Magazine

Infant lying on a white blanket looking confused during a makeshift photo shoot

The absolutely chaotic reality of getting a baby passport now

"Just take the picture against the fridge," my sister texted me while I was wrist-deep in a morning blowout. "No, beta, you've to go to the pharmacy and hold him up like Simba," my mother countered on speakerphone, completely unbothered...

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A tired dad holding a hiccuping baby against his shoulder

My Infant Is Glitching: The Truth About Those Endless Hiccups

It's 3:14 AM, and I'm staring at my phone's stopwatch, logging the exact intervals between my son's chest spasms. Every 4.2 seconds, his entire eleven-pound body jerks like a poorly coded physics engine that can't figure out gravity. He doesn't...

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Baby wearing a corrective cranial helmet sleeping peacefully in a crib

The Honest Truth About Flat Spots and That Expensive Baby Helmet

I was sitting in the pediatrician's office with my oldestβ€”who's now five and completely fine, but was then a three-month-old potato with a head shaped vaguely like a deflated footballβ€”convinced I had ruined his brain forever. I’d gone down a...

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Mom sitting on nursery floor looking stressed next to a wooden baby gym

What the Baby Emmanuel News Actually Taught Me About Motherhood

I was wearing my husband's stained college sweatshirt, the one with the frayed cuffs that permanently smells like sour milk, sitting on the cold hexagonal tiles of our guest bathroom at 3:14 AM while Leo screamed in the next room....

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Exhausted mom drinking coffee while wearing a newborn in a stretchy fabric sling

My worst newborn day and how a baby carrier wrap saved my sanity

It was 4:13 PM on a Tuesday in late November, and I was wearing maternity leggings with an unidentified, crusty white stain on the left thigh. Leo was four weeks old and currently doing that purple-faced, breathless scream that makes...

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Frustrated mom drinking coffee next to a rear-facing baby car seat in a messy car

A Letter to My Past Self About Surviving Baby Car Seat Chaos

Dear Sarah from exactly six months ago, You're currently jammed into the backseat of the Honda, one knee completely numb because you're using your entire adult body weight to press a massive piece of plastic into the upholstery. Your iced...

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Baby doing tummy time on a playmat looking at a wooden toy

Why your baby prefers one side and how to fix a tight stiff neck

You're scrolling through your camera roll at two in the morning. You notice that in all four hundred photos you took this week, your baby is looking over their right shoulder. They're staring at the right wall in the crib....

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Exhausted dad sitting in the dark holding a crying baby while looking at a smartphone

System Meltdown: A Clueless Dad's Guide to Surviving Colic in Babies

I was bouncing on a half-inflated yoga ball at 140 beats per minute, frantically whispering "shhh" while my five-week-old son screamed so aggressively his face looked like a boiled lobster. My Apple Watch buzzed to congratulate me on my intense...

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Tired mother holding a silicone cup away from a reaching infant

When can babies have water: surviving the summer hydration wars

July in Chicago is a specific kind of swampy misery. Two years ago, the air conditioning unit in our third-floor apartment wheezed its last breath right in the middle of a heatwave. I was sweating through my nursing tank top,...

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