When Jenna McCarthy’s book, The Parent Trip: From High Heels and Parties to Highchairs and Potties came my way I was eager to get started reading.   Not only do I appreciate a good read but before this, all we had were the celebrities, Doctors and the ‘What to Expect’ series bringing us the same material over and over.

Then we have the parenting JOURNALS.  There are hundreds of them and they’re all exactly the same.  Write your thoughts, enter possible baby names here…what we as expecting mothers really need to expect is “Did I get those hemorrhoid’s in the first or second trimester last time?” and this book combines both Jenna’s journey into parenthood and provides a humorous journal section WAY more relevant to the entries I had filled out when I was pregnant!

I have a confession to make.  For YEARS, I’ve been wanting to write a book about my journey to parenthood and pregnancy because I read every parenting book and wrote in every journal available throughout both of my pregnancies and was SO let down by the content.

Well, I don’t need to do that anymore.  Jenna McCarthy broke the mold and pushed past all the barriers about pregnancy.  I have a theory about all those books on the stand.  It’s a conspiracy to convince women pregnancy’s not “all that bad”.  Sure, you’ll gain some weight and might be uncomfortable, but you get a beautiful baby out of it!

To quote Jenna (I had a HARD time picking just one here)-

“Untold numbers of books out there will tell you precisely how to do it and how to feel while you’re doing it (and I know this for a fact because I now own them all).  But for the most part, reading them while pregnant is sort of like perusing a book on aerospace engineering while you sip a vodka and tonic on a flight to Lisbon: There might be lots of handy navigational tips, but you’re really just along for the ride.”

Books hint of morning sickness, maintaining moderate weight gain and the bonus (to some) of enlarged breasts.  Jenna takes it a step further by pointing out “I’m as sick as a dog-assuming that dog swallowed a large porcupine and washed it down with a gallon of radiator fluid.  Morning sickness, my ass.  This particular breed of nausea wears no watch and just about the only thing that puts even the tiniest dent in it is the massive quantities of food.”

AMEN, sister!  That’s my life right there!  BOTH pregnancies!  I couldn’t stop throwing up but there was not a buffet that could hold me back.  How could I moderate my weight gain when I couldn’t get full?  The enlarged breasts?  What about those of us who started out large?  I started as a 36DD when I got pregnant with my first and at my peak was a 36I cup people!  An I!  I had to have surgery because of it and was taken down to a C, which of course shot up to a D with my second pregnancy.

Jenna, if you’re reading this I thank you for finally telling the world what it’s really like to go through the stages of parenthood.  From your repulsion of the very idea of parenthood to your sudden maternal clock slapping you across the face, you brought the (sometimes) brutal honestly of every stage of Parenting to life while still getting across the point that YES, it IS absolutely without question WORTH IT ALL!