Magazine

A folded rainbow baby blanket sitting on a messy nursery chair

What the rainbow baby definition actually means in real life

It was a Tuesday in late October, raining that gross sideways rain we get in Seattle, and I was sitting in the driver's seat of my Honda CR-V in the Walgreens parking lot. I was wearing these awful maternity leggings...

Read more

Tired mother looking at her phone in a dark nursery while a baby sleeps

Proud Curvy Girl Seeks Lost Baby Daddy: 3 AM Doomscroll Notes

Dear Priya from last November. You're currently sitting on the closed lid of the downstairs toilet. The bathmat is damp under your bare feet because your husband took a shower three hours ago and didn't turn on the exhaust fan....

Read more

Tired mom drinking coffee while staring at baby name lists on her phone

What I Wish I Knew Before Obsessing Over Popular Baby Names 2024

It was 2017, a Tuesday, and I was sweating through a heather-gray maternity tunic at a crowded Starbucks on 4th Street, desperately trying to ignore the fact that my compression leggings were actively cutting off circulation to my thighs. My...

Read more

A blank hospital whiteboard waiting for a baby name to be written in blue marker.

The hospital whiteboard standoff over popular baby names

Squeak, squeak, squeak. That was the sound of my former coworker, a night charge nurse named Sarah, tapping a dry erase marker against the whiteboard in Room 4 at Northwestern Memorial. I was twenty-eight hours postpartum. I was leaking from...

Read more

Tired mom holding a coffee mug while looking at baby milestones on her phone

How A Weird Little Platypus Baby Cured My Milestone Anxiety

I was sitting on the freezing hexagonal tiles of our extremely cramped downstairs bathroom at 3:14 AM wearing a pair of Dave's gym shorts that I’d aggressively rolled up at the waist and a nursing tank covered in what I...

Read more

My little baby boy practicing tummy time on an organic cotton play mat in the living room

Oh My Little Baby Boy: Demolishing The Tough Infant Myth Today

I was in the middle of wrestling a mustard-yellow blowout off my six-month-old when my great-aunt patted my shoulder and told me I was coddling him. He was sobbing because he was cold and covered in his own waste. I...

Read more

Jess holding her baby in a steamy bathroom at 3 AM trying to calm a cough

Nuclear Bomb vs Coughing Baby: A Late Night Letter to Myself

Dear Jess from six months ago. You're currently sitting on the cold, cheap linoleum of the master bathroom with the shower running on full-blast hot, peeling the beige wallpaper right off the drywall while you rock a sweaty, angry six-month-old...

Read more

Tired mom holding a congested baby with a runny nose in a rocking chair

The Messy Truth About Surviving Your Baby's First Rhinovirus

I was sitting in the dark in my rocking chair at three in the morning, holding a six-month-old who sounded exactly like a broken coffee percolator. Snot was literally bubbling out of his left nostril with every breath. My oldest...

Read more

A stressed but smiling mom holding a newborn while a toddler pulls at her leg

Rihanna New Baby: What Having Three Under Four Actually Means

I was standing in line at the local H-E-B last week with a cart full of clearance diapers and a toddler actively licking the shopping cart handle, when the cashier decided to lean over and tell me I really needed...

Read more