Stacey Herald, a woman from northern Kentucky, gave birth to a baby girl 18 inches long — not exactly astonishing until you realize that Herald is only 28 inches tall herself.

“I’m 28 1/2 inches, head to heel,” said Herald, who was born with osteogenesis imperfecta.

Herald’s 16-month-old daughter, Katira, also suffers from the genetic disorder that causes bones to break easily, but her youngest daughter, Makaia, is expected to grow to average height.

“’Yesterday I was five weeks old, (and) I’m already over half as big as my mommy,’” said Herald, changing her infant daughter’s diaper.

Officials from the Guinness Book of World Records are investigating Herald’s claim as she savors the joys of motherhood with her husband, Wil Herald, who is studying to become a minister.

Niemann-Pick Type C, an extremely rare condition that generally affects school age children, is a fatal disease that blocks the body’s ability to metabolize cholesterol, which leads to neurological deterioration. The disease is so uncommon that previously it’s been difficult to diagnose as well as secure funding to research a cure. But now a pricey, experimental drug is giving the parents of these afflicted children hope:

The Hadleys are banking their hope on Zavesca, [a] drug that has slowed progression of the disease in some patients.

“It gives us time,” Bryan Hadley said. “We believe strongly in our faith and that God or doctors, or a little of both, will find a cure.”

The drug will cost about $108,000 per year per child, Hadley said. Their insurance will cover 50 percent, but the financial burden remains overwhelming. He is a wholesale distributor of cell phone accessories, and his wife works in real estate.

Bryan grew up in Salem and graduated from North Salem High in 1989. His family and friends have rallied to organize two local fundraisers to help with medical expenses and to benefit the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation. The former football coach lost three of his four grandchildren to Niemann-Pick.

A wine-tasting event is March 7 at Capitol Chevrolet, and a basketball exhibition March 8 at Chemeketa Community College. For tickets, contact the Salem Family YMCA, (503) 581-9622.

“Because it’s so rare, there’s not a whole lot of money going into research for this,” Bryan Hadley said. “That’s why we’re trying to raise awareness.”

What went wrong in this young man’s life that he would possibly commit such a heinous act? Anthony Tyrone Terrell Jr., a 17-year-old from Lawenceville, Georgia, is being charged with the fatal shooting of his mother — who was a sheriff’s deputy along with his two little sisters, ages 11 and 4. Our first thought was if the teen had used his mother’s gun, but the story reports that is currently undetermined.

Anthony Tyrone Terrell Jr. was charged with murder in the shooting deaths at the family home near Lawrenceville, where the bodies were found late Thursday, said police spokeswoman Illana Spellman. She identified the victims as Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Deputy Joy Deleston, 39, and her two daughters, Micaiah, 11, and Jelani, 4.

The motive for the killings was still under investigation, Spellman said.

Terrell was taken to jail in neighboring DeKalb County to avoid any potential conflict because Deleston worked for Gwinnett County, Spellman said. He is being held without bail.

More Teachers Gone Wild™! Melissa Moss, an English teacher at Barat Academy (we totally read that as Borat Academy, which would be an interesting school) in Dardenne Prairie — a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri — has been charged with taking topless photos of herself and emailing them to a 15-year-old boy in her class. The boys parents found the naughty pics and reported the teacher to the school and the police. And we’re sure the boy didn’t share the photos with *any* of his friends….

We talked with the Robert and Kelly Pfeiffer- their son was in Moss’ class.

They say they thought she was a great teacher and they’re stunned by the charges.

“It is very disturbing and you know it’s kind of a sign of the times the way we live with a lot of internet access and Face book and things like that. As a parent you have to be on constant vigil to make sure, you have to know what your kids are getting into,” said Robert Pfeiffer.

His wife, Kelly, added, “I was kind of shocked because I worked with her a lot as far as one on one talking to her you know about his grades and keeping up with them and I thought she was a really nice teacher. So when this came about, it really shocked me.”

Barat Academy is a private, independent catholic high school that opened last September.

We’re already extremely paranoid about the flu, a seemingly innocuous virus that most think will just mean a couple days home from work or school, but that actually kills about 20,000 people a year especially the elderly and young children. The first tragic case at the beginning of this year’s flu season comes from Minnesota, where a Twin Cities 12-year-old has died from influenza.

Police responded to a call around 2:30 in the morning last Monday at the 4200 block of South Fifth Avenue.

When they arrived the 12 year-old girl was already dead.

Neighbors say the girl had been sick for a couple of days.

This as doctors say the flu season has just started in Minnesota.

Counties are also working on a mobilization effort to get more flu shots out to kids.

Doctors at West Health in Plymouth say spring may be around the corner, but the flu season is far from over.

Well, we have to admit this way of abandoning a baby is certainly “creative”. A man in Queens, New York, flagged down a black “car for hire” (we’re assuming that means a limo or Town Car), got in with his 6-month-old baby, and after riding a few minutes he asked the driver to stop at which point he took off running leaving the infant girl behind.

The driver immediately took the infant to a firehouse in Corona, the police arrived and the baby was taken to St. John’s Queens Hospital, where she was in good condition.

Officials said the child had not been harmed. They had not identified her or her parents and had not determined whether the man who left her was a relative.

The police said the city’s Administration for Children’s Services would eventually take custody of the infant.

A teacher in Lombard, Illinois, a western Chicago suburb, was arrested Thursday morning on battery charges for “inappropriately touching a student.” So, like in a pervy way? But would that fall under battery? We need some more details, people, help us out!

Robert Johnson, 43, of the 8100 block of Ripple Ridge Drive in Darien is being held at the DuPage County Jail after being arrested and charged with battery Tuesday, according to a release from the DuPage County Sheriff’s office.

Johnson, a teacher at Montini Catholic High School at 19W070 16th St. in unincorporated Lombard, is accused of battering a student during a class on Feb. 19, the release said.

Police are saying only that the incident was related to “inappropriate touching involving a juvenile,” according to Dawn Domrose, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office.

A newborn baby girl fell through the toilet in a moving train and onto the tracks moments after her mother prematurely gave birth, surviving nearly two hours before being found, relatives said Thursday.

The child’s mother, who uses the single name Bhuri, was traveling with relatives on an overnight train when she went to the bathroom shortly before midnight Tuesday and unexpectedly gave birth to a baby girl, said Arjun Kumar, her brother-in-law.

“Later, she fell unconscious and the baby fell through the toilet,” he continued. “Two stations later, we knocked at the door.”

Bhuri opened the door, soaked in blood.

“When we asked her about what happened, she said the baby had fallen through onto the tracks,” Kumar said.

OK, we know they do things a bit differently in places like India, but a hole in the bathroom that opens up right onto the train tracks isn’t exactly a “toilet”…

OK, we’re guessing more than one of us is guilty of at least one instance where we’ve slipped the kid some Benadryl to help him sleep (our infraction was on a long flight to Seattle) but a) it’s not on a regular basis and b) it’s not kids that aren’t ours! A New Jersey nanny has admitted she used the antihistamine on the little tots under her watch:

Jennifer Wolff pleaded guilty to third-degree child endangerment Wednesday and faces up to 180 days in jail under a deal with prosecutors. The 24-year-old had faced up to 10 years in prison under the original charges.

Wolff told the court she was tired and worried that she might not be able to handle the 3- and 1-year-old boys.

Wolff said she spiked their juice with an anti-allergy sedative.

Prosecutors said the children’s mother because suspicious when she tasted the juice and one of her son’s referred to his “medicine bottle.”

First we had the story of the boy who could only eat deer meat, then we had the British teen who could only eat Tic Tacs, but a 19-year-old in Melbourne, Australia may take the prize — Ashleigh Morris is allergic to water. That’s right, she can’t go swimming, take a long bath, or even get overly sweaty without breaking out in a painful rash ever since she was 14. How awful!

She suffers from an extremely rare skin disorder called Aquagenic Urticaria - so unusual that only a handful of cases are documented worldwide.

When Ashleigh gets wet her body explodes in sore, itchy red lumps that take about two hours to ease.

She has to wash. But showering is a painful experience and she can only do it for a minute at a time.

These brief showers are the only contact Ashleigh has with water. The one thing she doesn’t miss is the washing up.

“People find it hard to believe, they say things like ‘Oh my god, how do you wash. “That makes me feel dirty, but I consider myself a very clean person,” she said.

Most of us take showering for granted but for Ashleigh it’s a painful endurance that often reduces her to tears.

We think anyone of us would say we would give our life for our child, and Deysi Araux proved it when she put herself in harms way to save her son:

A young mother pushed her son out of serious harm’s way but was gravely injured Tuesday when they were struck by a motorist whose brakes failed, police said.

A hospital spokesman said the woman was in critical condition Wednesday morning and remained on life support.

The driver went on to hit several cars, plowed through a fence and hit a house on Logan Avenue in Mountain View about 3:30 p.m.

Diana Mijares, a Houston mom, got suspicious when her normally mild-mannered 4-year-old, Megan, was suspended four times from preschool for bad behavior. So she did what any normal parent would do, and she bugged her daughter’s backpack. What she heard didn’t go over so well:

Megan Mijares’ digital tape recorded mostly mundane moments at Memorial Elementary School’s prekindergarten class, but then it captured the teacher yelling at the group of 4- and 5-year-olds. All of it happened without Megan’s or her teacher’s knowledge.

“You’re just a bad kid,” the teacher says on the six-hour tape. “You’re mean to me, so I get to be mean to you.”

The teacher, who was not identified, continues to harshly scold the children.

“You are all just stupid kids. I swear to God,” the teacher says. “You are just all stupid kids.”

Mijares said at that point the teacher was responding to a boy who was moving slowly.

Couldn’t this “mother” have walked a few more steps and brought the infant inside? Colorado has a “safe haven” law, where you can surrender your to a hospital or fire station within 72 hours of birth without prosecution.

Denver Police were looking for the person Wednesday who left a newborn girl in a basket outside of a hospital. The baby died.

Police say they found the body at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center located at 19th and Franklin. it happened at about 8:00 p.m. Tuesday.

Police say someone pressed an emergency call button outside the facility. A security guard went to check, and found the newborn girl laying in a basket.

The guard took the baby inside, where she was pronounced dead.

Investigators said they did not know if the baby was already dead when she was left outside of the hospital, or if she died afterward.

Investigators are treating this case as a murder. They ask anyone who may know something or who may have seen who left the baby to call them.

Now how come this case is being considered a murder, but the one where the mother dumped her baby in a garbage can isn’t?

Maybe we should start giving teachers hazard pay. The latest story of a student allegedly run amok comes from Milford, Connecticut, where one classroom had a hot-head teacher — and no, we don’t mean he had a bad temper:

Milford officials have expelled a Jonathan Law High School student accused of lighting her science teacher’s hair on fire during class.

Police say the girl was arrested after she ignited the ponytail of George Lardas with a lighter.

A police spokesman says Lardas did not require medical attention, but his hair was singed.

We would recommend Mr. Lardas cut off his ponytail to avoid such further incidents, as well as a visit from the fashion police.

The python stole the dingo that stole my baby! Call us pussies, but we don’t think we’re tough enough to live in Brisbane, Australia, where “scrub pythons” slither around waiting to slurp down a tasty terrier or two. The field mice problem in our house is about as close to nature as we want to get. Although having a few snakes around would help take care of that… hmmm, maybe we need to rethink.

A 16-foot python stalked a family dog for days before swallowing the pet whole in front of horrified children in the Australian tropics, animal experts said Wednesday.

The boy and girl, aged 5 and 7, watched as the scrub python devoured their silky terrier-Chihuahua crossbreed Monday at their home near Kuranda in Queensland state.

Stuart Douglas, owner of the Australian Venom Zoo in Kuranda, said scrub pythons typically eat wild animals such as wallabies, a smaller relative of the kangaroo, but sometimes turn to pets in urban areas.

“It actively stalked the dog for a number of days,” Douglas said.

“The family that owned the dog had actually seen it in the dog’s bed, which was a sign it was out to get it,” he added.