With many medications off the table during pregnancy, you might think to turn to a natural sleep supplement like melatonin. However, melatonin has not yet been proven to be safe during pregnancy, and therefore should only be used under the close guidance of a doctor. Here’s what you need to know about using melatonin while pregnant—and what else you can do to catch some quality sleep before the baby comes....

Babies are born with six fontanelles that will slowly close over the first year or so. The largest one, located between the forehead and the crown of the head, is called the anterior fontanelle. This fontanelle can be an important health indicator–a sunken fontanelle indicates dehydration and requires emergency medical attention. Learn more about the soft spots on your baby’s head, how to care for them, and when to be concerned....

Mobility, hearing, visual, speech impairments, cognitive disabilities, health problems, and other disabilities can make childcare a challenge. But this doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t parent a newborn baby. While you may face issues that another new mother couldn’t understand, adaptive equipment, support groups, family members, and health service providers can help you to care for your little one. If you are nervous about meeting your baby’s needs or how some types of impairments could affect your parenting skills, read on for more information on caring for a newborn when you have a disability....

Patterns According to the Journal of Pediatrics, roughly 85% of babies born small compared to their gestational age show signs of catch-up growth in childhood. Rapid growth is usually marked by an abnormal height increase, but can also include body weight, body composition, head circumference, or body segments such as sitting height or leg length. In preemies, an increase in adiposity, or fat composition, has been observed, rather than increases in height....

Child Care Options Problems in finding quality child care aren’t limited to those working odd hours. Parents who opt to have one family member work reduced hours, for example, may find that the cost of part-time child care exceeds the value of their paycheck, or that such care is unreliable. Many daycare centers can’t guarantee children a spot on a part-time or on-call basis due to tight child-adult ratio mandates and the fact that a child enrolled full-time provides more profit and stability than one who is there only on occasion....

There are many different types of preschool as well. Some preschool programs are stand-alone programs that only begin at the age of three or four. Others are part of child care centers or the public school system. There are also different educational philosophies to consider, for example, Montessori, Waldorf, Reggio Emilia, Highscope, and play-based. When choosing the right preschool for your child, there are a few factors I recommend parents consider....

Effort: Quick and easy — no sewing Materials: Black clothes White yarn White thread Plastic spiders Safety pins Instructions: Dress your child in the black clothes. Stretch the yarn out so it looks worn and thick. Safety pin the yarn to your child’s outfit. Wrap a little white thread around your child’s hair, and bobby-pin the plastic spiders on top of that. More Costume Ideas

Effort: More difficult — some sewing required Materials: Mask (full face) Wig Two similar outfits (in the same color) with the backs cut off Two pairs of shoes (one pair will be cut up) Glue gun/glue sticks Scissors Needle and thread Instructions: Sew the front of one outfit (dress or shirt and pants that you have cut the back off of) to the front of the other outfit. Next, cut the hair off the back of the wig and attach the mask to the back of the wig....

Blocked Tear Ducts Tears drain from the inner corner of the eye to the nose through the nasolacrimal ducts. In some infants, this duct is blocked, so tears can’t drain to the nose. Instead, the eye tears a lot. Other symptoms can include some redness around the eye and a yellowish discharge from the affected eye. In most cases, the tear duct will open up on its own by the time your baby is a year old....

Effort: Quick and easy — no sewing required Materials: 4 or 5 rolls of black electrical tape Scissors Iron White iron-on cloth(For cops)Dark blue sweats Keystone-cop-type hat Plastic policeman’s stick (For robbers)Grey sweats Instructions: For each cop, cut out the word POLICE and a large star from the cloth, and iron them on the blue sweatshirt. For each robber, make a striped pattern in electrical tape over both pieces of the sweats, and then print out a large number and tape it to the back of the sweatshirt....

The test is typically performed after the 18th week of pregnancy and can test for certain genetic conditions, blood disorders, and various infections. If need be, the procedure can also be used to give medication to the fetus through the umbilical cord, as well as blood transfusions. Cordocentesis isn’t being used as much as it has in the past because there are other prenatal diagnostic tests that can be used instead that are less risky to the fetus, like amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling (CVS)....

Directions These rhymes can be used by individual jumpers and by children jumping in groups to see how many times a jumper can jump without tripping. Candy, candy in the dish. How many pieces do you wish? One, two, three, four, five… Mother made a chocolate cake. How many eggs did it take? One, two, three, four, five… Cinderella, dressed in yellow, Went downstairs to kiss her fellow. How many kisses did she give?...

More: How to Create a Homeschool Schedule That Works for Your Family Your homeschool calendar is important for a couple of reasons. In addition to helping you determine which days of the year you will be having school, you will need some way to keep track of all the activities that are inevitably part of your family’s life, both related to school and not. These include field trips, music lessons, sports, and so on....

Directions Replace your child’s light-switch plate with a customized one that your child has created. Get all the materials ready. Using the small brushes, have your child paint on a design, picture, or her name. Wipe mistakes off with water, or wait until it dries and paint over the top of the dried paint. Let the plate dry completely before screwing it back on the wall.

For instance, kindergartners should be able to skip, walk up steps, count objects, and be able to share with other children. First graders will begin to develop the ability to see patterns in words and numbers, have the motor skills to grip a pencil and be able to better respond to social situations. As they grow older, barring a physical or learning disability, children will be expected to progress in cognitive and physical development, be ready to take on more responsibility, have more self-control and be able to interact socially with peers and be figuring out how to understand more complex concepts....

Understand the stages of labor and the measures by which healthcare providers mark them. This can greatly reduce your stress and help you avoid multiple trips to the hospital before the time is right. Stages of Labor No two births are alike, and there’s often no way to know how long your delivery will take or what it may entail. Still, childbirth will invariably progress in three clearly defined stages....

There are some clues, but they might not be obvious until it’s too late to stop a delivery: That’s why it is so vitally important to know the signals, and to contact your medical provider as soon as you suspect something. Dr. Chloe Zera of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston breaks down the signs of preterm labor. Understanding Contractions Sometimes preterm labor is silent. You won’t feel your cervix dilating or effacing....