Magazine
Stop Trying to Swaddle With a Receiving Blanket
It was 3 AM in late January. The wind off Lake Michigan was rattling our bedroom windows, and my daughter was doing the newborn startle reflex thing. She looked like she was trying to conduct a tiny, frantic orchestra in...
Why I threw my baby's amber teething necklace in the trash
It was exactly 3:14 AM. I know this because the glowing red numbers on the microwave were basically mocking me from the kitchen. The bathroom floor tiles were freezing against my bare legs, and I was wearing a gray nursing...
The Absolute Chaos of Finding a Toddler Boy Sweater That Works
It was 7:42 AM on a Tuesday in late November, and I was standing in the mudroom holding a half-drunk iced Americanoβbecause Iβm an idiot who drinks iced coffee in 38-degree weatherβwrestling Leo into a miniature fishermanβs knit. He was...
The Truth About Buying Utility Pants for Boys Without Losing Your Mind
There was a rhythm to my washing machine yesterday that sounded exactly like a handful of gravel tumbling around in a metal drum. Because it was a handful of gravel. I had forgotten to check the pockets of my middle...
A Letter to Myself About the Toddler Blanket Transition
You're currently staring at the glowing screen of the Motorola video monitor on your bedside table, watching as Maya attempts a sort of aggressive, synchronised swimming routine inside her 2.5 TOG sleep sack. She looks like a deeply frustrated, slightly...
My Chicago Winter Blowout and the Perfect Onesies Baby
It was two in the morning inside the Northwestern Memorial Hospital parking garage in late January. The wind off Lake Michigan was doing that thing where it physically hurts your face. My daughter, then six weeks old, had just weaponized...
The Staring Contest: The Truth About Baby Blue Eyes
At exactly 3:14 AM on a Tuesday, I found myself holding Twin A directly under the hallway spotlight, trying to determine if her irises were the colour of the ocean or just the murky grey of the Thames at low...
The Brutal Truth About Kinder Kleider: Clothes That Actually Fit
"Buy them a size up so they get two seasons out of it," my mom told me over the phone while I was staring blankly at a rack of toddler jeans, trying to figure out if the waist looked wide...
Dressing a newborn without panicking (was ziehe ich meinem baby an)
It was 2:14 in the morning during a particularly brutal Chicago February when I found myself hovering over my two-week-old's crib, completely paralyzed by a fleece onesie. I had spent six years in pediatric nursing. I had managed ventilators, calculated...