Magazine

A dad holding up a tiny baby shower outfit looking entirely confused.

What to wear to a baby shower when nothing fits (a survival guide)

Sarah was wedged inside a floral maternity dress that had, seemingly overnight, transformed from breezy summer elegance into a highly restrictive sausage casing. It was mid-July, she was thirty-two weeks pregnant with the twins, and our own baby shower was...

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A dad looking at his phone anxiously next to a pregnant belly

Acoustics of the Womb and My Metal Baking Sheet Drop Disaster

The noise sounded like a Ford Taurus crashing into a cymbal factory. It was just me dropping six aluminum baking sheets onto the kitchen tile, but in our quiet Portland apartment, the acoustic shockwave was violently loud. Our dog scrambled...

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Mother holding newborn very close to her face to test infant vision focus

The Unfiltered Truth About When Your Newborn Can Actually See You

I spent three months of my pregnancy painting a perfectly muted sage green mural on my son's nursery wall. I curated taupe crib sheets. I bought dusty rose swaddles. I spent an embarrassing amount of money making sure his room...

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Baby trying to sit up on a firm playmat surrounded by pillows

The brutal, messy truth about when your baby will finally sit up

I was sitting cross-legged on my living room rug, trapped in a fortress of couch cushions. My son, six months old and entirely unbothered by gravity, had just executed his fortieth faceplant of the morning. His grandmother was on FaceTime,...

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A bewildered dad holding a baby ultrasound photo while surrounded by neutral swaddles

When Can You Find Out Gender Of Baby? A Twin Dad's Honest Guide

I was standing in our galley kitchen on a miserable Tuesday afternoon, holding a plastic cup of my wife’s morning urine in one hand and a slightly expired box of baking soda in the other. The internetβ€”that infinite void of...

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A close up of a curious infant looking up at the camera

The Great Melanin Firmware Update: A Dad's Guide to Eye Color

Hey Marcus from six months ago. You're currently standing by the window in our perpetually gray Portland living room, angling a five-month-old infant toward the meager sunlight, trying to determine if her irises are hex code #4B5320 (Army Green) or...

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A tired mom holding a teething baby in a dimly lit nursery

The 3 AM Teething Triage: Surviving the First Tooth

It was three in the morning, mid-January in Chicago, and the wind was howling off Lake Michigan. My toddler was thrashing in her crib like she was possessed, her sleep sack completely saturated with drool. I stood there running through...

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A tired mother holding a teething baby in a dark room

The Middle-of-the-Night Panic Search For Your Baby's First Tooth

I was staring at the ceiling of our Chicago apartment at 3:14 AM. The radiator was clanking. My son was gnawing on my collarbone like a starving hyena. His chin was a waterfall of drool, soaking right through my third...

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A smiling baby laying on an organic playmat chewing a wooden bunny teething ring

When Do Babies Start Babbling? A Tired Mom’s Guide to the Noise

There I was, sitting cross-legged on my living room rug surrounded by a mountain of unsorted laundry, aggressively waving black-and-white flashcards in my firstborn’s face. Leo was about four months old at the time, staring at me with the blankest...

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