What to Expect From the What to Expect When You're Expecting Book

Here is my cliff notes for the book, "What to expect when you're expecting." Is there anyone in this country who has had a baby and not purchased or borrowed this book? It was the first parenty thing we ever bought. It is useful, especially for nervous new parents. I could have written this book with one simple synopsis.

"What should you expect? You should expect anything along the spectrum of the possible. Whatever you are experiencing, it is most likely normal."

To demonstrate, I will now open the book at random, and I guarantee I will find an example of what I am talking about. Here we go...

No lie, this is what I pointed to. Page 261, "What you May be feeling."

"You may experience all symptoms at one time or another, or only a few of them. Some may have continued from last month, others may be new, still others may be hardly noticed, because you've become so used to them. You may also have other, less common symptoms."

Lets try it again, just to show it's not a fluke...

Page 37o, "The second stage of Childbirth: pushing and delivery."

"Emotionally, you may feel relieved that you can now start pushing (although some women may feel embarrassed or scared); you may also feel exhilarated and excited or, if the pushing stretches on for more than an hour, frustrated or overwhelmed."

All through the book this is all it says. You may be feeling this, or maybe this, or maybe the opposite of these, or none of these.

We don't even refer to the book anymore. When Annie says she's feeling barfy, I just say, "the book says that's what you should expect." When she says she's super excited, "that's expected."
Overwhelmed with the idea of three kids? Expected. Peeing? Expected. Fatigue? Expected. You feel like I'm dismissing your pregnancy symptoms as average? After reading this book, that should be expected.