Why The Ashanti Baby Drama Triggered My Deepest Night Shift Rage
The absolute biggest lie we tell pregnant women isn't about the ring of fire during childbirth, and it's not about how breastfeeding is supposed to feel "natural." It's this bizarre, culturally accepted myth that men somehow physically lack the biological...
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...
Surviving the first weeks with your new baby without losing it
I was sitting in the passenger seat of our Honda CR-V on top of a literal ice pack, staring at the mirror angled toward the car seat in the back. My husband was driving ten miles under the speed limit...
My Late Night Freakout Over Purple Lacy Skin and What I Know Now
It was October 2017, and my daughter Maya was exactly eleven days old. I remember this specifically because I was wearing an oversized grey nursing tank that I hadn't washed since we left the hospital, and I had a half-empty...
The Messy, Exhausting Truth About Buying Newborn Baby Clothes
I was staring at a literal miniature three-piece tweed suit. It had suspenders. A bow tie. It was hung on a tiny velvet hanger in my freshly painted nursery, and I remember standing there, holding a lukewarm cup of coffee...
The hospital triage guide to surviving newborn baby kleding
It was 3:14 AM when I finally understood what true defeat tasted like. I was standing over a changing pad in the dark, wrestling with a pair of miniature denim overalls made for a creature that weighed eight pounds. The...
The "Maybe Baby" Fantasy vs. Bringing Home Your Actual Newborn
It was 3:17 in the morning, and the blue light from my smartphone was practically burning my retinas as I sat in the rocking chair, desperately trying to log exactly how many ounces of breastmilk my oldest had just choked...
Put down the loves baby soft perfume before you hold my baby
The pink bottle appeared out of nowhere while I was trying to figure out how to ice my perineum. My mother-in-law had cornered me in the hospital recovery room, brandishing a vintage bottle of Loves Baby Soft perfume like it...
Finding the Donna Summer Magic in Everyday Newborn Chaos
It's 3:14 in the morning. The radiator in our Chicago apartment is clanking like an asthmatic tin man, and my newborn daughter is doing her absolute best impression of a car alarm. Somewhere in the deep, sleep-deprived recesses of my...