WelcomeParenthood
The Journal
What to Buy for a Baby, and What to Skip
The gap between what a baby needs and what is marketed to new parents is enormous, and the spending happens at the point of least information — before the…
Starting Solids: What Changes and What Doesn't
Around six months the whole feeding picture changes, and several of the numbers on this site change with it. Worth understanding what shifts and what does not.
Wake Windows in Practice
Of all the numbers in infant sleep, the wake window is the one that changes days most. It is how long a baby can comfortably stay awake between sleeps, and…
The Numbers and the Baby
This site computes feeding volumes, sleep ranges, growth bands, nappy quantities, due dates and first-year costs. It is worth being explicit about what…
Nappy Sizes and Quantities, Planned Properly
Nappies are the most predictable recurring cost of a first year, which makes them one of the few things you can genuinely plan rather than react to.
How a Due Date Is Worked Out
A due date is presented with a precision it does not have. It is a single day derived from an average, and the overwhelming majority of babies do not arrive…
What a Baby's First Year Actually Costs
Estimates of what a baby costs in the first year vary wildly, mostly because they are answering different questions. A number built from your own…
Baby Sleep by Age: What's Typical
Infant sleep advice is a minefield of confident opinions. The one genuinely useful thing is a rough sense of how much sleep is typical at each age, and how…
What a Growth Percentile Is — and Is Not
Few numbers cause more unnecessary worry than a growth percentile, largely because it looks like a score and is not one.
How Much Formula Does a Baby Actually Need?
"Is my baby getting enough?" is the question that keeps new formula-feeding parents awake, and the honest answer is that there is a rule of thumb, it is…
Infant Safety: The Non-Negotiables
Most of what a new parent worries about turns out not to matter much. A small number of things matter a great deal, and they are worth knowing before you…