PregMANcy: A Dad, a Little Dude, and a Due Date

by Christian Piatt

We all have heard time and time again of the changes a woman goes through when she is pregnant. But what about the man? Doesn't his life change too? Pregmancy is an honest and humorous memoir looking at the changes author Christian Piatt experience with his wife and son when they learn they're expecting their second child - an unplanned pregnancy. Containing stories and unscripted (and surprising) quotes from his young son as they await the birth of his baby sister, Pregmancy will take you on the wild ride of parenthood and show that it is not always easier the second time around.

144 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2012

About the author

I once heard a surgeon tell an author that he had always wanted to write a novel.

"That's funny," said the author, "I've always wanted to perform brain surgery."

Writing as a hobby is one thing; writing as a passionate obsession is entirely another; writing professionally is equal parts megalomania and masochism.

I started out writing arts reviews for a local paper, moving on to features and a few op-ed pieces after a while with some other publications. I picked up a few pieces for some magazines, and from there, got my opportunity to do a weekly column in the paper, a regular column in a national magazine and my first two books with a national publisher in the relatively short span of eighteen months.

It took me a decade of preparation to get there, though.

I hooked up with a literary agent in 2007, who has been focusing on shopping a novel and a memoir for me. Meanwhile, I do articles for various websites and magazines, and I'm in the process of acting as a series co-editor for a string of young adult theology books for Chalice Press. I'm also working as volume editor on a couple of books in the series. The first two books in the series will be out in 2009.

I'd insert something cute and funny here, but then you'd only be disappointed if you ever met me and thought, "Hey, he's not cute and funny like his bio at all. He sucks." So I'll just leave it at that.

Reviews

[Aaron Tate · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great perspective on what it's like to be a dad-to-be. Humorous and relatable

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Title: PregMANcy: A Dad, a little Dude, and a Due Date
Author: Christian Piatt

The book was about: This book was about the author’s adventure into repeat fatherhood. He uses humor to describe what is going on in his household as the new baby arrives. He has a 3/4/5 year old son that is extremely smart and quick witted. He describes his sons response to the little baby that’s coming and how his wife handles certain situations.

I loved: I loved the book. It made me remember how I felt as baby number two was on the way. Now as a father of two, with a little baby girl on the way… I really appreciate what he is writing. The book feels like a series of blog posts compiled into a book with some transitions but overall I really enjoyed the writing style, the humor and the honesty.

Reading this book made me wonder about: I have always wondered what other fathers thought of the PreMANcy period… the time in between when you know you are having a baby and the time that it comes. I laughed for the majority of the book and it was a nice book to keep things light. Piatt talks about the stress, the financial issues, and the whole experience and does so by keeping the reader engaged and laughing. I don’t know if I would recommend this book to friends, but it was a fun book.

Overall, the book was: I give the book 3 stars out of 5!

[David Ackerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit, I approached reading Christian Piatt’s “Pregmancy: A Dad, a Little Dude, and a Due Date” with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I wanted to read it because Christian wrote it. I read his Banned Questions about the Bible, which was very good, but because it contained the work of a variety of scholars, there was not as much writing that was originally his. What I thought was lacking in the one, though, was made up for in spades by the other. I definitely learned a lot about him by reading this book! But that leads me to the part that made me reticent about beginning it.

As a childless man in his mid-forties, reading a book about another man’s experiences going through his wife’s pregnancy would just not be front-burner reading material for me. It’s kind of like a guy with badly injured legs reading a book called “The Joy of Running.” Yeah, I’m sure it’s great and all, but… it’s a little bit like salt in the wound.

But as I read the book, I realized that Christian knew a thing or two about salt, too (and I’m not talking about his language, either!). I learned about wounds that he faced in his life that people threw salt in, and I profoundly empathized with him. I also saw the kind of good salt in him that the gospels talk about. I laughed out loud and my eyes welled with tears. This book made me feel a lot of things, and I guess when you get right down to it, that’s the kind of stuff that makes for a damn good book.

So take it from me, the kind of guy who would be least likely to read or recommend a book like this. Read it. Christian Piatt is an outstanding writer and you’ll find your time will be well spent getting to know him and his family through these pages.

[Matt Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has there ever been another humorous take on fatherhood, that acknowledged the stress involved because the father is doing his job? If there is, I'm sure there aren't many. Christian Piatt walks the reader through the experience, one trimester at a time, and shows that while no parent is perfect, also is not parent truly alone in their experience. His blunt course language and gloriously disgusting stories lend an honest atmosphere. This is not an advice book, but a collection of laugh-and-wince-worthy stories surrounding a life-changing event.

The frequent references to death in places almost straddle the line with forcing poignancy, but the author's sense of realism added to the gut-buster of a final chapter ground it well and balance it out. I'm not currently a father, but when the time comes, I'm definitely going to re-read this, laugh, cringe, and remember that I'll never be the best dad ever, but I'll love and be loved and that's okay.

That said, I'm buying some new shirts now, just in case.

[Linda Brendle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is laugh-out-loud funny, grab-a-tissue touching, and make-you-think deep, sometimes by turns, and sometimes all at the same time. It’s open and honest and sometimes so candid you’ll want to say Oh, TMI! But you won’t, because you’ll want to keep reading. And ladies, there are moments of sweet revenge like the chapter about Christian’s vasectomy. It will feel like a settling of the score for the indignities you’ve suffered on the OB/GYN table.

[Fernando · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. As a father of a boy toddler that is also expecting a baby girl, I was really able to identify with a lot of what Piatt was saying. I really appreciated his honesty with his anxieties of becoming a father again, raising a boy, his past, his relationship with his wife, etc. Would highly recommend it to fathers and fathers-to-be.

[Cindy Brandt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt the writing was mediocre, but still funny and poignant enough to entertain. The last section on the vasectomy was interesting. :D Hey, this is why we read books, right? To learn about things we could never experience for ourselves?

[Keri Charbonneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very humorous take on a second pregnancy from a father's perspective. Great heads up!