Ep. 26 4 WEEKS POSTPARTUM UNFILTERED

Scarlette is literally asleep in my carrier while I record this because apparently the sleepy newborn era has officially left the chat. In this solo episode, I’m giving you a real-time update on what life looks like at 4 weeks postpartum — the good, the emotional, the mildly unhinged, and the surprisingly funny.

We talk about the end of the super sleepy newborn phase, the loose schedule we’re gently guiding her toward, what postpartum has felt like this time around, and my “Top 5 Horror Movies” of postpartum (because if you know, you know). From D-MER to leap anxiety to the absolute chaos of older siblings coughing directly on your newborn…nothing is off limits.

Basically just one tired mom, a baby strapped to her chest, and a postpartum life update straight from the trenches.

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Transcript

Welcome Back To The Chaos

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to The Milk, the podcast that pours it all out. The messy, the magical, and the mildly unhinged moments of motherhood and womanhood. Real talk, honest stories, and reminders that none of us really know exactly what we're doing. And that's kind of the best part. I'm Taylor, your host and soon-to-be mom of three. So let's laugh, learn, and milk the season of life for all that it's worth. Hi ladies, welcome back to another week with the milk. As you can see, I've got my hands full a little today. This is also the second time I've tried to record this episode. A couple days ago, I was halfway through recording it, and the camera that had the mic quit on me and died halfway through. So that was really fun. Took me like all day to try and squeeze in a 45-minute time slot for that, and then it just died. So I thought, if I don't laugh, I will most likely cry. Because I've been doing that a little, a little more than I would typically like to this past week. My hormones are going all kinds of ways, up, down, side to side, I swear. The hormonal fluctuation postpartum is just like it always gets me. It's like you have such a great day, and then like the next day could be totally different. So, anyways, here we are. So thank you for bearing with me. Well, we took a week off and I pushed last week's episode to the next week, and now we're here. I needed like a few-day buffer to um get myself together and just keep adjusting because as if you're watching this, you can see Scarlet is attached to my body. I have her in a wrap right now napping. Um we are, how do I put it? We have been out of the sleepy newborn phase. Um, not to scare anyone, but I think that lasted like two weeks. And now she's at the point where she does not want to nap anywhere but on my body. We've tried crib naps and we'll get between like five to 30 minute tops. Um, and then she cries and wakes up and just wants to be attached to me. So I'm embracing it. We're making it work. Um so I thought, why not then to show you the reality of trying to podcast while being a newborn mom while having other kids? Um, it takes me a little bit to get to this. I am not gonna lie, like I thought I'd be able to, especially in the newborn phase, be able to just like hop on the mic or like I don't know. I just naively thought that maybe I'd be able to do like manage this a little bit better. And the reality is no, but we do make it happen, and that's all that matters. So here we are today.

Mother’s Day Feelings And Mom Guilt

SPEAKER_00 2:36

I think I missed an episode like last week actually congratulating everyone and saying happy Mother's Day to you all if it was your first Mother's Day. I hope it was so special. And this was my first Mother's Day as a mom of three. While I'm recording this, Mother's Day is in two days, and so I'm really excited to have my first Mother's Day with Scarlet and just as a family of five. Mother's Day is so fun because yes, like we are celebrated, which as we should be. Um, we make the entire world go round. But to me, it's like celebrating my children and getting to be their mom. Like it is the coolest thing in the world and how our babies pick us, and I just feel so lucky that these three kids chose me as their mom. Oh god, here I am choking up a little bit. Whew. Um, but like it's it's a crazy feeling because I look around, I'm like, holy shit, like who allowed me to be a mother and to care for these three human beings and all of their different needs, and just like I keep these things alive. Like, I remember the days I could barely keep myself alive, and it's just so crazy. Like, we always say this. Like, I literally feel too young to have kids, especially three kids. Like, I feel like a teenage mom still, and I am not. I am 30, even though Aspen thinks I'm 35 years old. I have to show you this. She made me um like a little gift at her school, and it says, My mom. This also made me like bawl my eyes out for some reason when I read it. It says, My mom's name is Taylor. My mom is 35 years old. Rude. I'm 32, but thanks. She has blue eyes and like mine hair. Don't have blue eyes, I have green, but kind of close. My mom is really good at fixing toys. It's like the fill in the blank. All day long, my mom blank. She says, My mom works. That one got me. It made me kind of feel sad and guilty. Where I'm like, oh my gosh, is that all I am to her? Like, all she sees is me working. But I guess I think it stemmed from like, and if she ever comes in in the middle of the day and like wants to do something, I'm like, oh mommy's working, I have to finish this one thing. And so, but it did that did pull on the heartstrings a little and made me feel like a little guilty. Um, my favorite thing my mom cooks is eggies and sausage. Um, my favorite thing to do with my mom is the ice cream shop. This one, like, it was such a good reminder that I need to take her out on some solo dates, so I'm doing it this weekend. But I think I talked about this one time not too long ago, where I was not working, I didn't have much to do in the middle of one day. And I saw her and I looked at her and I was like, Do you want to just do you want to go to the ice cream shop? And she just lit up and we went for literally 15 to 20 minutes while Bash napped, and it was just like the best thing ever to her, and she clearly just remembers that. It was like such a good reminder of like, oh my gosh, it's like the little things that they remember and cherish. And so, yeah, I forgot how much she loved that, and it's like such a simple thing to do. So, anyways, that was really cute. And the last one is my mom is special because she loves me. Love Aspen, it was very cute. These are like those little mementos that I have like a big uh like memory trunk for each kid that I want to one day give to each child when they're of age, probably before they have their first kid. I think that's so special, like a gift that they have no idea about, and it's just filled with all memories from like when they were a baby and child. So I have like their going home outfit or their first binky or their first pair of shoes that they outgrew, and just like all the cute things. I also have put outfits that smell like them in like ziplock bags, mainly for me. It's kind of creepy, probably, but just so I can like sniff what they used to smell like. But I'm keeping that in there for them. Just like things that I want to look back on and I know they'll cherish one day. Oh, sorry, that was Scarlett burping. Please don't wake up. Anyways, that's one of those things I'll throw

What Postpartum Really Feels Like

SPEAKER_00 6:39

in there. But I thought this episode would be great now that I'm four weeks postpartum, to talk about just like what postpartum has really been like this time around, what I have been doing to help my body heal and recover after giving birth, kind of what Scarlett's schedule is. Not that she's like on a strict schedule, but more we're like sleep, like we're sleep guiding her to a schedule, which has been really helpful. Um, what else? Yeah, just shooting the shit on what's going on. And if anyone's in the same wave of life dealing with the postpartum phase, or maybe you're pregnant and you're like, what the heck do I have to look forward to? This episode is for you. So any updates? Um, let's see. As I mentioned, Scarlet's been out of the sleepy newborn phase, so it's been a lot harder to get things done, even just like simple tasks of like cooking dinner for the kids or running simple errands like going to uh the UPS store to drop something off or little things like that. So I'm learning to juggle it all with three kids, and then also just like the breastfeeding component to it and pumping and formula and like how the heck do you do all that um with three kids? And it's crazy. I that's one thing I didn't anticipate was just like I don't know how does that work when you have five things to do at once, you can't just sit down and breastfeed your baby, and when you have to get your kid ready to first school and all these other things I think I spoke about last episode too. My mom braid is like, I don't know what I say, so never hold me accountable for like um she's not paying attention. It's like I literally like forget what I ate yesterday or what I did yesterday. So apologies in advance if I'm like repeating myself at all. Also, one thing that I have really noticed this time around um is just how much more crystal clear this time is, like the newborn phase, where I feel like, especially as a first-time mom, you're like in this crazy head fog and just haze where time is going by so fast, you can like barely think you're you like get to the end of you know the three months with a newborn, and you're like, oh my gosh, how did that just fly by and happen? Like, I don't even remember being in that because you're kind of in this like fight or flight mode, and at least for me, especially the first time around, like I was wishing some of those days away because they were so hard, and I was just like, I cannot wait to get to three months where things will be a little easier and she'll be sleeping better. I can't wait to get to four months when she's doing so and so, and you're kind of like you have this like can't wait mentality where like you th, you know, you think it's just gonna get better and better and just I guess easier um when you're in that like head above water. Um and this time around, like I think it's because well, hopefully it's my last that I am just like solely cherishing and loving every single day of this, like it is my last because it is, and so even the hard days or the hard moments, like this morning Scarlett was screaming nonstop for an hour and a half. I was just finding so much gratitude and like also like wisdom of like knowing that it does end, the hard times do end, and you know, we will get through it. And just from the experience, it's like the first time you go through it, you're probably overwhelmed, you're kind of fearful, you don't know if you what you're doing is the right way or the wrong way, and it's overwhelming. And the second time around, it's like, oh, I've done this before. So you're gaining confidence, but you're still experiencing new things that you're like you didn't anticipate because you're like, oh, I've had a baby. It's like copy and paste, we're just gonna do the same thing over, but it's like, no, every baby's different. So you're experiencing different things, but you also have so much more confidence from doing it again. And the third time around, it's like the confidence is like times 10. And so you get to like actually enjoy it a little more because like majority of the fear is gone. You being overwhelmed is like with two kids, like you're already overwhelmed. So it's like you're just adding a little bit of the overwhelming to your life. Um, but no, it's like I think I was so caught up and stressed about being the perfect mom or doing, you know, making sure that I was everything that my babies deserved, and making sure I like if I wasn't doing enough, or if I felt like I wasn't doing enough, doing even more, and that would like burn me out, and I would just, you know, a lot of the time I would end my days in tears, being, you know, overwhelmed. And this time around, it's like I I'm mourning the days that I'm living, if that makes sense. Like I will cry because I'm just looking at her, being like, she will never be this small again. Like tomorrow she's gonna be bigger, tomorrow she's gonna open her eyes bigger, or she's going to lift her head higher. And it's it's a blessing and a curse because I just see life so much more crystal clear this time around and my postpartum experience and just her as a newborn where I'm just simply cherishing it. And it makes me really sad for the girl I was my first time around, um, where she was so lost, and she was, you know, she felt like she was taking so many steps back and just didn't know who she was and her identity. And this time around, I know I am exactly what my kids deserve, and I am the mom that I want to be, even if I'm not doing everything how I would like to every single day. Like you just, I think you find so much peace the third time around. And so, yeah, I mean, I'm just it's a little sad that I didn't get to experience this feeling three times in a row. Like it took me the third time to really find it, but I think that's what life's about like learning different things through different experiences, and you are a different mom through each pregnancy and through each baby. So, anyways, it's just cool to see how we evolve as mothers and like shed different layers of ourselves to get to the core of who we are with each baby. So, yeah, I don't know, that was just my little tidbit. I'm like, wow, this time around is so healing, and I'm just really proud of myself, which I don't say often, and I'm proud of my family, and I'm proud of Scotty, and just I'm proud of Scarlet for like completing our family, and it's just been it's it's been so unexpected, like how everything's worked out has been so unexpected. So, anyways, that's me getting a little cheesy and emotional.

A Scary School Call With Bash

SPEAKER_00 13:24

On to like a crazy topic. This last week we had a little bit of a scare with Bash, um, where he was at school and it was the one day, the first time I got to leave the house without Scarlet Scotty's sister Shannon came over to like watch her for a couple hours. And I was going to a light Pilates class, and of course, halfway through the Pilates class, I'm not checking my phone, and I missed two phone calls from Bash and Aspen School. I don't see the number, um, the name pop up, so I'm like, oh, it's probably spam. And then I look down when I'm literally planking, and Scotty sends me a text being like, hey, just spoke with Bash's school, he's okay, no need to worry, something, something. I fly off my reformer and I run outside and I call him, of course, like panicking. And like when someone tells me not to panic, you bet your bottom dollar, I'm panicking. And so I talk with him, and apparently the teachers didn't know what happened, no one saw, but on the playground, a couple teachers turned around and saw Bash, like eyes rolling back on the concrete, um, which was one of his breath holding spells. They probably didn't know it at the time. I think one of the teachers thought he was having a seizure. Um, and so they scooped him up. He was coming too. They took him to like the principal's room for ice and to eat some snacks and whatnot. Um, anyways, Scotty's like, well, he's fine now, so like we can leave him there for pick until pickup in 45 minutes. I'll go grab him. And I'm like, absolutely not. I'm flying to the school just to like hold him and hug him. And so Scotty met me there because he was driving my car that has the two seats in for school pickup for Aspen and Bash. So um we ended up getting it to the bottom of it, and the villain in this story is his sister, Aspen. I guess he was chasing her with uh like sand and playing like monster, which she does at home. And I don't think she wanted to get sandy, so she pushed him and he fell and hit his head. I don't know on what, but I'm assuming that he probably hurt himself, was crying over that, held his breath, and passed out on the ground where no teacher saw him, and then they found him on the ground, which terri it was like my biggest fear as a parent, is him passing out at the school and a teacher not seeing him. Which of course, like there's so many kids, they can't see everything, and they were kind of in like a blind spot of going in between like the playground and to like the parking lot where the um like the bikes are where teachers are on both sides, but there's like this middle like tunnel area where I guess there was no one there. So that was um interesting and terrifying, and I hated every moment of that, but I guess I faced my fear unintentionally of not wanting to, but it happened and we survived it, and he's totally fine, but like things that you don't want to experience as a parent, and you do, and of course, it's like the one time I go and do something for myself since giving birth for just like you know, a couple hours. Um, motherhood always pulls you right back in when you least expect it. It's like you you put your guard down for a second and you take a big exhale, which you need, and then oh, never mind, you're needed again. Um, but yeah, so that happened. That was quite quite the

Postpartum Horror Movie Moments

SPEAKER_00 16:42

experience. Okay, so I don't know if anyone's seen the trend on TikTok or Instagram where it's like my top five horror movies are. Um, I'm probably late to the game, but I was like making one for myself of like postpartum, like, oh, what are the things that I hate the most during this postpartum phase? And so I thought I'd share my list just in case anyone else can relate to it. Number one is when my two older kids cough or sneeze directly on my baby. We try everything in the world to make sure that Scarlett stays healthy, and every single day at least one of our other kids is like trying to give her a kiss, and like buggers are literally attached from their nose to her face, or they will like cough or sneeze, they'll come up and just immediately like hack a lung right on her. Um, so yeah, I mean, I'm already stressed out that they're both like in school and everyone is always sick, but we so far, knock on wood, we have escaped her getting sick from this, but every time it's like an alarm goes off, like ah, absolutely not. Um, but they're almost out of school, I think, in a few weeks, and then they'll be back in summer school. But I feel like we had her at the perfect time where summer you typically don't really get sick. So we're escaping flu season as a newborn. Number two is when postpartum anxiety and postpartum depression start to creep in. Absolutely not. Old friend, I know you, I've experienced you, and it's not happening this time. I'm like on high alert. Now I have actually doubled my Lexapro. I feel like I spoke about that last episode where I said I was on five milligrams and it was helping. I ended up starting this past week or two experiencing like I would take it in the morning and I would start feeling like I never took my medicine, almost as if I skipped it. Like my eyes would get so droopy and heavy, I'd feel like I needed to fall asleep. And that's kind of the feeling I would have if I accidentally forgot to take it. And so, anyways, I started doubling up, so now I'm doing 10 milligrams, and I feel like a new person. I feel so good. I feel anxiety comes and creeps in here and there, but not as it did about a week or two ago. So that's something right now I feel like I have unlocked, and it was it's been my biggest priority the first, you know, few months after having a baby is like making sure that I am feeling good, and the second I am not, like doing something about it and just being proactive because I know how long it can take if you let it, if you let it ride out for too long. Okay, my third top horror movie is seeing your baby's first leap coming soon. If you don't know what this is, it's like those developmental jumps that babies make at very specific times in their age. If you have, I think it's called, is it Wonder Weeks or Wonder, yeah, right? Wonder weeks, it's an app. Um, and it'll show you like the exact days that your baby's gonna hit their their leaps. And I think the first leap happens around five weeks, I want to say it is. And so you just notice that your baby is like extra crank cranky or screaming, crying more, or can't be settled, just like very un yeah, very unsettled. And it's like a blessing and a curse to be able to have this app because it does give you anxiety when you know one's coming up, but you haven't hit it yet. So sometimes it's like ignorance is bliss, like don't open it unless you feel the need to be like, oh, are they in a leap? You can learn about the leap, like what's happening in their body, like what are they learning? What's what how are they growing that's causing them to be this irritated? So it's nice to have that, but sometimes I'm like, I'm not gonna check it unless, like, I don't want to know a week ahead of time that we have a leap coming and think about it every second until that day comes. It's like impending z doom, right? Impeding doom or impending doom. I don't know. Um, so anyways, yeah, that that is rough, but I'm pretty sure Scarlett's about to hit her first one. And I always feel like there's the leaps just feel like they happen all the time. Like it's like you finally come to the end of one, and then like this the next one is just right around the corner. Okay, the next one is wanting to stay in your newborn bubble, but then also getting anxiety and just restlessness from being in your newborn bubble where you want to get out because you can't stand the groundhog's day. It's like the first few weeks are like cute, and then you're like, oh my gosh, if I have to just do the exact same thing over and over and over again every single day, I'm gonna go crazy. So then you wanna be social, but then you also don't want to be too social because you don't want it to take the life out of you and be like, that wasn't worth it. I need five business days to recover from that. I don't know if anyone else feels the same way, but I like have this tug of war of like wanting to stay home, but then also wanting to go out. And then the last one is peeing anytime that I cough or sneeze. This is still going on. I feel like my pelvic floor is my weakest link right now. And I was doing that throughout my entire pregnancy, and I'm still doing it where I have to actually stop what I'm doing if I'm walking, cross my legs, and sneeze or cough. And Scotty, it Scotty's like, it looks like you're seizing every time you do that. And I have to do it in public wherever I am, otherwise, I will fully wet my pants. So, anyways, I will be getting back into Pelvic floor very soon once I can kind of figure out a little routine with her of not being attached to me because I'm pretty sure I can't have her on me while I'm getting my pelvic floor work. And she also doesn't like the stroller. Like she does not like to be on her back, which both of our other kids kind of were fine in the strollers, or especially Bash. I just, how do you get anything done? Like I can't we can barely drive in the car without her like needing someone back there to put a pacifier or a bottle in her mouth or something. So I feel like I can't really do much right now. Like I can't go to appointments and bring her with and keep her in the stroller because I'm gonna have to take her out and hold her. Anyways, this is like my brain, nothing that you need to worry about. But like maybe by me sharing this, you're like, oh, it's not just me and my baby.

Recovery Plan For Body And Mind

SPEAKER_00 22:46

So I've been focusing a lot this time on prioritizing healing and just helping my body recover after giving birth. It was something that I feel like I never really did the first and second time around. It was like, oh, my body will heal on its own, which it does, but I never really prioritized that. And this time around, I was like, you know what? I'm in my 30s now. I want to make sure that I'm healing correctly, and I'm doing all the things to really help speed up recovery and just support it the most because this last pregnancy, like the aches and pains were insane, and they were I felt like when I say geriatric pregnancy, like I want to say like a 75-year-old pregnant woman. And so this time around, I'm like, I want to really help bring back my body even stronger. Um, so one thing that I started doing right after birth was focus on eating warm foods. Apparently, this is really good for like reducing inflammation and just helping the body heal and recover quicker. So that was something I was really focusing on. I'm still kind of focusing on that now, a month out. I feel like it just doesn't hurt. Um, but I was not like in the past, I was a smoothie girl after having kids because it was so easy to make. And apparently that's not really great for the body. So I really focused on bone broth, just even sachets I brought to the hospital just for like a very quick and easy protein kick of like I think it's like 10 grams of protein just in like one scoop of bone broth. So I was drinking bone broth every single day, oatmeal. Um, my mother-in-law made me like an egg frittata, like a big plate of it that I could have every morning. So just doing those types of things um the first month. Also, Scarlet is absolutely snoring. I don't know if the mic is picking up on that. I'm sorry. Second is once I started feeling up for it, I want to say like a few days after coming back from the hospital, I was focusing on getting outside just for like 30 plus minutes, moving my body very slowly on like a little walk. And it was a little hard the first couple of weeks, like figuring out it was like a little intimidating, like, okay, how am I gonna get to do this every single day? I feel like we're just like feeding, changing diapers, getting the baby to sleep. And now I feel like we're in a great little routine where one of her first two morning naps, I will stick her in the carrier once I like figured out that she loves the carrier. So, like after a feed, I'll get her to fall asleep on my chest, immediately put her in the carrier, and just get outside for 30 minutes. I'll put a podcast in, do something, like make some phone calls to people that I want to talk with or catch up with, like friends, family, um, and just walk. And it passes time so much, and I feel so good, especially in like the first half of the day, getting out for some fresh air, because I noticed the days where I would try to aim to have an afternoon walk, and if I never got it done, I would just feel like a waste of space, like I got nothing accomplished that day. And so at least doing one thing for myself, like getting some movement in the first half of the day. If I accomplish nothing else, at least I feel really good about myself. So that always just like helps, especially with like a mental reset at the beginning of the day, and like especially in the morning. Um, that's something that's really helped me. And I just feel like my body is loving it. And like after giving birth, your digestion is slow. And so once feeling healed and like up for it, walks have really, really helped. Um, especially when you're feeling overwhelmed, like, or if the baby is screaming, crying, and won't stop, like you need a change of scenery, put that baby on your chest in a carrier once they're fed and just get outside for the both of you. And every time I've done that, it's been like night and day difference. Okay, number three is I've been focusing on body treatments, really helping all my organs to like get back to where they're supposed to go, and also help my uterus shrink. From what I've researched, it takes like six plus weeks for your uterus to go back to the size it was supposed to. I also don't quote me on this. I don't know if it was one or two pounds, but I'm pretty sure after giving birth, your uterus weighs one pound, which I feel like is pretty heavy. Like it's because it's so enlarged. Was it one or two? I can't remember, but I thought that was like a crazy fact that that you just don't really realize. So, anyways, one thing that I did a few weeks, I think at like three weeks postpartum, once I felt like I didn't really have any more stomach sensitivity, was get a full-body lymphatic drainage massage, which felt incredible. It's really good for ridding um excess built-up like fluid and water. I felt like I was holding on to a lot of that around my stomach region. And so just getting all that moving out, it reduces swelling in the body and also just help flush out those built-up toxins that accumulate in your body during pregnancy. I also ended with cupping, and the darker the spots on your body from cupping, it just shows you how much stagnation and toxins have been in your body and how much tension you hold. So that was something that I've been loving and I feel really good from after. Of course, like these treatments, they cost money. I know not everyone, like having a baby, like no, not everyone can budget having all of these things. So, like, by no means are they necessary. But if you have the opportunity or like are gifted one, it's these are my favorite things to ask for for baby showers or like birthday gifts or anything where it's like something for you, like a treatment that you wouldn't spend this money on yourself. So um, I just want to disclaim like you don't have to do these things at all. I don't expect you guys to, um, but it was something that I asked for for Christmas, and so I was gifted like a facial and um a lymphatic massage, so that's where these all these treatments are coming from. And then also not too long ago, I got belly wrapped. This is something I did with bash, and I did it, I think, around day three postpartum. I also had a C-section, so it was really beneficial for that. Um, it's called belly binding. The company, her um, the owner, her name is Princess, which is so cute. Um, her company's belly bind, but it's B-E-L-L-I. Um, I posted on my Instagram with a video too for anyone who's like looking for it. I'll also put it in the um the description if you're interested. But essentially it's like you wrap your your stomach and it helps, it's like a gentle compression and kind of just like holding and protecting your stomach postpartum. Um, it also helps your organs kind of find their way back to their place. It helps the uterus shrink. Um, and it just feels so good. It's like, it's almost like someone's just like gently compressing your body and holding it there, and it just feels like this really deep, nice, warm hug. Um, so I've loved doing that. I feel like that's I've noticed such a difference, especially like in my inflammation. Like when I take the wrap off, my stomach has shrunk a bit more, and I think that has to do with the uterus shrinking during those. I keep it on for like one to two days, and then you can also do like a virtual session with like a coach to teach you how to wrap. It's pretty easy, it looks more intimidating than it is. Um, and then you can just keep wrapping yourself as many times as you want to postpartum. You shower when you you take it off before you shower, and then you can wrap yourself up again if you want. So that's another thing that I love doing. I'm definitely hoping to get back into my acupuncture. I have yet to go, but this is something on my list to continue helping my body heal postpartum, more like my hormones, I want to say. Um, because I was doing it during pregnancy. I told I, if you've listened to my episode with Dr. Christine, she's my acupuncturist, um, and she talks about all the benefits it has for postpartum women as well. So that's something that's on my list to get back to once a week. And then I do want to get into the chiropractor to just make sure that everything is getting back into alignment. Obviously, like your bones and your hips um stretch out when you're holding a child. So I'm feeling some aches and pains. I want to do that, and then I also want to get them to work on scarlet because babies are so crammed in the womb and you don't really think about it, but it's so good for babies to get treated as well by an acupuncturist, obviously, one for babies, um, because a lot of the time babies can scream or cry and people think it's like colic, but sometimes they just need some adjustment work, especially for digestion. It really helps get their digestion in place, and I've heard that it helps them sleep better. So this is like my reminder to myself that I need to get this done right now, this week, or like yesterday. I should have been doing this, but I that's something on my list. I'm trying to check it all off, you guys, but there's just so much to do in so little time. So that's something that I will be

Guiding A Four Week Old Schedule

SPEAKER_00 31:39

doing as well. Okay, so let's talk about Scarlett's schedule. So she's four weeks old. Um, obviously, she's still eating every two to three hours and is awake one hour at a time, 45 minutes to an hour. Um, and that's kind of like how it goes at four weeks old or from zero to four weeks and on. And so what we've been doing is kind of like guiding her towards a schedule. And people have been asking, like, what's her schedule? There's there's not like a very strict schedule at this point. You know, they eat when they're hungry, they'll cluster for a long time, but we do now we're cutting her off of at naps at two hours. So she's pretty much napping two hours straight, especially on me, like right now. And um, then we will wake her up if she hasn't woken up on the dot and we will feed her. She's eating between, she's actually now at like three ounces of feed, and we are doing boob and bottle. So this is the schedule that we're kind of guiding her towards, or like she's also naturally, you'll start seeing like patterns in the baby. If you've had kids, like you probably are like, yes, we've that's kind of like you follow their cues, but we're also just guiding her towards we're looking at like an 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. or like a 7:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. Um schedule eventually. Right now, since she's so young, she's going to bed between 8 and 9, and that helps us like push the first um wake and feed time to later. So she's only doing like two to three feeds right now. So ideally, she's going to bed at 8 p.m. I'll get my phone out for this so I can like read the schedule. We'd want her to wake up at 7 a.m. So from 7 to 8, she will be feeding, burping, changing, all that. She naps from 8 to 10. She's up from 10 to 11, two to three ounces. And then 11 to 1, she will nap. And this is when I usually walk. So, like the first nap, I'll be home because I'm still getting the kids ready for school from the 8 to 10 mark. Um, and I have I'm trying to get, you know, look alive. I'm trying to look alive and get myself together. And so then 11 a.m. to one, she will nap, I will walk, and then one to two, she's awake. Two to four is her nap. Then she's awake four to five, and then she naps on me from five to seven. And this is nice because I'll wear her, and that's when I make the kids dinner between like five and five fifteen, they come back and they eat at six p.m. So that's kind of nice. And then we'll do like the bedtime bath routine with the older kids, and then she's awake from seven to eight. Bash usually goes down at like seven fifteen. Aspen, we try to get her 7:30, but she swindles us to like 7:45, 8 o'clock, and then 8 p.m. Scarlett goes to bed. Ideally, we'd get Aspen down by 7.45 latest, and then we'd give Scarlett a bath, 7:45, get her in her PJs, top her off with like an extra ounce of milk, and then she's in bed and hopefully asleep by 8-ish. And of course, like this doesn't always happen at all. Like sometimes she's going to sleep at 7:30 because she is so ready for bed, or sometimes if she skipped a nap and only got 30 minutes and you know, had an extra nap, sometimes she's going to bed at like 9. And so right now it's just like trial and error, but like we're guiding her towards that, and it's nice because you have that like predictability. And of course, like I'm I'm a little type A, and I just like to know a rough schedule so like the rest of the family can operate. And some other people are like, oh, my babies nap when they want to nap, and they nap in the car, they nap in at the park, they nap all over. Like, we're trying to do some of that, especially as now a family of five. Um, but I do like the predictability of like, okay, we'll be home at this time, that's when she's supposed to nap. This is what I can do during that time. It just helps us function a

Baby Products We Use Every Day

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little better. Oh, and then last, I don't want to forget, over the last month or so, I've noticed that there are a handful of products that I use every single day, multiple times a day. And some of them are ones that I have used with all kids, some of them are ones that I've just used with one kid, but I wanted to share them because these are like my I will die on a hill for these products, and they're ones that I bought or had on my registry, and someone bought like none of this is uh promo or I'm not being paid for this. It's just something that I have been using so much and I've been so grateful for it. So I wanted to share in case there's like any new moms um or moms that have just never tried these products in case you're interested or looking for something similar. Okay, so the first one is the Mom Cozy bottle washer. I know I've talked about this on like the registry um episode or just things that I was buying, but this wasn't around when I had Aspen or Bash. So it was my first time getting it. Oh my gosh. I used to dread bottle washing, like it was the bane of my existence. And because you'd have to like wash, like wash the inside of the bottles, the nipples, of that, and then you put it in the sanitizer machine, but it didn't, the sanitizer never was a washer, so you always had to take that first step. This mom cozy is incredible, it does everything. So all I do is like pour the milk out, I quickly swish it with the tap water and I just stick it in there. It does everything, and it has this little like tube that goes into the sink, so you fill the backup with water and you put one of these little tablets in it, and it washes it, it dries it, it sanitizes it. Like bottles are no longer an issue with us. Like, yes, we're going through a lot, but as long as we load it and unload it, it's like the easiest thing. And I know there's another the baby brezzo, we had that before, but I personally just think this is 10 times better. So mom cozy is where it's at if you're looking for a new baby bottle washer. Okay, second, you can see I'm actually wearing it right now. It's the Wild Bird um like baby wrap. I think it's called a wrap. It's kind of like the Soli baby, but it's not the Soli baby where you have to do the entire wrap yourself. It like has buckles on the side, so it's a little bit easier to put on, but it is so soft and stretchy if you're watching this right now. It is like this like stretchy cloth and it hugs the baby so well. It's not as um like stiff or itchy as some of the other ones out there. And Scarlet absolutely loves it. I use it every single day, multiple times a day. This is like the second time I'm wearing it, and it's only 2 p.m. And um I'm obsessed with it. I don't know if they're still doing the Mother's Day sale, but they were like up to 40% off, so I'll link it in the bio too if you want to look at it. But I absolutely love it. Okay, third thing is the snuggle me lounger. Ugh, I've used this actually with all three kids, and it's just the nicest thing to have in like the newborn days where you can just set your baby down. Obviously, like you have to keep them monitored. If they're sleeping, you gotta keep your eye on them at all times if they're not in the crib. But it's so nice to have, like, we'll bring it around the house, we'll put it um if we're in like the living room or um on our bed, if we're like sitting here, we'll just have her like lay there. And it's just so nice to have your hands free and have her to be set down flat somewhere. Yeah, we've used it, like I said, we've used it for all three pregnancies, and it was like the one thing where I remember every single time using so much. And then the fourth is magnetic or double zippered PJs. I think buttoned PJs for newborns should be illegal. I don't even know why people use them anymore. It is the most annoying thing having to do every single button on and off, every diaper change, which could be like every freaking hour at some point. Sometimes they have two poops in two minutes and you have to do it all over again. So, like the magnetic me uh magnets, especially in the middle of the night, are so helpful. And then also the double zippers, so then you don't have to really expose them if they get like cold or anything. Like they're just so much more comfortable when you just have the bottom zipper and you can just take their legs out for diaper changes. Okay, last thing that I just absolutely love is the Kikaroo changing pad. I had it for bash, not aspen. Um, for bash and now Scarlet, we have the same one. It's a little pricey for a changing pad, it's like $150, but we've used it for two kids. And to me, it is worth the cost. It looks like a little like peanut. Um, it looks really pretty too. It's on your changing table, and it's it's like a rubber. So if Pooper P gets on it, instead of like having to change the sheet of it that I had with Aspen, you just literally wipe it down and it's so easy, it's so nice, and that's something obviously we're changing diapers all the time, and it's just been such a game changer. Sorry if me rocking Scarlet has a bit distracting.

Giveaway Details And Closing Thoughts

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If you're watching, um, also I forgot to mention, but I'm gonna make sure that the Mother's Day giveaway is still running while this comes out. So if you haven't seen it, um it's on the feed, but it's also in the description here. Literally, all you have to do is write me a written review on Apple Podcasts. It's super easy if you can just give a couple words of what you think about the podcast. Um, I really appreciate it. It's how other moms find us. I've talked about this before. And I just love hearing what you think about it. And then just tag to mom friends in the giveaway post on the Instagram. That's literally all you have to do. If you haven't seen the winner, gets just like a lovely self-care bundle of all my favorite brands and products. You get a brand new GHD straightener, which I feel like we don't usually buy those types of things for ourselves. Like we will, we all of ours are probably like 10 years old. So I thought that would be a fun part of the giveaway. There's also my favorite hydration powder from Parallel in there, and just some other nice feel-good goodies in there. So enter the giveaway if you haven't already. It's super easy to do. Happy Mother's Day again, even though it's a little belated by probably when this episode comes out. I love you guys so much. Thanks for bearing with me as I'm wearing scarlet and just, you know, new moming and figuring out our way and our footing. As always, my DMs are always open. I love hearing from you guys and just what you love about the podcast, what things you want me to talk about or guests that you want on. Um, nothing's off limits, and love constructive feedback, whatever it is. I hope you have a blessed week and I'll see you next week.