Reading as a new parent

I had a baby in April and, predictably, barely read anything during the first month. After that, I’ve mostly returned to my typical pace of four books a month. Reading right now looks different than it did before the baby – and I expect it will change even more as the baby gets older and more active! For now, though, I’ve shifted to reading on my ereader instead of physical books, and to reading longer books and series instead of shorter books.

I started Vanity Fair during the last few weeks of my pregnancy and got about halfway through before the baby arrived. I even brought it to the hospital, thinking I’d have plenty of time to read – I did not! Postpartum, I eased myself back into reading with an old favorite (The True Deceiver – physical book) followed by a guilty pleasure (Outlander – ebook). Then I returned to Vanity Fair. I found that reading a physical book with a baby around is hard because you need either two hands for the book, or a creative method of propping. That’s hard when feeding or soothing a baby. I have a velcro baby who exclusively contact naps during the day, usually in a front carrier. Even with both of my hands free, sometimes I need to pat the baby, replace a spit-out pacifier, or bounce on a yoga ball. While reading physical books during these naps, I went through a whole routine of marking my page with a bookmark and closing the book if the baby fussed. Upon resuming the book, it took me a bit to find my spot. Of course, this is just what it looks like to read a book in multiple sittings – it’s not baby-specific. But I found myself repeating this routine almost every other page for various baby reasons, and it grew tiresome.

After finishing Vanity Fair, I switched back to my ereader and I’ve exclusively read on the ereader instead of physical books ever since. I can use the ereader with one hand. Also, a “page” on a ereader is much shorter than a page of a typical physical book. Both of these things make an ereader easier to put down and pick back up.

Reading on my ereader has also replaced watching television during my nighttime pumping sessions. I found that watching a show woke me up too much, and the screen was just too bright. And sometimes I’d get distracted looking at other things on my laptop. Same with reading a physical book – I had to turn the light on bright enough to see the page. With an ereader, I can read in the dark or a dim light, and the night light settings on the ereader don’t affect my sleep as much. I also don’t even have to pick up my phone or laptop, eliminating other distractions. The ereader is also great while spending time in a dark room with a feeding or sleeping baby because I can see the book without turning on the light.

Outlander was the first (new, non reread) book I finished after giving birth. It was perfect – pretty silly but also well-written (I’ll admit, I was surprised!) and interesting. It was also long. It takes me less mental energy to continue to read a book I’m invested in than to ramp up on a new plot and world. I’m spending so much mental energy on various baby and postpartum-related tasks and research, but reading is and has always been a release and a destresser to me. Reading longer books has, maybe counterintuitively, helped.

I originally planned to continue with the Outlander series. However, I couldn’t bring myself to go on because the ending scene of the book (sex scene in a hot springs underneath a monastery?) was just too silly for words. I turned next to the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, and now I’m reading East of Eden.