What my pediatrician actually said about a normal baby temperature
Dear Priya from six months ago. You're currently standing in the dark next to the crib. You're holding a glowing temporal thermometer like it's a loaded weapon. Your nursing degree is mounted on the wall somewhere downstairs, but it's currently...
What Actually Decides If You're Having a Boy or a Girl
I was six weeks pregnant with my oldest, aggressively dry-heaving into a paper cup in the passenger seat of my husband's truck, when my grandma leaned forward from the backseat and said, "If you want a girl, you need to...
What Age Do Babies Walk (And Why The Timeline Is A Total Lie)
My coffee was lukewarm, but the tension in the room was boiling. We were sitting on Maya's living room floor, and her kid had just taken three shaky, Frankenstein-style steps across the rug. He was nine months old. The other...
The Real Deal on Finding Walking Shoes for Babies
I was standing in the middle of the Target shoe aisle with my oldestβwho's now four and still an absolute terror, bless his heartβwhen I realized I had three completely different voices echoing in my head about what to put...
Dear Past Me: The 2 AM Google Spiral About Vitamin K Babies
Dear Past Me from exactly six months ago. You're sitting at the kitchen island, and it's 2:14 AM. You're wearing Daveβs tragic gray college hoodie, the one with the mysterious bleach stain that he refuses to throw away, and you're...
Surviving the Vaccine Schedule for Babies Without Losing Your Mind
I was sitting in exam room four with my oldest, Beau, sweating entirely through my favorite beige Target tee while trying to pretend I had everything under control. He was four months old, completely naked except for a drool-soaked diaper,...
What My Pediatrician Said About Playing Lil Baby Around My Toddler
My brother-in-law swore that playing heavy trap beats would make my son sleep through absolutely anything. My mother-in-law heard ten seconds of a track and claimed I was ruining his spiritual aura. My doctor just blinked at me tiredly and...
Exactly When Can Babies Eat Food According To A Tired ER Nurse
My mother-in-law was standing in my Chicago kitchen holding a cardboard box of rice cereal like it was some sort of ancient religious artifact. She kept telling me my four-month-old needed a heavy scoop of it mixed into his nighttime...
When Can Babies Eat Solid Food Without Ruining My Life
It was 3:14 AM on a Tuesday, and I was sitting in the dark nursery wearing a nursing tank that smelled strongly of sour milk and desperation. Leo, my oldest, was four months old and currently latched onto me like...