 | The Essential Baby Organizer: Birth to One Year (The Essential Organizers) by Dani Rasmussen
Buy new: $13.57 Helpful tools, checklists, daily activity chart, and journal entries help new parents run their day-to-day smoothly (esp. when additional caregivers are involved), and create a memorable keepsake and record of baby's first year.
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 | The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two (Revised and Updated Edition) by William Sears
Buy new: $14.95 / Used from: $8.89 This was my go-to book for the entire first year. I read and re-read the breastfeeding sections as I struggled through the first days of breastfeeding. It provided a wonderful guide to baby's development in the first few years, and helped me decode symptoms when he was sick thanks to a comprehensive section in the back of the book. I needed a lot fewer books because this was so comprehensive.
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 | The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer by Harvey Karp
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $4.50 The first few weeks at home with a newborn were much easier to understand -- even through the fog of no sleep -- with this book at my side. I couldn't believe the magic that swaddling and swinging did for my son when my husband and I were up in the middle of the night, wondering how to console this just-been-fed, very-tired, but not-going-back-to-sleep baby.
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 | The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night by Elizabeth Pantley
Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $4.85 LOVED this book. Elizabeth Pantley's writing style made me feel like I was talking with a good friend who'd been down the parenting path and had valuable lessons to share. We used her techniques quite a bit when my son was older and moved into his own room, and they worked so effectively. Plus, they are very loving techniques that don't require baby to just cry it out, alone in the dark.
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 | Organic Baby & Toddler Cookbook (Organic) by Lizzie Vann
Buy new: $15.00 / Used from: $5.44 Really beautifully styled book with nice recipes for the older baby, who's experimenting with different solids and prepared foods. When my son was born, there weren't nearly as many organic baby food options as there are now, and I spent lots and lots of time preparing his baby food from organic fruits and veggies. This book helped me graduate my son to some early "meals" that we both enjoyed.
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 | Arm's Reach Natural Original Co-Sleeper
Buy new: $199.95 I think I wrote the first review for this product on Amazon, although maybe for an earlier version that's no longer on Amazon. It was such a blessing to have my son right next to me, but in his own protected bed. Our bed had an overstuffed mattress, and Arm's Reach had some leg extenders for their co-sleeper that easily raised the co-sleeper mattress height to the same height as our queen bed.
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 | BabyBjörn Baby Carrier Original - City Black
Buy new: $56.47 One of our two best baby carriers was a Baby Bjorn. It was easy to adjust as our son grew, and comfortable for both my husband and me (nice since he is 10 inches taller than I am). The shoulder straps hurt me once my son was over 15 pounds, but my husband used it for a few months longer, and then our son just outgrew it. Baby Bjorn later released one with cushioning on the shoulder straps.
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 | Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss
Buy used from: $0.01 This was the first long book that my son would sit through as a baby. I think he loved the rhythm and the rhyme (is there a bad 90's hip-hop joke brewing here?) and would sit, mesmerized, as I read this to him when he was only 2 months old.
I guess I'm particularly nostalgic for this book, as he has (now age 4 1/2) started reading this book to me at night before he goes to bed. :-)
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 | Boynton's Greatest Hits: Volume II (The Going to Bed Book, Horns to Toes, Opposites, But Not the Hippopotamus)
Buy new: $14.93 / Used from: $12.33 Really, any Sandra Boynton book will do, but this is a nice collection to start with. Young babies love the colors, illustrations, and simple rhymes. My son was able to motion with his hands and arms, and to say some of the vowel sounds along with the stories as soon as he could sit up by himself. These are great books for baby to grow with.
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