interesting info

i love random facts - so here are some interesting ones.

First-time Moms: Average age of new moms is 25, vs. 21 in 1970

Kids: Modern moms average 2 kids (1950s: 3.5 kids; 1700s: 7-10 kids)

4.3 babies are born each second

72% of moms with children over 1 year old work (about the same as childless women) , vs. 39% in 1976

55% of moms with a child under 1 year old work, vs. 31% in 1976

Diaper Changes: 7,300 by baby's 2nd birthday

Diaper Changing Speed: Moms take 2 minutes, 5 seconds (adds up to 3 40-hour work weeks each year!) , vs. 1 minute, 36 seconds for dads I NEED TO GET MYSELF UP TO DIAPER CHANGING SPEED :)

Giving Attention: Preschooler requires mom's attention once every 4 minutes or 210 times / day

Taking Care: Preschooler moms spend 2.7 hrs / day on primary childcare, vs. 1.2 hours for dads

Mommy Records

Most Kids: Mrs. Vassilyev of Russia gave birth to 69 children between 1725 and 1765 IS THAT REALLY POSSIBLE - OUCH!! SHE'S A BIRTHING MACHINE.

Oldest Mom: Rosanna Dalla Corte gave birth to a baby boy when she was 63 years old in Italy in 1994

Heaviest Newborn: Signora Carmelina Fedele gave birth to a 22 lb 8 oz boy in Italy in 1955 OUCH!!! THAT IS JUST CRAZY. ITALY HAS SET SOME MAJOR BIRTHING RECORDS.

MISC FACTS:

Most popular birth month: July (that's when our baby is due)
Most popular birth day: Tuesday
Most popular birthday: October 5
30 Pounds: Average weight gain during pregnancy
Baby Gender Gap: 105 boys born for every 100 girls
First Year Baby Costs: $7,000 of baby items before 1st birthday
Cost of Raising a Child: Middle-income families spend $242,070 to raise a kid to 18 (not incl. college!)

Research suggests that moms who give birth later in life, live longer
Having kids may make you smarter

-Babies don't have kneecaps when they are born. They only develop during the latter half of the first year
- At birth, a child's feet have 22 partially formed bones; by the time the child turns 18, each foot has 26 fully formed bones.
- The average toddler takes 176 steps per minute.
- A typical new born will double its weight by 6 months and triple it by the first yr.
- Babies eyes don't produce tears until the baby is between 3 & 6 wks old.
- The foundation networking of the brain's synapses is nearly complete after the rapid brain development of the first 3 years.
- The more stimulating experiences you can give your baby, the more circuitry is built for enhanced learning in the future.
- The number of connections in the brain can increase or decrease by 25% depending on the environment & stimulation.
-Shortly after birth, infants can discriminate among a large number of sounds that occur in many languages.
-At 7 days a baby can distinguish his mother's voice, by 14 days he can recognize his father's voice.
-Babies gradually develop a preference for the sounds of their native tongue.
-In the second half of the first yr, babies start paying less attention to subtle differences in pronunciation & more attention to whole words and phrases.
-The rhythms of speech become attractive, helping them remember words they hear frequently.
-Babies who hear lots of words will understand more words & perhaps begin to speak sooner.
-"Sign language" is emerging as another way for babies to communicate, even if they don't have hearing or developmental problems.
-Babies have a define preference for high contrast images, like geometric shapes in black, white & red.
-A newborn baby focuses best at 25cm from the bridge of his nose- the distance from his mothers breast to his mother's eyes.
-Newborn babies have an acute sense of smell, which enables them to recognize the natural scent, or pheromones, from their mother's body.