Recommended Baby Books.

I highly recommend "Baby Love" by Robin Barker. Robin is an experienced nurse, midwife and early childhood nurse as well as a mother and grandmother. The book is easy to read and full of helpful advice and information on sleeping, crying, breastfeeding, nutrition, illnesses and growth and development. It also has a section of recipes for babies and it is Australian so it has Australian specific resources.

Another book I highly recommend is "The Wonder Weeks" by Hetty Vanderijt and Frans Plooij. The Wonder Weeks is about the eight major developmental leaps that babies make within their first 14 months. It covers how to help your baby through these fussy periods, what they go through during this time and what the developmental leaps are. It also covers which games and toys are best for babies at different ages and stages. This book was hugely valuable to me. It was good to understand what Em was going through at different times and also to know what sorts of games and toys would suit her best at the different stages. As a new mother I often found myself wondering "what's going on now" and this book helped me to understand why Em was doing what she was doing and what she was trying to learn. I also found myself not knowing what games or toys to introduce and when. Again this book helped me to know when the best times to introduce different games and toys were. I really can't recommend this book highly enough. I think every new mother should have a copy. The only problem I found is that it is not available in book shops. Perhaps you can ask for it to be ordered in? I found it easiest and cheapest to search online. The book typically retails for about $50 in Australia but if you search around you can find it for around $30. It is also available in libraries and that's how I first stumbled across it.

Back ache.

During the second trimester my back started aching, especially towards the end of the day. Then during the third trimester my back got worse and worse and got to a point where it was hurting all day long. I couldn't get comfortable. It also affected my sleep. By the end of the day I was in agony. I'm not sure if it was because my baby was big or because she was in breech or just because.

What helped me was:

• Doing a course through my hospital, run by a physiotherapist, about managing your back, pelvic floor and other pregnancy issues. If your hospital doesn't run such a course I would recommend seeing a physiotherapist who specialises in women's health. You will be given exercises to do at home, which did help relieve my back ache. You will also be given information on how to sit, stand and lie so that you are in the best position to prevent aches. The course also covered birth and the best positions to use to relieve pain.
  
• Doing the stretches given to you by the physiotherapist every day.
  
• Using lots of pillows in bed to support your legs and growing belly. I also used pillows when sitting on the couch and in the car to support my back into a more comfortable position.
• Seeing an osteopath regularly to manipulate and massage the back to relieve pressure.
• Getting regular massage to relieve muscle soreness.
• Sitting on a chair backwards so that you are leaning on the back of the chair. This really worked well to relieve back ache and was very comfortable.
• Walking regularly.