Why I Finally Ditched Cotton for Bamboo Mini Crib Sheets
There I was in a La Quinta Inn somewhere outside of Waco, wrestling a sandpaper-stiff cotton sheet over a travel mattress at two in the morning while my oldest, Tucker, screamed like he was being exorcised. Every time I got...
Sweating bullets over baby wool in a Portland heatwave
It was mid-July, the Nanit camera was flashing a menacing red 81 degrees, and our 1924 Portland craftsman was doing its best impression of a pizza oven. I was frantically trying to program a portable AC unit with one hand...
Why We Switched To Sleeping Bags For Infants (And You Should Too)
My mother-in-law told me to pile three heavy quilts on him because Portland nights are drafty and he was going to freeze. The exhausted NICU nurse at the hospital swaddled him so tightly in a receiving blanket that he looked...
Dear Past Me: The Brutal Truth About Wrapping Babies in Cotton
Dear Tom of twenty-four months ago, It's currently Tuesday evening, and you're standing in the nursery of our flat in Zone 3, staring at a stack of twenty-four identical white squares of fabric your mother-in-law just dropped off. You're holding...
The Truth About Short Sleeve Baby Pajamas (A Dad's Data Log)
It's currently 2:14 AM, and I'm standing perfectly still in the dark, staring at the glowing blue numbers of a digital room thermometer. It reads exactly 71.8Β°F. My 11-month-old is asleep in his crib, breathing with the rhythmic, heavy cadence...
My Messy Journey Finding Gender Neutral Crib Bedding That Works
I'm currently sitting on the floor of what used to be my home office, holding a tiny, stripped Allen wrench, surrounded by a mountain of highly gendered, hyper-specific baby textiles. It's midnight, my wife Sarah is asleep, and I've just...
Why I Ditched Footies for a Newborn Long Sleeve Romper
It was three in the morning in our drafty Chicago apartment, and I was holding a screaming, poop-covered infant while trying to align what felt like eighty-four tiny metal snaps on a rigid fleece footie. My fingers were trembling, my...
The Truth About Crib Bedding Sets and Bumpers For Your Baby Boy
I was standing in the middle of the nursery, holding what looked like a tiny, quilted life jacket covered in cartoon bears. My aunt had generously shipped us a massive nine-piece bedding set for our baby boy, and I was...
The Muddy Puddle And My Kinderwagen Schlafsack Revelation
It's a Tuesday in late November, featuring that specific type of aggressive, sideways London drizzle that somehow bypasses your coat entirely and settles directly into your bones. I'm standing on the cracked pavement outside our flat, trying to negotiate with...