The Search for the Best Cooling Blanket When Nobody Actually Sleeps
I asked three different people what to do about the fact that my wife and I were waking up at 3 am glued to our mattress like damp Post-it notes. My mum suggested leaving a window open, which in November...
Why I Finally Caved And Bought Those Expensive Bamboo Baby Pajamas
“Put him in heavy fleece so he doesn't freeze to death,” my mother-in-law announced, holding up a neon green synthetic onesie that felt roughly like the carpet in a cheap casino. It was 3:14 AM on a Tuesday. I was...
Why Everyone Lies About Receiving Blankets On Baby Registries
I was exactly twenty-three weeks pregnant with my oldest, standing in the middle of a big box store aisle in town with that little plastic registry scanner gun, staring at a four-pack of flannel squares while my mom insisted we...
The Truth About New Baby Gifts (And Why I Burned a Cardigan)
It’s late October 2017. I'm sitting on the edge of a remarkably uncomfortable IKEA glider in my dimly lit nursery, wearing a nursing bra that smells intensely like sour milk and sheer desperation. I'm holding my three-day-old daughter, Maya, who's...
Dear Past Priya: The Truth About Infant Car Seats
You're currently sitting on the garage floor in your maternity leggings. There's a half-eaten granola bar on the bumper of the Honda, the manual for the convertible seat is open to page forty-two, and you're quietly crying because the little...
A Portland Dad's Honest Guide to Picking Gifts for Infants
It was 3:14 AM on a Tuesday when our system completely crashed. My son had just executed a flawless, database-corrupting diaper blowout, and my wife and I were running on maybe ninety total minutes of fragmented sleep. The nursery thermostat...
Surviving Baby Clothing Stores Without Losing Your Damn Mind
It was 7:45 PM on a random Tuesday in 2016, and I was standing in aisle four of one of those massive, fluorescent-lit baby clothing stores, eight months pregnant with Maya, sweating through a mustard-stained maternity tank top. My husband,...
Raising A Baby Goth Without Losing Your Mind Or Your Aesthetic
The grand, sweeping myth of alternative parenting is that we're all gliding around dimly lit Victorian manors, raising miniature vampires who only listen to Bauhaus and politely refuse to play with brightly coloured plastic. The depressing reality is that I'm...
The Truth About Baby Bunnies and Toddlers (A Survival Story)
I was knee-deep in packing tape, desperately trying to get three Etsy orders boxed up before the mail carrier arrived, while balancing my sweaty four-month-old on my hip. That's exactly when my oldest, Jackson, came sprinting through the back screen...