Books and Your Bump #3: Let’s Panic About Babies!: How to Endure and Possibly Triumph Over the Adorable Tyrant Who Will Ruin Your Body, Destroy Your Life, Liquefy Your Brain, and Finally Turn You into a Worthwhile Human Being by Alice Bradley and Eden M. Kennedy

When to Read: This is pretty solid second- and third-trimester fare. It helps if you are already big, with baby’s kicks and the world’s indulgent smiles never letting you forget that you are, indeed, capital-P-Pregnant. Of course, if you are already big and anything like me, laughing this hard is going to hurt a little. But it’s worth it.

Pregnancy Fun Scale: Somewhere between justifying the french fries to meet your potassium needs (who wants charlie horses?) and spitballing absurd baby names with your husband.

Representative Passage: Long, but bear with me:

“So, if you’re feeling a little forgetful or spacey, here’s why: your baby has temporarily developed several prongs that extend from his spine — much like Doctor Octopus in the Spider-Man series, or those grabby things clerks at small, densely stocked grocery stores use to retrieve rolls of toilet paper from high shelves. Baby tests her horrible new appendages by groping around and squeezing nutrients from your vital organs. What’s that twinge in your right side? Baby’s just curious about your gall bladder! It will probably grow back.”

[book trailer here]