By Paula Miranda for TheBump.com

Veer / The BumpI was never the type of girl that dreamed of the day that I would be married or have children. Instead I dreamed of the day that I would be recognized for other accomplishments in my career. While I listened to my friends share the names of their future children, I was busy thinking of what countries I would travel to first or what I would say to the President when I first met him.

As time went on and I grew up, I learned an important lesson about life: you can plan all you want but nothing is certain.

More from The Bump: 10 things no one warned you about pregnancy

As a young twenty-something I got pregnant. The pregnancy I had never planned for myself was here, and with it came severe morning sickness. I was sick all day, every day. I tried everything I could think of or read about to feel better but nothing worked. I was a hermit. What felt like eternity finally ended one month before I had my daughter. It was a brief moment of bliss. I felt like

By Paula Miranda for TheBump.com

Thinkstock / The BumpOne of the most important qualities I wanted to make sure my now teenager daughter and I had with each other while she was growing up were honesty and trust. I raised her with manners and morals - important values I think that all children should have. And now, raising a teen and a toddler, I've realized that these life lessons are important for my little one to learn, too. In fact, they're a good life lessons for us all.

When times get tough and my tot and I are in the middle of a temper tantrum stare down, here are the most important things I always try to remind myself of:

1. Lead by example. If you want you toddler to be and act a certain way, make sure your actions are consistent with that, too. Get down to their level and look them in the eyes. When you do this you communicate better with them and let them see through action you respect them. If they turn their eyes away, direct them to look into your eyes so they understand what your

When naming their kids, new moms and dads are finding divine inspiration in Biblical figures, as revealed by the US Social Security Administration's just-released list of the top baby names of 2012. Jacob, Noah, Daniel, Elijah, and James (to name a few) all cracked the top-25 boys' list.

As a counterpoint, the TV shows "Sex and the City" and "Girls" might also have played a role in baby-naming last year: Aiden, Charlotte, and Hannah are all hanging out on the list, too.

More From Bethenny:
Happy Birthday to My Peanut!: Bryn's Fave Things
Look of the Day: Circus Fun with Bryn
3 Books Bethenny is Reading to Bryn
Bryn's Boo-Boo Berry Smoothie
These Books Will Make Your Kid Smarter
Kids' Birthdays Turned Charitable: How to Teach Generosity

Things that motherhood has given me...There's a beautiful quote from the spiritual leader Osho (also know as Rajneesh) that goes like this:

"The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new."

I love it for its profound, yet simple truth. Motherhood has transformed all that I am. The birth of my firstborn brought about a newness to life and to my role in this world. These are some of the things that motherhood has given me…

1. Hope for a Changed World
Maybe my role as a mother can change the world, even in small ways. I can show them to respect others. I can show them how to love others. I can show them how to take care of the environment. I can show them how to be a friend. Through them, maybe this world could be a better place.

2. A Grateful Heart
Each day I get to be a mother is a blessing that I give thanks to God over and over for. Motherhood has given me a grateful heart.

Related: 9 fun ways to help Dad bond

A message for my daughter's birth motherRarely a day goes by that I don't think about my children's birth mothers. They are close to my heart, and it is not lost on me that I am the lucky one. I am so grateful to both mothers for the choices they made and the deep love they carry for their children.

We are in touch with my daughter Elvie's family only via letter and progress report. If I could call her mother today, these are the things I would want to tell her.

1. The choice you made for Elvie was a brave and beautiful choice.
She lives because you allowed her to go where she could get the medical help she needs, even though that meant losing her.

2. I have loved your daughter fiercely from the beginning.
You chose what was best for her first, and I will honor that choice and fight for what's best for her every day.

Related: 6 deepest lessons I've learned through parenting

3. She is beloved and cherished by all of us.
We are so happy to have her in our family, overjoyed to spend each day with her.

4. She is a fighter.

The signs and symptoms of heart problems in babies.

By Darshak Sanghavi, M.D

Heart problems are the most common type of major birth defect and a leading cause of infant death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the United States, a child with a heart defect is born every 10 minutes. Given these statistics, many parents may wonder: How do I know if my baby has one? Like snowflakes, no two hearts with defects are exactly alike. However, there are roughly 40 different types of congenital heart diseases. The most common are simple defects affecting the muscles separating the chambers (for example, atrial septal defects and ventricular septal defects), or the valves (for example, pulmonary valve stenosis and mitral stenosis). Rarer, more complex defects include hypoplastic left heart syndrome (where the heart's main pumping chamber is absent) and heterotaxy syndrome (where the heart is pretzeled bizarrely, and the liver and stomach are backwards).

RELATED:

Pop culture has always influenced baby names. We get inspired by what we read or see and then the name of a favorite character ends up as the name of our bundle of joy. The trends of these names is sometimes instantly obvious. Such is the case with the name Arya. Other times it takes a year or so for the trend to take off. This collection of baby name trends focuses on spikes in name trends and then locates what the pop culture influence might have been.

-By Dresden Shumaker

MORE ON BABBLE

The 33 worst celebrity baby names... EVER

13 unique baby name trends for 2013

The top 24 hipster baby names

© Courtesy of NASA

By Elina Bolokhova
Meet the real deal: Karen Nyberg can fly through the air as if there weren't any gravity. That's because where she works, there isn't any. She takes a break from training in Star City, Russia to chat with Parenting about preparing to leave her husband and 3-year-old son behind to spend six months at the International Space Station.

The number one thing that our Parenting readers will probably want to know is: what is it like to be in space?
It is absolutely incredible. I was there in 2008 on a shuttle flight. Unfortunately, that was a very short mission of only fourteen days. I remember the first day we opened the big door of the space shuttle and I was able to look out at the back windows of the flight deck. It's pretty much indescribable, how beautiful it is. The feeling of floating like a superhero is amazing. I'm so excited to do it again.

Plus: Parenting Advice from Celebrity Moms

How do you feel like becoming a mom has changed the way you