Wake Up, It's Us

Grand Reopening!

Colin & Kelli Wakeman Episode 6

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0:00 | 47:43

We’re baaaaaaack! Join us as we catch you up on what we’ve been up to since December: holidays, snow days and plane travel lessons.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, everyone, real quick. Kelly and I are gonna harmonize.

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We're done.

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No. You don't like it?

unknown

What?

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Is it not good?

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Oh no. We're done. I guess I need to work on that.

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We're done.

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Anyways, welcome back, everyone.

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Live.

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We are live. This is the Wake Up It's Us podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Colin Wakeman. And with me is Kelly Wakeman. My beautiful wife. And it's been a minute.

SPEAKER_02

It has. What has it been? Uh three months?

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Probably December. Since December.

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Yeah, three months. Wow. Because it was, I think it was before Christmas.

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Yeah. Yep. Yeah, we got hit hit by the holidays. I felt like hard.

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Yeah. We just kind of needed some time to like recoup, and then once we kind of were ready to get back into it, I feel like we just kept procrastinating.

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Always finding a reason not to uh podcast. Probably more so no but we're back. We're back. We're so back.

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We are so back.

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We're so back. This is like gonna be a reintroduction video. Uh who we are, what our podcast is, and then essentially a recap of the past three months.

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Yeah, I feel like a lot has happened. Yeah.

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Um, just as reintroduction. Obviously, I'm Colin Wakeman, and co-host is Kelly Wakeman. As you heard in the intro. Making hand gestures like say something. Say say your name. Um, yeah, this is our podcast. It's titled Wake Up It's Us. And uh where we talk about our life journey experience as new parents.

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New ish parents now, gosh.

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Newish, oh yeah, eight, eight months in.

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Eight months today. Noah is eight months old. Two days.

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Yeah, it's March 11th. Eight months. That's crazy. Um, he looks like a fully grown human already. I don't even know how that's possible. And yeah, love and life. So holidays. Starting off there. Holidays went well. Yep.

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Spent quality, quality time with family.

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Quality time with family. Little time up in Northern Virginia. And then little time down in Richmond. Yep. Noah had the chance of meeting his great-grandparents. Yes. Right?

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Yes. So my mom's parents.

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Yeah.

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They met him back in December. Um, that was a great time. It was kind of a group of us. Um, a group of um, my Ohio family came down for kind of a long weekend. So they all got to meet Noah, which was a lot of fun.

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They all got to roll around on the mat with him.

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Yeah, and Noah. Maybe not everybody, but my parents moved into their new house, which they kind of built from the ground up.

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Kind of. They did, sorry. No, but um I think we talked about that briefly.

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Yeah, but they finally moved into the house. I don't I maybe have mentioned that before. But it's all furnished and everything. So when we went down in December and he met the great grandparents, yeah. They were joking around. Oh my gosh, it would be so funny if Noah just, you know, spit up on these new brand new chairs. Just as that sentence was like finished being said, yeah. Spit up nice all over the chair. He's eating.

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It was great. I don't know what it is. He was more regular, knock on wood, he was more regular with this spit-ups after feeds.

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Yeah, that kind of longer that changed a little bit. Maybe like two months ago. I feel like he rarely spits up now. Yeah.

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I'm sure there's some science out there somewhere. Maybe better uh control esophageal.

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Maybe because I feel like that's also kind of when he started a lot of more of the a lot more of the like food.

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Solids. Yeah. Yes, we did have a solids episode. That was very basic at the time.

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Oh my god.

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We were we'll we'll talk about that. Okay, okay. Um, that was the holidays. They went great. You and Noah went on a escapade. On a trip to Arizona.

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Yes, in January. We went.

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So what are what are some components that go into a trip? Step one.

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Step one. Well, I had to kind of create a whole packing list. Because I we've traveled like short distances before. I think the longest we've traveled with a baby was three hours away. Three foot, maybe four, four to five hour drive. Yeah. But this is the first time that Noah's ever flown.

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Yeah, Noah's first flight.

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Yeah, so we had to look, I had to look into like renting, you know, crib and like chair for him. I had to think about like traveling with a pump and with baby things that he needs for, you know, an extended period of time.

SPEAKER_01

So that was for for people traveling with a baby, for those who don't know, uh what did you use service or site to rent a bassinet and or crib?

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Yeah, so there's a couple different like kind of well-known um like sites out there. I found one that was more of like a local local to Tucson like rental uh company, maybe company or individual, yeah. Um, but it was great, relatively inexpensive. They literally dropped the stuff off at the rental before we even got there.

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What did you end up renting?

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The crib and then like a seat for him to sit in. Nice. Um then we she also like picked it up, like we just left it outside of the door and she picked it up on like we didn't even need to be there, which was great.

SPEAKER_01

I wonder how that works. I wonder if they had did they do you know if they had to communicate with the Airbnb or is it just like a drop-off?

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No, it was just a drop-off.

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Interesting.

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Yeah.

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Um, how much did it cost you?

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Uh four, I think it was four nights, five nights, the crib, and this the chair, I think was like fifty bucks, sixty bucks.

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In total for all the nights.

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Yes. Nice. Yes.

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So for any anyone listening who has a baby or is having a baby, that's a good resource. So that'll that'll make traveling will be hard nonetheless, but that'll make it seem slightly easier.

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There are rental companies, and you can rent other things like strollers and so we actually purchased or second-handed a Duna stroller, which is a car seat, and that can, you know, become a stroller and vice versa. Yeah. Which I think was well worth it. Honestly, just for that trip. Yeah. Um that another thing I use Noah's diaper bag as kind of like a carry-on bag. So that was kind of a hack because I was able to put like my stuff in there too.

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Because it's a pretty big thing for the plane, yeah.

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But then once we got to Arizona, I like unpacked it and then use it as a diaper bag there.

unknown

Nice.

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Yeah.

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So highly recommend that.

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Because how how long was the trip total? You said five nights? Give or take.

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Four nights, five nights, four, five nights.

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Sorry, I forgot you'd mention that.

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Um well, the plane ride there, he was great.

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Um how long was the plane ride?

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It was probably it was almost five, it was probably about five hours there.

unknown

Hell yeah.

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We had a great time. Saw Sigoro, Sigoro Cacti.

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I don't know how to pronounce it. I'm pretty sure that's how you pronounce it. I was gonna attempt, but it was a good one.

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Saw the sister. She's out there. Um went hiking, carried Noah on a hike, which was fun. Like front carried him.

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With the baby carrier.

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Yep. Um, this like really steep incline.

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Yeah.

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Incline hike. Oh, I forget what it's called. Didn't you think? But the views were impeccable.

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Did you have to do like a bear crawl with him?

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Well, he was in his Duna.

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Oh, oh.

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For that one.

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Oh my god.

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Yeah. The one that was more of a walk I wore him. That one was it was kind of like rocky. Okay. But it was it wasn't like incline or anything.

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Okay, so a little easier walk, but potential for ankle rollage. Oh, definitely. Yeah. Oh, good. Was anyone around you to spot as you walked?

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Yeah, I went slower. Okay. Um shore footing. Yeah. Good. Yeah, but he was great. He had a good time. We tried to keep him on um our time. So instead because I think it's two hours. Either one to two. Two hour time. Yeah, it's but we tried to keep him on this time, which uh was smart.

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Um, so if you if you're in a different time zone, like say his bedtime was originally if it's his bedtime is like 7 30 here. Yeah.

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It is 5 30 there.

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Okay.

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So he would just go to bed earlier and then wake up earlier. Oh nice.

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What were some of the wake-up times?

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Um, he actually did really well sleeping-wise, between 5 30 and 6. But my parents were angels and they helped in the morning so I could go back to sleep.

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So so far you had a successful plane ride there.

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Yes. Yes.

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It was a success.

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Some good excursions.

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It was a success because you were able to rent some of the supplies you needed for the stay.

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Um you had a funny, we were at a restaurant, um, and he had a blowout. Didn't realize it until we were putting him back in the car.

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Because you could smell it.

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I could smell it. And then we had to like diaper change him in the trunk. And then his clothes were just all covered, ruined. Uh. So we had to make a uh detour back to the Airbnb to pick up some more clothes because, of course, that was the one day I forgot to pack.

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Pack an extra pair of clothes with a diaper bag. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, so it wasn't that far out of the way, but we had to do like a little he was just naked in his car.

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Well, no, he he had a diaper, right?

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He has a diaper, yeah.

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So he was almost commando.

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He was just chilling.

unknown

Nice.

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So that was funny.

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I mean, what was the temperature there? It's not like he was cold.

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I mean, it wasn't, it was pretty mild, actually. Like when we were there, 60s. Yeah, maybe 70 one day. Okay.

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It was actually pretty you just put a blanket over him.

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Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Good.

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He was probably happy as a clam.

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He was. He had a great time. Nice. Um, and then on our way back, tried to keep him up.

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So flying, flying.

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Flying back from Arizona to DC. Gotcha. And there was no layover. So mind you, this is just a one. Yep. Get on, get off. We kept him up like a lot of the morning had his normal morning nap, but then we kept him up kind of midday to try and get him onto the plane when he was really tired, which worked because he was like in the airport right before we were boarding. I was like holding him in my arms and he was like falling asleep upright. So we fell asleep kind of right before we boarded, boarded, and then I made the mistake of like setting him down to take off my sweatshirt.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, so he was already asleep when you got on the plane.

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Yes. Okay. I made the mistake of kind of putting him down for a second. No, I think I was putting I was putting on my sweatshirt because the plane was cold.

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Yeah.

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Which backfired because yeah.

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You were sweating.

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Yeah, it was then sweating because he woke up and then he got really like worked himself up and he was just crying non-stop for it. It was probably a good 45 minutes. Wow. It was terrible. And I was like rocking him, but it was also when like it was when the plane was ascending, right? So he was continuing to cry even as we were starting to go off. So I couldn't get up out of my seat to kind of like try and rock him because we were going up in the air. But fed him a bottle. He eventually got tired, fell asleep for a little bit. It's probably about an hour. Um, then he was okay for the rest of the time, but that was that was brutal.

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That was rough. Yeah. He was there sweating.

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Yeah. Yeah. And then I was sweating because I put my sweatshirt back on.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That started the whole backfire. Yeah. Oh man. Well, in the whole time he was crying on the plane, did you notice anyone else around you? Like, were you ever concerned? Like, oh no, he's causing a disturbance.

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I mean, yes, that was in the back of my mind, but honestly, in that moment, it was literally just like me and him in this like bubble. Just like me just trying to like corral him or calm him.

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Yeah, just like calm him down and like maybe if I squeeze him really hard.

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It was so sad.

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Oh man.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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But we got through it.

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And I was not there, everyone. I was at a bachelor party. But Kelly decided that was a good one. But my parents were on the plane too. Yes.

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We which was smart because I don't think I could like have boarded a plane with a Duna, which we checked at the gate, also holding a baby and the diaper bag and my carrion. It was a lot. Like I don't think I would have done that by myself.

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Ideal scenario, first travel experience via plane with a baby. Try and go with somebody.

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Yes, and less is more when it comes to like toys and entertainment. Yes. Noah was enthralled with a spoon.

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Ooh, good vocab word.

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A spoon for 45 minutes on the plane right back. And my mom had this app. So if anyone is a cold play fan, there was an app that she downloaded from a concert or something. And you pressed the screen and it just made like a little dot that like made a little noise and then a like a little bubble, like a colored bubble. And so he was um just kind of tapping that and playing with that for like 30 to 45 minutes, also.

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Nice.

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Simple things.

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That's basically the whole flight.

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Yeah. It was I was exhausted.

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Oh man, how long did he nap on the flight?

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Uh on the way there, probably about an hour and a half, two hours. On the way back, probably about an hour and a half.

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Okay, that's not bad at all.

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Yeah.

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And it's usually pretty quiet on planes.

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Except for Nova.

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Well, I mean, he's the one causing the ruckus.

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But it's usually at least I definitely have a lot more sympathy and like understanding for parents.

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Parents with crying babies.

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Yeah. 100%. Yeah. Like before, I didn't even, I don't know why I'd never like put myself in someone else's shoes. I'm like, oh my gosh. Like there's a baby's crying. Dang, I'm trying to sleep. And then you're a parent and you're like, oh S. Oh. H-I-T.

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He's just tired.

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He's just doing his thing.

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Yep.

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Yeah.

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Well, glad you had fun. And you're going back.

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We're going back for a girls' weekend in April.

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Yeah, just you.

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Yeah. Without Noah.

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So Colin. Without Colin and Noah will be vibing. For how long again?

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Four days.

unknown

Oh boy.

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I leave Thursday night. Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Come back Monday.

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Okay.

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So like three full days. I will survive. Four full days.

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I'll survive. We'll survive.

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You will. We'll check back in, everyone. You know, Noah. You know him. You got it.

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Um, okay. Arizona trip. That was early January. Um, what else did we have on the docket?

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Working. Noah's in daycare.

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He's love and daycare.

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Um, I feel like he's learning a lot because the other kids, that I think two other kids, they're older. They're like one and two years old, maybe.

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Yeah, so he has uh uh examples to follow.

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Yep, and I feel like he's learning just from like watching them, which is great.

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And her family is involved, and she has uh she has younger, our daycare lady has younger kids, so he has some examples to follow there. Or absorb absorbing knowledge and information. Um, okay. It was nice and warm in Arizona, then you came back to the east coast.

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Where we had our first freaking like big snow in a couple years ago. Which ended up kind of being more icy.

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Yeah. I'm sure anyone who's listening in the Northern Virginia area and probably the eastern seaboard hated that snow. My gosh. Northern Virginia was just that icy snow stuff, the worst. It was yeah, the worst. It wasn't a lot of snow by any stretch, but like probably hard pack like what felt like three inches of ice on top.

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You could walk without like sinking.

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It was interesting.

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Yeah, gosh, it was the worst.

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But we didn't have a sled.

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Correct. We we both wanted Noah to get some experience out in the s snow ice. Um, but it was so dang cold. Uh, he didn't spend too much time outside. He was how old was he? He was probably still five-ish months.

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Six months. No, not even. It was like what last month? Huh? It's March. It was in February, wasn't it?

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Uh I don't know anymore. I don't know. I don't care. I don't wanna I don't wanna relive it. Um, either way, he was five or six months. Uh, so still in my mind very fragile.

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It was the end of January.

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And it was very windy and cold outside when it was like it felt like single digits with the windshield.

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Yeah, it was bad.

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But because we didn't have a sled, we had to make do. And Kelly had the bright idea of reusing a Huggy's diaper box, and we slid him around on the top of the snow like a hockey puck.

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It was great.

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For maybe, I don't know, like five or ten minutes.

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Yeah, it was very brief.

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Yeah.

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But you would not let go of him. I had a little like chain pull. He enjoyed it, I think.

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I think so. I I don't know if he knew what to do with the the super cold temps. Yeah, I think that, yeah. I don't think he enjoyed that too much. And this this glare off of the snow. That was awful. After the 10 minutes, I was like, okay, this is cool and all, but let's get him back inside. This is no not an environment for a well, we just wanted him to experience the fun of sledding, so the fun of sledding, very minimal, yeah, brief.

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And not real sledding, but couldn't even make a snowman, I would say. No.

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We'll have to uh do better next time. So his first snow, the lovely sled.

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End of January.

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I thought it was February.

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It wasn't, it was the end of January.

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Oh, okay. There you go. Um, let's see. Solids.

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Solids. Yes.

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The evolution of Noah trying solids. So right now he's eight months today. Doesn't have any teeth yet. Yeah, that's crazy. Swabbering like a pit ball.

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That's crazy. We think that they're coming because you can kind of see this like whitish line.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Yeah, and he's been, I feel like he's been gnawing more like on his hands and on things. Yeah. I've noticed that.

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So kind of feeling his gums with his fingers.

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So I think it's coming.

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Doesn't have teeth yet, but we started, and I think it's in one of the previous episodes when he was four months.

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Mm-hmm.

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We started five, maybe very small amounts of like single ingredient whatevers. But once six months hit, the pediatrician was like anything. Free range. Yeah. Free rain. I mean, within reason, right? You're gonna mush up foods and whatever we felt comfortable giving him. Uh so it started with like sweet potatoes, uh made like minimal ingredient pancakes, yeah, like black bean fritters.

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Yeah.

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Like if he tried some bread, like the flesh of the bread, not the crust. Very small amounts. Um But now it's I mean, whatever we whatever he's willing to eat.

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And honestly, it's so great because like we make we can make dinner and then We just make him a little bowl that's like extremely chopped up.

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Yeah. Uh some examples like tonight he had uh pasta with so cooked pasta, marinara sauce.

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Homemade marinara sauce, homemade meatballs.

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There were meatballs in there. Nice. And then you put cottage cheese in there.

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Yep.

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Iron stomach with all that protein.

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But we cut up the or broke up the pasta so it was really small.

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Yeah, it's like macaroni-sized uh spaghetti pasta. Um the man loves bananas.

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Oh my god.

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Can't get enough.

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Oh my god. He c we pick them up from daycare, and um she tells us kind of what he eats for the day. Like a little synopsis, yeah. It's like every day, every other day. Two bananas. I'm like, uh two.

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Me as a grown adult struggling. I my banana in my lunchbox is like a flat Stanley. I take a banana to work, I'm like, look at me getting my potassium in, I'm gonna crush it today. And then I eat everything else because a banana just doesn't sound inviting, and I bring it home.

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Yep. Yeah, which just takes a field trip. Yep. And then it goes to our fridge.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. And then I it's either consumed or turns into banana bread. Yep. At some point in time. Um what else does he enjoy? Uh sweet potatoes.

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He really likes the Japanese sweet potatoes.

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Japanese and your typical sweet potato. Mac and cheese, we've been told.

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Yes, he tried that at daycare. We haven't made that for him, so we'll have to try that.

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He's been having some rice, like mushy mushy rice with some uh beef and chicken, beef and broccoli.

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We made that the other week. He enjoys that. Yeah.

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Uh what else?

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Gosh, I'm just applesauce.

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Yeah. Applesauce, yogurt, yogurt, yeah. We haven't given him peanut butter yet.

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Yeah.

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But thinking of allergens, he has tried eggs, fish.

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Yep.

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Um, any other seafoods? I don't think so.

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I think he said salmon and then he's had like a white fish with a daycare.

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Whitefish, yeah. Catfish-esque, we've been told. Yes. Or something like catfish, but so far so good.

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Um I literally don't know if there's anything that he has been like appalled at except there's one item he has not loved so far.

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The Trader Joe's chicken meatballs.

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Shout out Trader Joe's. We love you, but our kid doesn't love your chicken meatballs.

SPEAKER_01

Right, right. Whatever flavor there's what did you think they were like oregano or something?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I think it was very heavily spiced with oregano.

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Okay.

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So that may be it.

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Maybe hold off on the oregano chicken meatballs.

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Well, I don't think it says oregano, but it's just the original chicken meatballs.

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Okay.

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But I am we got ground chicken. That's why we got ground chicken this week. Because I'm gonna make your own tame down. Yeah. Homemade chicken meatballs.

SPEAKER_01

Um, yeah, so our solid's journey with Noah's going well. Um he has unlocked the skill of drinking from a straw. Oh yeah. From well, I'm sure any straw, but we have a little fun little sippy cup for him. Um we're still it it's still minimal water consumption. Um, at least from my understanding, like a baby's kidneys aren't quite equipped to handle large water consumption until I want to say a year.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, but that's when you start weaning off of but they do need it when they start solids to kind of keep things moving.

SPEAKER_01

Wouldn't milk help with that?

SPEAKER_02

I mean, yes, but I mean, I I guess I say need, but I think it's recommended.

SPEAKER_01

I would ask your pediatrician. If that's if that's a question on your mind, ask your pediatrician. We've asked ours, and they say like one to two ounces to like wash down some solids. Yep. But that could be like with um at this point in time, he's wouldn't have three meals a day. He doesn't need three meals a day, but we're just introducing solids to get to the point of having three meals a day.

SPEAKER_02

Hopefully, yeah, by that one year mark for sure.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. Um, but just a little water to wash down, but still minimizing just water by itself in large quantities. Um great. Um, he's getting real handsy. Yep, he's figuring out his his uh his digits. Um semi is are getting real close to the pincer grasp, which is your thumb and pointer finger grabbing smaller items. Yep. Um, so we have these fun little, they're called melty hoops. They're almost like baby funyions. Just whatever the flavor is. So these are like mango little mini baby funions. So you'll kind of pointer, finger, thumb those. Um figured out army crawling.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. So he does this little like snake, snake-like army crawl using his head for momentum just to get some all the way back and forth. Yep, just to get some forward forward and sideways progress. Um, yeah. How that's essentially our report on Noah.

SPEAKER_02

He's awesome. He's very chatty.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

He loves to just like make noise, finding his voice, yeah, which is really cute. Yeah, I'm actually really enjoying. I thought I would really miss the newborn stage. And don't get me wrong, I do. I miss when he was like teeny tiny. I miss just like his little, you know, baby cuddles sitting in your arms and not flailing all over the place. Well, yeah. Um just sleeping on you and all that, but I am loving him right now.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, his wiggly face.

SPEAKER_02

His wiggly face, his chatty face. And I feel like I can actually sit on the mat and like play with him because there are times he'll like copy you. Like the other day, we were sitting, I was sitting on the mat. We were playing with a little ball. Yeah. And I was showing him, I was like bouncing it off. I was wearing a long dress, and I made my dress like taut, and I was bouncing it off the dress.

SPEAKER_01

Like a little trampoline.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and I did it a couple times, and then he picked it up and he like just dropped it on my dress, and I was like, What?

SPEAKER_01

Whether on purpose or by accident, it was in the same area.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Loving it. Um I'm also enjoying this age. Um, because he's so attentive.

SPEAKER_02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01

Wanting to watch everything.

SPEAKER_02

Oh my gosh. Like when he's drinking a bottle, he gets distracted so easily.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. He's also holding his bottle by himself.

SPEAKER_02

He is. Oh, he's been doing that for a while, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01

A little less uh like physical involvement on our end in terms of feeding. So we could just place him on the couch and just hand him a bottle and he'll pretty much.

SPEAKER_02

I feel like his his hearing has like gotten extremely good. Yes. Like, for example, this morning, this morning. Okay, you it was Colin's early morning. We and it was still, it was what, like 6 20, 6 30. We had to get Noah going because they usually leave by about seven. Well, you have to go to work early, is what I mean. But um, so we had to get him up and going to go daycare, and uh instead of kind of going up like to him and like you know, rubbing him awake or whatever, all I had to do was just kind of make some noise on the wood floor. Just some just some stepping noises, and there he was. He rolled right over and he picked his little head up. He's like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

Good morning. It's so funny. It's me again.

SPEAKER_01

And he always saves good poops in the morning.

SPEAKER_02

He does, yeah, like right before you leave, too. Yeah, the most convenient time, either right before you put him in the car seat to leave, or there's been a couple times where you've put him in the car seat, and then we've had to take him out and change him on the fly.

SPEAKER_01

I have it, I have the timing down to a science. And he knows that. And he said, Okay, we ready to leave, Dad. I'm about to poop my pants, and you're gonna change my ass.

SPEAKER_02

Uh, uh one way of looking at it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, he's just comfortable, he is so, so comfortable. He just relaxes and just falls out of him.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So that's Noah in a nutshell right now. And we're always just surprised because we have a little uh we have an aura aura frame. So it cycles through photos in our living room, and we see photos of him in newborn stage.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, and we're like we're just flabbergasted.

SPEAKER_01

At how large he is.

SPEAKER_02

I feel like we taught I've mentioned this before, but it's weird to like look back at photos and see how small he was. But then it's hard, it's hard to imagine what he's gonna look like in the future.

SPEAKER_01

I wonder if sorry, this is a sidetrack. If I take a sip of this and they can hear me swallow the beverage.

SPEAKER_02

Let's try.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Oh, I maybe heard a really tiny register. Sorry, I just had to whet my whistle.

SPEAKER_02

With wine.

SPEAKER_01

With wine, yeah. Nice and relaxed, under some blankets. Sorry, what did you say?

SPEAKER_02

I don't even remember. We were talking about the aura frame. Oh, yeah, yeah. But sidebar. Um highly recommend that as a gift for Christmas, for you know, a parent or wedding gift. I got we got ours from my parents instead of like a coffee table book. And I really like it. Yeah. Um, you know, it cycles through photos, so it's kind of like constantly showing you what, you know, any photos that you add to it.

SPEAKER_01

And you can you you can decide if you want to share the info with family or friends, and then they can upload photos to it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you can. You can kind of add your family or friends, and they can add photos too, which is cool.

SPEAKER_01

Yep, share at your own risk. We haven't had any haven't had any funny ones yet, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, but highly recommend. I totally agree. Or a frame.

SPEAKER_01

It's like a little mini TV.

SPEAKER_02

It's nice.

SPEAKER_01

And this screen child likes it.

SPEAKER_02

A screen child, you screen child? Me screenchild.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. I'm I'm the screen child. Um, gosh, I feel like I had something right on the tip tip of my brain. Uh, him getting older.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, it's hard to imagine what he's gonna look like when he's older.

SPEAKER_01

I know what I was thinking.

SPEAKER_02

Do to tell.

SPEAKER_01

Noah's now part of the 20-pound club.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, baby.

unknown

Woo!

SPEAKER_02

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

What was he? He was eight pounds.

SPEAKER_01

Eight pounds, seven ounces.

SPEAKER_02

Seven ounces, I think. No, eleven.

SPEAKER_01

Uh I don't remember.

SPEAKER_02

Hold on.

SPEAKER_01

Holding.

SPEAKER_02

Hold the phone.

SPEAKER_01

Well, either way, I'll I'll hold the line because he's now a 20 pounds baby. Woo! We think based on our yeah, we did a rough measurement on a bathroom scale.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, eight pounds, seven ounces. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Did I say nine or seven?

SPEAKER_02

No, you said seven.

SPEAKER_01

That's right. Well done. I know or something.

SPEAKER_02

Well done, dad.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. So he's in the he's in the twos now, which is amazing. The twos.

SPEAKER_02

He's actually in the threes.

SPEAKER_01

Well, diapers. Sorry. I mean like twenties.

SPEAKER_02

I know, I know.

SPEAKER_01

Um, to me, that feels like a milestone.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Because he was in the teens for a little bit, or for a lot of bit.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I feel like he'll be in the 20s for a bit.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

A good chunk.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I would say so. Um, yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02

And we're having a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. His uh uh I'm excited for him to be in the 20s, but his cousin is also in the 20-pound club. Oh whoa! That's right. That's right, baby. Bunch of husky boys out here. I I will say his cousin's three months younger. But he's a hefty lad himself. Can just eat them both with a side of fries. Butter them up. Butter them biscuits up. Um, how has it been for you these eight months?

SPEAKER_02

That's a very vague question.

SPEAKER_01

Sorry. Okay, so as a new parent, um, how do I want to phrase this? How do you feel like your mindset? We'll take it in like three month chunks.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

He's not quite nine months, but like first three months, what was kind of your mindset in terms of taking care of Noah?

SPEAKER_02

First three months. We both can change. Uh, that's hard because I feel like it was so new.

SPEAKER_01

This is a eight eight to nine month check-in.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. Well, he this whole experience was so new for that three months. Like, we're not parents before. It's gonna be very different if we have a second child because we kind of know what to expect, but because it was so new, yeah. Walking like blind, like like blindly almost, just kind of taking one day at a time. Yeah. Um, yeah, working and like figuring out daycare scheduling and just also having a kid was um interesting to navigate. It's definitely kind of more definitely more difficult. Definitely kind of more difficult. Definitely more difficult on like the mental side.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um, there are definitely days where it's hard for me to like, I feel like even now, like I can't my brain is never 100% like at work. I I'm always there's always like a piece of it, just kind of like thinking about Noah, wondering how he's doing.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um yeah, so I the three months is hard because then you're also I was also trying to focus on like me too, yeah, which was hard with a baby. Yeah. Um because I wanted to give everything to him. Yeah. But then there was also me who needed to recover and do all that good stuff.

SPEAKER_01

Um do you want me to talk about my Sure. My my three months. Uh probably very very similar to you. Um I will say, like, going back to work. Um I mean, I don't I think it'll it's easier for the dad. Um, we obviously also have a strong connection. Like I also felt such a strong connection with Noah, but it probably felt easier for me to go back to work as opposed to you to go back to work because I mean I I didn't give birth to him. Yeah. So like uh and it's only proven hormonally, like the mom has a strong tie. Um it ties into like breastfeeding, milk supply. Yeah. Um all of that. So but probably in terms of the father's headspace, it's like, okay, just gonna put the head down, nose to the grindstone, just start working again to provide whatever I can. Yeah. Yeah, for for the family. And then whenever you get home, you just try and support your uh your spouse or partner as best you can. And then try and take the load off just to give you a break whenever it's whenever it's needed.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you do. Thanks. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01

I would say the hardest part, uh, at least from my viewpoint looking in was trying to see where the need was. So like say if you're pumping. Like, okay, I'm on NOAA duty. Take care of him if he's not napping. Um or like just being cognizant of like, okay, when when's last time Kelly has showered? Yeah. When has Kelly showered? Say, okay, go take a shower. I've got Noah. Or he's good, he's sleeping, go do your thing. Um, but just try and do some of the smaller tasks, dishes, laundry. I felt like laundry man. Yeah. Just always always doing that.

SPEAKER_02

Very much appreciated because laundry is not my fave chore.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Baseline. Yeah. So that was roughly zero to three months, just figuring everything out. Honestly. Some sort of schedule or mindset going into everything. Yeah. Yeah. Setting up a baseline.

SPEAKER_02

I feel like I can't really break up. I mean, I probably could if I were to like go into nitty-gritty details, but I I think the four to now is probably a is better. Yeah. Yeah. Just I feel like after once we hit that like four-month mark, I feel like we got into a good groove and like evolves at a potato stage. Yes, that. Um, but I mean a good groove like all together. Like that was kind of when I started, you know, going back to like my regular exercise. So I had that back in my life, which was very helpful mentally.

SPEAKER_01

Only regularly scheduled but modified in terms of intensity. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um getting back to work and getting into a groove. Like the first like month, month and a half, I was like, it was a struggle.

SPEAKER_00

Just off.

SPEAKER_02

Just like trying to like, this is a priority. I'm like, is it really though?

SPEAKER_01

Um in terms of at work or just something just like work something other than a headspace at work.

SPEAKER_02

Like, is what I'm doing like why am I here? You know?

SPEAKER_01

Just like what this email isn't my child. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Gotcha. I feel like that's kind of when that uh kind of flipped over. Was that like four to five months? Yeah. Um, because I do like having, you know, like a career. That's I feel like that's always been important for me.

SPEAKER_01

A set. I I feel like I function well with with uh with a set schedule. Like if it if it was a schedule that would like everything was just up in the air, like I don't think I'd do amazing.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Well, I feel like we've gotten really good about kind of like knowing, like, you know, I pick up Noah this day, this day, this day. I kind of know like what time I get home now, so I can plan like meals, you know.

SPEAKER_01

Um all that being said, if give if you're thinking about setting a schedule, give yourself a little grace. Um have yeah, have a in my mind it's good to have a general schedule set so that everyone knows what's going on, and then in our case, Noah, but kiddo knows and feels what's going on. So, like hopefully kind of sleeps, wakes up relatively at a certain time. Um they get used to the idea that okay, like we're gonna eat at this time.

SPEAKER_02

That's like at you're talking about like the at this, like in the four to eight months. You're talking about it. I was gonna say the one to three, I would not focus on like no any sort of like semblance of schedule, like at all.

SPEAKER_01

You just you just do what feels right.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. He they're just too small to like I mean, maybe depending on the baby, maybe like a three month mark, but like the first two months, they just do what they do. Yeah, there's no yeah, like real schedule, I would say.

SPEAKER_01

I felt like if we if we responded well enough to his needs, Like I didn't feel like we needed to keep too close of a track on wake windows. I didn't really care how long his naps were as long as he had some naps.

SPEAKER_02

Agreed. I I'm definitely um in the philosophy of never wake a sleeping baby unless like now we have to wake him up to get a daycare.

SPEAKER_00

Why?

SPEAKER_02

But like nap wise, never wake a sleeping baby.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Uh unless it's like week one or two. And you have to get him back to birth weight. But that's that's the only exception. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, never wake a sleeping baby asterisk. There are times when not maybe needed, but for the most part.

SPEAKER_01

So and then that four to eight time frame, I feel like pretty good schedule set.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, because we kind of know like when he wakes up, he usually has like a morning nap.

SPEAKER_03

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02

And then wake window, and then he usually has like a mid-afternoon nap.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And then he's up for a bit.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And then nighttime. Yeah. It's pretty, it's we've gotten in a good groove recently, so we kind of know, you know, we should go out and do this thing, or we should wait till he's at this time because we know he'll be napping, or yeah, etc.

SPEAKER_01

I've also um like if we take him out to go do activities, like it might it might take longer than that point middle point of the day where or like bleed into like where a potential nap time would be. Yep. Um in my mind, I'm just have the understanding, like, okay, let's like let's just roll with the punches. If he naps, he naps. If he doesn't nap, we just try and make him as comfortable as possible. Yep. So that he either learns to nap outside of home uh in a car. He he loves his car naps.

SPEAKER_02

So he does love his car naps.

SPEAKER_01

I know even if he's not napping wherever we're at, he as soon as we hop in the car, he's knocked out. Yeah. So just roll rolling with the punches and when in doubt, message your pediatrician. If you have any random questions, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But when in doubt, message your pediatrician.

SPEAKER_01

Hit up Google if you have sometimes if you have any simple questions. Okay, if you have any complex questions, message your pediatrician.

SPEAKER_02

Or like if you have friends who have babies and have any recommendations or like uh recommendations, yes.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yes. What's what's worked with them? Take all the information outside of that with a grain of salt, but have your core core group of information between probably mostly your pediatrician. If you don't like your pediatrician, get a different one.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, that is important.

SPEAKER_01

Find find someone you like. We like our group.

unknown

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

Um, yeah. That is a recap catch-up of our lives and NOAA.

unknown

Yay!

SPEAKER_01

How'd it go?

SPEAKER_02

Great.

SPEAKER_01

All right, everyone. Pleasure as always. And we will catch you in the next one.

SPEAKER_02

We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_01

On you say it. Say what?

SPEAKER_02

Wake up, wake up, it's our podcast.