Magazine

A sleeping newborn swaddled in an organic cotton blanket with a peaceful expression

Babies Breath: How Do Babies Breathe in the Womb & Real Life

"You just wait until they take their first breath out here," my mother-in-law told me at my baby shower, casually stirring her sweet tea. "Before that, they just hold it for nine whole months." Bless her heart, she was dead...

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Mother holding baby while looking at a tub of healing ointment in a pharmacy aisle

Dear Past Me: The Truth About Aquaphor Baby and Drool Rashes

You're standing in aisle fourteen of the Target on Roosevelt Road, holding a tub of regular healing ointment in your left hand and the infant version in your right. It's two in the morning. Your daughter is at home with...

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Exhausted mom holding a coffee mug next to a baby sleeping safely in a wearable blanket

Surviving The Sleep Sack Baby Phase Without Losing Your Mind

It was 3:14 AM on a Tuesday, or maybe Wednesday, because time doesn't actually exist when you've a newborn. I was wearing a faded sorority t-shirt from 2008 that had a mysterious, crusty spit-up stain on the shoulder, and I...

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Mother walking in Chicago winter wearing a baby in a structured ergonomic carrier.

What they never tell you about that ergo baby carrier obsession

I was standing in the Target parking lot on a Tuesday afternoon. Lake Michigan wind was doing that miserable thing where it bites straight through your denim. My kid was screaming in his baby car seat. I was sweating through...

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A stressed mom in sweatpants drinking coffee while her toddler plays with a wooden baby drill toy on the living room floor.

What The Drill Baby Drill Slogan Actually Means For Parents

Dear Sarah from last October, I know exactly where you're right now. It’s 7:14 AM on a Tuesday. You're standing in the kitchen wearing those tragic gray sweatpants with the mysterious hole in the left thigh, holding your second—no, let's...

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Tired mom sitting in a rocking chair holding a glass baby bottle

The Honest Guide to Finding the Best Baby Bottles for Your Baby

It was 2:14 AM, the Texas summer heat was somehow still radiating through the walls, and I was standing in my kitchen in a milk-stained t-shirt having a full-blown breakdown over fifteen tiny pieces of plastic. My oldest, Carter, was...

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A tired mom holding a crying infant surrounded by scattered baby clothes and wooden toys on a living room floor.

Bringing Babys Home: Surviving The First Year Without Losing It

The digital clock on the microwave read 3:14 AM, and I was sitting cross-legged on the cold bathroom tile, desperately trying to steam the congestion out of my oldest son, Jackson. He was screaming like I was personally torturing him,...

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Vintage nursery window next to a modern smart baby monitor and organic cotton clothes.

The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping: What Modern Parents Actually Learned

My mother-in-law told me to let him cry until he throws up because it builds character. My pediatrician, who looks like he hasn't slept since the Obama administration, muttered something about responsive attachment and vagus nerve development. Meanwhile, my favorite...

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A dad nervously holding a baby spoon with thinned peanut butter next to a high chair

The peanut butter baby protocol: Debugging a first allergen

Flashback to a misty Portland Tuesday about six months ago. My wife Sarah was in the other room on a muted Zoom call, and I was standing in the kitchen staring at a nine-dollar jar of organic, single-ingredient peanut butter...

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