Magazine

A confused dad looking at his baby pointing at a wild animal in the grass

The Portland Backyard Bug: Debugging Encounters with Baby Animals

I'm standing in my perpetually damp Portland backyard at 6:15 AM, holding a lukewarm mug of coffee like a shield, while my 11-month-old son, Leo, points a chubby, sticky finger at what appears to be a vibrating pile of dead...

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A stressed mother holding her highly congested infant next to a cool mist humidifier at night

Why the "It's Just a Cold" Myth is Dangerous for Infants

It was December 2019, I was running on exactly three hours of sleep and half a pot of lukewarm Folgers, wearing a hideous green sweater that already smelled like sour breastmilk, when Dave's aunt Linda peered into four-month-old Leo's car...

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The Nanit baby monitor set up over a wooden crib in a rural Texas nursery

The Brutally Honest Truth About the Nanit Baby Monitor System

When I was pregnant with my first, I got three entirely different pieces of advice about watching your kid sleep in the span of one afternoon. My mom, bless her heart, told me to just leave the bedroom door cracked...

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Baby due date calculator app on a phone

Why my baby due date calculator was a massive, statistical lie

The bathroom tile was unforgivingly cold against my bare feet, but I barely noticed because I was staring at a plastic stick with two faint blue lines, desperately stabbing at my phone screen. I had just Googled "baby due date...

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Exhausted mom holding a crying newborn in an organic cotton bodysuit

Sada Baby? More Like Sad Baby: How To Survive The Newborn Phase

It's 3:17 AM. My living room smells like a combination of sour milk, stale coffee, and pure, unfiltered desperation. I'm wearing Matt's old college sweatpants with a mysterious bleach stain on the knee, and I'm holding a four-week-old Leo who's...

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Exhausted dad trying to make his unimpressed twin babies laugh

Waiting For A Giggle: When Do Babies Actually Start Laughing?

Right now, you're standing in the middle of the living room wearing a bright yellow plastic colander on your head while rhythmically striking a wooden spoon against your thigh. You're sweating through a t-shirt that smells faintly of sour milk...

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Wooden alpaca and rainbow play gym in a sunlit London nursery

The Complicated Reality of Expecting After a Loss

The paper sheet on the examination table crinkled with a sound so violently loud it seemed to echo off the drab walls of the University College Hospital fetal medicine unit. It was a Tuesday, it was raining in that relentless,...

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A baby sleeping safely in a crib wearing a comfortable sleep sack without any loose blankets

The Truth About The Kyte Baby Sleep Sack Drama

It was two in the morning in late November. The wind coming off Lake Michigan was rattling our bedroom windows like it wanted to pick a fight, and I was standing in the dark bathroom aiming a hairdryer at a...

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A tired dad holding a diaper and looking confused at baby products

The 3 AM Baby Powder Disaster That Changed Our Diaper Strategy

The humidity monitor in the nursery read exactly 46 percent, but it felt like a humid jungle as I wrestled my 11-month-old at 3:14 AM. He was furious. He had a diaper rash that looked like angry topography, and I...

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