Being told you’re pregnant with not just one baby, but two is often an enormous and exciting surprise. But are there signs in the pregnancy that can tell you this before the trip to the doctor? One way to tell is to listen for multiple heartbeats, early on in the pregnancy, or look for abnormal AFP levels. Other hormonal factors

If you’re experiencing the nausea and vomiting of morning sickness, you can thank the hormone known as human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), although generic factors, fatigue and nutrition can also exacerbate morning sickness. Morning sickness typically starts in the first trimester and ends within a few weeks, although it can sometimes last much longer. Eating small meals throughout the day, including

Due to the hormonal changes that happen in the brain during pregnancy, this changes how the brain processes and prioritizes incoming information. Because pregnant women are subconsciously more in tune to their environment (primal survival instinct) pregnant women tend to have more realistic, and memorable dreams. Also there is a change in the sleep cycle, as sleep is more often

Teaching empathy is a complex but important parenting task that can help make your kid grow up to be a truly good person. Empathy, defined as being able to relate to, understand and few connection with other people’s emotions, is a complex and multi-factor skill, according to extensive 2014 University of Chicago research. Recognition of nonverbal cues can be taught,

Maintaining a consistent sleep schedule is one of the most imperative steps in transitioning from infancy to the life of a toddler, and parents can often find themselves frustrated when it comes to finding the balance between a realistic yet structured sleep schedule. It is important that once you develop a new routine, you stick to it as diligently as

Like most new parents, Allison Hope felt a lot of anxiety when her maternity leave ended, and she readied to return to her job. She wondered how the demands at home might affect her job performance. She was surprised but pleased to discover that being a mom actually made her better at her job. Being a mom gave her a

Prenatal health is critical for fetal development, but a lot of women don’t know that they can them before they are pregnant. Many women know they need to take them, but don’t realize the role they play other than keeping the baby healthy. They also help the mother to remain healthy as well by replenishing lost minerals. Iron is a key one,

Although co-sleeping with one’s children is not an approved of decision by most, one mother found that there are several surprising benefits to letting her child share her bed. For starters, co-sleeping diminishes the chance of the occurrence of SIDs. When breastfeeding their child, women do not have to leave the comfort of their own bed. Children also tend to

Over 11 genes play a role in determining how much dark melanin is found in baby’s eyes, and these genes can interact in unpredictable ways that leave children with neither parents’ eye color. There is no completely reliable way of predicting a baby’s eye color, even with one of the popular eye color charts, and many babies are born with

Poor single parents, especially mothers, often have a difficult time with summer break. Lacking the resources to send kids to camp and with the necessity of working undiminished, life can become an endless and exhausting cycle of tasks. Full-time childcare is a very expensive proposition, and many summer attractions are too costly for working-class parents. This means that even parents