According to Wikipedia, a baby shower is a party in which parents or expectant parents receive gifts for their newborn or expected child. It is a tradition, if one may call it that, popular in the United States, but one that's also starting to spread in Europe.

I find baby showers sweet. It's an event when close friends can gather and share the expectant parents excitement on the arrival of their new baby. Where I start to get a bit peeved, is when baby showers take grandiose proportions, with wish lists and registries and such. I even heard of a wish list with a Bugaboo in it. C'mon!

So, contrary to rumors, Ashles simpson is NOT concerned, moreso depressed, with her increasing pregnancy weight gain. In her MySpace blog, she says:

1. My doctor says I am right on target with my weight gain 2. Have not been to Planet Blue in at least two years 3. Love my maternity jeans ..they have stretchy tops it is awesome! 4. My closet full of size 0's are being worn by Pete right now and he looks hot in them :) So now that I have cleared that up let me tell you...carrying a child is the most inspiring, emotional, amazing experience of my life. My weight and my pant size are the absolute last thing I am concerned about. I am only concerned with having a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. People who talk and judge pregnant women's weight need to get a life!!!

Amen!

Many hospitals no longer make footprints of newborns as a keepsake, so if you want a remembrance of your baby's first days, make sure you bring your own print making kit in your hospital bag. Make sure you use an ink specially for this purpose, not the office stamp pad ink! The ink should be non-toxic and easy to remove so that you only need to gently wipe it off your sensitive newborn's skin.

Footprints should be easy to make, but handprints are usually trickier because most babies have their fists almost always closed in a fist during the first weeks. If you manage to get some nice prints, use them on the cover page of your baby album, or scan and make copies for baby announcement cards. They also make nice gifts for the new grandparents.

A lot of women who have navel piercings opt to remove their belly button rings for the duration of their pregnancy. But does one really have to? It all depends on the wearer.

As long as the piercings have completely healed and you don't feel uncomfortable, then by all means, continue to wear your belly jewelry. You probably just need to take extra care that it doesn't get caught on garments and such as your belly expands. Or you might want to consider switching to other belly rings that are more appropriate for your pregnant belly:

Long barbell. When regular belly jewelry first becomes uncomfortable, often around the third or fourth month of pregnancy, a woman can switch her regular jewelry for a long, curved barbell. The extra length allows the stretching skin around the piercing more room to spread out as the belly protrudes.

Acrylic retainer. If metallic jewelry becomes uncomfortable due to its weight, a lightweight acrylic barbell or retainer may provide relief. Acrylic retainers may come with threadable balls or rubber o-rings to secure the ends. Small rubber o-rings may allow extra room along the shaft of the jewelry, however, they slide off more easily than threadable balls.

Two-Inch Flexible Bar. Extra long barbells, or belly bars, made especially for use during pregnancy or for use after surgical procedures allow all the length and flexibility a pregnant woman will likely need. Belly bars are typically made of a threadable, cut-to-size, plastic such as PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene), which is hypoallergenic and is used to make surgical implants.

If you decide to do away with the belly ring altogether, you might want to replace it simply with a fishing line to keep the holes from closing.

Getting a navel or nipple piercing during pregnancy, however, is a different story. Since the skin expands during pregnancy, it will be more difficult for the holes to heal, thereby increasing the risk of infections.

A recent study indicates that mothers who experience extreme stress during pregnancy are more likely to give birth to children who develop schizophrenia. We're not talking of day-to-day stresses that feels a bit more aggravating because of hormonal and bodily changes. This study refers to women who experience something comparable to a natural disaster such as an earthquake or hurricane, a terrorist attack, or a sudden bereavement.

Malaspina and her colleagues looked at birth data for 88,829 people born in Jerusalem from 1964 to 1976 and cross-referenced it with Israel's national psychiatry registry.

They found that the offspring of women who were in their second month of pregnancy during the height of the Arab-Israel war in June of 1967 - also known as the "Six Day War" - showed a significantly higher rate of schizophrenia as they entered adulthood.

These observations also confirm an earlier report on the effect of bereavement during pregnancy and on the likelihood that the child will develop schizophrenia.

A total of 7,331 schizophrenia cases were identified among Danes born between 1973 and 1995 over at least two decades of follow-up.

Being born to a mother who had a close relative die during her first trimester was found to be associated with a 67% increased risk for schizophrenia.

Clearly, the maternal psychological state, particularly durign the first trimester, has a grave impact on the mental health of her baby.

Here's one reason you should keep an eye on your own Vitamin D intake: Research shows that low maternal vitamin D levels during pregnancy may affect primary tooth calcification, leading to enamel defects, which are a risk factor for early-childhood tooth decay.

Two hundred six pregnant women in their second trimester participated in the study. Only 21 women (10.5%) were found to have adequate vitamin D levels. Vitamin D concentrations were related to the frequency of milk consumption and pre-natal vitamin use. The investigators examined 135 infants (55.6% male) at 16.1 ± 7.4 months of age, and found that 21.6% of them had enamel defects, while 33.6% had early-childhood tooth decay. Mothers of children with enamel defects had lower, but not significantly different, mean vitamin D concentrations during pregnancy than those of children without defects.

However, mothers of children with early-childhood tooth decay had significantly lower vitamin D levels than those whose children were cavity-free. Infants with enamel defects were significantly more likely to have early-childhood tooth decay.

Isn't it amazing how your nutrition levels confers a large impact on the health of your baby years down the road? Considering the rising costs of dental treatments, some of which aren't covered by mainstream health insurance, it's good to know that these can possibly be avoided. Besides, you don't want your child to be sitting on the dentist's chair too early, do you?