Magazine

Priya sorting through a pile of useless baby shower party trinkets in her kitchen.

The Brutal Truth About Shower Gifts That Guests Actually Keep

I'm standing in my kitchen, staring at a tiny resin carriage I just found in the back of my junk drawer. I honestly don't know whose party it came from. Before I had my own kid, I thought you had...

Read more

Jess standing in a Texas driveway holding a cardboard box and a toddler

That Time A Baby Possum Taught Me Everything About Infant Sleep

I was standing in my gravel driveway at two in the afternoon, sweat pooling in the small of my back, holding a literal shoebox containing a shivering, bald little creature while my oldest toddler screamed so loud the neighbors probably...

Read more

Exhausted mom holding a smiling infant in a living room scattered with wooden toys.

How to Actually Raise a Happy Baby (And Not Lose Your Mind)

Dear Jess of exactly six months ago. You're currently standing in the kitchen at 2:14 AM wearing a milk-stained nursing bra and mismatched pajama pants, crying into a cold cup of coffee while the baby screams like you've deeply offended...

Read more

Pregnant mother wearing a comfortable flowing dress at a baby shower

The Truth About Maternity Dresses for Baby Showers

Let me tell y'all the biggest lie the internet ever sold us: that you're going to float into your celebration at thirty-two weeks pregnant looking like a perfectly contoured, dew-kissed fertility goddess in a restrictive satin gown. I'm starting right...

Read more

A bewildered dad holding up two drastically different sized six-month baby pants.

Decoding the Old Navy Baby Sizing Matrix and Hard Truths

I was sitting on the floor of my bedroom at 2:14 AM yesterday, surrounded by a mountain of clean laundry, trying to compile a sorting algorithm in my head. I held up three different pairs of pants. They were all...

Read more

A pile of organic baby clothes next to a simple bottle of clear laundry detergent.

The Big Baby Detergent Scam (And How I Actually Do Laundry)

I was standing in my laundry room at 3 AM in a pair of sour-milk-stained sweatpants, holding a twenty-four-dollar jug of baby detergent and straight-up sobbing. My oldest, Beau, was upstairs covered in angry red hives, and my mom was...

Read more

A basket of newborn clothes sitting next to an unmarked bottle of laundry detergent

Dear Jess: The Unfiltered Truth About Buying Baby Detergent

Dear Jess from six months ago, I see you standing there in aisle 14 of the H-E-B in Corsicana, completely frozen. You've got your two-year-old hanging off the front of the shopping cart trying to eat a bruised banana, your...

Read more

Mom holding a baby in a simple brown organic cotton bodysuit with felt ears

Why I Stopped Buying $45 Polyester Baby Pumpkins (And What I Do Now)

There I was, sitting on the porch steps in the humid Texas heat, trying to pry a screaming six-month-old out of a rigid polyester pumpkin suit that somehow didn't have a single snap at the crotch. My oldest daughterβ€”who's now...

Read more

A dad holding a messy baby while frantically checking his phone.

System Failure: Searching for Baby Clothes Near Me in Portland

The sound was suspiciously similar to a ketchup bottle emptying its final contents, but we were miles from a diner and my eleven-month-old daughter was entirely too pleased with herself. We were at Mt. Tabor park, I was trying to...

Read more