Books and Websites

I came across Penelope Leach's 'Babyhood' at a second hand books' sale, quite by chance, and bought it for an incredible two hundred rupees! But I'd say it is worth every paisa of its actual price in the range of Rs.2500/- (paperback). In the first page itself she says how a new mother and a new father are totally inexperienced, and how not to feel bad about it. When I started reading, I thought she was actually telling my story. Except that she does not mention multiples much, or the unique challenges a multiples' mother has to face. Apart from that small shortcoming, I loved 'Babyhood' and I bought two other books of Ms.Leach- 'Your Growing Child' and 'Your Baby and Child'. 

The great thing about those books that they understand the child psychology well, and that helps the parent to comprehend what the child wants. Ms.Leach also understands what the parent is going through. For example there is this part on the conflict between breastfeeding and formula feeding. I was feeling quite guilty of not breastfeeding my babies (see post on Breastfeeding vs Formula). However Ms. Leach says that the bond a baby has with the mother develops when the baby lies on the mother's lap and drinks milk, whether breast milk or from a bottle. Similarly she says that a baby's vision is two dimensional until she is three or four months old, so she will enjoy looking at pictures kept at 30 cm away from her face. She advocates reading to the child, ways of choosing the right playschool, dealing with baby sickness, sibling jealousy and a lot more. Hugely informative and greatly inspiring! It is a must-read for all parents I should say.

One GREAT website that helped me throughout was www.tripletsandus.com It shows stage-by-stage development of triplets during and after pregnancy. I still go back to the site often.

http://crappypictures.com/ is a fun site. Illustrated with cartoons, it deals with the stress of parenting in a very light-hearted way.

The Barnes blog is too good to miss, and describes very similar experiences to mine- http://barnesdailycircus.blogspot.in/

https://www.rie.org/

Babyhood, Your Baby and Child, and Your Growing Child by Penelope Leach

Three great books by Penelope Leach. 'Babyhood' I found extremely useful in babies' first months. At times parenting triplets brings a nervous breakdown. Our mood swings will be instantly reflected on the babies' also. In such situations I take Leach, and she will have a solution for me. Or at least her narratives will make me feel much better, and make me look at the world from my trio's viewpoint. Thank you ma'am! 

I think all three books are must-reads for all parents.
Here are three pictures from two of the books- about eating veggies, problem eaters and about jealousy. I bet you have never thought about these things in this perspective.

My kids with the books