Magazine

Exhausted mother holding newborn baby in a dimly lit nursery

The messy reality of bringing up baby on zero sleep

I spent six years working the pediatric floor at Rush, so you'd think buckling my own three-day-old son into his car seat would feel routine. It didn't. My husband was driving twenty miles an hour on the Kennedy expressway, knuckles...

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Exhausted mother holding a newborn in a dimly lit nursery

I would like to see the baby and other newborn terrors

It's 3:18 AM in a freezing Chicago apartment. I'm holding a seven-pound alien that's currently shrieking like a defective smoke detector. My husband is dead asleep on the couch, entirely oblivious. I'm scrolling a forum with my free thumb and...

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A tired dad sitting on the floor surrounded by baby toys and organic clothes

Stop Taking My Chips I'm Just A Baby: A Dad's Survival Guide

Dear Tom from exactly six months ago, You're currently sitting on the hallway floor at 4 PM, wedged between a pile of unopened mail and a rogue wellington boot, trying to negotiate with a toddler who has just hurled a...

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Sarah sitting on a messy couch holding her newborn in a sweaty skin-to-skin kangaroo care pose.

The Sweaty, Messy, Magical Reality of the Kangaroo Baby Phase

It was 3:14 in the morning, and the hospital room smelled strongly of bleach, stale hazelnut coffee, and my own big postpartum terror. I was wearing mesh underwear and a hospital gown that was entirely unsnapped in the front because,...

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Exhausted mom holding newborn on hospital bed during a professional baby photo session

The Honest Mom Guide to Bella Baby Photography in the Hospital

I was exactly forty-eight hours postpartum, bleeding heavily into a mesh diaper the size of a surfboard, when the sharp knock came at the door. My mother-in-law had just proudly handed me a stiff, scratchy, sequined tulle gown that looked...

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Tired mom holding a sleeping infant wrapped in a soft organic blanket

The Great 3 AM Lie About Your Baby's Sleep Schedule

I was sitting on the very edge of our squeaky nursery glider at 3:14 AM with my firstborn, glaring at a four-dollar tracking app on my phone that was flashing a red warning to tell me my three-week-old was "off...

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Pregnant woman looking annoyed while holding up an uncomfortable maternity dress

Finding a maternity dress for baby shower events without losing you...

I'm trapped in a zippered velvet prison. It's mid-July in Chicago, I'm thirty-three weeks pregnant, and the zipper on this supposed dream dress is stuck right over my left rib, which my daughter currently uses as a kicking bag. The...

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Exhausted mom trying to lower a sleeping baby into a crib without triggering the startle reflex.

How to Survive the Moro Reflex in Babies Without Losing Your Mind

It’s two in the morning in 2019, and I'm hovering over a bassinet with my oldest, Jackson, holding my breath until my lungs actually burn. I’ve done the sway, the aggressive shushing, the hour-long rocking chair marathon, and he's finally...

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A tired mom in a messy living room holding her crying baby.

The Unfiltered Shift From Mother To Baby: What I Actually Learned

I'm currently staring at a dried crust of spit-up on my left shoulder that has been there since Tuesday, and honestly, I don't have the energy to change my shirt. I’m bouncing my youngest on my hip while trying to...

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