The 3 AM Eczema Meltdown That Changed How I Dress My Kids
It was 3:14 AM in a stuffy, overheated Airbnb in Zermatt, and I was wearing my husband Markβs oversized Ramones t-shirt that still smelled vaguely like airplane air and desperation. Maya was four months old, and she was screaming a...
Truths About the RSV Vaccine for Babies (And Surviving Winter)
There's a spectacularly dangerous lie told to first-time parents by well-meaning older relatives, usually delivered over a lukewarm cup of tea. They lean in conspiratorially and tell you that a mild winter cold is actually brilliant for building up a...
The nuclear bomb versus coughing infant joke and real colds
Listen. When my son developed his first real chest rattle, I received three distinct pieces of advice within a single hour. My desi mother-in-law told me to heat mustard oil with raw garlic and rub it on the soles of...
Letter to Past Marcus: The Patch Notes on RSV Vaccine Babies
I'm sitting here in the dark watching the Govee hygrometer on the nursery dresser tick from 48% to 49% humidity, listening to the rhythmic, slightly squeaky breathing of our eleven-month-old. The Portland rain is currently hammering against the window with...
My Kids, The Ice Age Baby Meme, and Freezing Winter Survival
Let me tell you about the exact moment I realized I was officially old and entirely unprepared for both internet culture and actual, literal winter. It was like, negative three degrees outside on a Tuesday in January, I was wearing...
The Ridiculous Truth About Buying Baby Uggs For Your Newborn
November 2017. I was sitting at a crowded Starbucks on 4th street, wearing yoga pants that were definitely covered in spit-up, frantically wrestling a tiny, caramel-colored sheepskin bootie onto seven-month-old Maya's left foot for the eighth time in twenty minutes....
When to Worry About RSV Symptoms Baby: A Dad's Survival Guide
Don't spend three hours scrolling through a parenting forum thread from 2014 about baby chest retractions while your daughter breathes like a tiny, congested pug on your chest. I did this on a Tuesday last November, and it resulted in...
Why the "It's Just a Cold" Myth is Dangerous for Infants
It was December 2019, I was running on exactly three hours of sleep and half a pot of lukewarm Folgers, wearing a hideous green sweater that already smelled like sour breastmilk, when Dave's aunt Linda peered into four-month-old Leo's car...
Why searching for the cast of baby reindeer will ruin your evening
It was 5:17 AM on a Tuesday, an hour that shouldn't legally exist, and my living room looked like a crime scene involving a half-eaten box of oat biscuits and an aggressively smeared syringe of sticky, strawberry-flavoured Calpol. Florence, the...