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baby healthdevelopmentearly developmentfourth trimesterinfant caremilestones
Baby practicing tripod sitting on an organic cotton playmat

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...

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babydevelopmentearly developmentinfant caremilestonessleep
A tired mom holding her 3-month-old baby who is chewing on a natural wooden teething ring

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...

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baby healthdevelopmentmotherhoodnewbornparenting tips
Stressed mom sitting on the living room rug looking at a baby percentile calculator on her phone

Dear Past Me: Please Put Down That Baby Percentile Calculator

Dear Jess from six months ago, You're currently sitting on the faded living room rug with a floppy yellow sewing tape measure in one hand and your phone in the other, furiously typing slightly inaccurate measurements into a baby percentile...

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A cute cheetah cub playing in the grass looking very confused

What a Baby Cheetah Taught Me About My Own Crawling Toddler

We were standing in front of the big cat enclosure at the Bronx Zoo last Tuesday. I was wearing my aggressively stained Lululemon leggings, holding a lukewarm cup of drip coffee that tasted faintly of pennies, while Leoβ€”who's four going...

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developmentmilestonesparenting humourplaymattummy time
A baby learning to sit up independently on a play mat with wooden toys.

The Truth About When Your Baby Actually Sits Up

When my daughter Maya was five months old, I got three entirely different pieces of advice about her sitting up in the span of about twenty-four hours. My mother-in-law, bless her, came over and immediately started shoving Maya into the...

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developmenthealthparenting humoursafetwin dad
A tired father holding a baby while staring anxiously at a smartphone screen in a dark room

The 3 AM Google Spiral: Early Signs of Autism in Babies

I'm sitting on the freezing bathroom tiles at 2:14 in the morning, bathed in the blue light of my smartphone, watching my daughter E repeatedly line up three plastic bath boats in absolute silence. In the next room, her twin...

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baby safetybaby teethdevelopmentfatherhoodhealthteething
Bewildered dad holding an avocado teether while looking at his drooling baby

When Do Babies Get Teeth? A Dad's Troubleshooting Guide

Dear Marcus from six months ago: Put down the tactical flashlight. She is not going to let you look in her mouth, and shining a 1000-lumen beam at a five-month-old's face at 2 AM is exactly why your wife is...

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Dad catching a baby falling over sideways on a playmat

Debugging Gravity: When Do Babies Start Sitting Up Usually?

It's currently 7:14 PM, and I'm building a fortress of couch cushions around my eleven-month-old daughter on our living room rug. She is folded entirely in half, staring intensely at a piece of lint she found near the coffee table....

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developmentearly developmenthumorhydrationmotherhoodteething
A tired mother holding a teething baby while looking at her phone in a dim room.

Why raising a toddler feels exactly like domesticating a wild mammal

It was three in the morning and my son was slick with sweat, drool, and the unmistakable rage of a creature who had just discovered teeth. He was thrashing against my chest, refusing the bottle I was offering. I was...

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