The Baby Fairy is a Villain Manhwa Is Definitely Not for Kids
I was sitting on the sticky playroom floor last Tuesday, nursing my youngest while trying to fish a dried Cheerio out of my hair, when my oldest son Carter casually peered over my shoulder at my iPad. I had just...
Dear Past Jess: What You Need to Know About Sweet Baby Jesus Beer
I'm currently sitting on the floor of the den with a bottle of carpet cleaner in one hand and a rag in the other, aggressively scrubbing a dark, sticky stain out of the rug while my one-year-old screams from the...
Dear Past Jess: The Messy Truth About Board Books for Babies
Dear Jess from six months ago. You're currently sitting on the peeling linoleum of the kitchen floor, surrounded by three baskets of unfolded laundry, staring at your youngest child. You just had to stick your index finger into his mouth...
Surviving the three am panic over mysterious newborn baby lesions
I was staring at a tiny, raised red bump on my son's cheek at two in the morning, convinced I had somehow broken him. He was fourteen days old. The nursery smelled heavily of sour milk, zinc oxide, and absolute...
The Messy Truth About First Words (And Why I Stopped Panicking)
I was wearing those awful grey maternity leggings that I refused to throw away, smelling faintly of sour milk, sitting on a beige rug that's now permanently stained with something I refuse to identify. Leo was fourteen months old, pointing...
How to survive your toddler's very first baby teeth xray appointment
Listen. You don't really know pure, unfiltered anxiety until you're sitting in a pediatric dental waiting room off Michigan Avenue, trying to convince a two-year-old that the giant mechanical arm hovering near his face isn't a decepticon. He's wearing a...
What no one tells you about finding baby stink bugs in the nursery
My mother told me to sprinkle turmeric across the doorway because the insect was clearly a bad omen. The mom in my local WhatsApp group told me it was definitely a tick and I needed to bag my toddler's clothes...
Low Oxygen Blue Skin Baby: A Panicked Parent's Late-Night Guide
My mother-in-law firmly stated over a Sunday roast that rubbing a tiny bit of brandy on the gums magically fixes bad circulation. Our local NHS health visitor murmured something entirely indecipherable about sensible thermal layering before vanishing into the London...
Choosing a baby boy christening outfit that won't cause tears
Listen. The priest was mid-prayer when I saw the kid in the front pew start doing the neck-crane. You know the exact one. That desperate little turtle movement they do when a stiff collar is slowly restricting their airway. I've...