(Part 2) Top products from r/InfertilityBabies

• Lewis and Clark and Me: A Dog's Tale by Laurie Myers
  
  This first one is definitely not a typical choice! It's the story of the Seaman, the Newfoundland dog that journeyed with explorers Lewis and Clark. We have Newf so I put it on our registry so our bebe can hear a story about a famous Newfoundland like our puppy :)
  
  
• The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson
  
  I got this one for my husband because I thought it was called "The Grumpalo" and I always joke that husband is grumpy. Now that I've read it, though, I like the onomatopoeia style of the writing, I'm not sure I like the message of it!
  
  
• Moana Little Golden Book
  
  We felt the baby kick for the first time while in the theater watching Moana, plus we both love the Polynesian music and culture in the movie and the message of the story, so Moana has become kind of a thing for us this pregnancy.
  
  
• Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy E. Shaw
  
  Another gift for my husband, because he loves Jeeps :D
  
  
• McElligot's Pool by Dr. Seuss
  
  So I snuck in a Seuss book, but it's not one of the most popular ones. This is my dad's favorite children's book and know he will love reading it to our little one.

The two I've got are The Mayo Clinic's Guide To A Healthy Pregnancy, which I don't think is too alarmist, but I've only read up to the current week of pregnancy... and The Pregnancy Journal, which is super-uber scientific stuff about how the baby is developing day-to-day, and which I LOVE. It also has some information on stuff like, oh, eat your greens, but it definitely doesn't scare me!

I love these! I also love Frog Trouble by Sandra Boynton. People love her but the CD with this is great. I got it for my niece a few years back and at 4.5 she's still singing along and requesting it. I buy it for pretty much every baby I know.

https://www.amazon.com/Frog-Trouble-Eleven-Pretty-Serious/dp/0761171762/

Knits took me awhile until I realized I needed a different type of needle. Also, if you're into books The Colette Guide to Sewing Knits is pretty helpful. She makes some of my favorite patterns for clothes too.

Yes, but please keep in mind its a academic text for genetic counselors (and maybe other fields) who are specifically learning about normal development AND about birth defects. So some parts will be helpful and interesting, but some will not be. Don't let it get scary =)

https://www.amazon.com/Before-Are-Born-Essentials-Embryology/dp/1437720013

All the books in this series are awesome. They are like cute little toddler life manuals.

Yummy Yucky (Leslie Patricelli board books)

I'm currently reading this book. It's pretty fascinating some of the things that humans believed about baby making.

Yes! I found this book at Target one day and it is my absolute favorite!! I cry my eyes out every time I read it! Highly recommend this one as well: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1416928111/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It isn't about infertility, but it is so, so special.

We used The Sleepeasy Solution for sleep training and it went really well. Basically it's just a modified cry it out method with check ins at 5, 10, and then every 15 minutes after that. Supposedly it's most helpful for naps if you also work on night sleep at the same time. I don't know if you are ready/want to stop co-sleeping though. But it sounds like he needs to learn to fall sleep on his own without nursing, which is the goal of sleep training.

EDIT: I have heard that it's much tougher if you are switching from co-sleeping to crib sleeping though. We never co-slept so unfortunately I can't give any advice in that area.

I had two that I liked, The Big Book of Birth and Natural Hospital Birth. The first is a more neutral informative book I thought that went into a lot of the detail and options available. The second is geared towards pain management and how to avoid medical interventions but I don't remember it being super judgey either. I do hate the term "natural birth" though.

We didn't do Ferber but used the baby sleep solution. We started at 3.5 months with the feeding schedule. That's the first step before you start sleep training which we did at 4 months. It was hard. Really, really hard. They told us to go in after 3 to 5 minutes. Well, you know I was running in there at 2 minutes and 57 seconds each time. It was awful.

However, my twins slept 12 hours a night at 4 months and still do at 9 months. I'm glad we did it but I think I'll wait until they are a bit older before trying it with the next baby.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0399532919/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/188-7293984-1632845

I added the recommendation to my list on Amazon. When I visited the page, it recommended "I Can't Wait to Meet You". http://www.amazon.com/I-Cant-Wait-Meet-You/dp/0615319351/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y

Speech Language Pathologist -
http://www.lisamccueillustrator.com/Lisa_McCue/Quiet_Bunny.html

And no worries; it took me a good bit of time to figure out what an LEO was. :) I'll tell my mom about that too. It took less than three minutes for me to send her the link to Quiet Bunny before my mom ordered it.

Edit: is this snuggle bunnies? if so, it might be back in print?
http://www.amazon.com/Snuggle-Bunnies-Boardbooks-Board-Book/dp/079440040X

We have this one The Pea That Was Me: An IVF Story (Volume 7) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1503041425/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_LAZDzbDA0W6TW

She has a whole bunch of different conception stories - donor egg / sperm / single mom etc

written by a child psychologist and it's not too bad of a story

Brown Bear is a big hit around here.

https://www.amazon.com/Brown-Bear-What-You-See/dp/0805017445

Bah. I have this one which takes up a little less than half our queen bed.

My baby is also a DE baby. He looks just like my hubs and his side of the family even though we picked a donor who somewhat resembles me and my heritage.

I hear it all the time. I just nod and say thank you. 'Your baby looks like you', 'he has the same nose' blah blah blah...

I think the most important part of this is that I never felt that my baby is not mine or not a part of me. He is 100% mine and I never feel like he is a donor baby or that I was a gestational carrier. I joked about it a lot when I was carrying him but I think it was my sarcasm and fear that somehow I won't be able to love him 100%.

There is also a lot of talk about epigenetics and how they can influence how the baby looks etc.

https://www.reddit.com/r/infertility/comments/1jfyx9/thoughts_on_epigenetics_and_egg_donation/

I also recommend reading this book:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/074329663X/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1


I'm sorry your feelings got hurt. I know having a baby in your arms will change everything your mind is going through.


You will have to find a way of ignoring those comments because they will continue on even if the baby doesn't look anything like you. People don't think before they open their mouths unfortunately.