Baby Is a Four-Letter Word: Surviving the First Two Years of Parenthood

Naomi Brun is a librarian assistant in Communications and Community
Development at the Hamilton Public Library and a book reviewer for the
Hamilton Spectator.

In popular media today, discussions about new parenthood seem to fall
into two camps. The traditionalists and granola-munching back-to-nature
types wax poetic about every element of babies—their smell, their
sounds, the way they look up at you with their large, unblinking eyes.
Another group, generally university educated and urbane in a previous
existence, cope with system shock by ranting about the negative. To
them, babies always smell like overripe diapers, cover everything in
drool and puke, and take, take, take without ever giving back.

In Baby Is a Four Letter Word, Dorianne Sager unites these disparate
attitudes in a refreshingly honest collection of articles, largely taken
from her column in the Vancouver Sun. Sager straddles both worlds;
originally from a tight-knit family in small-town Ontario, she holds a
master’s degree, has lived abroad, and is quite candid about her
espresso addiction. Perhaps having one foot in each camp informs a more
balanced perspective on modern motherhood.

In her opening article, “You Call This A Plan?” she writes of her
new life with baby. “I remember the moment I first realized I was a
parent. It wasn’t when I held my son in my arms for the first time. It
was over breakfast one morning with my husband. I had dried poo all over
my sleeve from a particularly disturbing encounter with a projectile
bowel movement (never try to change a diaper in the dark), and Andrew
had fresh vomit on his knee and shoulder from burping Zach. Yet, there
we were, sitting blissfully at the table, drinking coffee and reading
the newspaper, as if this were a totally normal way to exist.”

It is. It’s called parenthood. And in 197 pages, Sager captures the
very essence of what it’s all about. It’s poo on the sleeve,
sleepless nights, and temper tantrums in the grocery store. But it’s
also first words, first steps, and chubby arms reaching up for a hug.
Sager communicates all of it with good humour.