The waiting game of motherhood: exactly when do babies smile
I was hanging over the bassinet at three in the morning making a sound I can only describe as a dying seal. Day forty-two of my maternity leave. I smelled like sour milk and desperation. I had spent the last...
The completely honest truth about buying baby walking shoes
I was standing in the middle of a high-end boutique holding a pair of tiny, structurally rigid leather high-tops that cost more than my weekly grocery haul. My daughter wasn't even pulling to stand yet, but the footwear had these...
Dear Past Me: Surviving The First Year And That Lil Baby Age
Dear Sarah from six months ago— Actually, wait. No. Maya is seven and Leo is four now. So writing a letter to myself from six months ago would just be me aggressively telling myself to buy more coffee before the...
At What Age Do Babies Crawl? The Honest Southern Mom Truth
I was standing in the church foyer last Sunday holding my youngest, who's currently built like a beautiful, squishy sack of flour, when three different women decided to give me unsolicited updates on their own grandchildren's mobility. Ms. Betty told...
When Can You Feel Baby Move? The Real Truth About First Kicks
I was seventeen weeks pregnant with my oldest, sitting in my Chevy Tahoe in the Target parking lot, aggressively jabbing myself in the stomach with two fingers. An app on my phone, which I really shouldn't have trusted to begin...
The Honest Truth About When Do Babies Laugh (And Why I Stopped Trying)
It was 3:14 AM on a Tuesday, and I was standing in the middle of the nursery wearing a milk-stained nursing bra and sweatpants I hadn’t washed in a week, making aggressive, high-pitched monkey noises at my three-week-old son, Leo....
When Do Babies Sit Up On Their Own? The Honest Truth
Last Tuesday, my mother-in-law told me I needed to prop my four-month-old in a corner with pillows or his spine would stay curved forever. The next day, a girl in my mom group swore her babie was doing unassisted crunches...
Dear Past Sarah: What I Wish I Knew About The Entire Bear Phase
Dear Sarah from exactly six months ago. You're currently sitting on the cold, slightly sticky linoleum of the downstairs bathroom, hiding from your own family. It’s, like, 9 AM on a Tuesday, and you're wearing those gray sweatpants with the...
Surviving the Three-Month Mark Without Losing Your Mind
My mother-in-law showed up on a Tuesday with a box of rice cereal, swearing that mixing it into a bottle would finally make my kid sleep through the night. Two hours later, the lactation consultant at the clinic told me...