collins in 2013, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, First-Time Parent, first published in 2006.

      © Lucy Atkins 2013

      The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

      Source ISBN: 9780007269440

      Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2013 ISBN: 9780007361069

      Version: 2017-05-02

       To my marvellous parents, with love and undying gratitude

      Table of Contents

       Cover Page

       Title Page

       Dedication

       Chapter Four

       Chapter Five

       Chapter Six

       Chapter Seven

       Chapter Eight

       Chapter Nine

       Chapter Ten

       Chapter Eleven

       Keep Reading

       Contacts

       List of Search Terms

       Acknowledgements

       About the Publisher

       Introduction

      When I was pregnant for the first time, I found I had strong views on parenting that covered everything from what a wonderful, tolerant and inspired mother I would be, to how I would never, ever fill my house with all that depressing, tasteless baby gear. I am now a mother of three (aged six, four and one). Far from being inspired or in control, I generally feel I am living under the occupation of a force far, far greater than myself. I have, at various points in the past six years, been the owner of no less than eleven pushchairs. And my house looks like the inside of Toys ‘R’ Us. Parenthood for me–and I know I’m not alone here–is nothing like the books and magazines say it should be, and nothing like I thought it would be. It’s far harder. Significantly less ‘controllable’. And–thank God–infinitely more amazing.

      My babies have had me sobbing with joy and despair. They’ve driven me to extremes of pleasure and boredom, anger and elation, pride and self-doubt. Nothing can really prepare you for all this first time around. But on a practical level, a few realistic pointers are certainly handy. And that’s where this book comes in.

      I’m not covering pregnancy or birth here–you can learn about that more fully, and usefully, elsewhere. Instead, this book gives you all the basics that you need to know about your baby’s first year, starting with a shopping list (what do you really need, and what’s just pointless?), and moving swiftly on to the moment your baby takes his first breath. You’ll then learn about the feeds–How often? How much? How long? How on earth???–the crying, the sleeping, poos, burps, farts, common illnesses and developmental milestones of your baby’s first year.

      Above all, though, this book is designed to keep you sane. Yes, you need to know what to do if your baby’s poo turns green; but you also need to know that feeling incompetent, confused or just plain crackers is an entirely normal and understandable part of parenthood. One, in my view, that’s largely ignored by baby books.

      Once you have a baby, the world certainly does change. Indeed, the whole notion of ‘love’ takes on a new and extraordinary significance when you become a parent. But this does not mean you have turned into a completely different person. You don’t start wearing disgraceful leggings and enormous yellow T-shirts just because СКАЧАТЬ