The Brutal Truth About Heirloom Crochet Baby Blanket Patterns
3 AM in pediatric triage is a specific kind of purgatory. The fluorescent lights hum, everything smells vaguely of bleach, and you're running on stale coffee and adrenaline. I was three years into my nursing career when a frantic grandmother...
Why the clothing industry is completely wrong about little boys
There's this incredibly persistent, borderline dangerous myth floating around the local playgroups that dressing male children is somehow the easy way out. The working theory goes that while parents of girls are trapped in a complex matrix of tights that...
The reality of baby sizes and why age labels are lying to you
I was sweating through my postpartum shirt, trying to fold my three-week-old son's arm into a rigid denim jacket labeled zero-to-three months for a mandatory family photo. His arm was stuck at a strange right angle while he screamed, and...
Navigating the Chaos of Buying Tiny Outfits for Premature Babies
My mom told me they didn't even make garments that small back in the day and to just wrap her in a receiving blanket until she chunked up. The NICU nurse told me to immediately send my husband out to...
What Nobody Tells You About Buying Clothes for Your Newborn
I was exactly thirty-eight weeks pregnant with my first kid, sitting on the floor of his perfectly painted sage green nursery, just absolutely sobbing over a tiny tweed vest. I had spent the last six months accumulating what can only...
The Huge Car Seat Lie That Cost Me Weeks of Sleep (And Money)
I was standing in the middle of a big box baby storeβseven months pregnant with Leo, wearing maternity leggings that definitely had a crusty yogurt stain on the knee from God knows whereβjust absolutely sobbing. My husband Dave was holding...
The Truth About Suntan Lotion for Newborns (And Summer Survival)
It was 28 degrees in London, which means the pavements were melting, the Central Line had become a mobile sauna, and everyone was suddenly terribly aggressive about acquiring ice lollies. I was standing in the sun care aisle of Boots,...
Sunblock Newborn Panic: What I Wish I Knew About Summer
Dear Past Me from exactly six months ago. Okay, I know. Time is a flat circle. Leo is four now, and Maya is seven, and we're blissfully out of the fragile newborn woods. But six months ago, when my best...
The Truth About Dressing Your Daughter (Without Losing Your Mind)
I was thirty-four weeks pregnant, sitting on the floor of our Chicago apartment, staring at a miniature denim jacket. It was roughly the size of a large grapefruit and as stiff as a piece of cardboard. Someone had given it...