Decoding Baby Vocals 3 Months In: A Nurse's Guide to Cooing
I was standing in the dark at three in the morning, holding a screaming potato of a human, trying to follow advice from a very expensive parenting app. The app told me that early language development requires measured, calm adult...
Why The Baby V.O.X Monitor Setting Fixed My Sleep
It was 3:14 in the morning and I was staring at a glowing rectangle of static, trying to decide if the rhythmic scratching sound was my son suffocating or just the dog licking his paws in the hallway. I used...
The Truth About Finding a Good Baby TV Show (And When To Turn It Off)
I was wedged tight between a bulk box of Etsy shipping mailers and a half-empty bag of stale Goldfish crackers, holding my breath in the pantry so my toddler wouldn't hear me existing. Out in the living room, my oldestβwho...
The $1200 Stroller Lie and What You Actually Need
I was standing in a high-end Dallas baby boutique, six months pregnant with my first, staring at a $1,400 stroller that looked like a sleek European spaceship while my husband nervously checked our checking account balance on his phone. The...
Dear Past Me: Everything I Wish I Knew About Cleaning A Tiny Tongue
Dear Past Sarah, It's 2 AM on a Tuesday. You're sitting on the living room rug, wearing that ancient Nirvana baby t-shirt from high schoolβyes, the one with the bleach hole near the hemβand you're frantically shining your iPhone flashlight...
When You Realize That Milk on Your Baby's Tongue is Actually Thrush
It was 3:14 AM. I know the exact time because I had been staring at the glowing green numbers on our digital alarm clock while my oldest, Leoβwho was roughly six weeks old at the timeβscreamed into my collarbone. I...
Why The Way We Do Baby Talk Actually Matters
Standing in the H-E-B checkout line back in 2019, I was balancing my oldest son on my hip while digging for my wallet, doing that incredibly high-pitched, brain-melting nonsense voice we all fall into. "Does my widdle smoosh-smoosh want his...
The Honest Truth About Baby Tees and Sensitive Skin
My mom told me to put three layers and a fleece snowsuit on my oldest when we left the hospital in mid-April because she swore "a chill will get him" the second we stepped outside. My younger sister, who doesn't...
The Baby Steps Metacritic: Stop Treating Walking Like A Game
I was sitting on a damp park bench in Wicker Park last Tuesday, nursing a lukewarm coffee, when a mother I barely know ambushed me. She had that specific, tense energy of a woman who'd just read four different parenting...