One Year to an Organized Life with Baby: From Pregnancy to Parenthood, the Week-by-Week Guide to Getting Ready for Baby and Keeping Your Family Organized

Leeds follows her successful One Year to an Organized Life with advice on preparing for a new addition to the family. From personal finances, junk drawers, and birth plans, to building a feng shui nursery, telling the office about your "condition," and creating a routine around bathroom cleaning, Leeds covers it all. Week-by-week tasks provide clear, realistic goals for the determined mother-to-be, and some weeks involve simply thinking about organizing or creating routines. The emphasis here is on the difficult choices that have to be made, and the logistics behind making them. For instance, indispensible advice about a baby's material needs will save new mothers from last-minute runs to the mall. Leeds even discusses how to maintain or grow relationships—with family, friends, and other mothers. An oft-overlooked aspect of creating a family is the personal conflicts that can result; too many mothers realize that friendships and romance are the first to go. But Leeds offers strategies to ensure that new parents maintain their friends—and their love life. Leeds will likely change the thinking of many a wood-be parent: being organized is actually far easier than the alternative. (Feb.)