i've been reading this book called "the girlfriends guide to pregnancy" by vicki iovine. it is an absolute matter-of-fact, non-medical and humorous take on pregnancy. i simply love, love, love it. to quote her:

"the experience of pregnancy is so much more than medical; it is emotional, physical, and social, and i never found a book, in seven years of searching, that addressed those aspects of those experience in the way a good, experienced, and, most important, candid girlfriend could"

"we have all heard of women who do pregnancy perfectly. you know the type: a model or actress who is reverently portrayed in women's magazines with bouncing hair and hip outfits with accessories that match. or worse, she is the daughter of your mother's best friend. so you have to hear about and be compared with her every single day"

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"this book is NOT for these women. it is for the rest of us; those of us who put on twenty pounds between the home pregnancy test and the first doctor's visit. it is for those of us who get our first case of acne since the homecoming dance. it is for those of us who have hemorrhoids so bad that we have considered never eating solid food again, in hopes of avoiding another bowel movement for the rest of our lives. it is for those of us who have considered murdering our partners in their sleep because we thought we heard them say "moo" when we were getting dressed. it is for those of us who can no longer watch a pampers commercial without being moved to tears, and who feel it is our responsibility to memorize the faces of children on america's most wanted so that we can reunite them with their bereft parents"

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this book is so funny that i find myself laughing out loud whilst reading it. and i have to admit some things are so true and so private that ONLY a girlfriend would bring it up into the open. i'd strongly recommend this book to anyone who's pregnant AND who's not interested in doing pregnancy perfectly (it's for mere mortals like you and me!)