The truth about the best baby monitors (and what actually works)
At 2:14 am on a Tuesday, I was staring at a glowing five-inch screen, utterly convinced my daughter had been replaced by a Victorian ghost. The night vision on our heavily marketed, terrifyingly expensive smart camera had turned my two-year-old...
The Truth About Baby Sleep Music (And My 3 AM Mistakes)
It was 3:14 AM. I know the exact time because the glowing red numbers on my alarm clock were mocking me. I was standing in the middle of Leo's nursery, swaying like a seasick sailor, wearing sweatpants with a mysterious...
That Time My Toddler Tried To Pet A Baby Skunk In The Backyard
I was wearing my husband's college sweatpants with the mysterious bleach stain on the knee, holding my third cup of reheated dark roast, just staring blankly at the azalea bushes when Leo screamed, "MOMMY, SPICY KITTEN!" I froze. It was...
Why I Dropped Three Hundred Bucks on a Newton Baby Mattress
When I was pregnant with my second kid, I stood in the middle of the Target baby aisle having a full-blown existential crisis while three different people texted me completely contradictory advice about where my child should sleep. My mom,...
The Morbid Truth About Rock a Bye Baby and Why It Still Works
Don't open up a search engine at three in the morning to research the origins of nursery rhymes while bouncing a screaming infant. It's a terrible idea that only leads to weird historical rabbit holes and more anxiety. I know...
What I Learned About Birth Plans After Sparkle Megan Has A Baby
I was halfway through surgically removing a layer of cemented, fossilised Weetabix from the highchair straps when my phone vibrated off the kitchen counter. A friend had sent me a link to an article about Megan Walerius—the bubbly, sequin-wearing contestant...
What Nobody Tells You About Having a Pitbull and a New Baby
I was sitting on the sticky laminate floor of our kitchen at 2:14 AM, wearing maternity leggings with a suspicious yogurt stain on the left knee, absolutely sobbing into a mug of decaf instant coffee. I was seven months pregnant...
The Truth About Baby Pillows (And Why You Really Don't Need One)
I was standing in my nursery three days postpartum, hormonal tears stinging my eyes, holding a tiny pair of socks and staring at what looked like a miniature prison cell. My mom had just left after a visit, having casually...
What No One Tells You About Feeding Your Kid Lamb
I was sitting cross-legged on the kitchen floor at two in the morning, furiously googling the internal temperature of a braised shank. My kitchen smelled like a Greek diner, and my six-month-old was asleep upstairs, blissfully unaware that I was...