Why do toddlers throw food on the floor again and again so that they can watch you pick it up? What's the best way to help a child learn to walk? When does a child understand the word 'no'? Babies and toddlers are fascinating and changing all the time. Each month brings with it a breakthrough in new skills and abilities. Each chapter explores the developmental areas for each age band, checklists for development and ways to stimulate these skills. There are suggested activities for each topic making this a truly practical book.

'As informative as it is poetic' Dolly Alderton 'Compassionate, funny and beautifully written' Daisy Buchanan ------------------------------ Every woman will experience the panic years in some way between her mid-twenties and early-forties. This maddening period of transformation and personal crisis is recognisable by the myriad of decisions we make - about partners, holidays, jobs, homes, savings, friendships - all of which are impacted by the urgency of the single decision that comes with a biological deadline, the one decision that is impossible to take back; whether or not to have a baby. But how to stay sane in such a maddening time? How to know who you are and what you might want from life? How to know if you're making the right decisions? Raw, hilarious and beguilingly honest, Nell Frizzell's account of her panic years is both an arm around the shoulder and a campaign to start a conversation. This affects us all - women, men, mothers, children, partners, friends, colleagues - so it's time we started talking about it with a little more candour. WHAT READERS ARE SAYING - 'Loved this book! Highly recommend for any woman (or man!) during the weird time in your 20s' ***** - 'Those panicky feelings of being a 24-30 something put into words' ***** - 'This book brings forth a sigh of relief. Excellent book that really taps into what so many of us are thinking and feeling, but not saying' *****

What you need to know to have the best birth experience for you.

Drawing upon her thirty-plus years of experience, Ina May Gaskin, the nation’s leading midwife, shares the benefits and joys of natural childbirth by showing women how to trust in the ancient wisdom of their bodies for a healthy and fulfilling birthing experience. Based on the female-centered Midwifery Model of Care, Ina May’s Guide to Natural Childbirth gives expectant mothers comprehensive information on everything from the all-important mind-body connection to how to give birth without technological intervention.

Filled with inspiring birth stories and practical advice, this invaluable resource includes:• Reducing the pain of labor without drugs--and the miraculous roles touch and massage play

• What really happens during labor
• Orgasmic birth--making birth pleasurable
• Episiotomy--is it really necessary?
• Common methods of inducing labor--and which to avoid at all costs
• Tips for maximizing your chances of an unmedicated labor and birth
• How to avoid postpartum bleeding--and depression
• The risks of anesthesia and cesareans--what your doctor
doesn’t necessarily tell you
• The best ways to work with doctors and/or birth care providers
• How to create a safe, comfortable environment for
birth in any setting, including a hospital
• And much more

Ina May’s Guide to Natural Childbirth takes the fear out of childbirth by restoring women’s faith in their own natural power to give birth with more ease, less pain, and less medical intervention.

Close to one in four American women experience the silent grief of miscarriage, stillbirth, or ectopic pregnancy loss. Loved Baby offers much-needed support to women in the middle of psychological and physiological grief as a result of losing an unborn child. In Loved Baby, author Sarah Philpott gently walks alongside women as they experience the misguided shame, isolation, and crushing despair that accompany the turmoil of loss. With brave vulnerability Sarah shares her own and others' stories of loss. Using their collective experience, she offers Christ-filled hope and support to women navigating grief. Whether your loss is recent or not, Loved Baby can be your companion as you move from the darkness of grief toward the light of hope.

Do you feel overwhelmed by all the advice on what to eat during pregnancy? With an enormous amount of information out there on the ideal pregnancy diet, putting together healthy meals can seem like a daunting task, especially if you're faced with nausea or a ridiculous craving for gherkins and ice cream for breakfast. Dr Rana Conway, a nutritionist of more than twenty years, provides recipes for breakfast dishes to ward off morning sickness, delicious lunches to keep your energy up all afternoon and tasty snacks that will satisfy even the strongest of junk food or sugar cravings. Find out: What to eat and what to avoid during your pregnancy Pregnancy-safe alternatives to your favourite foods Different recipes for each trimester as the needs of you and your baby change How the right ingredients can help reduce the more unpleasant side effects of pregnancy such as morning sickness From conception to birth My Pregnancy Recipes and Meal Planner supports you with a comprehensive collection of menu ideas to keep you inspired and your baby healthy!

THE PERFECT GIFT FOR MUMS-TO-BE WITH A SENSE OF HUMOUR. Part diary, part colouring book, and part brutally honest (and hysterically funny) collection of advice, this is for the new mother who wants to chill out, laugh her face off, and realise with every page that she is not alone. Two stars of the lifestyle and parenting blogosphere invoke the mindless fun and nostalgic appeal of an old-school activity book in this irreverent, laugh-out-loud twist on the traditional baby journal, with illustrated activities, lists, essays, and musings on what pregnancy is really like. - Wordsearches: Nope, Sorry (All the Stuff You're Not Allowed to Have Anymore); Bad Baby Names - Mazes: Make it from Your Desk to the Bathroom Without Throwing Up - Lists: How to Baby Shop Without Crying - Advice: Yoga Teachers (Also Your Mum Friends, Your Parents, People on Facebook, All Articles, and Everyone You Meet) Want to Tell You How to Give Birth, But You Don t Have to Listen - Quizzes: Stop: Labour Time!

Gain confidence and enjoy breastfeeding
Get physically and mentally ready to breastfeed your baby
This easy-to-follow guide, written by two maternal/ child health experts, provides practical, reassuring advice on everything from making preparations at home and starting to breastfeed at the hospital to breastfeeding while working and weaning.
The Dummies Way
* Explanations in plain English
* "Get in, get out" information
* Icons and other navigational aids
* Tear-out cheat sheet
* Top ten lists
* A dash of humor and fun

Discover how to:
* Tell if your baby is getting enough milk
* Care for your breasts and nipples
* Solve breastfeeding problems
* Nurse two children at a time
* Breastfeed outside the home

Explore the science behind your nutritional needs and the impact that your diet can have on pregnancy. With practical advice from Rhiannon Lambert, a leading nutritionist and Sunday Times bestselling author of The Science of Nutrition, this book helps you prepare for each stage of pregnancy."

Recognizing the vacuum of readily available nutritional information to guide people through pregnancy, Deliciously Healthy Pregnancy is the myth-busting antidote to a grey area, previously regarded as taboo. While accepting there's no "right way" for everyone, Rhiannon's practice is based on the latest scientific research, and backed up with practical advice, tips, and recipes to inspire.

Readers can go on a journey to explore:

• The entire pregnancy cycle - fertility, conception, pregnancy, postnatal - showing how good nutrition can have a positive impact on each phase, and preparing the mind and body for pregnancy and birth.
• An expert insight into the key nutrients, minerals, and vitamins that enable a healthy pregnancy
• Includes over 80 recipes to be enjoyed by parents and families, focusing specifically on nutrition for pregnant mothers
• Recipes have been thoroughly researched by a qualified nutritionist specialising in pre and postnatal health, breaking down the science for the reader and enabling them to trust the source of the advice.

Split into two sections, the book starts by breaking down the science behind the advice, exploring the stages of pregnancy and being a new mum, with infographics illustrating the changes to the body, your lifestyle, and diet for mother and baby. Following on from the theory, the second half of the book is the practical side with over 80 flavour-packed recipes.

Recipes can be customized to suit your personal situation: either to target a particular condition or symptom, or to cater for your dietary needs and choices, including vegetarian, vegan, gluten- and dairy-free.

A must-have pregnancy cookbook for couples looking to conceive - this book is useful for both mothers and fathers alike! So whether you're seeking to explore all the stages of pregnancy, birth and weaning, or you're looking for a self-purchase or gift for friend/relative/partner who is looking to conceive, pregnant or already has a young baby, Rhiannon's practice is based on the latest scientific research and backed up with practical advice, tips, and recipes.

Along with our human hands and their loving touch, we welcome babies into the world with the sound of a human voice. Our speech and song is a creative force which helps form a child, weaving a warm nest of protection around him or her. This book, by three experienced early years educators, is full of songs, verses and games for use with very young children. Parents will find a wealth of wonderful resources to help their babies and toddlers develop healthily during this critical period.

Anna and Daphne have combined their many years of experience, producing an interesting and well written book based on fact rather than opinion, covering conception to postnatal. Most expecting mothers will not be seen by the NHS until around 12 weeks of pregnancy, and this book provides the advice and reassurance needed during this time. It also features a 'read your week of pregnancy', which offers mothers the opportunity to monitor symptoms that can indicate different things at different stages of the pregnancy. Issues broached in the book include: conception difficulties, what tests to opt for, how to break the news at work, when to tell an older child, taking your partner to the scan, opting for a caesarean.

This book features 50 nutrient-packed recipes for pre-conception, pregnancy and breastfeeding. It offers practical advice for anyone thinking about starting a family, including tips on improving general health and achieving optimum fertility for both partners. You can learn about the essential nutrients needed for pre-conception, pregnancy and breastfeeding. It features over 50 tempting recipes specially chosen to boost fertility, increase your sex drive and improve your changes of a healthy pregnancy. Each recipe is photographed, with easy-to-follow instructions to help you achieve the best results. Deciding to start a new family can be an exciting time, but with so much information thrown at you it can also feel quite daunting. This authoritative book has been written with first-time parents in mind and starts with an introduction that will help you to understand your nutritional needs when trying for a baby, during pregnancy and after birth. The recipe section that follows includes over 50 nutrition-packed dishes. You can choose from fertility-boosting Spicy Crab Cakes, calcium-rich Miso Broth with Beancurd or high-fibre Date and Apple Muffins.Illustrated throughout, this book will be invaluable for anyone trying for a baby or already pregnant.

This is a straight-talking, woman-to-woman postnatal recovery guide with a difference. These tailored Pilates exercises are safe and effective to build strong foundations, whatever your exercise goals.

Clear step-by-step exercises are suitable for the fourth trimester, caesarean recovery and year one and beyond. Take control of your postnatal recovery and feel empowered with this toolkit of resources.

Health, fitness and wellbeing advice will help replenish and renew your energy in mind, body and spirit.

Learn how to check for abdominal separation and recognise the signs of pelvic floor weakness - what it means and what you can do about it.

Posture tips, easily incorporated into your day-to-day life - while breastfeeding, pushing your buggy, at your desk, picking up your toddler.

Routines are realistic and manageable as they are broken down into bite-sized 10/20/30-minute blocks.

A baby book inspired by one of the best-loved children's books ever. Guess how much it will be treasured when baby grows up
Set against beautiful illustrations from "Guess How Much I Love You," here is a truly endearing keepsake that invites parents to enter firsts, favorites, and fondest memories of their little one's life. Starting even before baby is born, Mom or Dad can share excitement while expecting, then capture moments from birth to age two -- from the most personal details to world events -- in words, pictures, footprints, memorabilia, and more.

Nearly a million parents suffer a miscarriage or infant death each year. This collection of meditations interweaves the very real feelings of bereaved parents with Scripture passages that provide comfort, direction, and hope.

'A practical guide to helping your child through one of the most important developmental stages of early childhood' - Green Parent Book of the Month

Gurgle's Honest Read for December

How to make potty training stress free for you and your child

The Gentle Potty Training Book is a practical guide to helping your child through one of the most important developmental stages of early childhood. Avoiding strict timelines, rewards and plans that are based solely on a child's gender, Sarah Ockwell-Smith advocates an approach that is based on your child's unique developmental stage - because the gentlest, easiest and most effective potty training happens when you work with your child as a team.

Sarah's advice includes:

* Recognising the physical and emotional signs that your child is ready

* How to talk to your child about potty training and prepare them emotionally

* What you need to get started - the practicalities

* How to respond to accidents and setbacks

* Potty training your child when you're in full-time work or co-parenting

* The when and how of night-time potty training

* What to do after previous false starts

Comprehensive, practical and realistic, Sarah's advice will give you the necessary understanding and confidence to make potty training a smooth process for you and your child.

Heartfelt reflections to comfort new moms during the first three months with baby. The first three months with your baby are filled with lots of feelings and life changes. This book of inspirational quotes and original artwork gently guides you through your fourth trimester and empowers you to give yourself grace, accept your changing body, and trust your mothering intuition. Whether you're a first-time mom or having your next one, this book is the perfect pick-me-up whenever you need reassurance that you've got this. * Comforting daily reflections for the first 12 weeks after birth (broken out by weeks) * Encouraging messages touching upon everything from bonding with your baby to accepting changes to your body * Stylish hand-drawn lettering and illustrations * Beautiful soft-touch cover and original artwork A great baby shower gift for anyone that wants to help mom and baby adjust to their beautiful new life together! "What a beautiful book! As a new mom, I'm so thankful for something that encourages me and other moms right where we are." -Sadie Robertson Huff

We're born with a hunger for roots and a desire to pass on a legacy. The past two decades have seen a boom in family history services that combine genealogy with DNA testing, though this is less a sign of a robust connection to past generations than of its absence. Everywhere we see a pervasive rootlessness coupled with a cult of youth that thinks there is little to learn from our elders. The nursing home tragedies of the Covid-19 pandemic laid bare this devaluing of the old. But it's not only the elderly who are negatively affected when the links between generations break down; the young lose out too. When the hollowing-out of intergenerational connections deprives youth of the sense of belonging to a story beyond themselves, other sources of identity, from trivial to noxious, will fill the void. Yet however important biological kinship is, the New Testament tells us it is less important than the family called into being by God's promises. "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" Jesus asks a crowd of listeners, then answers: "Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother." In this great intergenerational family, we are linked by a bond of brotherhood and sisterhood to believers from every era of the human story, past, present, and yet to be born. To be sure, our biological families and inheritances still matter, but heredity and blood kinship are no longer the primary source of our identity. Here is a cure for rootlessness. On this theme: - Matthew Lee Anderson argues that even in an age of IVF no one has a right to have a child. - Emmanuel Katongole describes how African Christians are responding to ecological degradation by returning to their roots. - Louise Perry worries that young environmentalist don't want kids. - Helmuth Eiwen asks what we can do about the ongoing effects of the sins of our ancestors. - Terence Sweeney misses an absent father who left him nothing. - Wendy Kiyomi gives personal insight into the challenges of adopting children with trauma in their past. - Alastair Roberts decodes that long list of "begats" in Matthew's Gospel. - Rhys Laverty explains why his hometown, Chessington, UK, is still a family-friendly neighborhood. - Springs Toledo recounts, for the first time, a buried family story of crime and forgiveness. - Monica Pelliccia profiles three generations of women who feed migrants riding the trains north. Also in the issue: - A new Christmas story by Oscar Esquivias, translated from the Spanish - Original poetry by Aaron Poochigian - Reviews of Kim Haines-Eitzen's Sonorous Desert, Matthew P. Schneider's God Loves the Autistic Mind, Adam Nicolson's Life between the Tides, and Ash Davidson's Damnation Spring. - An appreciation for Augustine's mother, Monica - Short sketches by Clarice Lispector of her father and son Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.

"Beautifully illustrated, detailed and clear, this is a wonderful introduction to human reproduction" - Professor Alice Roberts Follow the amazing transformation that occurs as a baby develops from a single cell into a fully formed human body. Hundreds of spectacular images show you the progress of human pregnancy in unprecedented detail. The computer generated imagery, illustrations, scans, and photographs show exactly how a baby changes and grows during pregnancy, and how the female body adapts to carry it. A chapter on labour and birth explains these processes with step-by-step illustrations and easy-to-grasp text. The Science of Pregnancy also looks at the nature of human pregnancy, including how it evolved, and explores the anatomy and physiology of both the male and female reproductive systems. The mysteries of DNA and genetics are unravelled and explained in clear, illustrated detail, including patterns of inheritance and the interplay of genes and environment. The book also provides straightforward, illustrated information on possible problems before, during, and after birth. Fascinating, clear, and authoritative, this new and updated edition of The Science of Pregnancy is the ideal visual guide for prospective parents and medical and midwifery students

Perfect for baby showers, gender reveal parties, and first birthdays, this edition extends the sentiments in the bestseller On the Night You Were Born and tells children they are loved. With space and prompts for writing personal messages in the book, this volume is sure to be a special keepsake.

"Everything you need to know to make breastfeeding a joyful, natural, and richly fulfilling experience for both you and your baby"
Drawing on her decades of experience in caring for pregnant women, mothers, and babies, Ina May Gaskin explores the health and psychological benefits of breastfeeding and gives you invaluable practical advice that will help you nurse your baby in the most fulfilling way possible. Inside you'll find answers to virtually every question you have on breastfeeding, including topics such as
-the benefits of breastfeeding
-nursing challenges
-pumps and other nursing products
-sleeping arrangements
-nursing and work
-medications
-nursing multiples
-weaning
-sick babies
-nipplephobia, and much more
Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding is filled with helpful advice, medical facts, and real-life stories that will help you understand how and why breastfeeding works and how you can use it to more deeply connect with your baby and your own body. Whether you're planning to nurse for the first time or are looking for the latest, most up-to-date expert advice available, you couldn't hope to find a better guide than Ina May.

In our society childbirth is often viewed as something to be feared and even to be avoided, through elective caesarian or extreme pain suppression. In this uplifting book Kristina Turner applies esoteric knowledge to show practical ways of transforming a difficult experience into a positive and deeply spiritual one. Kristina looks closely at the physical processes that take place in the body during pregnancy and childbirth, as well at explaining the facts behind hospital procedures and options for home birth -- providing readers with the necessary knowledge to make their own choices. She feels that birthing should be viewed as a unified process, from the nine months of pregnancy through labour to the many months of breastfeeding; all three stages contribute to developing the bond between mother and child and the child's emotional function. Kristina writes beautifully about the sacred mystery inherent in conception and pregnancy, and guides the new mother towards being a conscious participant in the spiritual process of bringing life into this world. This book is both very practical and hugely inspiring.

Take charge of your pregnancy. For trusted advice, turn to Your Pregnancy and Childbirth: Month to Month from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. This fully revised edition of Your Pregnancy and Childbirth: Month to Month offers the latest medical guidelines in straightforward, easy-to-read language to help you make the best decisions for you and your pregnancy. You can trust that the information you read is supported by medical research and the everyday experience of ob-gyns who have cared for millions of pregnant women.

Pregnancy is a time of profound physical and psychological change. The transition to motherhood can be complex and difficult, and in all the discourse about pregnancy and birth the huge personal changes that women undergo can be overlooked. In the 21st century it can seem that mothers are blamed and blame themselves for everything, as they struggle to manage their multiple identities as mothers, lovers, sisters and daughters. Why Mothering Matters is a nuanced and revealing discussion of how it can feel to become a mother in modern society. It calls for better recognition of the work of motherhood, and better support for women and families as they learn what parenting looks like for them.

A comprehensive, illustrated guide to the extraordinary first year of a baby's life for new parents.

The only book new parents will need for the extraordinary first year of their baby's life. This comprehensive book covers every moment of the first twelve months of your baby's life - from their first moments at home, feeding, and sleeping arrangements, to travelling, building their body strength, and starting to eat solids.

A team of expert paediatricians, midwives, psychologists, and nutritionists provide unrivalled detail on everything new parents can expect. This new edition has been updated with the latest medical advice for a new generation of parents, and includes reassuring answers to common questions, offering additional support for whenever you need it. The Month-by-Month Baby Book perfectly complements the bestselling The Day-by-Day Pregnancy Book.