Transcript:
This is Maureen Farrell and Heather ONeal and this is The Milk Minute. We’re midwives and lactation professionals bringing you the most up-to-date evidence for all things lactation. So you can feel more confident about feeding your baby, body positivity, relationships, and mental health. Plus, we laugh a little or a lot along the way.
Heather: So join us for another episode. Welcome to the Milk Minute Podcast, everybody. And Merry Christmas if you celebrate. I know it’s Christmas Eve and it’s little Heidi Mae’s birthday. The poor thing’s had a princess come to her birthday daycare thing. And then we had to do her dinner on a different day. And now today’s her actual birthday.
So that little thing has just been singing happy birthday to herself with a confused look on her face for like a week now, but we’re just going to let it happen. It’s going to be fine. She’s not going to get an inflated sense of self-importance. I mean, beyond what a normal three-year-old already has.
So anyways, today, Maureen is packing. She’s going to New York. And when you have a farm, you have to make sure none of the animals die when you’re gone. That actually takes a lot of work. And I can’t even fathom the complexity of that. So we’re letting Maureen have a little day and I’m going to intro for you the wonderful, the amazing, the lovely Laura and Shanna from the Big Fat Positive Podcast.
They have let us do a podcast takeover today as a gift to you and a gift to us and a gift to them, it’s a win-win for everybody. So this episode is about mom wins, and I hope that you take a minute to reflect on all of the mom wins that you’ve had in 2021. I’m sure there have been many of them, even if your entire year felt like a train wreck, you, my friend have had some mom wins and you should pat yourself on the back.
Shanna also does talk about weaning her eight-month-old. So if you are in a situation where you’re thinking about weaning a little bit early, this might be kind of cool for you to listen to. I hope you enjoy today’s episode. We are taking a little bit of a break and we’ll see you back in 2022.
We’re going to rest up. We’re preparing, we’re going to come back better than ever. And we are sending you all the love this holiday season, hoping that you guys are safe and happy and healthy, and that’s it. Kiss your babies for us. Don’t let anybody else kiss your babies and we’ll see ya soon. Bye!
Shanna: Hi, welcome to Big Fat Positive with Shanna and Laura. On this week’s episode, we have our weekly check-ins. We have a brand-new special segment called mom wins, where we celebrate the high points in our parenting life. We wrap it up with our BFPs and BFN’s. Let’s get started. Hi everyone. Welcome to the show. Hey Laura.
Laura: Hello.
Shanna: How are you guys doing this week? Start us off with your weekly check-ins.
Laura: So, okay. It’s week 28 for my baby. And that means we’re six and a half months, right? Okay. And the baby cold is still in full force, unfortunately. Yes, I know. So I think three weeks ago it was part of a virus which was mild, then it turned into a normal baby cold that I ended up getting.
And then I don’t know if I gave him mine, like, I don’t know if like he went parvo, then I got sick and then I gave him whatever I had. Or it was parvo. Then he got sick. Then he got me sick and we’re both still sick. I don’t like, I don’t know. I’m feeling better for the most part, but he is still coughing.
Like he’s in a great mood, but the cough just sucks, man.
Shanna: Oh, baby cough. Oh, it’s so sad.
Laura: And it’s been waking them up at night, which really sucks. It just hurts your heart, you know, like I’ll have the monitor next to me on my nightstand. And I’ll just hear in the middle of the night, like, and I’m just like, oh my little baby.
Like, I just want to go scoop him up, you know? And then he goes back to sleep, but poor little thing. So on top of that, his second tooth broke through!
Shanna: All right!
Laura: I knew it was going to be right behind the first one. And it was, so now he has these two little, it takes so long for them to get in all the way, you know? So he has these little like tooth buds, these little and they’re ridged, you know, like they’re so sharp. But they’re really, really cute. So on top of the cold, he got his second tooth and I’m so proud of him. And on top of all that, we’re getting ready to go on our first plane flight as a family.
Shanna: Oh, that’s exciting. Where are you going?
Laura: We are going to Portland where my stepdad lives. My mom splits her time between there and Fresno. So she’s going to be up there and we didn’t want to go. We we’re like, we don’t want to get on a plane. We don’t want to travel. We’re kind of homebodies, you know, we like traveling on our own terms, but we just didn’t want to do it.
And then my mom was like, I’m buying your ticket, you’re coming up. And it’s like, okay, well, how can you argue with that? So, yeah. So we are trying to figure out, like, I have like a packing list going, trying to figure out like all the things I need to buy. I’m going to try to just bring like minimal diapers and have my mom pick some up in Portland, you know?
Shanna: Oh, that’s a good idea.
Laura: Yeah. And we’re also going to borrow a travel crib from someone who went to my college, actually. Cause I went to college in Portland, Oregon, I should say Portland, Oregon. And so I know a lot of alumni in the area and I’m part of my alumni group for my college on Facebook. And so I put a call out saying like, does anyone have a travel crib? Cause my mom, by the way, she was like, oh, we’ve got two pack and plays. I was like, oh, can you tell me when they were manufactured? And she went and rummaged through and was like, oh, they’re you know, 2010 or something. And apparently packing plays before 20, I think it’s 2012 or 2014 now I’m not even remembering, but it’s later than 2010 are no longer considered safe because they changed the safety rules about them. Did you know this?
Shanna: Oh, interesting. I had no idea.
Laura: They like reinforced them, made it so that they’re less likely to collapse spontaneously or if they were like kicked in the wrong way or something and the, the bottoms more reinforced apparently. And I looked it up and there were apparently like 60 infant deaths associated with these old pack and plays.
Oh, no, just awful. And I don’t know how long of a period of time and whether they were set up right or not. But either way, I’m like, I’m not messing around with this. You know, I was like, we could bring our brand-new pack and play if we wanted to, but I put a call out onto my alumni board and they were, and there were like three people were like, yeah, yeah, you can have it.
But the first person who offered was like, I’ll just take her up. And she was between the airport and my stepdad’s house. So it was perfect. So we’re going to go pick it up on her porch after we arrive.
Shanna: Oh, that’s so great. So nice. Moms helping moms. Parents, helping parents. That’s so great.
Laura: It is so great. People are so generous and also I get it cause. I have this thing it’s in my closet, like, yeah, please get it out of my closet. Like I, you know, we use it three times a year, you know, or whatever, please take it. So that’s exciting. So yeah, I have, we have all the stuff. We’re trying to pack up and figure out. I got a FaceTime call from my mom she was at like the little, there’s actually a resale store, like a kid’s resale store right around the corner from their house.
And so she’s like giving me like a visual tour of it and it’s, and she’s like, okay, there are two jumperoos, which ones you want me to get for him while he’s here? I’m like, you want to get a jumper? She’s like, I want to get them a jumperoo. He loves the jumperoo. I’m like, okay,. But she got a jumperoo for $35.
Shanna: Okay. Well, there you go. That’s worth it.
Laura: And the woman I overheard her, she was like, you didn’t sell it back to me at the end.
Shanna: Brilliant. I wish I was right around the corner from a kid’s resell shop.
Laura: Because kids, they don’t use stuff for very long. It’s crazy how quickly they grow out of things. So, yeah, that’s great. So our sort of biggest thing we’re actively doing this week in anticipation of going up to Portland is we decided to move the baby out of the little baby bathtub that we had, that we would put in our kitchen sink and we’ve moved him into the big boy bathtub.
Shanna: What is, what do you mean big, big boy?
Laura: By that I mean the actual tub that all people use.
Shanna: People tub.
Laura: The people tub. I was going to like get some kind of contraption for him to sit in, or I was going to like, the little plastic tub that we had been using. I could have like set into the big bathtub and have him like sit up in it. But I again asked my alumni group I’m like, what did you people do when your kids got too big for the sink?
And the consensus was like bathtub with a couple inches of water. Like he’s sitting really, really well on his own. They’re like, you know, obviously you have to be on top of him at all times. You know, you, you can’t even turn your back for a second. But if he’s sitting well, he’s going to love the big bath.
Yeah, boy were they right! Oh my God. He loves that bath.
Shanna: Awesome.
Laura: Loves having the huge, you know, area that he can like splash in. You know, I’ll like tilt him back carefully to like rinse his hair off and he starts kicking his legs and he’s laughing and he has all his bath toys now. He has like six toys in there. Of course, all he really wants to play with is like the spout I used to rinse them off with, but he ends up just being surrounded by toys and he loves it and actually is faster because I used to have to fill up the little baby bath and then I would like drain it and rinse, cause it would be full of soap.
But in the big bath, there’s not that much soap that, you know what I mean? Like it’s enough water even with like two and a half inches or three inches of water in or whatever, there’s enough water that you don’t have to like drain it and refill it, you know?
Right. So it’s actually much, much faster to get through the whole actual bathing part. And then the rest of it’s just like playtime and he is really enjoying himself.
Shanna: That’s so fun. I love that. It’s those little tubs are only practical for so long. Like I have one that’s like, if you put them on this side, it’s for newborns. If you set them this way facing the other way, it’s for infants and toddlers. It’s like, toddlers are not going to tolerate tiny tub. My girls already, like last week I mentioned, and she’s pulling to stand. The second she can realize she can do that she’s like standing in that tub because I put that tub in the bathtub.
I didn’t do it on the counter. And just like, it’s like, you got to just ditch it and go with the big tubs. So, yeah, it’s a whole new world.
Laura: I do have a question for you though, since you are experienced in the big tub situation. Is what do you like kneel on? Do you have like a mat or something? Cause it’s kind of awkward for me and I don’t really know what I’m doing.
Shanna: Oh girl. Do I have a tip for you? Yes. Good. I hate kneeling on the side of the tub. Hate it. I, I won’t do it. So what I do, especially now that she’s in the big tub is I have a stool, like a little foldable stool, and it’s really for Elle to like step up onto, you know, and brush her teeth at the counter. I put that in the tub and I put it over by the spout and all of the like hard stuff that she wants to crawl on and it could really hurt her face.
Yeah. Like the stopper piece that goes up and down and it’s like very sharp and long. So she always of course, wants to go over to all that stuff. So I take the stool and I put it in the tub and I block all of that stuff. And I sit with bare feet and just like, give her like three quarters of the tub. And she plays on the safe end and I’m in the tub with her, you know, a little bit like I get a little bit wet, but it’s fun.
I feel like I’m in there. I don’t have to kneel and I just sit really low next to her and that’s what I do. And that’s what I did with Elle too, until she got older.
Laura: I like that. And also your feet get clean.
Shanna: Yes. Then you go to bed with clean feet.
Laura: I don’t know about you. I’m always walking around barefoot or with sandals and my feet are gross. Like at the end of the day, I’m like, Ooh.
Shanna: Yeah. So your feet get so clean and win-win.
Laura: I’m going to have to try that. And then I have to try that.
Shanna: Yeah. And even when you are ready to not be in the tub with them, you can put the stool on the outside of the tub and sit on that. So you’re not at least kneeling or sitting on the floor. So that’s my hack.
Laura: Okay. Awesome. I’m going to try that and I will report back. Cool. Anyway, that’s my week. How about you? What are you doing? How old is your baby?
Shanna: She’s great. She’s 32 weeks, which is seven and a half months. Yep. And we have a couple big things this week. The first is we have started finger foods.
Laura: Oh, okay. Yeah.
Shanna: So we were only doing purees before or really like mushed up, you know, banana, avocado, that kind of stuff. And so I feel like she’s crawling now. She’s probably ready to try, you know, picking things up on her own and working on her pincer grasp and eating little bits of food. So we went for it.
Laura: Okay. So what did you start with?
Shanna: We started with the puffs. Do you know what puffs are?
Laura: Yes, I recall the puffs with your first daughter, but why don’t you tell the world what these puffs are? Cause I don’t remember exactly what they are.
Shanna: Yeah. They’re in the baby food section and they’re like little rice puffs that are made with like little rice and then like blueberry or banana flavor or whatever. And they’re really small. They’re not a choking hazard. They melt easily in the baby’s mouth and it’s a perfect thing for them to practice picking up and I did that with Elle of course. And so I was like, well, I’ll do that with CeCe. She’s going to love this. And by the way, putting your child in a highchair with a few puffs for them to practice pinching buys you a lot of time if you need to do the dishes.
Laura: That is a good idea.
Shanna: Or feed the dogs it’s. Oh my gosh. Trap them in there, do your shit. So she’s she was doing those and she was really great at it, but I don’t know if you remember way back I, when I first talked about how I introduced rice cereal to her and didn’t realize for four weeks, that rice upset her stomach.
Oh yeah. Oh, that knowledge went out the window, apparently because I was giving her these rice puffs and then like three days later, I’m like, why is she so upset and cranky and like screaming all the time. So her body does not like rice. So we ditched those and now we’re doing, like, I cut up little pieces, banana really small, or like, little squares of avocados, as opposed to like the mushed-up stuff or cut up blueberries and stuff like that.
And so, yeah, it’s fun. It’s kind of a whole new world and it’s so cute. Her little face, like, what is this new texture? She makes just the most funny faces when she eats things that she’s not used to.
Laura: But this is different than baby led weaning, right? Or is it the same idea?
Shanna: I am not a hundred percent familiar with baby led weaning because I did not follow it. I did read about it. But from what I understand, baby led weaning you don’t ever even start with purees. Like they, I think what that is is like the baby’s a person who can eat, just give them food. And I personally didn’t love that idea. I wanted my baby to start with purees and then move on to finger foods. So I don’t know what exactly I’m doing. I don’t know if it’s got a, a name.
Laura: It’s the Shanna method.
Shanna: It’s the Shanna method. Coined that phrase, make a million dollars.
Laura: It’s interesting because I read a little bit about baby led weaning. I love the idea of it like philosophically. I was like, yeah, the baby is a person they can just eat. And they won’t choke because, you know, whatever. They it’s, it’s how babies have been fed for millennia. Why are we doing purees? But then when I started thinking about like, actually implementing, I was like, this seems hard and dangerous. I’m just going to mash up some food. Yeah. And so I was like, man, I can’t do it.
Shanna: Yeah. For me, I just didn’t see the point. She’s four months old when I started, like, I’m not going to give her a hunk of meat.
Laura: Well, I do think that’s also a thing is that when you do baby led weaning, you don’t start them on solids until they’re like six months for that reason.
Shanna: Probably until they’re more, yeah.
Laura: Yeah. And I wanted to start my guy early because after talking to Dr. Robert Hamilton, I always want to say like, in the, in the Hamilton style. Dr. Robert Hamilton, because he was Dr. Robert Hamilton, I just can’t help myself. And, but he was talking about early allergen introduction. And so when he talked to us about that, I was like, Ooh, I got to start early.
So that’s why I wanted to start early. And it was too early to hand over hunks of meat. So, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Shanna: So that’s a new thing on our horizon. And then the other thing also related to feeding is that we’ve started, oh God, I feel like kind of nervous saying this or maybe emotional. We’ve started weaning breastfeeding.
Laura: Oh, wow.
Shanna: So yeah, I know a while back, I told everyone that I introduced formula and I was only doing it for like one bottle a day, just to give myself a little break. And I’ve actively made a decision to do mom led weaning, like I’m making the decision because it’s either that or baby led like the baby’s like I’m done.
And I just, I don’t feel like I want to wait around for that. And I feel like we’ve made a good run. It’s almost eight months, I think by the time we’re totally finished. It’ll be about eight months. And I went six months with Elle so I feel I’ve got a ton of mixed feelings about it. And of course I’ve been doing a ton of Googling about it and everything. So just wanted to put it out there that that’s the road we’re on.
Laura: So how long does it take? I don’t know anything about weaning. Like I assume you just start feeding less and less and less. How does it work?
Shanna: Well, there are a lot of ways if you’re. If you want, you can go cold turkey. Right.
Laura: That sounds painful.
Shanna: Yes. That’s the thing that it can be painful. It can cause engorgement, mastitis, a lot of negative consequences for that. And I’m not like desperate to quit or anything, you know. I’m totally fine to just phase it out and just see how it goes. So what they suggest is to drop a feeding every week or every few days.
So like the 9:00 AM feeding. I’m like, I’m just gonna try a bottle of formula at that feeding and see how she does. And I do that for a couple of days and she’s great. And I’m great because I don’t have to nurse again. Because news flash, if everyone’s been listening to this show so far, I’m not a huge fan of breastfeeding.
And I’ve had kind of a hard time, so it’s exciting in a way it’s like, I’m like, I’ll try it and see, and see if I feel too guilty or see if she protests. It’s always how I approach is like, I’ll just do it and see what happens. And it was fine. So we did that for several days and then I’m like, you know what, I’ll try dropping the three o’clock feed and see what happens and do formula instead.
And we did that for a while and you just the plan, my plan. Yeah. The Shanna plan, I guess, is a plan. This episode yeah. Is to do that every week or so until it kind of, there’s only one left and then none. So we’re not there yet. Yeah. We still, we’re still nursing like three times a day, I think, down from five. So here we go.
Laura: That’s so interesting and exciting and that means that’s the end. That’s barring some really unlikely circumstance. That’s the end of breastfeeding for you, right?
Shanna: That’s right. If I don’t find a baby on my doorstep next year, this will be the end of breastfeeding. Although I guess I couldn’t technically breastfeed that child.
Laura: You could though. Did you know that you can induce lactation? Same-sex couples will do this a lot so that they can both, by the way sounds awesome. I’m like, man, that’d be a benefit to being married to a woman. So like she could also induce lactation so you could share the breastfeeding duties.
Shanna: Yeah. That would be amazing. Yeah. Do you know how they do that?
Laura: I only know like the rudimentary stuff. If any of our listeners know, let us know. Like it’s basically, you have to take a bunch of drugs and I think you have to pump a ton. It doesn’t sound fun. Like, it sounds really hard, but apparently it works. It can work for a lot of people, so.
Shanna: Wow. Yeah. That’s cool. That’s cool.
Laura: But again, probably unlikely that’s going to happen for you.
Shanna: Yeah. I don’t see it in my cards.
Laura: Well that’s exciting though. Changes, changes are afoot.
Shanna: They are, yeah, baby’s getting bigger. And we’re changing where we’re going with the flow. All right. Should we move on to our special segment?
Laura: Yes, let’s do it. Let’s do it. Okay.
So we’re back and we actually have a brand new, special segment this week. We wanted to mix things up a little. We have a bunch of segments where we offload our gripes in gripe water, or we talk about our BFNs, but we realize we want to do something where we celebrate the great things that we have done in our motherhood journey.
So we are calling this Mom Wins! with an exclamation point. And wins is both a noun and a verb, right? Mom Wins and Mom Wins. Right? So we want to celebrate the great stuff that we’ve done. Toot our own horns a little bit. I don’t know, Shanna. We, I don’t even know what you’re going to talk about. So let’s find out what this Mom Win is on your end.
Shanna: Okay. So you all know that I am a work from home mom. And part of my deal is that occasionally like once a week or so, I go into the office for meetings. And I had a meeting coming up. It was actually a lunch meeting. My team, we’d been planning to get together and have lunch. We had a couple of new staff members.
And I really wanted to make a point to make it to this meeting. And part of my plan as a work from home mom is to rely on what the company offers that’s called backup care. So there’s a daycare nearby that I can arrange to drop CeCe off and pick her up later in the day. So they watch her while I go into work and do my meetings and stuff, and I pick her up, go home and it’s fine.
So I’d been relying on this method to cover all my meetings and it was backup care. So I was like, it’s a last-minute thing. It’s for like, when parents, you know, caretakers get sick or something comes up. So this was like the frame of mind I had approaching this backup care. And so the day before the meeting, I put in my request, like the next day I need backup care cause I have this meeting I really want to go to.
And they call the next morning and they’re like, your backup care was denied. You can’t bring her in today. Oh no. What? Shit! This was like 8:30 AM. And the lunch was at like 1230. And I was like, oh my gosh, what do I do? And so they’re like, well, we can call another facility that’s in Sherman Oaks. It’s not as close to where you need to go, but we can try. And I was like, yes, please, please, please, please try. So they called and they couldn’t take her either because they were already booked up. So both of these places were booked up at the last minute. I’m like, oh my God. And they’re like, the last thing we could do is we could try to find a sitter to come into your home and watch her while you go, which is an amazing benefit, right?
Like the fact that I even have this benefit available, like someone working on my behalf to try to find a daycare or a sitter is amazing. And so I was like, okay, yes, please do that. And so I’m like getting ready to go into the office and like, oh my God, what am I going to do?
I’ve like, totally screwed this up. Why didn’t I make this reservation earlier? I knew about this lunch earlier. And so they call back and they’re like, we can have someone come to your house and she’ll be there at one o’clock. And I’m like, this lunch is at 12:30. I can’t. Yeah. And so part of what, the reason I’m so desperate for this to work, and I want to come across as a very competent employee.
I’ve got a very special situation going on that I’m incredibly grateful for. And I want to always make it seem like I’ve got my shit together.
Laura: You gotta. Yeah, appearances. You got to say like, yeah, I’m getting all my work done from home and I have no problem coming in for these meetings. Absolutely. Nothing is going wrong.
Shanna: Exactly. So behind the curtains though, like shit’s hitting the fan, I’m like, oh my God. What am I going to do? And so I messaged, Steve. Steve actually works at the same company that I do. And I was like, Steve, is there any way you could like watch CeCe while I’m at this lunch? Like, what if I drive down there, hand her off to you and you like, go do something with her.
And so I’m please, Steve, can you do this? And he like, I’m really busy, but if this is the absolute last resort, I will do it. I was like, oh, thank you. It is. It is. No one else is coming through. And I’m getting ready, getting the baby ready. And I drive to the restaurant, which is near work. And Steve meets me in the parking lot and I try to get there early so none of my coworkers see me doing this.
I get there. I hand the baby off to Steve. I like, in her carrier and the baby bag. Give it to him. He clicks her into his car and he like takes off and he goes like drives around the park or something. I don’t even know what he did with her. And I like stroll in I’m early. I’m the first one there. And I’m just like stroll in like, yeah, I’ve got it together.
I’m all good. And so I make it for the meeting. No one any the wiser and then Steve’s exit time comes. It’s like two o’clock. He has to be back at work. He has a meeting and our like; we haven’t wrapped up yet. Like it’s small talk at the end of lunch and blah, blah, blah. And I’m like getting so antsy, so anxious.
And I know he’s out, back in the parking lot, waiting for me to come get the handoff. And so I was just like, you guys actually, I have to take off. So this was like three minutes before everyone else was going to take off. It’s like, I gotta take off. And they’re like, okay, bye. And I’m like, oh, I’ll be back online soon.
And I go back to the parking lot expecting I’ll just grab that carrier, clicking in and be on my way I come out and Steve’s out of the car with CeCe in his arms. She’s got shit everywhere all over. The hugest blow out she’s had in her life, the trunk’s open. He’s like laying out the changing pad. I was like, what are you doing?
They’re inside. They’re going to come out any minute now. They’re going to see that I don’t have it together. Oh my God. My facade is going to be ruined. And I don’t think I I’m like, let me take over. I don’t think I’ve ever like whipped together a changed, blow out so fast in my life. I’m like Steve, wipe up the seat.
So he’s wiping the seat and I’m cleaning CeCe and he’s like, do you want this extra outfit? I’m like, fuck, no, put her in her diaper. I put her diaper in the car seat. I click her in and I’m like bye! And no one came out. No one saw me. I got away with it. Until they all hear this.
Laura: Until they hear this podcast.
Shanna: Amazing. So my God, I have to say, I did not give myself credit for this at first. I was extremely anxious about it and I was like, you know, this is a sign. I just don’t have it together. I felt really bad about myself and Steve, you know, I was telling this to Steve and he’s like, what are you talking about?
You did it. Like it worked, you did what you had to do. No one was any the wiser you did it. And I was like, oh my God. I did do like; I did do it. Okay. Cool.
Laura: Yeah. You made that shit work against all odds.
Shanna: Yes, I did. And thank God for Steve and you know, him being able to help out and the fact that he didn’t happen to have a meeting at that time. So it all worked out and I was so grateful I didn’t have to be like, sorry guys. I can’t make it to the meeting because of my mothering duties, my mothering duties. I avoided it. So, Mom Wins!
Laura: Mom Wins! Yes. That is a big win. I can’t believe you even ever thought that was a, not a win. That was like some super momming right there.
Shanna: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, that was fun to get off my chest. Oh my gosh. What about you? Do you have a Mom Win for us?
Laura: I do. So this is a much smaller story but is no less momentous and I just have to share. And I’m actually surprised I haven’t talked about it on the podcast yet. I’m pretty sure I haven’t.
It happened actually a few months ago, but it’s still like one of my proudest moments. So I just really want to make sure that it’s out in the world. People need to acknowledge. It’s the time where I’m most sad that my nest cams turn off when I’m home, because I wish I had surveillance footage of this cause it was so good.
All right. So my baby boy was a couple, he was only a couple of months old, right. He was like three months old I want to say. So he was smaller and we were nursing. And the reason why I mentioned that he was younger is that when they’re a little younger, it just like, I don’t know if it was because I’m not as skilled at it, or I wasn’t as practiced or it took longer, but nursing was kind of a hands-on activity at this time.
So even though I had my breast friend pillow, he was on my lap. I was on the couch. I had my legs like crossed underneath me and then he was nursing and I was sitting on my couch. And our couch is on top of a like area rug. We have hardwood floors, but there’s this big area rug that, for some reason we thought buying like a beige light-colored area rug was a great idea before I was pregnant.
But also we had two cats so like, what were we thinking? But anyway, so we have this light-colored area rug that’s constantly getting dirty and we’re constantly having to like spot clean. I’m sitting there, I’m nursing the baby. And all of a sudden I hear this like, oh no. And I know that sounds. That is the sound of the cat vomiting or a cat about to vomit. Anyone who has cats knows that sound.
Shanna: Oh God, dogs too. They make a similar sound.
Laura: So like, there’s this whole, like run-up, if you don’t have a cat or a dog and don’t know what I’m talking about, they don’t just vomit. There’s like this whole like series of sounds they make, and then they vomit.
So they give you a little warning and usually it’s like, you’ll hear if you hear it in the middle of the night, you like run out and try to like, find them and like catch them or whatever. And my cats have an uncanny ability to find spots that are, that’s not the hardwood floor. Like we have hardwood floor throughout our house and they will find the smallest, like throw rug to vomit on.
Shanna: They’re like it’s a throw up rug.
Laura: Exactly. So I’m there. I’m nursing with both my hands. My legs crossed underneath me and I hear this and I’m like, shit. And I look, and I see Magnus my older cat, across the coffee table for me. Right. Like he was just like a little like hop away and I see it. Of course he is retching on top of the white area rug.
Oh my God. I was like, shit. I was like, I can’t get up. What can I do? And I looked down and on the floor right next to me on the couch is a burp cloth. So with one leg, I uncurl one leg with my toes. I pick up the burp cloth and I fling it and I fling the burp cloth and it flies through the air like a pizza dough, you know, like a Frisbee and it landed directly underneath his freaking face and caught the vomit in like a split second before it came out.
Shanna: Oh my God, that is a thing I need on video. And I need it in slow mo and I’m so sad this doesn’t exist.
Laura: I cheered! I flung this across and it landed and I was like, Oh my God, no one is here to experience this amazingness. Why? And I was like immediately calling Corey. I was like, you would not believe what I just did. The Coda to that is that cats never throw up once. No. Ever. So he backed up and let loose again. However, it got like half on half off the burb cloth, but, but so there was less to clean up at least.
Shanna: No, that’s amazing. And the fact you did it with your foot. Ridiculous.
Laura: With my foot while nursing.
Shanna: Yeah. No, that is multitasking to the max.
Laura: I just, oh, I want that to be on my, like in my obituary.
Shanna: Oh my gosh.
Laura: I want that. Yes, please. Yes. If I die before you. Laura one time, in the winter of 2019, she flung a burp cloth with her toes and stopped the cat from soiling the rug too much.
Shanna: Oh man. And I feel like that’s especially commendable because catching, I had a cat growing up and trying to catch a cats, throw up. I’d like grab a piece of like notebook paper and like try to get it under their mouth. And then they would like recoil and back away and go. And like, they just hated it. So the fact that he like didn’t mind that that burp cloth was flying at him like a pizza box or whatever. And just was like, yes, I’ll just vomit on that and all of it together. It’s just a perfect moment.
Laura: Oh, and by the way, like never losing a latch on the baby.
Shanna: Oh, hell yes.
Laura: I feel like, you know, my baby has an agent. My baby I’ve breastfed him for, you know, six and a half months. No, my proudest moment flinging that burp cloth with my toes. So that’s my Mom Win, and I’m so glad I finally have a venue to share it.
Shanna: Yay. Congratulations. I’m very proud of you.
Laura: You know, we should do a dramatic recreation. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t think I could re- I don’t think I could do it. I don’t really know.
Shanna: Yeah. I mean, you could keep trying, you could work on that for the next year. Yeah.
Laura: Anyway, that was very fun. Should we take a quick break and then move on to our BFPs and BFNs?
Shanna: Yeah, let’s do it.
We’re back and we are going to wrap things up as we do every week with our big fat positives and big fat negatives. Laura, what do ya got for us?
Laura: I have a BFN this week.
Shanna: Why?
Laura: Well, I’ll tell you. So the BFN is foot pain. It’s just like general
Shanna: from all of that burp cloth flinging you’re doing.
Laura: I have a burp cloth flinging related injury. I wish it was the explanation. I mean, then I would wear it with pride, but yeah, my feet are just aching all the time. It’s not a specific injury, you know, it’s not like, oh, my ankle hurts or I have plantar fasciitis or whatever. It’s just that I’m guessing it’s because I’m like 20 pounds heavier than I was before I got pregnant.
And then I’m on top of that lugging around a 15-pound baby, like all the time. Right. And my baby is actually like very light he’s on the 10th percentile in weight, and I’m still like, oh my body. But, and I also think maybe I sit cross-legged a lot, which is probably a bad thing for your feet. I don’t know.
But when I stand up from sitting, I feel like elderly. I feel like, I mean, is that agist? Like I just assume elderly people have aching bones, maybe not. Yeah, some do. I’m sure. But I like have to hobble for a couple minutes cause they’re so stiff and in so much pain and I got brand new shoes thinking that was the problem and it’s helped a little, but not much. So I don’t, I don’t know what even is going on.
Shanna: What kind of doctor would you even see for that? Like a podiatrist or?
Laura: Yes, maybe I should go see one because I have maxed out my deductible and out of pocket for the year.
Shanna: Do it. That’s exactly the type of thing you should take advantage of when you’ve maxed everything out.
Laura: Yeah. That’s not a bad idea. Maybe I’ll find a podiatrist, see what’s going on with my feet. But anyway, it’s just, you know, you’re on your feet a lot, you know, I’m home. I’m not working. And yet you think like, oh, you’re just sitting around all day. Like if, if you asked me what I did all day, I’d be like, we just sat around all day.
But then if you really like break it down, it’s like, well, you basically are doing squats all day, like picking a baby up from the ground and standing up and then putting them back down. And then I end up going on a ton of walks. So I just, yeah, my body’s just feeling it. I don’t know. I avoided back pain, thankfully, and like wrist and shoulder pain mostly, but the foot stuff is really, I wonder, I’m so curious if other listeners like new moms, if they’ve experienced foot pain after giving birth. Please tell us, please tell me. And if you’ve figured out how to fix it, let me know, please.
Shanna: I know I wish I had any, any insight for you, but that’s not something that I ever, ever happened to me. So I’m not sure what that is.
Laura: Yeah. I don’t know. It’s, it’s totally unexpected for me. So anyway, thank you. It’s not like I have to take ibuprofen for it. You know, it’s just that I stand up and I’m like, Ooh. Ah, Ooh. And I, I, it’s almost like, I feel like I can’t really like bear weight really hard without it aching for a while. Like I hobble anyway. Right? Yeah. I’ll sort of, I’ll use this as an impetus to actually look into it as opposed to just complaining about it and I will keep everyone posted.
Shanna: Okay. That sounds good.
Laura: Anyhow, how about you? Do you have a BFP or a BFN?
Shanna: I have a BFP.
Laura: Great.
Shanna: I’m on a BFP run lately. I’ve had several, the last few episodes and I do have another one. Yeah.
Laura: Good. We just want BFPs all, I mean, the show is called Big Fat Positive.
Shanna: That’s true. That is true. So I recently signed CeCe up for a class at a place in LA called My Gym and we love it. So My Gym is, it’s like a little kid’s gym, basically with like, all kinds of activities that they can do. Like there’s a ball pit and like little slides and things they can climb. And the teacher leads a class where we start with like stretching and warmups and do songs. And it’s so cute and she’s only seven months.
So it’s like a ridiculously young age to be doing something like this, but A. Like something to do. I need to get out of the house. So I planned it so I can do this on my lunch break. And so I take her over there and we get out, we see people and she loves it. She just loves seeing people. She just lights up when she sees others.
And she’s such a physical baby. Right. She loves crawling and she’s already pulling to stand. She’s active. Yeah. And we did the same thing with Elle. We took her to my gym when she was the same age. And at first, you know, there’s not a ton they can engage with, but I watched Elle develop confidence in the playroom over the course of months.
And she just dominated that place so quickly after gaining confidence. And, you know, she learned so much balance there and strength, and I think CeCe will really benefit from that too. So I’m excited we’re there and excited to have an opportunity to get out of the house and, and do something special with CeCe.
It’s tricky having a second child. Because, like I mentioned before, like I took her to the beach and only took one picture of her. Right. Like sometimes I know sometimes she gets overshadowed by having a big sister. And so it’s like a thing that just me and her can do. Like, I took her and we introduced the baby.
Right. I like never had introduced her before like this way it was like, this is CeCe. And like, just, I don’t know, it was like a whole new chapter starting of my relationship with her. It’s like me and her doing stuff together, which is such a strange thing to say, cause it’s like you and your son have been doing this stuff since he was born.
And I do spend a lot of time with her, but it’s just different. It’s different with the second child. So I’m excited to get that like kind of one-on-one special time and see her flourish.
Laura: Your time is very split. You know, like you have, you have two of them to take care of and your job. For me, I’m kind of in this bubble still of not working and, you know, we go to all these activities because sometimes like bored as shit. You need to do stuff. I love my mommy and me class and all that stuff. So I get it. I love having, you know, little outings and I think it’s great to do stuff one-on-one. I follow this woman who has triplets on Instagram, The River’s Triplets.
I think I’ve talked about them cause they had like the same due date as I did, but they were born early you know, triplets. Yeah. But she actually has been doing things where she like goes out with one of them they’ll have like solo days.
Shanna: Oh, cool.
Laura: You know, it makes sense because when you’re a triplet, you never got solo days, you know? So, so I think I like the idea of that. Yeah. I need to look and see if there’s a, My Gym near me. I think there is.
Shanna: Oh, really? Yeah. You guys should try it. It’s fun. We did it for a real long time with L and it’s just wonderful. And I think like if there’s not a, My Gym near you there’s Gymboree is another similar type of place. Any of these like little kid gyms, it’s fun.
Laura: Yeah. I think maybe when he starts moving a little bit more, he’s still just happy to sort of sit. He’s a very good sitter. Yeah. And jumper, jumperooing, but that’s it.
Shanna: Yeah. You’ll want to wait. I waited till she was crawling and moving before I signed her up. So.
Laura: Cool.
Shanna: All right. Well I think that’s it for us this week. Yes.
Laura: Yeah. Yeah. I think let’s wrap it up. All right.
Heather: Good Lord, that episode was hysterical. Laura and Shanna, you two are a dream. Thank you so much for taking over our podcast today. Listeners, I hope you got to laugh and that you feel like you’ve made two new friends because we truly have. And we couldn’t be more thankful for Laura and Shanna and The Big Fat Positive, and all the amazing work that you’re doing with your fans and the stories that you’re willing to share.
So, if you would like to follow The Big Fat Positive, you can find them on Instagram @BFPpodcast, or you can find them on their Facebook group, Big Fat Positive, The Pregnancy and Parenting Podcast Community, which is very fun. So please go reach out to them. We’ll put those links in the show notes, and we really hope you enjoyed this episode today.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
