By Allison Winn Scotch -- Women's Health Magazine

We all forget to drop off the dry cleaning, where we left those blasted car keys, and if we already put on deodorant for the day. Brain atrophy already? I know the feeling well. My mind used to be sharper than the scent of patchouli at a Phish concertuntil my son was born. For the past year, I've been blaming my scattered self on "mommy brain" until I learned that women actually become sharper after they give birth. Recent research from the University of Richmond found that the brain cell structures vital for communication double during pregnancy and that postdelivery the pathways to the hippocampus (where learning and memory are focused) are redefined and more efficient. Crap. There goes that theory. That's why I enlisted the help of a few experts like all-time Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings (after all it's hard to forget a guy who won $3 million) to tell me their best memory-boosting tricks — and tried them out myself.

BRAIN BOOSTER Focus on What Fascinates
My father is a brain surgeon, so I've spent most of my life bombarded with talk of aneurysms, cerebrums, and hypothalamuses. Not that I can remember any of it. So when my dad asked me to attend a talk on his latest research, I challenged myself to retain some of it. The problem? I find science so damn dull.

"If you think something is boring, you just haven't been hearing the right facts about it," says Jennings, author of a book on the phenomenon due out in October 2006. "Try to explain ballet to people who hate it and they'll be bored stiff. But they might be a little more interested if you told them about the 1913 premiere of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, where the audience actually rioted because the music and choreography were so shockingly modern." Or just make the information at hand more relevant to your life or the lives of your listeners to maintain attention span.

Even the most devoted moms and dads often overlook some of these — or feel that they're the opposite of what a loving parent should do. But each is important in its own way. Here's why you should give your baby...

...more sleep
Quick: How much shut-eye does the average baby need? Many parents guess it's 8 to 12 hours per day, but it's actually more like 14 to 16, including naps, for infants up to age 1, says Juan Martinez, M.D., director of the sleep lab at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, in Hollywood, Florida. This misunderstanding can lead to babies who are as sleep-deprived as the rest of us.

Sure, it's tempting to try to keep that dozing cutie awake for his aunt's visit. But helping your child to snooze without interruption as often as possible is worth it. Jennifer Winn of Spring Lake, New Jersey, sometimes has to cancel her 2-year-old's playdate if her 10-month-old is overtired. "It's not easy, but I think it's really important that he have his rest," she says.

She's right. A child must be well rested to be receptive to new experiences. So know the signs that your baby needs more shut-eye. "Instead of acting drowsy, he may be irritable and hyper," Dr. Martinez says.

Setting a sleep schedule, especially once your child is at least 6 months old, is a good way to make sure he's getting enough rest. Make naptimes and bedtimes as consistent as possible, and build in a cushion of time beforehand to help him unwind you can try showing him a book, rocking him, or giving him a warm bath before bed.

Q

My husband's brother has hunting rifles in his attic, and it worries me to have my child around firearms. Do I talk to him about it?

A

There's no need for you to be delicate or squeamish. Folks who are uncomfortable with guns tend to be uncomfortable talking about them as well. But gun owners are usually perfectly happy to chat about their gear. Your brother-in-law bought his guns, hunts with them, and is likely proud to own them. He also doesn't want your child (or his own!) to be at risk, and therefore he should be perfectly willing to talk about what he's done to make his equipment inaccessible to children, something the National Rifle Association, which supports gun ownership, encourages on its website and in its brochures.

Stay in with your girlfriends and have a kid- and husband-free night

Instead of the same old dinner out with friends, get together at home — yours or a pal's:

Wine tastings. The hostess picks a wine (say, merlot) and everyone brings a bottle, plus cheese and crackers. Parenting staffer Lisa Bain and her friends set a price limit — no more than $15. "It's a fun way to learn more about wine," she says. For some guidance, check out Winemag.com's free database of 35,000 reviews, searchable by rating, price, and varietal or blend. (Registration's required, but avoid e-mail by declining updates.)

Clothing swaps. Everyone brings a bag full of clothes they no longer want (nothing ratty or stained) and goes "shopping" among their friends' stuff. Whatever's left over at the end of the night goes to charity. If you don't all wear similar sizes, include accessories such as purses and costume jewelry.

If you really want to get rid of your pregnancy paunch, you need to strengthen the innermost layer of abs, the transverse muscles, says Julie Tupler, R.N., author of Maternal Fitness. Her new DVD, Lose Your Mummy Tummy (available at Maternalfitness.com), features exercises designed to close up a diastasis — a separation in the central abdominal muscle that can occur when your belly expands during pregnancy. Here's one exercise to get you started:

It started when my daughter, Samantha, was born 16 months ago. After two sleepless nights, the nurses and my husband urged me to send her to the hospital nursery so I could get some shut-eye. Deep down I knew it was best, but I felt an overwhelming sense of guilt — how could I abandon my newborn daughter?

That was just the beginning. During the months that followed, I was ashamed letting my husband, who had work the next day, help with night feedings. I panicked that I wasn't giving Samantha enough tummy time. Even now, I feel bad if I feed her grilled cheese two days in a row.

Apparently, I'm not alone. "So many devoted moms think that no matter what they do for their children, it's not enough — and our culture plays into that insecurity," says Susan Douglas, Ph.D., coauthor of The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined All Women. But you can end the self-flagellation. Here, the top reasons that new moms feel guilty, and what you can do to get beyond it.

You're more than a mom
"Moms today believe that they should be focused on their babies like a laser beam, so when they take a moment for themselves, they feel like they're being neglectful," notes Douglas. For many women, coffee with a friend or even a shower can be enough to ignite feelings of guilt. Lindsey Coffman of Springfield, Missouri, says she often puts off eating lunch until her daughter, Darby, takes her afternoon nap — which can be as late as 3 p.m. "If Darby needs help coloring or wants me to read a book to her, I feel like it's more important to do that than to eat."

You can learn to live in the moment -- but first be prepared to spend 7 minutes eating a raisin

By Shelley Levitt - womenshealthmag.com

I've been perched atop a stool in a Beverly Hills beauty salon for more than 3 hours — my punishment for using the cheap drugstore stuff to touch up my roots. The result is an inky 2-inch band across my hairline, a sulky I-told-you-so colorist, and this seemingly endless $275 rescue treatment. Bored beyond tears, I'm completely unable to focus on the book that's in my lap. Instead I'm wondering, Is there time to defrost the mahimahi for dinner tonight? Should I splurge on that Marc Jacobs hobo or search for a knockoff on eBags? When the assistant finally summons me to the shampoo station, I mutter, "Huh?" — I've been daydreaming about a vacation in Belize — and, forgetting that my legs are wrapped around the stool's upper rung, I hit the faux cement floor with my shins, then knees, then elbows, the stool clattering to join me among the soggy clumps of shorn hair.

I wish I could say this sort of thing rarely happens to me, but the reality is that I'm the type who often finds herself standing in front of the microwave, holding the soy milk that is clearly meant for the fridge. I search frantically for the car keys that I just tucked into my back pocket 2 minutes before. More troubling are the stretches of hours — sometimes days — when I'm on autopilot, going from work to workout to dinner with friends, not quite tuning into conversations, looking at my watch a dozen times during a single Pilates class. My body is present and accounted for, but the feeling, thinking, observing parts of myself are vaguely…someplace else.

Because of births, deaths, good news, bad news, good movies, bad movies...Here's the scoop on what gets our tears flowing

By Sandy Hingston - womenshealthmag.com

The editor who asked me to write this story did so because he knows I'm a crier. He's seen me cry at appropriate times (on 9/11), at inappropriate times (in editorial meetings), and at just plain weird times (when my pen runs out of ink). Like most men, he's scared when I cry. I can see it in his eyes as he edges back from my desk: What's the matter with her? Is she coming unhinged? How can she get so upset over a lousy pen?

Tom, you moron, it's got nothing to do with the pen. Any woman could tell you that.

But what it does have to do with is something I never really gave any thought to. I cry becausewell, because. Because I feel bad. Because it feels good. Because I have unresolved attachment issues and am regressing to a preverbal state to reforge a symbolic internal connection to my mother.

Or maybe it's because I'm getting my freaking period, okay?

Cry, Baby
I first cried on the day I was born. Like most babies, I cried at a pitch between C and C-sharp. Yet my mom could pick me out by the sound. I cried because it was all I could do, the only tool I had to summon food and comfort. I cried more and more for the first 6 weeks of my life, then at a steady rate — mostly in the evening — until I was 12 weeks old, when I began to cry less. That was also when I started to cry tears you could see.

Many excited expectant parents waste thousands of dollars on baby items they don't need. Here's how to wise up early and find just the essentials for less.

By Liz Pulliam Weston

Before I tell you how to save bundles of money while preparing for a baby, I must make a confession.

We've spent more than we planned in the months leading up to the birth of our first child. Way more.