Let's talk about the baby einstein aquarium and infant sleep
My mother-in-law sat at my kitchen island and told me those glowing plastic fish were the only reason my husband ever slept through the night in the early nineties. My doctor looked at my meticulously tracked sleep logs, sighed, and...
Why the Baby Driver Actor Made Me Rethink Infant Safety
Dear Marcus from six months ago. I know exactly what you're doing right now. It's 3 AM in our Portland living room. You've logged exactly 3.4 hours of heavily fragmented sleep, and you're currently acting as a human mattress for...
Why I Stopped Tracking Baby Development by Week With My Third
It was 3:17 AM, and the harsh blue light from my phone screen was probably blinding my firstborn as I frantically refreshed a developmental tracker app while nursing in our rocking chair. The app was practically screaming at me that...
What I Wish I Knew About Giving Babies Water Before I Panicked
It's July 2020. I'm wearing a pair of maternity bike shorts that have a mysterious, hardened yogurt stain on the left thigh, and I'm sweating through my second t-shirt of the day. My husband, Dave, is standing next to our...
Dear Priya: The messy truth about feeding a buttermilk baby
Listen. You're currently standing in the dairy aisle at Patel Brothers, staring at the cartons of cultured buttermilk and traditional chaas, having a mild internal crisis. Your mom has been asking for weeks when her precious granddaughter can finally have...
The Truth About Chili's Baby Back Ribs For Your Weaning Toddler
It's half past five on a dreary Tuesday, and I'm staring at my twin daughters who look less like children and more like they've just survived a highly localised explosion in a barbecue sauce factory. One of them is wielding...
What Nobody Tells You About Buying Cribs for Babies
I was sitting on the floor of what used to be my home office, dripping sweat onto a set of Scandinavian assembly instructions, clutching a tiny Allen key like a weapon. It was 2am. My wife was heavily pregnant with...
Confessions on Raising a Brainy Baby Without Losing Your Mind
Dear Jess of six months ago: I see you sitting on the rug in our Texas living room, sweating through your shirt, surrounded by Mandarin language flashcards, trying to get a ten-week-old to focus on high-contrast black-and-white shapes while the...
Finding the Best Organic Baby Formula (Without Losing Your Mind)
Dear Tom of two years ago, You're currently standing in the kitchen in yesterday's tracksuit bottoms, using the dim light of the microwave to read the German instructions on a tin of imported infant milk. Both twins are screaming upstairs...