It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita by Heather B. Armstrong

Heather B. Armstrong is sarcastically candid in this witty true story about a woman’s battle with pregnancy, then her daughter, and then the demons within her.  In laugh out loud moments, Armstrong reveals her dislike for pregnancy, and then the trials and tribulations of raising a fussy daughter.   Her monthly letters to her daughter can only be described as loving, witty and dripping with sarcasm, describing Leta’s first three months as a “hazy acid trip.”Armstrong makes even the most frustrating and disgusting parts of motherhood hilarious, while the reader secretly thinks ‘thank God that isn’t my baby.’  She shares her fears of a sockless baby, her daughter’s insistence on not putting any weight on her legs and her battle to not duct tape the baby’s pacifier to her head.

More importantly, Armstrong is very open about her battle with severe postpartum depression, opening up to her darkest hours and a voluntary stay in the psych ward, all while maintaining a sense of humor.  She gives a voice to all women who have ever felt anything from the baby blues to the crippling, incapacitating depression that she endured.  Armstrong takes the opportunity to heal herself, and learns to love motherhood and her husband, all while indulging in what can only be called an unnatural attraction to strawberry pop-tarts.

It Sucked and Then I Cried is for every mother who has ever been exhausted, worn down, and had that love/hate relationship with motherhood.  The reader will laugh, cry, laugh some more and possibly wet themselves while reading this delightful story of a woman who had some really bad days.