Nipple Confusion, Uncoordinated Pooping, and Spittle

For new babies, there are the first-year milestones that everyone talks about-baby's first smile, first steps, and first words-and then there are all the firsts that everyone conveniently forgets to mention. The first time you find yourself hanging around the baby store parking lot, waiting for the doors to open so you can make an emergency breast pump purchase. The first time you discover that girls, too, can shoot pee across the changing table when you're least expecting it. And the first time you discover baby poop smeared on your tie moments before you need to leave for work (and it was your wife, not you, who changed the poopy diaper). It's not surprising that firsts like this leave you feeling like you're on your own as a new father, and that perhaps you should have skimmed one or two of your partner's what-to-expect books that appeared everywhere around the house over the course of her pregnancy.

With Nipple Confusion, Uncoordinated Pooping, and Spittle: The Life of a Newborn's Father, Roger Friedman wonderfully captures all of his daughter's firsts in an often humorous, sometimes poignant, and occasionally grown-up manner. It's an enjoyable, honest account of the confusing, terrifying, and downright messy world of parenthood.