When you visit your doctor for confirmation of pregnancy, she will determine your due date by adding 40 weeks to the beginning of your last period. Those 40 weeks are known as the gestation period, a time of rapid fetal growth and development. Fetal movement is one of the most exciting events during this process.

Newborn babies go through a lot of diapers. You may be tempted to run out and buy several economy-sized boxes of diapers before baby comes to stock up to save a little money in the process.

When a baby dies in the womb, this is either a stillbirth or miscarriage, depending on when the death takes place during the course of a woman's pregnancy.

Speculation about what contributes to a child’s IQ or intelligence quotient looks at the roles of nature versus nurture, parent’s age, breast feeding versus formala, music heard in the womb and educational videos for babies. Tests for babies assess their cognitive skills.

Few situations are as stressful for new parents as caring for a new baby who will not settle and fall asleep. Although most new parents expect to get less sleep than they did before their baby’s arrival, a baby who stays up all night long can try the patience of even the calmest and most dedicated parents.

Your baby eats, sleeps and yes, poops. When your baby has a bowel movement, it is hard to determine ahead of time if his clothes will be affected by a leaky diaper. Since babies stool is normally thin, leakage onto his clothes is a common occurrence.

New parents are often surprised by the number of vaccines that pediatricians recommend during a baby’s first year of life. Most infants will receive multiple injections at each routine visit to the doctor. You might feel overwhelmed keeping track of which vaccinations your baby is receiving.

Taking your baby’s rectal temperature can seem a little daunting at first if you are a new parent, but the rectal method provides the most reliable and accurate results for very young children, according to the Babycenter website. Taking your child’s temperature can be accomplished quickly using a digital thermometer.

According to Baby Care Advice, babies who become overtired often have difficulty “switching off.” Babies can become overtired for different reasons, which include too much stimulation, holding or passing the baby around and playing with the baby.

To many parents, a vibrating baby seat, sometimes called a bouncer or bouncy seat, is a lifesaver. The chair is designed for young babies who can't sit unassisted and provides some hands-free time for the parents.

Some signs of pregnancy might appear shortly after the date of conception, explains the University of Maryland Medical Center, sometimes even before the date of your next period and before you can take a pregnancy test.

Expectant parents who are anxious about knowing the sex of their baby may use an array of folkloric strategies including numerology, baby position, food cravings and heart-rate of the fetus in the womb.