Magazine

Mom wearing a sage green linen dress holding her baby son in a complementary organic cotton romper.

The reality of matching mom and son baby clothes without the cringe

Before my son arrived, three different women cornered me with wardrobe advice. My mother-in-law insisted I needed tiny, rigid denim trousers for him, as if a newborn has business meetings to attend. A senior nurse on my floor told me...

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Frustrated dad holding a bottle of lactose free baby formula at night

Lactose Free Baby Formula: A Dad's Guide To Tummy Troubleshooting

Dear Marcus of exactly six months ago. You're currently standing in the kitchen at 3:14 AM, the rain is aggressively hitting the Portland windows, and your son is screaming in a frequency that I'm pretty sure is permanently damaging the...

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A cardboard box with a heat lamp and yellow baby chicks inside.

What I Wish I Knew Before Feeding Our Backyard Baby Chicks

Dear Sarah of exactly six months ago, You're currently sitting in the driver's seat of the Subaru in the Tractor Supply parking lot. Your iced coffee is sweating all over the center console, you're wearing that stained gray college sweatshirt...

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Mom looking shocked at a tablet screen while her toddler plays with wooden toys on the floor.

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...

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Mom cleaning up a spilled dark craft beer next to a baby play mat and scattered wooden toys.

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...

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A slightly chewed cardboard book sitting on a messy nursery floor next to a sleeping infant.

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...

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Tired mom holding a sleeping newborn baby wrapped in a soft blanket

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...

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Tired mom sitting on floor playing with baby and soft building blocks

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...

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A toddler sitting in a dental chair getting ready for a baby teeth xray.

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...

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