Magazine

A tired mother holding a coughing baby in a dimly lit nursery

The brutal truth about baby cough medicine and what actually works

At 2:14 AM on a Tuesday, I was standing in my dark kitchen holding a thrashing, coughing toddler while my phone lit up with three different text threads. My mom was typing paragraphs about rubbing warm mustard oil on his...

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Stressed mom looking at a smartphone calculator with a coffee mug nearby

Why Every Baby Math Formula Is Basically Lying To You

It was 3:14 AM, and I was sitting on the nursery floor wearing my husband Mark’s oversized gray college sweatpantsβ€”the ones with the mystery bleach stain on the kneeβ€”aggressively typing numbers into my glowing phone screen while my coffee from...

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A small black portable breast pump sitting on a bedside table next to a coffee cup.

Dear Past Me: Finding Sanity With the Baby Buddha Breast Pump

Dear Priya from six months ago. You're currently sitting on the cold bathroom tiles at 3 AM. The heavy white plastic box of your standard issue insurance pump is plugged into the wall, trapping you within a three-foot radius of...

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A tired dad sitting on a sandy beach surrounded by chaotic baby gear

The Honest Dad's Guide to Surviving the Baby Beach

At exactly 8:14 AM last Tuesday, I found myself standing at the edge of the dunes in West Sussex, carrying three oversized tote bags, a cooler, a parasol, and two shrieking two-year-old girls who had just discovered that wind exists....

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Six-month-old baby safely gnawing on a slow cooked pork rib bone.

Why You Should Hand Your Six-Month-Old a Pork Rib Bone Today

My mother-in-law nearly dropped her chai when I handed my six-month-old a six-inch pork rib bone. We were sitting on the patio in late July. She looked at me like I had just handed the baby a loaded weapon. The...

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Tiny organic cotton baby garments folded neatly on a nursery dresser

Sorting Through the Utter Chaos of Buying Preemie Baby Clothes

I was standing at the hospital sink scrubbing my hands for the fiftieth time that Tuesday, staring at a crumpled plastic bag of tiny garments. My mom had just called to cheerfully suggest I just buy standard newborn sizes because,...

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Dad measuring sound machine volume next to baby crib

Decoding Infant Sleep Audio: My War With Sound Machines

It's 3 AM and I'm hovering over my eleven-month-old's crib with a free NIOSH decibel meter app glowing ominously on my phone, watching the needle spike into the red zone. My wife is standing in the doorway in her robe,...

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A pregnant mom sitting on her bed looking at early ultrasound photos trying to figure out the timeline.

When Does a Baby Have a Heartbeat? The Real Truth From a Mom

I'm sitting on the cold bathroom tile at two in the morning, seven-ish weeks pregnant with my oldest son, covered in cheap aloe vera gel I panic-bought on Amazon. I'm aggressively jabbing a forty-dollar plastic at-home fetal doppler into my...

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Baby lying on a playmat during tummy time looking at a toy

Dear past Priya: Your flat head baby is going to be just fine

You're sitting on the bathroom tiles at 2 AM. You've just zoomed in on the Nanit monitor until the pixels blurred into a gray soup, staring intensely at the back of your son's skull. One side looks distinctly like a...

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