Hi hated this book. I threw it away! I was so happy that I found "The Baby Book"!...that one had real answers to my questions!

Skip it. It had old information and sometimes even contradicted itself. There are much better books about raising children out there. Try Dr. Sears' "The Baby Book." It has much better information about the first two years of life.

Overall a pretty useful guide. Definitely repeats itself a lot, but it's quite complete. Definitely gives one an appreciation for everything parents (especially mothers) go through that first year, and the babies, too!

I can honestly say that our little one, his mom, and I are all healthier and happier because of this book! It really is a compendium of everything you want to and should know about your baby’s first year; in part to guide you, and in part to leave you with little to wonder or worry about.

It’s well-written: Comforting, light-hearted, and friendly (full of puns and fun snarkiness) without compromising on helpfulness nor precision.

The first half of this book goes over:

- Recommended registry items
- Time off for baby bonding
- Family care
- Enlisting a doula
- Making smoothie packs/frozen meals
- Asking around for pediatrician recommendations
- Circumcision/umbilical/genital swelling concerns
- Writing a will
- Hospital check ups in the hospital
- Baby temperature
- How to pick up, set down, carry baby (outside facing, shoulder, hip)
- Swaddling baby
- How to diaper baby/tips
- Diaper bag recommended items
- Newborn sleep tips/routine
- Crying/Colic
- Clothing/bathing baby/infant acne and hygiene
- How to dress baby
- Breastfeeding/Le Leche League

From there it breaks things down by months and development. I haven’t made it that far yet, but so far this has been a great book for new or anxious moms like myself who want things really broken down for them step by step. I started reading this book when I was considering having a baby but found the task too daunting. After reading it, it made me feel a lot better. I will continue using it as baby grows.

There are other great books out there but this seems to be a pretty good basis to start from. From there you can read other books specifically made for breastfeeding, baby sleep/colic, parenting, etc. Or just take courses for these things.

***I will preface my review by saying that, apparently, my parenting style is referred to as "Attachment Parenting" which I understand is an institutional term for "Damn Hippie". I simply do what feels natural and right for me and my baby. I have learned to trust my baby, listen to her pediatrician (with a discerning ear), and phooey on anyone that tells me I HAVE to do X-Y-Z to make sure she scores high on the S-A-T. (seriously, if she doesn't eat solids at 120 days old, she will still learn to eat with a spoon!).
If you are a control freak who thinks that nap times should be scheduled, or if Clorox is your BFF, than disregard everything I have said and will say in this book review***

This book is like the sequel to a movie. The first was good (What to Expect When You're Expecting), but the second installment exists because the producers know it will sell at the box office, no matter how good (or not) it is.
***Excepting, of course, "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", which far exceeds its predecessor in every regard***

This book has some well thought out advice and handy information for the first time parent. However, I gave up on reading this cover to cover, as I did with the first book for nine months, and eventually only used "What to Expect" as a reference guide.

My attempt to read this chapter by chapter each month was met with several difficulties.
Firstly, Heidi Murkoff must be crazy, or Super Mom to think that any Mother of a newborn or infant has the time to read this monstrosity; it simply cannot be held in one hand while the other hand cradles a nursing baby, the weight of the book will possibly break the hand in such an attempt.
This coincides with my other difficulty with the book: there is just too much information for the average parent. This book covers so many topics, that much of the information was irrelevant to me, and only served to cause mild paranoia. Reading this book made me more paranoid than I had the right to be. I was worried about all of the rare and uncommon diseases, calculating my daughter's chance of SIDS, and being altogether too calculating about what to do the first year.

The useful part of this book is the first page of each chapter, the only part that actually tells you what to expect each month of the first year. What the common developmental milestones are, accompanied by a mild reassurance that every child develops at their own rate, and what to anticipate at the pediatric check up each month.

This book is better used as a reference. Instead of implanting worries into the mind of a new parent, the glossary at the end of this book can be a quick go to for questions like "Is my baby sleeping too much?", "What is nipple confusion?", "Is what my Mother in Law said REALLY true?!" and other ridiculous things every parent wonders and ends up calling the pediatrician's office about.

I have found that signing up for the whattoexpect.com email subscription to be a good way to get much of the information found in this book in a chronologically relevant manner to my inbox.

This book has been invaluable to me this first year of parenting. It gave me a helpful guideline for what to look out for and answered my silly developmental questions when I couldn't trust the Internet and felt too stupid to call the pediatrician.

Great resource just like the other "What to Expect..." books. The library was out of copies in English, so I got some nice and needed Spanish practice with this one which was fun to learn some medical/baby terms I didn't know. Anyway. I liked that the chapters never said "this month your baby will..." because all babies are so different. I'm glad that the book makes an effort to acknowledge all the different ways children develop.

This wasn't very useful for me - the first chunk of the book is all about baby gear, which seems out of place in this book and would have been more useful in the book about preparing to have a baby. I also didn't learn much from the developmental milestones chapters and we learned more about baby care from our hospital's prenatal classes than I did from this book. Anyone who cares enough about this stuff to read this has likely already learned all of those things from pregnancy apps, other books, or by doing a basic google about what to do with a baby. I wish I'd skipped it.

Very informative

It took me a whole year to get through this book! Ha. I did find it helpful to read it month but month to check that baby was on track with sleeping and eating. Might even get the second year book as a new resource.

Fenomenalno praktična i korisna knjiga za friške roditelje, ne samo zbog toga što pregledno i obuhvatno pokriva gotovo sve probleme i "probleme" s kojima se suočavaju, nego pre svega zbog utešno-ohrabrujućeg tona kojim na hiljadu načina varira iskaz "Opustite se. Sve je to normalno kad su bebe u pitanju. Nećete zabrljati."