From the category archives:

Month 1-3

Getting used to having a new baby in the house takes time. Take some baby steps and build your confidence. Here are 25 great activities to try during maternity leave (not all at once, ok?)

Throw a debate-watching party

October 18, 2012

My fellow Americans, history is upon us. It’s an election year. If you have a newborn in the house, it can be like living under a rock for several months. But you can still be in on the fun. I suggest you throw a debate-watching party to reconnect with your childfree friends. You supply the [...]

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Activity #243: Start a ladies poker club

October 9, 2012

My very good friend, Crystal, lives in Chicago as a writer with her two sons, Harry and Max. She wrote about starting a Ladies Poker Club when Harry was an infant. Harry is a mere one day younger than Milo and sadly they’ve never met in person. We fully expect that one day they’ll be [...]

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Getting used to having a new baby in the house takes time. Take some baby steps and build your confidence. Here are 25 great activities to try during maternity leave (not all at once, ok?)

Why we called our baby “Dennis”

August 3, 2012

Dennis is not a family name, nor is it the surname of my favorite actor. Dennis is not a character from a great work of literary fiction. In fact, Dennis is not even the name of my son. His name is Julian, and now that he’s seven years old, I rarely forget it. But in [...]

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Makin’ it: Organic baby wash

July 23, 2012

Toxic goo in the baby bubble bath? WTH?! It drives me CRAZY to learn that our baby body wash has bad stuff in it. When I searched the Internet for recipes to make my own homemade baby soap, I was disturbed by the suggested ingredients. Lye?! No thank you. In fact, I believe that when [...]

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Getting used to having a new baby in the house takes time. Take some baby steps and build your confidence. Here are 25 great activities to try during maternity leave (not all at once, ok?)

Activity #19: Bounce it out

June 29, 2012

Our mothers might swear by clothes dryers and vacuum cleaners, but I found that my yoga ball was a great tool to soothe my crying baby. Sit on it, holding swaddled baby, and bounce to a consistent rhythm. If you don’t have a yoga ball, sit on the edge of your bed and bounce while [...]

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Best, easy baby photo series yet

June 27, 2012

Our friend, Karen, (formerly known as Auntie Karen, now rookie mom Karen) blew us away with these pictures of her son’s first three months in custom onesies that she made in minutes. Baby Laz is wearing a dot for each month of his age (1 dot = 1 month old, get it?) and laying around [...]

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Getting used to having a new baby in the house takes time. Take some baby steps and build your confidence. Here are 25 great activities to try during maternity leave (not all at once, ok?)

Review your doula or baby nurse

April 27, 2012

Hey there rookie moms and dads, I want you to think about your most vulnerable moments as a new or expecting parent. We all have them. Did you hire help in the form of an in-home baby nurse or doula? How did you know what you didn’t know? I was so lucky with my rookie baby [...]

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New mom and baby movie program

March 28, 2012

Taking oneself and a baby to a baby-friendly movie theater is one of our favorite milestones of maternity leave. It requires you to leave the house, challenges you to practice feeding and changing in a public location, but also provides the support of a dark room and fellow new moms (aka crying babies) to remind [...]

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Getting used to having a new baby in the house takes time. Take some baby steps and build your confidence. Here are 25 great activities to try during maternity leave (not all at once, ok?)

Makin’ it: Easy swaddling blanket

March 6, 2012

This is one easy DIY project that will give you bang for your $5. My mom created the first iterations of our family’s flannel swaddle blankets and I have sewn a few more with these instructions. I even made one large enough to wrap my five-year old when he wanted to be the baby again [...]

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Stuff newborn moms should know

February 15, 2012

I think Heather and I have both been pretty honest here: We were shocked and disappointed by how boring our babies were after they were born. They never said, “Hey mom, let’s go get you some new jeans and a latte.” Spending all day with someone who has no suggestions for conversation topics or activities [...]

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Getting used to having a new baby in the house takes time. Take some baby steps and build your confidence. Here are 25 great activities to try during maternity leave (not all at once, ok?)

Giveaway: Pretty slings by upa-lala

January 26, 2012

While I do love gender-neutral baby gear, there’s something really sweet about these pretty slings (that my husband would not wear) from independent seamstress Brittan Hlista, owner and designer of upa-lala. I’m thinking when your base layer is a tshirt and dull-from-too-many-washings yoga pants, these vibrant patterns could really distract the eye! (Note to sling-makers [...]

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Practicing what I preach. Mostly.

January 17, 2012

Is it already time to flashback to Sawyer as a baby? Well, he is just over nineteen weeks now so we can at least review the first quarter of his babydom. According to my own bossyness, we should have completed all thirteen of the rookie moms weekly challenges within his fourth trimester, right? So, let’s [...]

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