Blog Posts by Parenting.com

Call the Midwife

By: Taylor Newman
It seemed, last winter, that everyone and their cousin was obsessed with the British-TV-turned-PBS series, Downton Abbey; even my husband was watching it (nightly!) on Netflix. It was quite a phenomenon, although - I'll admit - entirely lost on me; I was in a particularly busy work spurt so didn't really have a chance to get into the story line, but I guess it must have been good if something so… British, so PBS-ish, and so - I dunno - apparently dull (sorry) could capture such a broad American audience's attention. Don't get me wrong - I like British film and TV, I love PBS, and I can get as addicted to a good series (and Netflix's "Watch Next Episode" button) as the next girl, but Jane Austen-esque period pieces have never been my thing. (Friday Night Lights? MadMen? I'm there.) I'd never have predicted that Downton Abbey would sweep the nation as it did, but, hey, it totally did - both in the UK and here - and it'll surely do so again this winter, when its

By Brian Braiker from Parenting.com

Fans of the Knuffle Bunny trilogy will recall how Trixie is miraculously reunited with her stuffed bunny in the final installment, long given up for lost on an international flight. Today Trixie has a real-life corollary in a young Omaha boy named Liam.

On his first birthday, Liam received a stuffed blue monkey that he named Ah-ah. The monkey quickly became a member of the family. For years, Liam and Ah-ah were inseparable. But then, just before Liam started kindergarten, tragedy struck. Three years ago on a family camping trip to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, Liam lost his blue stuffed monkey. They looked everywhere, but Ah-ah was gone for good.

Plus: First Birthday Party Ideas

"My son was devastated," Liam's father writes in a video posted to YouTube last week.

Fast forward to last week, when Liam's mother was online looking to buy a viola for his sister. Something told her to search eBay for "blue monkey," which

Veer

By Sasha Emmons

Any parent who has tackled toilet training knows that awkward in-between stage where your kid's not 100 percent there, but you need to leave the house and take the underwear leap of faith. Will you be near a toilet when the urge strikes?

One Utah mom decided to take the guesswork out of this scenario by just bringing portable potties to a local deli. Another patron snapped a photo of twins sitting bare-bummed on the throne, clothes pulled to their ankles, while they sat eating. The picture was posted to Facebook, where it went viral.

The deli staff received several complaints but the twins and their mom had left by the time management was alerted. They say they would have asked her to leave, since letting kids poop or pee where people are eating is most certainly a safety violation, not to mention just clueless.

Have you ever seen something like this? How did you handle leaving the house when your kids potty-trained?

More from Parenting:

veerBy Kate at Parenting.com
Sierra Jane Downing, a seven-year-old girl from Colorado, is recovering from an illness she caught while camping-but it's not Lyme Disease or poison ivy rash. Sierra caught a rare form of the bubonic plague, and her doctors say she's "fortunate to be alive," reports ABC News. You might remember bubonic plague from your history books as the "Black Death" that killed an estimated 25 million people in the 14th century.

Plus: A Parents' Guide to First Aid

Sierra's father took her to the ER after she had a seizure, but at first doctors just thought she had a bad case of the flu. After finding swollen lymph nodes and Sierra's body temperature reaching a scary 107 degrees, she was diagnosed with bubonic plague and given antibiotics.

Plus: 8 Times You Should Always Call the Ped

Doctors at the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children said that Sierra probably contracted the disease from contact with fleas that were on a dead squirrel. Sierra tried to bury the

C-section babyBy: Taylor Newman
There's some big scientific news on the childbirth front right now, so strap on your nerd glasses and let's do this thing: Tamas Horvath, chairman of the Department of Comparative Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine, has discovered that "a key protein related to brain development in newborns is activated during natural childbirth, but impaired in Caesarean section births." (Crib note: Impaired is the key word in that sentence.)

The protein, UCP2, impacts a range of functions within the brain itself - like the creation of memory-related circuits - and within the rest of the body. One of these functions, for example, plays a key role in the metabolism of fat. Another crucial one is that it promotes cells' adaptation and survival under stress. Because the protein's activation is kicked off as a physical response to the birth process, when that process is curtailed by a C-section - Horvath's research shows - the protein won't kick off in its normal way, and

Courtesy of J.Crew

We caught up with Jenny Cooper, head designer for the J.Crew's adorable Crewcuts collection, for a typical day in her life.

5:15 a.m. I gasp my way around the track at Cadman Plaza near my house in Brooklyn.

6 a.m. Back home, I find Walker, 9, and Miller, 7, playing soccer with a stuffed lobster.

6:30 a.m. The boys can play 30 minutes of FIFA Soccer 12 before school if they make their beds and brush their teeth by 7:30. They get it done by 6:45.

11 a.m. I'm surrounded by 5-year-old models at a fitting for the Spring 2013 Crewcuts collection. I ask the kids to jump up and down to make sure they can move comfortably and the clothes still look cute.

Afternoon

1:20 p.m. I treat myself to a Justin's Organic dark-chocolate peanut butter cup. Yum-I would live on them exclusively if I could!

3:15 p.m. Forward an e-mail to the team from a friend who spots a Crewcuts dress on the street. Squeals all around!

4 p.m. Meet with the knit team to review

iStockphotoBy Elina At Parenting

Are you pregnant? If you answered no, a new Arizona law might still consider you to be with child even if you're-biologically-not. The "Woman's Health and Safety Act" was signed into law by Arizona Governor Jen Brewer now defines pregnancy as beginning two weeks before conception. The bill calculates the gestational age starting with the very first day of the last menstrual period. Although your OB will date a pregnancy starting with the expected date of your missed period, the law has traditionally defined pregnancy as starting at conception.

Plus: Paternal Occupation Could Lead to Birth Defects

The new legislation comes at a time when the abortion debate is more heated than ever. According to theTucson Citizen, abortions are legal in Arizona up until the fetus can reasonably survive on its own outside the womb-a window that extends to 22 to 24 weeks based on a gestational age that starts with conception. Women generally ovulate (and thereby conceive)

iStockphoto

By Sasha Emmons
For parents with babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, it can be gut-wrenching to leave your child behind when you check out of the hospital after birth. Long distances, recovery from a C-section, restrictive visiting hours or simply caring for older children can make it hard to be near your baby's side as much as you like. But some hospitals are trying an innovative approach to helping parents stay connected: web cams.

Plus: Best Web Cams for Families

According to the Huffington Post, eight U.S. hospitals have already installed the cams over incubators and cribs, and several dozen more are testing it out. Parents (and grandparents) can log in any time they want for a peek at their babe. Some systems go both ways, so parents can talk or sing to their babies, which could help with bonding. Nurses sometimes place notes on the screen letting parents know the latest strides their baby is making.

Did you have a baby in the NICU? Would you have liked a