What Do I Do with My Baby All Day?!: Simple Ways to Have the Best First Year Together

by Vered Benhorin LCAT

Music, psychology, and motherhood intertwine in simple activities that instill calm, inspire playfulness, and encourage communication between baby and parent.


Let’s be Caring for a baby can be exhaustingly tedious. Enter Vered Benhorin, musician, therapist, and mother of three. In What Do I Do with My Baby All Day?, Benhorin builds on the foundations of attachment theory and blends practical tools with research to teach parents how to develop a more gratifying relationship with their baby. With her guidance, parents will step into the present with their baby and truly enjoy one another using her easy, guided activities. From a baby buddha massage to babble boost (singing nonsense words), small “bubble moments” throughout the day provide a shared experience between parent and child that benefits both. These moments also have practical applications, like soothing the baby when they’re fussy, making bedtime more effective, strengthening routines, and increasing communication and language. This book is a must-have for new parents everywhere.


 


“This is the best parenting book I’ve read in years." Arietta Slade, Co-Founder and Co-Director Minding the Baby ® Yale Child Study Center


"A beautiful book that helps parents understand their baby and find joyous moments together." Tina Payne Bryson, New York Times Bestselling co-author of The Whole-Brain Child & No-Drama Discipline 


A long day at home with a new baby can feel like a never-ending cycle of diaper changing, feeding, and sleeping. So how can you make it more enjoyable for you both and more enriching for your baby? In What Do I Do with My Baby All Day?, Vered Benhorin builds on the foundations of attachment theory and blends practical tools with research to teach you how to develop a more gratifying relationship with your baby.


In this book you'll learn how



Connect with your baby with mindfulness, music and play
Make your bedtime routine smoother and soothe more effectively
Infuse consistency and joy into your daily routine
Help your baby develop language and communication
Develop your language of play with your baby

This book is a must-have for new parents everywhere.  

Genres: Parenting, Audiobook, Nonfiction, Family, Childrens

253 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 4, 2025

Reviews

[Nora Linden · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book! It was really repetitive but had some great tips and reality checks. I wish I had read it when my kid was 3-4 months and not 7-9 months.

[Grace Lyles · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't finish.

The title is misleading. I thought this book would have some fun ideas of activities to do with my baby as a stay-at-home mom of 2! However, this book mainly consisted of cope for working moms by suggesting they spend 3 mins a day creating "bubble moments" with their babies. Personally, I don't think it's helpful even for working moms as it seems to just be trying to make them feel less "mom guilt" instead of trying to provide real ways you can have fun with your baby (not just staring at them).

Not my cup of tea.

[Cassidy Tourville · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and easy read! One of my New Year’s resolutions was to cherish my girls’ first year and I was really glad to have found this book. After reading, I can already feel a shift in how present I am in our time together. I would recommend this to any new parent!

[Charlene Purdy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated this book. I listened to the audio book (new mom here-, so time reading a physical copy is limited). I really recommend the audio book. Firstly, the narrator's voice is genuinely soothing. I often zoned out in tiredness, not cause the material was boring, but still felt peaceful when listening. Then, I'd rewind and listen again more attentively.

Secondly, the author adds some bonus music tracks on the audio book. It helped me get hooked on her songs, which I later found on Spotify! Look up Baby in Tune official playlist.

Her songs are heartwarming. They positively capture the moments of parenting that can sometimes be mundane or frustrating. I appreciate her songs don't over idealize parenting either. They are just real "bubble moments" where you can pause and connect to your baby.

I also liked learning about the research behind music and baby bonding. She quotes a variety of studies, and it not only entertained me to learn but made cool conversation starters with my partner rather than just, " How was his poops today?"

The reason I didn't give the book 5 stars is that there is a lot of repetition. However, it wasn't repetitive enough to make me abandon the book. And boy, I'm glad I didn't because I gained some nuggets of wisdom and creative ideas to use with my baby.

[Melanie Leiva · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated the author’s focus on creating a sustainable environment to create moments of joy and connection with your baby through music. These “bubble moments” create a bond with baby that doesn’t require you to curate with over the top ideas/activities/toys/supplies. It was affirming to hear Vered’s advice as a parent and music therapy expert. Many of these ideas I have already learned in other books and research, but again, I felt it was affirming and a positive read. Overall, I enjoyed the read for where I currently am in my parenting journey.

If you are looking for a list of varied activities and approaches, this is not the book for you—the focus is primarily creating moments through music with some additional advice sprinkled with personal experiences from the author and other parents. The author has supplemental materials on their website that align to the book and if you simply want ideas on how to bring music into your baby’s life and want to skip the research part of it, I would just go to the website.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I now know what to do with my baby all day.

Ha! I got this book hoping it would more have lists and ideas for activities as baby reaches different stages of learning.

Rather, this book is about stressing less about baby, and singing to them at every opportunity, to increase their learning and calm (and parents’ too)

A lot of it we really already do- singing at every point, mimicking their vocalisations, pausing when we noise and wait for their response.

Thought it was a good tip to have a particular song for different parts of day (wake up, nappy change, transitions etc)

For a book that is mostly about singing to baby (an awesome thing to do that really does chill them out), the title seems a little misleading.

[Courtney Schomaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 for me - I think you could pretty easily summarize this book as: you should sing to and play music for your baby as often as you can, but especially during transitional daytime moments to increase connection. I really appreciated the tips and song suggestions. I was thinking there would be a little MORE to the book (variety of activities, developmental stages, etc) but since the author is a music therapist that leads Baby in Tune classes, that was probably just my bad. Definitely some valuable pieces here!

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title is a bit misleading, I think. The author is a very musical person, so most of the focus of the book is on how to connect with your baby (stop being distracted, find your own pleasure in the one on one moments), and how to sing to your baby (especially how to create your own songs and not feel silly about it). The book is padded out with discussions that took place in her baby/parent classes and general comments from parents.

[Brianna Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. After reading a lot of informational books on labor & delivery and basic care, this book felt so special because it was specifically on ways to bond with your baby. It was extremely uplifting and creative with ways to have "bubble moments" (or moments where you are present) to better connect with your baby. I look forward to trying many of them out!

[Joahna Doolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was okay. Very music focused. A lot of it I already had read about before or was already doing. It was basically talk in parentheses, sing, make up songs for your baby based on different routines, dance with your baby, massage your baby, let them lead play, get down with your baby and play with them, play games and see what makes them laugh.

[Shelby Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gave some practical ideas on activities to do with your baby. It talks a lot about the importance of music, rhythm, and routines. She talks a lot about “bubble moments” which are a few minute chunks of time intentionally connecting with your baby. Overall I took some good reminders and a few tips with me but it seemed pretty repetitive and the summaries covered everything I needed.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worked on this book for my internship :)

[Lia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a marketing device for the authors music lol

[Anupama · Rating 2 out of 5]

tl;dr: sing to your baby. 🤷🏽‍♀️