The Only Survival Gear You Actually Need for a Newborn
I was standing in the middle of aisle four with that stupid plastic scanning gun in my hand, watching my husband happily zap a $400 wipe warmer. I had to physically pry the scanner out of his grip. My brain...
The Honest Truth About Needing a Baby Play Pen
My mother-in-law told me a baby play pen is a cage that stunts gross motor skills and ruins a child's natural curiosity. My neighbor, on the other hand, told me she leaves her daughter in one for four hours a...
Capturing the Perfect Baby Picture Without Losing Your Mind
There's a highly specific, sweat-drenched panic that occurs on day nine of a newborn’s life. You're holding your iPhone 12 at a precarious angle over a pile of blankets, your central heating is cranked to thirty degrees, and you're desperately...
Dear Past Me: The Ugly, Honest Truth About Useless Baby Mittens
Dear Sarah from exactly six months ago, You're standing in your sister's nursery, surrounded by a mountain of crumpled tissue paper and tiny, impossibly small socks. You're holding a little mesh bag of baby m—wait, what are these even called?...
The Messy Truth About Singing Your Baby to Sleep Every Night
I'm currently sitting on my back porch in the middle of nowhere Texas, trying to untangle a massive spool of macrame cord for an Etsy order while my youngest is strapped to my chest, completely passed out. But getting him...
The Happiest Baby Guide for Exhausted, Sleep-Deprived Parents
It was 3:17 AM in the dead of a humid Texas summer, and I was standing in my living room wearing a nursing tank that smelled strongly of sour milk, doing frantic deep knee bends while aggressively hissing into my...
The Wi-Fi Paranoia and Why We Chose a Simple Monitor
I was seven months pregnant with Maya, standing in the middle of Target aisle 14 in my black maternity leggings that were completely pilling at the thighs, clutching a lukewarm iced coffee like it was a life preserver. My phone...
How Many Babies Are Born a Day: The Honest Math Behind Birth
My mother-in-law told me infants only arrive during full moons. My old charge nurse at Northwestern swore Tuesday mornings were a cursed tidal wave of inductions. And the cashier at Trader Joe's confidently informed me, while bagging my frozen samosas,...
Finding the Best Humidifier for Baby: A Letter to My Past Self
Dear Jess from last November. Right now, you're standing in the middle of the nursery at 3 AM holding a crusty, dinosaur-shaped plastic water tank that smells faintly of wet dog, crying because your six-month-old sounds like a tiny pug...