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Strollerderby
Photo source: Chance Agrella
A lot of things change when you have kids. It’s the best experience and the hardest job in the world, and I feel very fortunate to be riding this crazy train with my three precious howler monkeys. But you may find (as I did) that your lifestyle becomes less about style and more about just plain life.
Example: You haven’t slept more than three hours in a row in two years? That’s life. You can’t wear your Prada heels because your feet grew during pregnancy. That’s life. You’ve got the sweetest, fattest, snuggliest toddler in the history of ever? That’s life, too.
Here are some very silly ways life is different — before and after kids.
There’s been a lot of talk online lately about what the role of men will become in the future, how the rise of women may be leaving men behind, and that men are somehow “less” when compared with the women of today, who are clearly “more” than they used to be — but if you try to tell any if this to a dad blogger, especially if you bring up the “End of Men,” you will almost undoubtedly change your tune after hearing what they have to say. (Check out the Babble Salon series on this very topic, if you don’t believe me.)
Dad bloggers, of course, have been around for years, but 2011 has seen a real ground swell in recognition of their work. Jason Avant has been leading the charge with his ground-breaking blog for fathers, DadCentric, which was just named by Parents Magazine as “Best Dad’s Blog.” Avant, after seeing that six fathers were included on Babble’s Top 50 Twitter Moms list, formed the Occupy Babble movement to let the editors of the world know that the dads were mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore. Okay, maybe he didn’t actually say that, but he made it very clear that dad bloggers were fed up with being marginalized by all the major parenting websites and the PR firms that work predominantly with mom bloggers. One Babble Top 50 Dad Blogs of 2011 list later, the guys have gotten what they asked for with the announcement of Babble’s newest blog, Dadding. Continue reading »
Brain scans show new moms' brains grow
Moms really are the brains of the operation. New research shows that, far from losing grey matter when we become mothers, mamas’ brains actually grow.
In the months after giving birth, women develop more brain cells in the parts of the brain associated with reasoning, judgement and sensory perception. We really do know everything! At least, more than mere mortals who have not given birth.
What’s more, the more you love your baby, the more your brain develops:
Those moms who are particularly awestruck and gushy over their babies show more growth in the brain areas associated with motivation, reward and the regulation of emotion, the researchers said.
Post-partum depression isn’t just for moms.
New research shows that surprisingly, men can get post-partum depression and it’s not only psychological.
About 10 percent of dads experience depression before or after their child is born — or what’s called ”parental postnatal depression,” according to the first study done on this phenomenon, published in Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study found that depression was highest in the three to six months following the baby’s birth. The depression rate for pregnant and new moms in the study was about 24 percent
Apparently, after becoming dads, men’s estrogen levels can increase, while their testosterone levels dip. Some biologists suggest this is nature’s way of making sure men stick around to help raise the baby. But those hormonal changes can also cause the baby blues. Add in lack of sleep, increased responsibility, and lack of social support and it’s a potent combo. Continue reading »
There’s a shocking cure for the baby blues: sleep deprivation.
The New York Times reports that depressed new mothers who stay up all night will find their depression lifted by morning. They say:
Sleep deprivation used as a treatment for depression is efficacious and robust: it works quickly, is relatively easy to administer, inexpensive, relatively safe and it also alleviates other types of clinical depression.
Most new parents are painfully familiar with sleep deprivation, and I’ve never heard anyone say it made life with a new baby better. What’s up with this research? Continue reading »
Every couple of weeks, we run a story about some obviously clueless, crazy person who gives birth in an exotic locale like “on a train” or “in a school bathroom” because she didn’t even know she was pregnant until the baby popped out.
Crazy, right? Not necessarily. Apparently, not knowing you’re pregnant is more common than we think.
Jennifer Spiegel is suing a Chicago hospital for $30,000 in damages because, one night in 2008, a hospital nurse brought her the wrong day-old infant boy, and she mistakenly nursed him.
Today, Motherlode invites readers to weigh in on the question of nursing someone else’s child: would you?
I can understand Spiegel being distraught at the mix-up, but I have a hard time seeing it as grounds for a lawsuit.
But maybe I’m a little biased. I’m nursing someone else’s baby right now.
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