The Brutally Honest Guide to Buying a Playpen for Babies
My mom texted me "just put the babi in a pen so you can work!" at the exact same moment a twenty-two-year-old Instagram parenting coach popped up on my feed with a beige infographic about how "restrictive containers stifle gross...
Rockabye Baby: The Unfiltered Truth About 3 AM Infant Sleep
I was sitting in the dark at 3:14 AM with my oldest, Jackson, smelling vaguely of sour milk and utter desperation, rhythmically swaying in a hand-me-down wooden glider that shrieked on every single backswing. I was humming the only tune...
Midnight Feeds & Why Surprise Baby Daddy is the CEO Saved Me
It was 3:14 AM. I know this because I had checked the clock on the microwave four times in the last hour. I was wearing my husband Dave's gray sweatpantsβthe ones with the mysterious bleach stain on the left kneeβand...
Surviving The Baby Phase When Everyone Has Different Advice
I was thirty-eight weeks pregnant with my oldest, waddling through the aisles of our local grocery store just trying to buy some Tums, when a woman I had never met in my life stopped me to say I needed to...
What The Trisha Paytas Baby Name Drama Taught Me About Motherhood
It was 2:14 AM on a Tuesday, and I was wearing Dave's oversized college hoodie that smells faintly of old garlic and desperation, sitting on the cold edge of our bathtub because Maya (who's FOUR, oh god, why is she...
The absolute brutal reality of choosing unique baby boy names
I was thirty-eight weeks pregnant, charting vitals in the pediatric wing, when a mother proudly told me she named her newborn son Khaos. Spelled with a K. I smiled professionally, noted it in the chart, and walked out of the...
What Is a Rainbow Baby? The Complicated Truth
The monitor is beeping a steady, boring 145 beats per minute, but the woman on the paper-covered table is still holding her breath. She has her eyes squeezed shut, her hands gripping the plastic edges of the bed so hard...
The Midnight Panic: When Your Kid Finally Starts Kicking In There
It was exactly 2:14 AM. I know this because I was staring obsessively at the red digital clock on our microwave while sitting cross-legged on the kitchen floor. I was wearing my husbandβs oversized, threadbare college t-shirt, crying softly into...
The Truth About Baby Feet: Why Everyone's Advice Is Dead Wrong
I swear, the minute I brought my oldest, Jackson, home from the hospital, it was open season on his toes. My mom took one look at his bare little feet on a perfectly pleasant 75-degree Texas afternoon and shrieked that...