The 3 AM Breakdown When I Realized That The Baby Is Actually You
It was 3:14 AM on a Tuesday, and I was sitting on the cold linoleum of my hallway, sobbing into a burp cloth that smelled heavily of sour milk. My oldest son, Wyattβwho now at age four is a perfectly...
How To Actually Survive Your Trench Baby Without Losing Your Mind
It was three in the morning and the Chicago winter wind was violently rattling our bedroom window. I was sitting on the edge of the mattress, glaring at my phone screen in the dark. I had three different tracking apps...
How "Hush Little Baby Don't You Cry" Saved My Sanity Tonight
It was July in Texas, which means it was about 102 degrees at midnight, and our window AC unit was making a sound like a dying tractor. My oldestβwho's now four and currently serving as a daily cautionary tale for...
Let's Talk About How Do Babies Get Thrush (And How To Fix It)
My mother-in-law told me on the phone that it was because my breast pump parts were dirty. My lactation consultant heavily implied it was because I ate a brownie the day beforeβsugar feeds yeast, apparently, which is just incredibly unfair....
The Absurd Reality of Raising a Hemangioma Baby (And Not Dying)
If you ever find yourself holding your phone's flashlight inches from your sleeping infant's shoulder at three in the morning while furiously typing "rapidly growing bright red lump" into a search engine, just shut the laptop and go to sleep,...
What is Jaundice in Babies? Surviving the Tiny Satsuma Phase
It was day three with the twins, and I was standing by our bedroom window in the bleak gray wash of a London November afternoon, holding Florence up to the light like a counterfeit twenty-pound note. She was asleep, completely...
The Truth About Baby Cobra: Tummy Time Pushes and Insurance Panic
I was sitting at the kitchen table, staring at a stack of medical bills and listening to hold music from my insurance provider, while my four-month-old was face-planted on the rug trying to lift his unnervingly heavy head. The biggest...
The Ultimate Survival Guide For Your First Baby Driver Car Experience
The asphalt in the hospital parking lot was basically melting my flip-flops, and I was sitting in a wheelchair sobbing while my husband wrestled with a massive hunk of grey plastic. It was July in rural Texas. Jackson, our firstborn,...
The 3 AM pediatric nurse guide to surviving baby gas relief
The radiator is hissing in our Chicago apartment and my phone says it's 3:14 in the morning. My infant son is currently executing a flawless crunchy-frog maneuver on the changing table. His knees are pinned tight to his chest. His...