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Parents juggle a lot. Between caring for baby, running a household, nurturing relationships and maybe working a job too, it can feel impossible to find any time to shower or even eat—let alone work out. But the benefits of exercise are plenty, and squeezing in a sweat session may not be as hard as you think. While you probably won’t be able to run off to the gym for an evening like you did in the pre-baby days, there are tons of creative ways to get active....

Parents do amazing things every single day. Some big, some small, and a lot unrecognized, like simply getting everyone washed, dressed, fed and out the door before the school bell rings. Here, we honor just some of the moms and dads out there who radiated parental inspo in 2017. Whether it was the parent teaching body positivity, the dad fighting for a place to change baby’s diaper or the mom meeting her fitness goals with three babies in tow, all of them gave all of us all the feels....

As moms, we’ve all heard our parenting skills being questioned or even criticized at one point or another. (Hey, it’s practically a rite of passage.) But while some comments might be easy to brush off, others sting a little bit. Maybe it was your mother-in-law’s “sage” advice at the family barbecue, warning that you’re swaddling too tight; or what’s-her-face from Mommy and Me class preaching the wonders of Cry It Out and how you’ve been spoiling baby with too much attention....

While breasts are almost always a little asymmetrical and have different milk-holding capacities, such a huge difference might have to do with your feeding habits. Mom and/or baby might have developed a preference for one breast, feeding more (or more often) on that side. This can lead to lopsided milk production. You might also become lopsided if baby refuses one breast for a while (sometimes due to an ear infection). If your uneven breast size is bugging you, you can try nursing more often on the smaller side to help even things out....

It’s three in the afternoon, and your new baby is asleep. How do you spend the time? a. Tackle a pile of laundry or unload the dishwasher b. Pump to build your freezer stash of breast milk c. Nap d. Shower or go to the bathroom If you’re like me, you may not do any of these things. In the awesome event that both of my twins are asleep or someone else is home to watch them in the middle of the day, I can never decide how to spend my time....

If you haven’t realized it by now traveling with baby (or even just running around the corner to do some errands) can be a daunting task. To help make things go a bit smoother the next time you hit the road with baby in tow try some of these helpful tips from parenting coach Tammy Gold. Stick to the schedule Children like routine and tend to behave better when they have a predictable sense of order....

If pregnancy symptoms haven’t kicked your butt yet, then maybe your caffeine withdrawals will! I know they have for me. Making that transition from one to two cups of coffee or latte to zero caffeine has taken its toll. My energy level is lacking and don’t get me started on my mood. As if the pregnancy hormones rearing their ugly head aren’t bad enough to deal with… I now have withdrawals to deal with as well....

“The common joke is that your belly button is your turkey timer; it pops out when it’s time to have the baby,” says Kelly Kasper, MD, ob-gyn and associate clinical professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine. But really, your belly button has turned inside out because baby’s getting pretty big. Here’s how it works: As your baby and belly grow, the muscles of your abdomen stretch. The belly button area (a remnant of your time as a baby!...

Having a baby creates a whole new set of financial responsibilities and it can be confusing to know where to start. If you want to give your family the financial security it deserves, here are four steps that will put you on the right track. Talk money with your honey If you have a spouse or partner, openly talking about money is the foundation of your financial future. You can do almost everything else right and still run into trouble if the two of you aren’t on the same page....

Yes you can. The seafood that pregnant women should avoid completely are the high-mercury ones, such as shark, tilefish, swordfish and king mackerel. Shrimp is safe to eat because it falls into the category of low-mercury seafood, which also includes salmon, pollack, sardines and catfish. But you should still limit your intake of these fish to no more than 12 ounces per week, says Laura Riley, MD, director of labor and delivery at Massachusetts General Hospital and author of You & Your Baby: Pregnancy....

Time magazine has gone and done it again! In its August 2013 cover story, the mag shows moms what they’re “missing” with a piece that covers when having it all means not having kids. In the article, the writer interviewed Laura Scott, who says that at the tender age of 14, she realized she didn’t want to have kids. Later, at 26, she was married and hoping that as the course of her life changed, so would her desire for kids....

The First Trimester Screen is a new optional test used to look for chromosomal abnormalities such as Down syndrome, Trisomy 18 and Trisomy 13. The screening involves two parts: a blood test and a special ultrasound. If you decide to have a First Trimester Screen (it’s typically done between weeks 11 and 14), a lab will draw a sample of blood from your arm, which will then be used to measure your levels of two pregnancy hormones, hCG and PAPP-A....

There’s a bit of a debate about that actually: Pediatric dentists have extra training in treating the teeth of children. But choosing a pediatric dentist means you’ll have to switch when your child is older. Family dentists treat patients of all ages, but their training isn’t as specialized. If you choose the former, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry website offers a database of practices across the country, which you can search by your area....

I know everyone says it’s best to have babies young because you’re bursting with energy and regenerating cells quickly, but I think that’s a load of bull. That only applies if your kid is neurotypical. If your precious baby comes out with any kind of delay, you will need wisdom and lots of it. And that comes with experience, and experience takes time. People warn you about so many things when you’re expecting....

Blackening is a food-prep technique that typically involves coating seafood, meat and even vegetables with a tangy blend of spices, including paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme and oregano. The spice-crusted bites are then pan-seared at extremely high heat to bring out the zesty flavor—and often, a nice, charred crust. Hot, spicy foods in general pose no risks to pregnant women. The concern is that burnt foods may contain cancer-causing carcinogens, and should therefore be avoided by everyone, not just moms-to-be....

The problem with luncheon or deli meat is that it could potentially carry listeria, a bacterium that can wind up in processed meats (including deli meats and hot dogs) sometime between the cooking and packaging processes. Listeriosis causes serious illness in about 2,500 Americans each year. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that pregnant women, who make up about 30 percent of those listeriosis cases, are about 20 times more likely to contract the disease than healthy non-pregnant people....

Is it normal to have morning sickness past the first trimester? The short answer: yes. Morning sickness usually starts around your sixth week and ends by your 14th–but like most pregnancy symptoms, it’s different for everyone. Just as some women don’t experience any morning sickness at all (hey, take it up with Mother Nature), some have their head over a toilet for much longer. In fact, women who are pregnant with multiples are actually more likely to experience morning sickness throughout most (or all) of their pregnancy than moms having just one baby....

Being a mom was always part of the plan. Growing up, I never really stopped and thought about it or questioned how it would happen, I just knew that I planned to have children someday. So when my husband and I got married, the next step in my perceived direction of life was to have a baby. About a year into our marriage, we decided to start trying. I stopped taking birth control, which I had been on for about 10 years, and waited....

Baby Registry Must-Haves for Multiples Baby Registry Items to Skip Tricks and Tips From Parents of Multiples “Having twins can be expensive. Register for things that other folks would love to buy you, but would break the bank if you had to get it all yourself. Think: high chairs, car seats, bouncy chairs and even strollers.” —Jessica R., mom of 6-year-old boy-girl twins “Don’t buy two of the exact same design for bouncy seats, play mats or early toys....

Frustrating, isn’t it? Getting up five times a night when your baby is a newborn is one thing, but waking up nightly — after you’ve gotten used to a solid night’s sleep (and have lots to do the next day) — can feel like torture. You’re not alone. Many, many toddlers (and their exhausted parents) are up at least once a night. “Technically speaking, it’s impossible for a child to sleep ‘through the night’ at any age,” says Elizabeth Pantley, author of The No-Cry Sleep Solution....