Our Picks for Best Books Ages 0 to 2
May 17, 2013
First Book Ever:
Board Books:
- Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle
- Look, Look! by Peter Linenthal
- Yummy Yucky by Leslie Patricelli
- Wheels on the Bus by Raffi
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Activity Books:
- Where’s Spot? by Eric Hill
- That’s Not My Monkey by Fiona Watt
- Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.
- Curious George at the Zoo by H.A. Rey
- Where’s the Poop? by Julie Markes
Picture Books:
- The Napping House by Audrey Wood
- Olivia by Ian Falconer
- Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
- Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss
- Llama Llama, Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
Storytime:
- The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
- The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
- The Giving Tree by Shel Siverstein
- Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
- Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag
Comments (1) | More: Books
OK, Fine. Pregnancy Bed Rest Sucks.
May 16, 2013
I got up at 3 AM today. I get up at 3 AM almost every night. Laying around in bed all day just doesn’t take any energy, so I can’t get my body to snap into an eight-hour-per-night rhythm. I wake up tired, but so bored with sleeping (and bed rest and life) that I can’t possibly do it for one minute longer.
I’ve tried to stay positive through this bed rest, because negativity doesn’t do anybody any good. Plus, with all of the scary, it’s good to focus on the silver linings and the little blessings and all that. Lord knows that I’m blessed. I’m 36 days into bed rest today and this baby is still cooking and kicking and growing and being ok. My house is clean, dinner was delicious, banana pancake batter is waiting for us in the fridge, and the rest of my day is filled with movies and creative work and Pandora and then more sleeping while other people take care of my chores and house and kid. Insert picture of lucky duck here.
But sometimes I just…blargh.
This 3 AM thing is the hardest. When it’s dark and quiet and a combo of too early/too late, there’s nowhere to go but down. And I do. I feel sorry for myself at 3 AM. I think about everything that isn’t getting done, all of the things I’m missing out on, how nothing about this baby is certain, etc. I try to cling to that silver lining, but everything turns inside-out in the middle of the night. The fact that I’m getting meals served to me in bed becomes a teeth-grinding need to get up and cook something. Eva being ferried to and from school becomes tears because I don’t get to be there for her preschool “graduation” and the big school-wide party. The cleaning lady gifted to me twice a week by my dad and his wife becomes panic that the house isn’t organized and nothing is ready for the baby.
Give me a chance and I can pretty much see the downside of everything.
I do pull myself out of it around sunrise every day and by mid-morning I’ve usually snapped back into “blessed” mode, but I thought it would be a disservice to present all of pregnancy bed rest as some kind of vacation from life. I don’t want to be doing this. I’m sick of being in bed. I miss my kid. I miss doing things with my husband.
I miss my friends, especially now that visits have stopped. It’s not them, either. Realistically, it’s hard to entertain people in your bedroom. Half the time, I don’t know if the house is a mess, but I know I look like crap and I can’t really do anything and every time I invite people over they tend to bring stuff and I hate to put people out. It isn’t just that I miss my friends – I miss escaping with friends to restaurants and coffee shops and impromptu play dates. Even phone dates have gotten a little hard because there’s no updates and nothing to talk about on my end. I can wait three weeks before talking to someone again and absolutely nothing in my life has changed. I usually don’t even know what day it is. So then there’s lots of pressure on the other end of the phone for people to come up with stories to entertain me. And everyone is busy, which I remember because I used to be too busy to talk on the phone as well. Blah.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you peek at some of the gritty, unpleasant realities of what’s going on. Again, so lucky…but don’t wish this on yourself. I’m glad that I have the opportunity to do this, but this is so not how you want to grow a baby. Honestly, this sucks.















