Win a prize pack of DK Publishing books for new parents!

if they are dry, fed and not hurt and you can't stop the crying (theirs or yours!) take them for a ride in the car (in the car seat of course!) with the radio turned up!  So what if you are in your pajamas at midnight!

Enjoy every minute of it because it goes by too fast!

I don't have human children yet, but my one piece of advice would be to read to your kid. Start early and do it often.

Oh, yes, read and read and read--it is never too early to start.

Show your children love.... so many children turn in to teens that have not been shown love and they get it else where and then they end up the new parents and most are still children themselves.....

YOU are the boss, not the child.  From day one living with the attitude "parents rule" will help with all kinds of future discipline problems.  Rule lovingly and consistantly, but none the less, rule.

You bet! I know to many households where the child rules the roost.

Don't let them sleep in the bed  with you or let them sleep in thier swing.  I made the mistake of letting mine sleep in the swing.

Remember to always have patiences with your children. 

Be happy!  Babies know when you're happy!

My 19 year old cousin just found out she was pregnant.  Our family is trying to help her out and be as supportive as we can during this very difficult time.

I would tell new mothers to take care of themselves as well as their children.  The child will look up to you as an example, so live the right way.  Don't be a hypocrite - walk the talk.  They absorb everything you do and if you send mixed signals you'll only confuse them.  Don't tell them to eat healthy if you are not eating healthy, don't expect them to have clean language if you use profanity on a regular basis, etc.  They see what you do and will mimick it.

Definately be patient, they go through many stages and each child is different. Start taking care of their teeth at an early age. Enjoy them, when your sad and down they can always make you laugh.

These would make terrific shower gifts!

My suggestion:

No matter what your best friend, sister, Mother, or co-workers seem...they are not the "Perfect Parent". That animal does not exist, so lighten up on yourself, and just do the best you can, like the rest of us.

My Sister-In-Law is pregnant right now, she'd love these... :)

My advice would be: don't make too rigid plans, and expect the unexpected! Parenting is a great adventure with lots of "surprises!" :)

My one SIL just had a baby girl....and my other SIL is due the beginning of August (with a boy).

The best advice I can think of is just take it slow with your newborn and relax and enjoy everything because they grow up too fast.

This would be a great gift for my cousin. She's due with a little girl at the end of August/beginning of September.

The best advice I would give, is don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it.  With your first child, you want so badly to be the perfect parent and try to do it yourself. I remember I was so tired with my first child and a little help would have went a long way. It can easily get overwhelming. Not everyone is lucky to have a partner that will help. To new parents, it's ok to ask for help. Ask grandma or an aunt or a close family friend to watch little Susie so you can get an hour or two for a nap. It'll make you feel better and allow you to enjoy your child all the more.

My sister is expecting her first in December and my advice to her is that becoming a parent is the hardest, yet most rewarding thing you will ever do. It is OK to ask for help, it doesn't mean you aren't doing your job as a mother.

If you could give just one piece advice to a new parent, what would it be?

Don't ever think that you can spoil a young child by hugging, kissing, and holding them too much. In too short a time they won't want hugs and kisses and they won't want to be held and carried. Enjoy that time while they are young :)

We are expecting our second child in October, this time a little girl. Our son is 2.5 years old and looking forward to having a baby sister.

To new parents: sleep whenever you can.  It's tough to find the time to get rest, but the lack of sleep can drive you crazy and you won't be at your best.  Get help from your family if they're local.  And if possible, you and your spouse should take shifts during the night, instead of both of you losing out.  Of course that only works if the feeding plan permits!

Always remember that each child develops differently at their own pace. As hard as it is, don't compare your child to other kids his/her age and think they are ahead/behind. Follow the generally accepted guidelines. It's ok, your child is fine. (Speaking from experience!)

I don't know anyone thats having a baby right now.  Wow thats not usuall for me!

no matter how exhuasted you are rememeber in the end its all worth it this lovely human being will love you for the rest of your life and you will gain many happy memories and great celebrations from this one person love him/her will everything you got

What a great prize!

After you have kids... assume nothing you owned before will stay nice!!! 

For example... my child bit through my engagement ring!

Oh... and good luck!  :)  *giggles* 

Jeff G, has a great piece of advice.  Sleep when you can, if the baby goes down for the nap, you do to.   

My next piece of advice:

CLEANING AND SCRUBBING CAN WAIT TILL TOMORROW

FOR BABIES GROW UP WE LEARNED TO OUR SORROW,

SO QUIET DOWN COBWEBS AND DUST GO TO SLEEP

I'M ROCKING MY BABY AND BABIES DON'T KEEP.

My sister cross stitched this on a beautiful pic when my kids were smaller.  I loved it.

I am expecting my second child in August, and I have a friend who is expecting her very first child in November. 

My advice would be to enjoy every moment as it happens, and keep track of everything!  Keep the baby book, photo albums and scrapbooks up to date, because once you get behind it's so hard to catch up. Also, keep a journal (I would even recommend starting during pregnancy)..it's a good way to remember your feelings and emotions, those special moments, and once they start talking--all the funny things they say!

If you could give just one piece advice to a new parent, what would it be?It would be to start early on savings accounts to put money away for the child before you know it they are old enough to go to college time really fly's by fast.

I have NO advice because I haven't been pregnant yet! But I think the one thing I want to remind myself to do when I am pregnant is to keep a journal/scrapbook of my pregnancy. I don't want to forget it. Knowing that there is a chance that my husband, who is in the Marine Corps, could be far away during a pregnancy, I want to remember every detail, especially so I can share it with him later.

I am pregnant right now, and I have a few tips for those who are or will be pregnant in the future. :)

1) Take up a light excercise routine such as swimming or yoga. This will really help with conditioning your body for the stretching of the uterous.  Plus can be used later for relaxation techniques.

2) Make sure you know what is safe to eat. You shouldn't be eating cold deli meats for example. Along with this your doctor/midwife should give you a list of what medicienes are safe for you too.

3) Drink cranberry juice or eat cranberries as your chance for UTI increase with pregnancy. Cranberries are known for preventing them, but won't do anything once you have a UTI.

4) Have a baby book that you can fill out, helps to relax, and later you can look at all the memories. I know someday I plan on giving them to my children when they are older to show to their kids.

5) The best advice I can give is to just relax, and surround yourself with happy thoughts of your baby coming soon. Every pregnancy is different, but in the end you will be holding a beautiful baby. :)

There is no such thing as quality time - there's just time. Your kids deserve to get as much of your time as you can give them. They will soon enough leave and take those lessons with them to start their own family

I did a research paper on baby communication (Baby Talk: Communicating with Your Baby), so my advice is to teach your baby baby signs.  From my research paper:

Many parents may ask, "If my child or family member is not deaf, why would I want to teach my baby sign language?" With over 20 years of research into this question, studies have shown that "babies who were exposed to signing not only scored higher in standardized language tests than babies who did not sign but that they scored an average of 12 points higher on intelligence tests at eight years old" (Beyer 2006). That statistic alone should be strong encouragement for parents to teach sign language to their babies. In a study done by Linda Acredolo Ph.D. and Susan Goodwyn Ph.D., researchers in the use of baby sign language, with a group of signing babies and a group of nonsigning babies, the group of signing babies at age two could not only use their sign language words, "but also on average knew about fifty more real words than their nonsigning peers" (Acredolo and Goodwyn 1996).

Baby signing offers many advantages, but the main one is a higher level of communication. Signing offers babies the ability to communicate before they can speak. Signing also allows parents to more easily fulfill their baby's needs because the baby is able to communicate that need more clearly. This gives relief not only for the baby but for the parents as well. Babies who know how to sign can tell their parents not only what animals are in their favorite picture book, but also that the clown that Grandma brought is scary at night and needs to be removed from the room to allow the baby to sleep better. Signing will open the lines of communication between parent and child into areas that will surprise and delight both the baby and parent.

Signing is particularly helpful "from about nine to thirty months, when [the] baby's desire to communicate outstrips her capacity to say words" (Acredolo and Goodwyn 1996). Parents can look at their baby's communication as a puzzle picture. There are many little pieces to this communication puzzle that make up a bigger picture. Often, parents would think that the actual verbalization is the beginning of the puzzle, but in fact it is one of the later finishing pieces.  "One advantage of baby signs is that they enable [the] baby to show [the parent], even before he talks, just how much of the puzzle he's already figured out" (Acredolo and Goodwyn 1996). When baby actually forms a word he is showing mastery of all of the parts of communication.

Babies begin making vowel sounds at three months of age, and add consonant sounds at around six months of age.  Before twelve months of age, however, these sounds rarely have any literal meanings.  By twelve months, one or two words will begin to be used. At this age, the likelihood that a baby will be able to speak the words kangaroo or zebra is highly unthinkable, however, the capacity to learn and use the sign for these animals is extremely plausible. "Baby signs represent a useful alternative to help children 'talk' before they can talk. As such, they help children develop in many other ways as well, including speeding up their completion of the whole language puzzle" (Acredolo and Goodwyn 1996).

My best advice is don't listen to everyone else, but do what you feel is right for you and your baby. Following all the advice you receive will drive you crazy.

This is great advice!  It's amazing how much people feel free to tell you, even when you aren't looking for advice!

One other thing...when you name your child, remember this name will be with them for a long, long time. Things that sound cute when they are babies may not sound so good when they become adults.

I would say smile, talk to, play with your child, and show them how much you love them at every opportunity.  Sure there are loads of laundry and dishes but they can wait.  Treasure the moments.

LISTEN to your children and encourage them to speak their minds to you and ask questions.  Encourage them to try everything that is legal, safe and possible  - it develops self-confidence.  Give them roots and wings.   Root giving is joyful, but letting them try their wings requires faith.

If you could give just one piece advice to a new parent, what would it be?

Don't worry about the "other stuff" when your baby arrives - let the dishes and the clothes pile up if you need to!  Enjoy your baby and rest whenever you can!

My advice is don't listen to all the old ladies and their "wive's tales".

I would like to win this prize pack for my sister who will be a new mom in October.

Love your children and never be to busy for them.

I think the best advice I could give a new parent would be:

"I know you keep hearing "they grow up so fast" but the truth is that they really do. Enjoy every minute of your child while you can. They are so precious and a gift from Heaven in a way that you will only realize after they grow up. Just love them no matter what mistakes they may make in their lives."

I would like to win this for my Nephew and his wife to be.

Connie, check your Gather mail

I have 2 coworkers, one who just had a baby girl, and one who will be having a girl in the next couple of weeks.

My advice for new parents: BE FLEXIBLE!! Kids, especially babies, will not follow the schedule you have in mind, and will not do things the way you plan or expect. So learning to be flexible and adapt is very important to keeping your stress level low.

My one piece of advice would be Don't sweat the small stuff or rather, the unimportant stuff!  If the house is a mess and the dishes aren't done, who cares, do something fun with your baby because it doesn't last long.  Any quality time spent with the kids is a precious memory for them as they grow up which they will remember a lot longer than if you did the dishes every night or not.

I have a girlfriend who is pregnat with her 1st child.  My advice to her would be enjoy all the moments, big and small, because they go by sooo fast.  They are babies and you turn your back and then they are toddlers.  It is amazing how fast time flies.  Lastly, be the parent.  Your child will have many friends in their lifetime but they will have only one mother.  You need to be strong, sometimes that really hurts, but it all works out in the end, especially for your child.

I'm 37 weeks pregnant with #3, but I don't consider myself an expert yet!  I still read every book and magazine I can get my hands on for advice.  I would say "choose your battles".  Does it REALLY matter if your little one's shirt doesn't match his/her shirt?

trust you're instinct!

A bedtime routine makes all the difference in the world if you ever want to sleep again! My son is 17 months old and now walks to his bed when I say "bedtime" and falls asleep on his own because we have followed the same bedtime routine since he was 3 months old (with minor tweaks like switching from bottle to cup).

I am not a parent, so that question is hard for me, I guess my advice would be don't be so hard on yourself as a parent, all parents make mistakes and most people turn out okay anyways.  My baby brother is expecting his first child and is so excited and I would love to win these books for him.

enjoy every minute you can and sleep when the baby sleeps

Wish I had these when I was pregnant. My girls are 1 and 3 now.

Take lots of pictures .

I'm not a mom, but I deal with kids all the time - and my biggest piece of advice would just be to enjoy every moment because kids grow up so fast!  My good friends just had a baby on Friday - I can't wait to meet her!!

Look at all this wonderful advice! I sure hope this prize pack goes to someone who can really use these great books. :O)

The opnly advice that is worth while is enjoy the life. You only get one chance to make it right and your child only gets one chance to learn the right way. Make it happen for them and remember god is love.

Let them sleep in their own room...it's so much better for them as well as you & your hubby ;o).

Also tell your kids you love them daily.

Learn to laugh!

Members participating in this promotion should be aware of the following information:

Only Gather members who are U.S. residents are eligible for all giveaways. However, Gather members who are U.S. or non-U.S. residents are eligible to receive products for writing Gather reviews.

In this specific case, only U.S. residents are eligible to be considered for the prize pack of books.

Hopefully Gather begins including eligibility information within the announcement/participation post, instead of only within one group to which the post is published to.

Don't stress!  You won't be perfect - and not because you didn't try.  Enjoy your time, love them and have fun with them. They grow up so fast and then they are on their own too soon.  Let them learn at their own pace - you'll both be happier.

I've known so many parents-to-be who read every book, watch every show, ask every person they know for advice....and the moment something goes wrong, they're so hard on themselves. As mentioned before, no parent is perfect and everyone realizes that at some point, so relax, do the best you can, and move on.

take a nap!!!!!!!

Try to enjoy every moment (even the ones when the crying doesn't seem to end).  Soon these days will be over and your baby won't "need" you as much anymore.

Patiences, also Hugs and Kisses go a long way. I grew up without and I tell you, I surely missed out.

Take a lot of pictures

Read to them, spend time with them, they grow up so fast.

My oldest is now begging me to not call her my babygirl in front of her friends!

my advice to them would be cherish each and every day with them ,life is to short

Discipline them early on.  You discipline them because you love them.  They will grow up better for it.  I know of children who grew up with no discipline or boundaries and although there is hope for their change they and the parents went through unnecessary heartache in the younger years.  Children aren't always going to behave but when you set boundaries for them they will be safer and happier and know that you love them and feel secure.

Don't sweat the small stuff--enjoy you baby and don't worry if the house is clean or if there is spit-up on your shoulder.  A well-loved child usually turns into a loving child.

I found that once children get a grasp of the language you can actually have some amazing discussions with them.  So, take the time to really have discussions with them, most of the time they will be receptive and will want to learn. 

You cannot love, hug, kiss, cuddle, or hold your babyrn too much. Your baby needs your affection to feel safe in a world that's all new to him / her.

Your life will never be the same. Respect the value of this little miracle and remember he / she will always be a part of you. Nothing in the world should compete with your commitment to love your child.

Nobody can teach you how to be a parent. You will learn on the job. Trust your instincts. Nobody knows your baby better than you.

Establish a routine. Your baby needs to be able to count on certain activities occurring around the same time each day. Feeding, naps, fun and affection should be a part of every schedule.

I really hope that I win one of these packs as I will soon be preparing to get pregnant.

Cherish every moment!  They grow up so fast!

Sleep, sleep, sleep, whenever the baby sleeps.  The house, laundry, and cooking can all wait.  The most cherished, and fleeting moments, are at the very beginning when you bond with you child.  Take advantage of these sweet moments, since they pass all too quickly.

My baby is 19 already!  Wish I could turn back time ... who know where the time goes!  All of the above advice is so good, I don't know what much else to say.  I guess the best thing you can give your child is time ... don't use the TV for a babysitter

The winners of a prize pack of books for new parents are:

anne (so beyond caring) c.

Lynn C.

Monica Kennedy

Pam H.

Tanya Mitchell