Magazine

Exhausted mom holding a cold cup of coffee while baby sleeps in a crib

What Is Shaken Baby Syndrome (And The Truth About Burnout)

Dear Sarah from exactly six months ago. You're sitting on the floor of your sister's nursery at 2:14 in the morning. You're wearing those god-awful grey Lululemon leggings with the bleach stain on the knee, holding your three-week-old nephew who's...

Read more

A tired mom holding a newborn while a toddler pulls her pant leg

The Brutal and Honest Truth About Surviving the Super Baby 2 Phase

My mother-in-law cornered me in the kitchen and said I needed to put the new baby in the toddler's crib so they could bond through shared breathing. My former charge nurse texted me to keep them on separate floors so...

Read more

Tired mom holding a lukewarm coffee while scrolling through babysitter profiles on her laptop.

Vetting Caregiver Platforms & Stopping the Sugar Baby Madness

It was exactly 10:14 PM on a Tuesday, which is already a deeply offensive time for me to be awake, let alone wearing hard pants. My husband Mark and I had just gotten back from our first actual "date night"...

Read more

Teen playing Sims on a laptop while a toddler plays with wooden toys on the floor

Finding the Sugar Baby Mod Sims 4 on My Niece's PC Screen Last Week

I was sitting on my sister's aggressively beige sectional in Naperville, enjoying thirty seconds of silence. My toddler was finally asleep upstairs. I was watching the green night-vision feed on the baby m screen, just waiting for the inevitable moment...

Read more

A young child smiling with a missing front baby tooth

The Absolute Chaos of When Do Baby Teeth Fall Out (And What to Do)

It was 7:12 AM on a Tuesday, and I was staring at a Honeycrisp apple that looked like it belonged in a crime scene. Maya, who's seven but was acting like she was being actively abducted by aliens, was standing...

Read more

Ultrasound screen showing baby profile during anatomy scan

When Do You Find Out The Gender Of Your Baby

I was untangling IV lines in triage when a patient in her third trimester started crying. Not the quiet hormonal weeping we see a dozen times a shift. Full sobbing. Her mother-in-law had just painted the nursery aggressive pastel pink...

Read more

Pregnant mother packing a hospital bag with newborn essentials

When is kat timpf's baby due? The late pregnancy waiting game

I was thirty-eight weeks pregnant, sitting in my kitchen with ankles the size of bruised grapefruits, aggressively googling when is kat timpf's baby due. It was a completely irrational fixation. I don't know this woman. But she had announced her...

Read more

Mother pacing a dark nursery while soothing a crying baby over her shoulder

Why do babies cry: A late-night letter to my exhausted self

It's 3:14 AM and you're standing barefoot on the cold hardwood floor of our Chicago apartment. The radiator is hissing that metallic, rhythmic sound it only makes when the temperature outside drops below zero. Your three-week-old is screaming a jagged,...

Read more

Tired mom burping a newborn holding an organic cotton cloth over her shoulder

Why Do Babies Spit Up All the Time? A Nurse's Guide to the Mess

When my daughter started turning every feed into a fountain, I got three different diagnoses in a single Tuesday. My mother-in-law watched a puddle form on my jeans and told me my breastmilk was too thin, suggesting I eat more...

Read more