Why the aesthetic frida baby humidifier ruined my tuesday night
It was 2:14 in the morning on a Tuesday in late January. Outside our Chicago apartment, the wind chill was hovering around zero. Inside, our ancient radiators were blasting dry, punishing heat into the nursery. My toddler sounded like a...
How I Finally Learned To Say Don't Worry Baby To My Own Brain
I was hunched over the bassinet at 3:14 AM with my phone flashlight covered by two of my fingers, desperately counting the seconds between my oldest son's breaths. I had convinced myself that because he paused his breathing for seven...
The Real Reason Babies Never Actually Sleep With Custom Blankets
There's a massive disconnect between the baby gear you think you need before the kid arrives and the reality of keeping a tiny human alive. Before our son Leo was born, my mental image of fatherhood involved a lot of...
The Search for the Best Humidifier for Baby (Without the Mold)
My mother-in-law handed me a vintage 1990s vaporizer and told me to boil eucalyptus oil in the nursery. Three hours later, the guy at Home Depot practically cornered me in the plumbing aisle to explain why ultrasonic machines are the...
The Beanie Baby Ty Debate: Why My 90s Toys Stay In The Attic
I was sitting cross-legged on the splintery plywood of my mom's Texas attic, sweat pooling at the base of my neck while I tried to organize boxes of my old high school junk. My mom, who firmly believes every piece...
Why Badfinger Baby Blue Soundtracked My Postpartum Breakdown
The microwave clock in our kitchen glared a neon 3:14 AM, and my husband, bless his sweet but entirely useless heart in that specific moment, decided the absolute best way to get our screaming firstborn to sleep was by blasting...
The midnight triage of baby sleep and staying remotely sane
Listen. It was 3:14 AM on a Tuesday in February, and the wind was howling off Lake Michigan loudly enough to rattle the bedroom windows. I was standing in the dark, holding a screaming four-month-old at arm's length because a...
The Baby PNG Trap: Surviving Aesthetic Nursery Design Nightmares
It's 3:14 AM, the rain is lashing against the single-glazed window of our Victorian terrace, and I'm desperately trying to operate a trackpad with my left elbow. One twin (letβs call her M) is draped across my chest, leaking a...
Why I Put Down the Baby Melatonin (And What Actually Worked)
It was 3:14 in the morning on a Tuesday, and I was standing in the kitchen in my boxer shorts, staring into the harsh blue light of my phone. The kettle had gone cold an hour ago. Upstairs, Twin A...