Because obviously I'll have heaps of time to read books when I'm there....or not....
The first one arrived yesterday. Great timing. It's the latest edition of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale. I did the training to do this assessment a few years ago. It looks at a newborn's ability to self-regulate and interact with adults, among other things. I'll only be looking at this one if I'm in any kind of frame of mind to give it a go with the baby in the first few days. Depends on how I'm feeling. And how the baby's going.
The second one (Baby on Board 2nd edition) I found at the library. It looks like a fairly common sense type of book. A good two page summary at the beginning about what you need to know (or be reminded of) in the first few days. And heaps smaller than Robin Barker's Baby Love and the massive La Leche League breastfeeding book that I also found in the library.
The third one (Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother) I have read before. I'm reading it again because it was interesting. And because I've already read it once it shouldn't be too taxing second time around.
The last one is one I'm checking out as a possibility for a Book Chat book for next year in the lead-up to Easter. I'm a couple of chapters in. It's not too bad. It 's integrating information from all four Gospel accounts of the lead-up to Jesus' death, which is interesting. A bit heavy going though. And old (published 2004). I'm not sure it will be easy to get hold of if a few people want to read it. Anyone else read it?
And the baby name book that we bought way back in 2001, so I can't find an image of that one anymore. Chris and I are going to try and sort out the final choices tonight...we are perhaps slightly closer to choosing something but I don't think we're there yet.
And, of course, my Bible.
Taking all these books with me, of course, is all about clinging to familiar and loved things. Change always freaks me out and this time around I've had more time to worry about it than I've had with all of my previous babies. I know it will all be okay eventually, but right now it is a bit scary.
I won't be able to blog in hospital because I don't own a smartphone or any other portable computer technology. So I will chat to you all in a week or so if everything goes well. Take care.