Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay: And Other Things I Had to Learn as a New Mom »

Stefanie Wilder-Taylor has performed on Make Me Laugh, Evening at the Improv, and Comedy Central, and written and produced more than thirty television shows, including Whose Line Is It Anyway? and Blind Date. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and young daughter, Elby.

The moment the second line on the pee stick turns pink, women discover they've entered a world of parenting experts.

Friends, family, colleagues, the UPS delivery guy — suddenly everybody is a trove of advice, much of it contradictory and confusing. With dire warnings of what will happen if baby is fed on demand and even direr warnings of what will happen if he isn't, not to mention hordes of militant "lactivists," cosleeping advocates, and books on what to worry about next, modern parenthood can seem like a minefield.

In busy Mom-friendly short essays, Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay delivers the empathetic straight dirt on parenting, tackling everything from Mommy & Me classes ("Your baby doesn't need to be making friends at three months old — you do! But not with people you'll meet at Mommy & Me") to attachment parenting ("If you're holding your baby 24/7, that's not a baby, that's a tumor"). Stefanie Wilder-Taylor combines practical tips with sidesplitting humor and refreshing honesty, assuring women that they can be good mothers and responsibly make their own choices. A witty and welcome antidote to trendy parenting texts and scarifying case studies, Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay provides genuine support, encouragement, and indispensable common-sense advice.

Publishers Weekly

When Los Angeles comedian and television writer and producer Wilder-Taylor got pregnant, she feared undergoing this process: "a perfectly sane woman who swigs Jack Daniel's, never goes to sleep before eight a.m., and has had at least one STD gives birth and suddenly becomes a different person... [who] subscribes to three dozen parenting magazines, thinks a wild night is tossing back two O'Doul's, and never hits the hay after eight p.m." Of course, now that the author has a daughter, she's smitten; the child "grew on me every day, and by six months I was definitely her bitch." Hoping to be the voice of reason amid a cacophony of parenting advice (in the form of books, mothers-in-law and others), Wilder-Taylor dishes on sharing the parenting responsibilities with your husband ("I felt like saying, `Didn't you get the memo? WE'RE PARENTS NOW! LOOK ALIVE!' "), breast feeding ("it hurts like a rhesus monkey biting your nipples"), meeting other new mothers (only they can answer questions like "How the fuck does this Diaper Genie work?") and other aspects of new parenthood. Crass but reassuring, Wilder-Taylor succeeds in putting fears at rest. (Apr.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

CONTENTS

Introduction: Prepartum Obsession

Love at First Sight

Lactose Intolerance

The Magic Number(s)

Your Baby Doctor

Stroller Wars

Cheer Up, You Just Had a Baby

Cry Baby

You'll Never Sleep in This Town Again

The Feeding Frenzy

Baby on Bored

May I Introduce You to...Your Babysitter

Nanny Nurturing

Advice: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Developmental Breakdown

Your Postbaby Social Life

Park Politics

Married Mommy, Single Friends

Good-bye, Hot Wifey; Hello, Mommy

Taking Off the Baby Weight

Mommy and Me, Me, Me

Out and About with Your Baby

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Little Brainiacs

Women Who Love Their Babies Too Much

Birthday Parties and Other Events I Don't Want to Be Invited To

Name Calling

Much Ado About Doo

Ain't Misbehaving

X-treme Parenting