As a follow up to this post I'm sharing lists of books that I've read about pregnancy, babies, and parenting. A couple weeks ago I shared books about pregnancy and today I have a list of books about babies and caring for infants. It seems a lot of debate centers around how to best establish a sleeping routine for newborns - or whether to even worry about establishing a routine! My approach will be to learn as much as I can and then adapt (hopefully gracefully!) to our unique situation.

These are the books I've read so far on newborn care and babies:

Heading Home with Your Newborn - a very practical guide written by two pediatricians, who are also moms, on how to take care of a newborn baby. This book covers a range of topics from how to change a diaper to installing a carseats to identifying what color baby poo is ok and what isn't - I hadn't seen that in a book before!

Baby Sense Secret - explains "how to read a baby's body language and signals so that parents can know what a baby wants/needs". This book does a good job of getting you to imagine your baby's perspective on the world and to be aware of all the different sensory input from a their surroundings. For example, I had never really imagined how affected and overwhelmed a baby might be by different smells.

On Becoming Babywise - details how to use a flexible schedule of eating, playing, and sleeping to develop a routine for babies. This book seems to be somewhat controversial; some people swear by it, others say to stay away. I thought it seemed helpful, especially because I am such a routine-oriented person. Even if our baby doesn't take well to the routines outlined in this book it seems like this could be a good place to start.

The Happiest Baby on the Block - describes the first three months of a newborn's life as a "fourth trimester" and discusses soothing techniques for crying and/or collicky babies. There's also a companion DVD for this book in which the author demonstrates the soothing techniques. The DVD is separate from the book but I was able to find both at my library.

It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita - this book made me laugh out loud! I would definitely recommend breaking up reading instructional books with something fun like this one. There are so many how-to books out there and trying to make sense of all the different pregnancy/newborn/parenting philosophies can make your head spin - and this is from someone who doesn't even have a baby yet! Although this book is hilarious the author also talks openly about the depression she's faced for years and her difficulty with post-partum depression and I really appreciated that perspective.

If you have other suggestions, please let me know!