Confessions of a pediatric nurse about screen time and animated shows
It's a Tuesday in late November. The wind off Lake Michigan is rattling our apartment windows, and the radiators are hissing that dry winter heat that makes your throat scratchy. My son Rohan is gripping my pant leg, doing that...
Why The Simone Biles Baby Rumors Make Me Rethink Family Boundaries
My mother-in-law was hovering a forkful of heavily buttered mashed potatoes in mid-air when she casually asked if we had started trying for "the sequel" yet, which is a genuinely wild thing to ask someone who hasn't slept for a...
when can u find out babys gender (and the bathroom floor incident)
I was sitting on the cold hexagonal tiles of our half-bathroom at exactly 8:14 PM on a Tuesday, wearing Daveβs stained college sweatpants, aggressively squeezing my own index finger while trying not to pass out. There was blood on the...
The Truth About Baby Bliss (And Why It Doesn't Have a Power Cord)
The smell of singed nylon bathmat is something that stays with you. I was standing in my cramped Chicago bathroom, trying to salvage two hours of sleep with some under-eye concealer, when Kiran started doing his signature banshee wail from...
Why We Traded Stuffy Showers for the Modern Co-Ed Baby Bash
I'm sitting on a pastel-pink velvet chair in a suburban banquet hall watching my cousin unwrap her nineteenth burp cloth. Someone is measuring her waist with toilet paper while a group of aunts I haven't seen since my wedding stare...
What I wish I knew about getting free baby gear without the scams
Listen. You're currently sitting on the floor of our Chicago apartment, eight months pregnant, staring blankly at a cardboard box. It's a Tuesday. You're crying because the internet promised you a mountain of complimentary infant supplies, and all you've to...
The clinical and emotional reality of dead babies in our world
Before I had my own kid, I thought I understood how the worst-case scenario worked. I used to sit in the pediatric ICU breakroom at three in the morning, drinking lukewarm coffee out of a styrofoam cup, charting the vital...
The Skai Jackson Drama & Real Talk On Postpartum Stress
When I was six months pregnant with Mayaβwho's now seven and currently trying to teach our golden retriever how to use my husband's iPadβI got three very distinct pieces of unsolicited advice in the span of one Tuesday. My mother-in-law...
Why the Sparkle Megan Baby Drama Hits Hard for Exhausted Dads
It was 3:14 AM on our second night home from the hospital, and I was holding a cold, wet wipe in my teeth while trying to untangle a tiny, thrashing leg from a heavily soiled sleep sack, desperately hoping my...