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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A tired mom holding a clear glass baby bottle and a cold cup of coffee

My Unhinged, Exhausting Search For The Best Glass Baby Bottles

I was standing in my kitchen at 3:14 AM wearing my husband Dan’s college sweatpants that had a questionable mustard stain on the knee, holding a supposedly pristine, top-of-the-line glass bottle while Maya screamed in the other room. I was...

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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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A confused mom looking at lil baby albums on her phone while holding coffee.

The Absurd Truth About Searching For Lil Baby Albums Online

"Play Mozart or he'll fail third-grade math," my mother-in-law practically whispered into my ear at my baby shower, aggressively shoving a CD into my hands. Yes, an actual, physical compact disc in a jewel case. Who even owns a CD...

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A breathable Newton baby crib mattress set up in a bright nursery

Is the Newton Baby Crib Mattress Really Worth Three Hundred Bucks?

My mom told me to put my firstborn on his stomach with a heavy quilt "so he feels secure like he's still in the womb." The lactation consultant at the hospital swore he needed to sleep on my bare chest...

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Exhausted dad staring blankly at a tiny jar of baby chest ointment in the dark

Vicks Baby Rub: Surviving 3 AM Coughs Without Poisoning Them

It's precisely 3:14 AM on a Tuesday, and my London flat currently sounds like a seal sanctuary that has been taken over by aggressive chain-smokers. Twin A has just unleashed a barking cough that rattled the windowpanes, which immediately triggered...

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Exhausted mother drinking coffee while looking at her phone reading the UK cheerleader baby autopsy news

The UK Cheerleader Baby Story Is Our Biggest Motherhood Nightmare

Let's just obliterate the biggest, most dangerous lie the hospital discharge nurses hand you right along with those giant mesh underwear. The absolute biggest myth of motherhood is that your "maternal instinct" is some kind of magical, invisible force field...

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Jess holding a sleeping infant while watching what happens to the baby in squid game on a laptop.

What Happens to the Baby in Squid Game Season 3? A Mom's Take

My mom told me that watching high-stress television while nursing would literally curdle my milk, which I’m pretty sure is biologically impossible, but then my best friend texted me at 2 AM demanding to know if I’d seen the jump...

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Confused dad staring at baby monitor while baby rolls from back to belly in crib

When Do Babies Roll: A First-Time Dad's Guide to the Midnight Flip

2:14 AM. The baby monitor is glowing like a radioactive brick on my nightstand. I'm staring at a grayscale pixel blob that's supposed to be my four-month-old daughter, except instead of lying flat on her back like a compliant little...

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