3 Books to Help Prepare for Your Newborn Baby
SMA Photography, Newborn Photographer in Cary
There are so many ways to prepare for your newborn baby, and while booking a newborn photo session is a very important way - and one of my favorites! - some of my clients are also on the look out for actual books.
Reading is one of my favorite hobbies, and when I was pregnant with each of my three children - and in their baby days! - my husband and I did a lot of reading to help ourselves mentally prepare for this huge change in our lives.
(What can I say? I’ve always been like this!)
So when my clients ask for my favorite book recommendations to help them get ready for the arrival of their newborn baby - or if I have any tricks to help their baby sleep! - I always suggest a combination of these three books.
Babies cry, and when they’ve been fed and changed, sometimes it’s difficult to know what to do next. This book was so helpful to my husband and me in giving us a step by step routine to soothe our babies, and I still use some of these techniques during my newborn photo sessions to help calm babies.
This mama was soothing her sweet baby using the Happiest Baby “5 S’s” during her newborn photo session. In addition to putting her daughter to sleep, it made for the most beautiful photos.
2. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child
One of the things that helped me most in preparing for my newborns, was to have realistic expectations about sleep - specifically their sleep. We loved how this book laid out the signs of sleepiness (they aren’t always what we would think!), what to expect from week to week, and even specific tips on how to help my babies sleep better.
It is a thick book, but since it covers children from birth to middle school, it’s not necessary to read the whole book up front. If sleep is important to you, I’d recommend checking it out. For me, there’s nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby.
Whenever a client who is having their second or third baby what book I most recommend, it's always Siblings Without Rivalry. As parents, there’s nothing we want more than for our children to love and be kind to each other. Even though a lot of the stories deal with older children, these are techniques and practices we can implement from the very beginning - from the moment a new baby comes home, or before.
The writers of this book, Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish, also wrote another of my very favorite books, How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk (as well as the version for little kids ages 2-7). In Siblings Without Rivalry, we can learn ways to support and encourage these incredibly important relationships between our children and make life a little sweeter for everyone.
Not every book is going to click with you or your family, and that’s okay. My hope is that by sharing a few of my favorites, one might help make your life with your newborn baby even more wonderful.
If you have favorites books of your own that helped you prepare for your newborn baby, please let me know - I’d love to add them to my reading suggestions list.
And if you’d like to schedule your newborn photo session with me, reach out and let’s discuss the options available.
*I receive a very small commission from these Amazon links as an affiliate if you choose to buy through these links, but it’s totally up to you. Please buy your books through your favorite bookseller.
If your family has plans to visit the Pacific Northwest, check out my friend Kara Chappell’s post on photo locations. She’s a lifestyle family photographer in Washington, and we’re both participating in a blog circle with other talented photographers this month.
SMA Photography is an Cary Newborn Photographer, serving Raleigh, Apex, and Cary. In addition to reading, Stacey loves to create beautiful, meaningful photos and videos for families, highlighting the best parts of their baby’s newborn days. Schedule your baby’s photo session at SMA Photography | Cary Newborn Photo