Belly Laughs

After hearing about this book, I had to check it out. Jenny McCarthy's Belly Laughs reads almost like a review on pregnancy. A very sarcastic, hilarious review on pregnancy. She chats about all the ups and downs from the raging hormones, to her constipation issues. She also makes it very clear how much she loves her baby and calls pregnancy the most beautiful thing she'd ever do.

I read about half of it while we were at Barnes & Noble last week. I was laughing with every page! Few books make me laugh this hard, in fact, none have ever made me laugh like this book did. Jenny is so frank and blunt, and now that I've joined the "I've been pregnant" club, I was able to relate to her in so many ways.

A funny moments she talks about, for example, is when she very early on gets into a hot tub only to have a stranger yell at her for killing her baby. She jumps out and thinks in horror, "I've hard boiled my baby!" (I've gotten in the hot tub many times actually, and my doctor told me I should be using it as much as I can actually.)

I have to say, I was disappointed to read some 1 star reviews on Amazon.com regarding this book. All books have some 1 star reviews, and this one had a few too. I read through them all, and was disappointed to discover all these "granola moms" complaining about the same things. First, that Jenny confuses pregnant women by not being informative about pregnancy and suggesting that a "selfish epidural" put her child in danger. Also, that she didn't breastfeed and will likely inspire other women not to (oh no, God forbid breastfeeding not work for everyone!) Finally, they called her a bad mother and suggested she didn't love her kids because she "complained in her book so much about pregnancy".

SO basically, since I'm pregnant and doing this for my child, I'm not allowed to say anything bad about morning sickness and hemorrhoids???

One reviewer said: "I even wonder if she's fit to be a mother - if this was her attitude during pregnancy, I cant imagine how much she must be whining after the baby was born!"

Another said: "This book does nothing to educate women about pregnancy. It is a list of complaints, and the author spends most of the time focusing on her own selfish needs with no regard to the life she is carrying. Pregnancy isn't about the women -- it's about the babies."

Sheesh... lighten up people. If we can't LAUGH at the ridiculous side effects of pregnancy well, in my opinion, we're in a bad place. All things considered, this book me feel BETTER about being pregnant. I love my daughter, I love many aspects of pregnancy, but don't tell me I'm an unfit mother for not saying, "Yay! Stretchmarks!"

There were over 300 four and five star reviews, so obviously I'm not alone. I loved reading this book because it was like talking to my girlfriend, being sarcastic about the crappy parts of pregnancy. And that's something I've missed, because I don't have any pregnant friends to relate to right now. If you've ever been pregnant, I would recommend this book for sure. Just make sure you don't take life too seriously before you read it. It's too much light hearted fun for you if thats the case.