What About Us?: A New Parents Guide to Safeguarding Your Over-Anxious, Over-Extended, Sleep-Deprived Relationship

by Karen Kleiman, Molly McIntyre (Illustrator)

Overview

The demands of a new baby can test a couple’s relationship like nothing else! When we factor in sleep deprivation, hormonal changes, depression and anxiety, and different personalities, life with a newborn can feel a bit CRAZY. Couples tend to misinterpret this rough patch as a sign that something is wrong with the relationship, but when couples take steps toward open communication and safeguard their relationship, they can face everything new parenthood throws at them together. From the team behind the bestselling Good Moms Have Scary Thoughts comes a new guidebook of short essays, comics, and quick journal prompts about the stressful newborn stage, the struggles that so many new parents face, and the skills you need to tap into your strength as a couple.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781641705714
Publisher:	Familius
Publication date:	09/14/2021
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	366,593
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 7.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Karen Kleiman is a well-known international maternal mental-health expert with over thirty-five years of experience as a psychotherapist, teacher, and writer. As an advocate and author of several groundbreaking books on postpartum depression and anxiety, her pioneering work has influenced personal and professional populations within the perinatal mental health community for decades. In 1988, Karen founded The Postpartum Stress Center, a treatment and training facility for prenatal and postpartum depression/anxiety disorders where she treats individuals and couples.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 This Is Us? 7

A Wonderful Mess

The Hormone Part

Diaper Is Too Tight

It's Expensive!

Help You What?

Please Find Me

Chapter 2 Here's What I'm Thinking 21

No Good Timing

I'm Pregnant and Freaking Out

Sorry for What I Said When I Was Feeling Crappy

PANIC!

We Can't Lose This Pregnancy

If I Snuggle, You Want Sex

Chapter 3 I Need You to Know This Hurts 35

Postpartum Jiggles

Seriously Don't Touch Me

Don't Ask

What Happened to My Vagina?

Six-Week All Clear

Why Aren't You Attracted to Me?

Chapter 4 Are We In This Together? 49

You Don't Understand

Did the Baby Sleep Through the Night Again?

No Time

Why Don't We Talk?

Baby Loves You More

This Cannot Be Okay

Chapter 5 What If This Happens to Us? 63

We Can't Get Pregnant?

Unplanned Pregnancy

Unbearable Sadness

Loss Is Forever

Impossibly Difficult Circumstances

Chapter 6 Finding Us 75

Remember When We Had a Life?

When Compromise Feels Like Losing

Negotiation Is an Art Form

When Did We Become Our Parents?!

Please Don't Touch the Baby

I Want a Baby, You Want a Vasectomy

Chapter 7 The Power of Our Relationship 89

OMG Put Your Phone Down Please

He Needs a Hat

I Think She's Hungry

Wake Up Please

Take the Baby!

Chapter 8 Mom Struggles 101

Just Feed the Baby

The World Can Be a Scary Place

Actually, I Really Do Take Care of Everything

If You Only Knew What I Was Thinking: Scary Thoughts

Either Way, I Feel Guilty

I Cannot Live This Way

Chapter 9 Dad Struggles 115

What Are We Gonna Do?

I Can't Get Those Images Out of My Head

Could You Stop Telling Me What to Do and How to Do It?

Am I Just Like My Dad?

I Have to Stay Strong for My Family

Would My Kids Be Better Off without Me?

Chapter 10 This Is Us Now 129

When Worry Resides

Are We Okay?

Cultivating Resilience

Finding Humor

Revisit Your Circle of Affection

Resources 141

References 149

Editorial Reviews

"Karen Kleiman’s wisdom about not only taking care of the mother and her well-being, but also her partner and their whole system at large, helps us all stay connected to our partners and loved ones during a tumultuous, life-changing, and potentially relationship-taxing time. . . . God bless Karen for her support in helping us all integrate every relationship within our 'new normal' as parents. Her humor, experience, wisdom, and insight are like a port in the most heart-spinning of storms."
-Alanis Morissette
 
"​​With its real-life illustrations and digestible sections, What About Us gets straight to the heart of the matter, showing (not just telling) couples how having a baby impacts on their relationship, what’s really going on inside both of them, what the big issues are and how to get through this trying time together. Overwhelmed and sleep-deprived parents will see themselves in the pages and find reassurance that they’re normal, not alone and it won't last forever."
-Elly Taylor, perinatal relationship specialist, author and founder of Becoming Us.

"Parents often experience tension in their relationships after baby, but often have limited time to read about, reflect, and work through challenges. What About Us? is the answer parents have been waiting for. Through powerful, relatable visuals and Karen Kleiman's decades of experience working with families, partners now have an opportunity to see they're not alone and have a roadmap to move forward together."
—Stephanie Greunke, MS, RD, CPT, PMH-C

"Practical, entertaining, informative, consoling, and sometimes inspiring, "What About Us?: A New Parents Guide to Safeguarding Your Over-Anxious, Over-Extended, Sleep-Deprived Relationship" is essential reading for new (and not so new) parents struggling with a new born addition to their family." - Midwest Book Reviews
 

From the Publisher