The Diaper Diaries: The Real Poop on a New Mom's First Year.   She's hilarious. She's also wise and full of empathy. And she helps new mothers maintain the one thing they can't survive without-a sense of humor. Cynthia Copeland, a mother of three (and author of Really Important Stuff My Kids Have Taught Me, with 325,000 copies in print), knows the real poop-figuratively and literally-on being a new mother, and she has the wit, skill, and generosity to share it.

Illustrated throughout with the author's wonderful cartoons, The Diaper Diaries chronicles the first year of motherhood, from the hospital stay (nominees for the world's worst labor coach anyone?) to baby's first birthday and contemplating the unimaginable-having another. There are lists, quizzes, timelines, charts, and real-life stories. Birth announcement faux pas. Names and nicknames and what they really mean. Pacifier tales. A guide to Nana-speak. How a 4-mile car trip can take 2 hours. Why it's impossible to get to work without finding spit-up or rice cereal somewhere on your clothing. Ten reasons to be happy you're up at 3:15 a.m.

And, with Mr. Phrenology-like illustrations, a section on the new mother's brain before and after baby, featuring: The Travel Section (Then: How to flirt your way into first class. Now: How to sweet talk your jogging stroller onto the plane), The Television Section (Then: How to tell Carrie from Samantha from Miranda from Charlotte. Now: How to tell Laa-Laa from Po from Dipsy from Tinky Winky), and The Sex Section (Then: Exact location of G-spot. Now: ________).

256 pages, paperback.