THE EXPECTANT FATHER: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE FOR DADS-TO-BE by Armin A. Brott ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

To go along with What to Expect — the metropolis of pregnancy books — here’s the Dad-book suburb made just for me. There’s plenty of overlap between the two, but this one really helped me feel more included in the whole experience. It was comforting that someone thought to organize all this info specifically for the partners when most of the time they are overlooked (for good reason, we know we aren’t doing the heavy lifting here, but still).

One thing I appreciated about this one over the other is the give-it-to-you-plain attitude. More down to earth and real advice rather than long, detailed overexplanation. And it speaks to you on a more personal level, or at least it did to me. I felt like the author could read my mind and was talking me down from a potential freak out before I even got to it. There’s a lot of reassuring and pep talking and firsthand commiserating, all of which stuck with me as each month ticked by.

It felt like it was written directly for me, whereas the other was clearly written more for moms rather than the savvy partners that stumble onto it on her nightstand. Thankfully, I get to keep this one on mine.