Magazine

Mom looking at a wooden keepsake box holding a tiny hospital bracelet and sonogram

A letter to myself about surviving the loss of our baby angel

You're sitting on the bathroom floor holding a plastic wand with two pink lines, completely oblivious to the fact that in exactly twenty-two weeks, you'll be sitting on this exact same tile holding a cardboard memory box from the hospital....

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Tired mom holding a teething infant while staring at a massive pile of laundry

The Brutal, Beautiful Truth About the Always Be My Baby Phase

I'm standing at my kitchen island right now, staring at a mountain of laundry that smells vaguely like goat feed and sour milk. On the left side of the counter, I've got my four-year-old's mud-caked jeans that look like they...

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A messy pile of organic cotton yarn next to a half-finished crochet baby project.

Dear Past Jess: The Brutal Truth About Crochet Baby Blankets

You're currently sitting on the floor of the nursery surrounded by fifty dollars worth of mustard yellow yarn, crying because you dropped a stitch four rows back. I know this because I was you exactly six months ago, hugely pregnant...

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A tired mother holding her toddler in a messy kitchen

The Real Meaning Behind Sugar Babies For Tired Moms

Five pounds of Gold Medal all-purpose flour hit my linoleum floor with a sound like a muted gunshot. A white cloud plumed up, coating my scrubs, my sneakers, and the crying actual human infant strapped to my chest. I was...

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Jess sitting at a rural Texas kitchen table surrounded by messy legal paperwork and baby toys

Why Normal People Are Setting Up Trust Funds for Their Kids

Dear Jess from six months ago, You're currently sitting at the kitchen table at 11:47 PM. You have stale Goldfish crumbs stuck to your sweatpants, you're surrounded by fifty half-packed Etsy resin orders, and you're hyperventilating while staring at a...

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A mother holding her newborn baby in a hospital room

Why nobody warns you about ugly babies and how to survive them

I spent four hours in the maternity ward trying to find an Instagram filter that would make my son look less like a bruised, angry potato. I know we aren't supposed to say that out loud. You're supposed to weep...

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Exhausted dad staring at a spreadsheet on his laptop while baby plays on rug

Vanessa Hudgens Baby Reality Check: Why Balance Is A Total Myth

It was 3:14 AM on a Tuesday, and I was staring at a scatter plot I had painstakingly built in Python to map our 11-month-old’s sleep regressions against the ambient humidity of his nursery. (For the record, 48% humidity and...

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A tired mom holding a coffee mug and a folded baby blanket in a dimly lit nursery

When Can Babies Sleep With A Blanket: A Mom's Honest Guide

I was standing in Maya's nursery at like 2 AM. She was maybe four months old, it was the dead of February, and our old house is drafty as hell. I was holding a lukewarm cup of coffeeβ€”my fourth of...

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Tired mom holding a crying baby who is angrily rubbing their cheek and ear during a late-night wake up.

The Real Signs of Ear Infection in Baby (And What to Ignore)

I'm just gonna be real with youβ€”if I had a dollar for every time my mother-in-law gasped and said, "Oh, he's tugging his ear, it's an infection!" I could have paid off my student loans by now. When my oldest,...

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