Magazine

Mother organizing a minimalist baby depot of clothes and gear in nursery

Building A Bulletproof Baby Depot For Surviving The Newborn Chaos

It was three in the morning in the dead of a Chicago winter when I finally lost my mind. I was standing in my living room holding a screaming infant, staring at a corner of the house that looked like...

Read more

Exhausted mom in sweatpants checking the diaper of a crying baby at night

That 3 AM Nightmare: Surviving a Wunder Po bei Babys at Home

3:14 AM. A Tuesday. I'm standing in the nursery wearing Dave's ridiculously oversized Villanova sweatpants with a mysterious yogurt stain on the knee, and ten-month-old Maya is screaming like I'm trying to actively murder her. It wasn't her normal "I'm...

Read more

A frustrated mom holding a tiny red velvet holiday dress next to a comfortable organic cotton baby romper.

Dear Jess: Stop buying the velvet holiday dresses for your baby

It's currently July, you're sweating completely through your maternity shorts in the hundred-degree Texas heat, and for some ungodly reason, you're scrolling the internet looking at a stiff, synthetic red velvet monstrosity with eighty-two sequins on it. I need you...

Read more

Wooden infant activity arch over an organic mat in a Chicago apartment.

The ugly truth about that neon plastic baby play gym you just bought

I was sitting cross-legged on my living room rug at three in the morning, holding a screwdriver and weeping quietly over a piece of molded plastic that required four D batteries. The box promised it would stimulate my newborn's cognitive...

Read more

A tired mother holding a newborn surrounded by practical baby items instead of stuffed animals.

The Brutal Truth About Buying Actually Useful New Baby Gifts

I'm staring at a pair of infant converse sneakers. They're the size of a jalapeño. They have actual, functional laces. Someone spent real money on these at a baby shower last weekend, and I know exactly where they're going to...

Read more

A confused dad looking at a mountain of plastic baby presents in a London living room

How to actually choose gifts for infants (without losing your mind)

Before my daughters were born, my mother-in-law insisted we urgently needed an engraved silver rattle because "it's tradition and builds character." The very next day, a hipster barista in Dalston earnestly told me that tiny babies only require the atmospheric...

Read more

A pile of folded secondhand baby clothes next to a wooden toy

The No-Nonsense Guide to Buying Secondhand Baby Stuff Safely

I was standing in a humid church gymnasium at 7 AM on a Saturday, seven months pregnant with my oldest son, fighting a woman in a denim jumper for a plastic bouncy seat that smelled faintly of sour milk. I...

Read more

A baby covered in orange sweet potato puree chewing on a flat silicone spoon

The sweet potato incident and the messy truth about infant spoons

There was sweet potato puree on the ceiling. I still don't fully understand the physics of how it got there, but there it was, a bright orange smear right next to the smoke detector in our Chicago apartment. My son...

Read more

Tired mom sorting through a pile of useless baby clothes on a bed.

Surviving baby clothing stores: a nurse's guide to what works

I was thirty-four weeks pregnant, ankles swollen to the size of grapefruits, standing in the middle of a high-end boutique in Lincoln Park. The air smelled like lavender and expensive regret. In my hands, I held a pair of stiff,...

Read more