Magazine

A frustrated mom holding a stained yellow baby bodysuit.

The Great Blowout Disaster: What I Learned About Baby Clothes

I was standing in the glow of a turtle-shaped nightlight at 3:14 AM, holding a screaming Jackson at arm’s length like he was a ticking bomb made entirely of mustard-colored liquid. He was exactly four weeks old. The blowout had...

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A tired mom changing a baby onesie during a blowout at night

3 AM Blowouts and the Brutal Truth About a Baby Onesie

It was three in the morning in our drafty Chicago apartment when the smell hit me. Not the standard sweet-sour milk smell, but a toxic, biological hazard level stench that wakes you from a dead sleep. I flipped on the...

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Tired mom holding organic cotton baby clothes and silicone teether

The Great Bath Time Scam: What To Actually Put On Infant Skin

I was standing in aisle 14 of Target at 8:47 PM on a Tuesday, wearing my husband’s paint-stained sweatpants and aggressively clutching a lukewarm oat milk latte. My phone was vibrating out of my hand with three different text threads....

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A desperately tired dad holding two crying twin baby girls

The baby shower gifts exhausted parents actually want

We were sitting in our ground-floor flat in Zone 3, staring at a six-foot-tall synthetic velvet giraffe named Barnaby that my wife's great-aunt Susan had just proudly manhandled through our incredibly narrow hallway. Barnaby didn't do anything. He didn't hold...

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Mother adjusting the footboard on a colorful baby activity center in a living room

What Nobody Tells You About That Baby Activity Center

I walked into my mother-in-law's house last Thanksgiving and caught her trying to wedge my four-month-old into a plastic rolling walker that looked like a relic from 1996. I pulled him out of that dusty death trap so fast I...

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Pregnant woman sitting on a rug looking extremely stressed holding yarn

My very messy, tear-filled attempt at babydecke stricken

It was 3 AM on a Tuesday in November 2016, and I was sitting cross-legged on our hideous, scratchy brown living room rug. I was seven months pregnant with Leo, wearing my husband Dave’s oversized college hoodie, and I was...

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Close up of dense yarn stitches on a safe baby blanket

The Brutal Truth About Heirloom Crochet Baby Blanket Patterns

3 AM in pediatric triage is a specific kind of purgatory. The fluorescent lights hum, everything smells vaguely of bleach, and you're running on stale coffee and adrenaline. I was three years into my nursing career when a frantic grandmother...

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Tired dad holding two teething babies covered in drool

Zähne Baby: The Brutal Truth About Surviving the Teething Apocalypse

It was 3:14 AM on a Tuesday when I woke up to a sound I can only describe as a hyperactive beaver trapped in the nursery. I stumbled in, entirely blind, and found Maya standing in her cot, aggressively gnawing...

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A wooden rainbow play gym on a natural rug surrounded by simple baby toys

What I Got Totally Wrong About Buying Educational Toys Toys

It was 2:14 in the morning, and the glowing plastic octopus under my bare heel was loudly singing the Spanish alphabet. I was holding a screaming newborn, trying not to wake my husband, while this neon monstrosity cheerfully flashed strobe...

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