Looks like Livingston McConaughey is going to be a man of the sun!

The 1-month-old baby boy was photographed spending the day at the park with his beautiful mom, Camila Alves, yesterday! The super cute twosome kept things casual, taking in the beautiful 80-degree sights in Austin, Texas. Little Liv joins big brother Levi, 4, and big sister Vida, 3, to round out the adorable Alves-McConaughey brood.

Livingston kept cool while mom showered her baby in kisses and swaddled him in a light blanket.

Camila, who celebrated her 30th birthday yesterday, had plenty to celebrate. The mama-of-three and wife to actor Matthew McConaughey tweeted, “Today I am 30 years old, Livingston is 30 days old and I’m blessed with 3 healthy children…I am so thankful and full of joy!”

We are so excited for this happy mom and her beautiful growing family! Here’s to the next 30!

Plus, more from The Bump:

It’s a Boy for Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves!

Celebrity Babies

Matthew and Camila McConaughey Expecting Baby #3!

New research suggests that a father’s mental health during a mother’s pregnancy may have a significant impact on the child’s risk of behavioral problems by the time he or she is 3 years old. Though previous research explained the strong link between a mother’s mental well-being and her future child’s behavior, this new study says that dads who experience stress during their partner’s pregnancy may also affect the child’s mental health.

Published days ago, on January 7th in Pediatrics, over 31,000 Norwegian children took part in a long-running family study that included both parents receiving questionnaires prior to birth and lasting until the child was 36-moths old.
From these responses, researches were able to conclude that during weeks 17 and 18 of pregnancy, 3% of surveyed fathers reported high levels of “psychological distress.” From this, researchers found a strong link between the father’s level of psychological distress and the presence of behavioral problems found in their children by age 3.

Kids whose fathers reported stronger levels of psychological distress also displayed higher levers of behavioral problems. And the associations remain true even after accounting for other external factors, such as smoking, alcohol use, mother’s mental health and parents’ age.

The findings let Dr. Anne Lise Kvalevaag, the study’s author, to say, “Father’s mental health should therefore be addressed both in research and clinical practice.” Though the study did not establish a cause-and-effect relationships, the findings may have explained the passing of a genetic risk for behavioral problems from father to child or a father’s stress may affect a pregnant mother’s mental health, which in turn would affect the fetus.

Moms and dads weigh in: Do you think it’s possible that a father’s mental health could affect baby’s behavior?

Plus, more from The Bump:

Will Taking Antidepressants Harm Your Pregnancy?

Preparing Your Health History Before Baby — Why It’s Important

How to Decide if You and Your Partner Should Get Genetic Testing

Early this morning, the CPSC and Fisher-Price Inc. announced a voluntary recall of about 800,000 Newborn Rock ‘n Play Sleeper™ based out of the company’s East Aurora, N.Y. importer to inspect for mold. If you are in possession of a Rock ‘n Play, the CPSC and Fisher-Price advise you to stop using it immediately if mold is found. Units currently in retail stores are not included in this recall.

The major concern is that mold can develop between the removeable seat cushion and the hard plastic frame of the sleeper if it is weight and/or infrequently cleaned. The CPSC advises that mold has been associated with respiratory illnesses and other infections in infants. Although mold may not be not present at the time of purchase, mold growth can occur after use of the product.

At the time of the recall, Fisher-Price received 600 reports of mold on the product, with sixteen customers reporting that they had their infants treated for respiratory issues, coughs and hives after sleeping in the product.

If you purchased the sleeper at mass merchandise stores nationwide or online since September 2009, your product is subject to recall. Sleepers sold in retail stores are not affected by this recall.

Contact the Fisher-Price for cleaning instructions and further assistance  at service.mattel.com/us or by contacting the firm at (800) 432-5437.

Want to make sure you don’t have any recalled baby gear at home? Read more of the latest baby product recalls.

For years and years, soon-to-be parents have asked themselves the same question, “Can baby hear us?” and for just as long the question has gone unanswered. Now, however, researchers have finally come to a conclusion and it’s sure to be one that mom and dads-to-be are over the moon about!

Newborns are much more attuned the the sound of the native languagethan we ever thought, linguists say. Newborns can pick up on distinctive sounds of their mother tongue while in utero.

The unbelievable research was led by Christine Moon, a professor of psychology at Pacific Lutheran University. “We have known for over 30 years that we begin learning prenatally about voices by listening to the sound of our mother talking,” Moon said. “This is the first study that shows we learn about the particular speech sounds of our mother’s language before we are born.”

Prior to the study, it was widely believed that infants learned small parts of speech after they had left the womb. This study states the opposite. “This study moves the measurable result of experience with individual speech sounds from six months of age to before birth,” she said.

Seriously — how incredible? All the time the proud parents have spent singing and talking to their little babe are worth every moment (not like we’d suggest you stop doing it otherwise – it’s important to have a connect to your child pre-birth).

For her study, Moon tested newborn infants shortly after birth while still in the hospital in two different locations: Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington, and in the Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden. Infants heard either Swedish or English vowels and linguists could control how many times they heard the vowels by sucking on a pacifier connected to a computer.

In both countries, the babies listening to the foreign vowels sucked more, than those listening to their native tongue regardless of how much postnatal experience they had. This indicated to researchers that they were learning the vowel sounds in utero.

“These little ones had been listening to their mother’s voice in the womb, and particularly her vowels for ten weeks. The mother has first dibs on influencing the child’s brain,” said Patricia Kuhl, Endowed Chair for the Bezos Family Foundation for Early Childhood Learning and Co-Director of the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences. “At birth, they are apparently ready for something novel.”

But we’re not the only ones amazed by what the research showed, “This is a stunning finding,” said Kuhl. “We thought infants were ‘born learning’ but now we know they learn even earlier. They are not phonetically naïve at birth.”

Prior to the kinds of studies like this one, it was assumed that newborns were “blank slates” and now, we know that is not the case.

So, as if you needed any more incentive to hum, drum or even chat with baby on the side, here’s fool-proof scientific reinforcement that it’s good for baby!

Would the findings of this study have mattered to you one way or the other?

Plus, more from The Bump:

Is Conversation Good for Baby?

Should I Talk to My Baby in Utero?

How Can I Help Baby Learn to Speak?

A few nights ago during a heated husband-wife argument, my other half slipped in how I am not the adventurous, pre-child lifestyle-maintaining mom I once swore I’d be. This is true. Prior to having my daughter, I would talk extensively about how our life would move forward as normal with the simple insertion of a child. I envisioned dinners out with a quiet baby sleeping in a sling. I talked of routine date nights full of wine and dancing, and I assured our annual overseas vacations would continue without a hitch.

What I promised was based on the life I was living, the only life I had known — one without a baby. What I hadn’t been privy to was the extreme exhaustion, innate needs of my child, and a shift in my own personal desires that would drastically change my perspective and reality of parenthood.

The exhaustion. When you’re weeks away from delivery and family, friends, and even strangers make the snarky comment “sleep while you can,” they aren’t joking. They aren’t making fun (well maybe, a little). They’re simply trying to advise that once your newborn arrives your sleep may be may be non-existent, and even when your baby becomes a routine, 10 to 12 hour a night sleeper — you will never sleep the way you did pre-delivery. You will wake at every noise; you will worry at every cough; and you will rock, soothe, make bottles, and change diapers in a state of delirium at 2 a.m. It gets better, and it gets easier, but it will never be the same. And even after nights when my husband and I get a complete night’s sleep, we’re still exhausted! What first-time parents may not realize is that, after the baby is born, life for most continues on just as it had pre-baby, with hundreds of additional responsibilities inserted before, during, and after work. This equates to complete exhaustion!  My point? I’m tired! If I have free time (which usually comes between the hours of 8:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.) I want to take a hot shower or watch trashy TV shows. I have no desire to over-indulge in alcohol, dance on tables, or bar hop.

The needs of my child. In my fantasy world, I’d have given birth to an adaptable baby who would sleep through dinners out, car rides home, and stroller trips through the mall. Oh, did I get it wrong. I never accounted for the need to accommodate my child’s schedule. I had no idea that a well-rested, confident, and good tempered child develops from the love of their parents in addition to an environment that provides consistency and routine in every area of their infant existence. This means being home for scheduled nap times, bath times, and bed times. This means waking, eating meals, playing, and putting the baby to bed at regular times each day and night. This means it is very difficult to plan anything for yourself to do because your day is dictated by the schedule and innate needs of your baby. Once I was empowered with this information, I gladly gave up my spontaneous trips to Target, the grocery store and other not-really-important locations, knowing it was vital to develop a routine that would later allow for pleasant mommy and baby trips out.

My own personal desires. I quickly learned that pregnancy and motherhood are worlds apart. What you thought, envisioned and dreamed of while pregnant may be a very different (sometimes better, sometimes worse) reality once a mother. I experienced an instant transformation the moment  I laid eyes on our daughter.  I am consumed by my child and my fierce desire to love, provide, educate, and teach her everything that is possible (and age appropriate). I rarely choose to be away from her, and genuinely prefer playing blocks on our living room floor together rather than shopping or getting my nails done.

Everything my husband said was true. I thought I would be that mom who made parenthood look easy, who made parenthood look, well, not like parenthood. But what I have since learned is that having a child changes your life completely and irrevocably. And if it doesn’t, you’re probably doing something wrong.

How has pregnancy and/or parenthood changed you?

Some people say “never wake a sleeping baby,” but some moms actually do this a lot. And that could be a result of postpartum depression. According to a new study from Penn State University published in Child Development, moms with depression symptoms were worried and anxious about their infants’ sleeping habits at night, and were more likely than moms with fewer or no symptoms to wake their babies and disturb them.

Pediatricians urge parents not to wake their baby if he’s sleeping peacefully, isn’t experiencing distress and doesn’t need a feeding. Experts note that parental depression or excessive worry, disrupts both baby and parents’ sleep and also can lead to problems in the parent-child relationship later on. So why are depressed moms more anxious about baby sleeping at night than other moms? Researchers believe that the mothers’ symptoms of depression are directly related to moms’ lack of confidence in parenting and their emotional state.

The findings were part of a larger analysis, Study of Infants’ Emergent Sleep Trajectories (SIESTA). In the larger study, researchers analyzed data from 45 infants (ranging in age from one to 24 months) and their parents over a week. The mothers kept a sleep diary and also completed two surveys, one about depressive symptoms and the other about moms’ worries about their infants waking up at night. Researchers also set up video cameras where baby slept, at the door to baby’s room and two additional cameras where parents would take their babies at night, to see if the moms’ self-reported behaviors matched up to their survey answers.

If you think you might have postpartum depression, it’s important to seek help immediately. Talk to your doctor asap.

What do you think of these findings? Do you wake your baby up at night? Or worry about baby’s sleeping safety at bedtime?

Plus, more from The Bump:

Postpartum Depression

Is it the Baby Blues or Postpartum Depression?

Treatments for Postpartum Depression