The 3 AM Eczema Meltdown That Changed How I Dress My Kids
It was 3:14 AM in a stuffy, overheated Airbnb in Zermatt, and I was wearing my husband Markβs oversized Ramones t-shirt that still smelled vaguely like airplane air and desperation. Maya was four months old, and she was screaming a...
The ugly truth about reflux in babies and the endless laundry
A mom came into the pediatric ER at two in the morning a few years ago carrying a bassinet mattress that looked like it had been constructed into a crude ski ramp. She was exhausted, practically vibrating with anxiety, and...
What I Learned Googling the Rosemary's Baby Cast Late at Night
It was 2:14 AM, the exact ambient temperature of our Portland living room was 64.2 degrees according to my heavily customized smart home dashboard, and my 11-month-old was finally asleep on my chest after what felt like a critical firmware...
Truths About the RSV Vaccine for Babies (And Surviving Winter)
There's a spectacularly dangerous lie told to first-time parents by well-meaning older relatives, usually delivered over a lukewarm cup of tea. They lean in conspiratorially and tell you that a mild winter cold is actually brilliant for building up a...
Checking For Shaken Baby Syndrome Symptoms At 3 AM Is Terrifying
It was 3:14 AM on a Tuesday, and the decibel meter app on my Apple Watch was aggressively tapping my wrist to warn me about prolonged exposure to loud environments. My son was hitting 92 decibels. I was doing this...
The terrifying truth about the viral baby fuggler TikTok trend
It was exactly 6:13 in the morning and I was wearing yesterday's yoga pants with an unidentified yogurt stain on the knee when my seven-year-old, Maya, shoved her sticky iPad approximately half an inch from my face. I hadn't even...
The Late Night Truth About Your Grunting Newborn (And Why I Panicked)
It was exactly 3:14 AM on a Tuesday in mid-November, and I was wearing my husbandβs gray college sweatpantsβthe ones with the permanent, unidentifiable spit-up stain on the left knee that I absolutely refused to wash because doing laundry felt...
Raising a Black baby: A glitch report to my past self
It's 3:14 AM. I'm currently staring at the humidity sensor output for the nursery, trying to correlate a 4% drop in ambient moisture with why our son has been awake since one in the morning. I'm writing this to you,...
The Truth About Baby Fat and When to Actually Worry
I was standing in the checkout line at HEB last Tuesday, balancing a pack of diapers on my hip and praying my debit card wouldn't decline, when the cashier zeroed in on my youngest. "Oh my goodness, look at those...