I just scored a gift-giving home run with a friend of mine who recently became a father (to a beautiful baby girl - I can’t cuddle that kiddo enough, I swear). What could possibly be more exciting to him than the set of purple and brown onesies? Well, I lent him my review copy of Jenna McCarthy’s brand-spankin’-new book, “Cheers to the New Dad!” and his wife  just told me he finished it within a day of getting home from the hospital and LOVED it………..

Do you realized the magnitude of what I just wrote? A parenting book. For Dads. And the dad actually found it useful……and relevant………and READ IT! Not knocking men at all, but from my experience, most guys like to go in and just DO parenting and skip most of the nonstop-parenting-book-reading stuff that women find addicting when newly pregnant and then again when the baby actually arrives.

Whoops, forgot to mention the other half of the book that my friend is dying to start now that her husband is finished with his half - the book flips over and is……….voila……..”Cheers to the New Mom!”

How cool is that? 2 books in one!

This book would be perfect as a gift for new parents or to buy for yourself when you’re getting ready to head to the hospital………I think all parents would agree that we can use all the help we can get!

Check out my review of Jenna’s first book, “The Parent Trip” - another great parenting read!

Let me just start by saying that I am a collector of parenting books and a sucker for anything promising humor combined with motherhood stories - and have been since before I even HAD kids. This explains my mile-high pile of books that I keep pushing onto all of my newly pregnant friends - “No, really, you HAVE TO read this one!” The good, the bad and the ugly, they’re all in there and they’ve all been devoured. I take the advice I want to hear and sneer at and ignore the stuff I don’t agree with. After all, who knows my parenting experience better than I do?

Back in my twitter-holic days of this summer, I came across a new acquaintance named Jenna McCarthy (no, NOT Jenny) who had a pretty cool blog and as I discovered after following the link in her twitter profile, a brand new parenting book! After reading her blog and a few of the excerpts on her site, I knew I had to read the book and I knew I wanted to share it here.

The book is titled The Parent Trip: From High Heels and Parties to High Chairs and Potties and is a completely hilarious look at Jenna’s trip through conceiving, pregnancy, childbirth and new motherhood. Along with the tale of her journey, she offers some great advice for mothers with the real-world spin on them, none of that unrealistic “only the saintly mothers in our dreams” kind of stuff that no one really does but authors want you to think YOU should do. You know what I mean, right?

I love this excerpt about pumping breastmilk - for anyone that has actually DONE this, you know exactly what she’s referring to. If you’re waiting for the experience excitedly, do NOT trust those glazed-eye ladies who tell you that babies know how to nurse on their own and pumping is easy - ha.

Jenna writes:

In more than one awe-inspiring video shown in Prenatal Prep, we watched as a newborn babe wormed its way up its new mom’s belly and located its intended food source. By sheer instinct and fundamental need, these intrepid creatures were able to engage in the act of nursing that is one of nature’s most beautiful and profound.

Pumping breast milk, on the other hand, is about as organic and intuitive as watching a monster truck rally on TV while downing a bag of Doritos.

The Parent Trip made me laugh out loud and remember the days of pregnancy and tiny babyhood and SO wish I would have had this book when I was pregnant the first time. Jenna tells it like it is without hiding the fact that motherhood is pretty darn amazing. I’m planning on making sure all of my newly pregnant friends get this book and am even making all of my been there, done that mom friends read it too! A big hat tip to Jenna, who wrote this hilarious, true-to-life book while raising her 2 daughters.

Want to win a copy? Here’s your chance!

All you need to do to enter is leave a comment here. The contest is open until October 1st and the winner will be notified via email.