Magazine

A close-up of a baby lying on a playmat looking sideways away from the camera.

Baby Flat Head: My 3 AM Panic Spiral and What Actually Happened

It was 3:14 AM and I was wearing a nursing tank that smelled strongly of sour milk and sheer desperation. Leo, my firstborn, was exactly ten weeks old. He was fast asleep in his bassinet, totally oblivious, and I was...

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Tired dad and infant lying face down on a living room floor

Debugging the Parent Posture With Baby Cobra Yoga

I was exactly 4.2 minutes into a "Beginner Yoga for Stiff People" YouTube video, contorted into a shape that felt biologically incorrect, when my 11-month-old decided my ribcage was a drum set. I was trying to troubleshoot what my wife...

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A tired mom holding a coffee cup while looking at a baby on a round play mat

The Honest Truth About Play Mats For Babies

I was on my hands and knees with a spray bottle of carpet cleaner, frantically scrubbing neon yellow newborn poop out of our cheap apartment carpeting, while my oldest screamed his absolute head off in a bouncy seat nearby. It...

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Exhausted dad trying to support two wobbly twin baby heads at once

The Terrifying Bobblehead Phase: Babies Holding Their Heads Up

My mother-in-law was holding Florence, who was precisely eighteen days old at the time, when she decided to gesture wildly with both hands while telling a long-winded story about a rogue fox in her garden. For three horrifying seconds, Florence’s...

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Baby attempting reverse gear crawl on living room floor

When Do Babies Start To Crawl? A Letter To My Clueless Past Self

Hey Marcus from six months ago. I know you're currently enjoying the stationary phase where you can set the kid down on the rug, go make an espresso, and return to find him occupying the exact same coordinate space. Enjoy...

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A tired mom holding her baby who is practicing lifting their wobbly head on a playmat

A Letter To My Past Self: When Can Babies Hold Their Head Up

Dear Past Sarah, You're currently sitting on the faded gray IKEA rug in the living room, the one that already has a weird stain on it from when the dog threw up last Tuesday. You're wearing Mark's old college sweatshirt—the...

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Baby wearing a corrective cranial helmet sleeping peacefully in a crib

The Honest Truth About Flat Spots and That Expensive Baby Helmet

I was sitting in the pediatrician's office with my oldest—who's now five and completely fine, but was then a three-month-old potato with a head shaped vaguely like a deflated football—convinced I had ruined his brain forever. I’d gone down a...

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Baby doing tummy time on a playmat looking at a wooden toy

Why your baby prefers one side and how to fix a tight stiff neck

You're scrolling through your camera roll at two in the morning. You notice that in all four hundred photos you took this week, your baby is looking over their right shoulder. They're staring at the right wall in the crib....

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Baby in organic cotton romper doing the pre-crawl rock on a rug

At What Age Do Babies Crawl? The Honest Southern Mom Truth

I was standing in the church foyer last Sunday holding my youngest, who's currently built like a beautiful, squishy sack of flour, when three different women decided to give me unsolicited updates on their own grandchildren's mobility. Ms. Betty told...

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