Show Notes:

Background on Jessica: Jessica is a health communications specialist turned stay at home mom (during COVID!). She is currently living in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, and moved from a suburb of Washington, DC where she had lived for the last 10 years. She is married and has two young children – ages 4 and 1-year-old. She also has a dog, Nimmy. In this episode, we talk about her pregnancies, which certainly were not easy, adjusting to life with kids, including postpartum depression/anxiety, the decision to have children and how she decided to have a second child, and her daughter’s NICU stay. We also discuss living with her parents during COVID and tips to keep her preschooler entertained! 

What we talked about:

• How her and her husband decided they were ready for kids and how many they both wanted
• Hyperemesis Gravidarum during her first pregnancy
• Itchy hands and feet during pregnancy and how she was diagnosed with cholestasis
• What cholestasis meant for her baby and pregnancy, including twice weekly stress tests, and being induced at 37 weeks. She discovered that 60-90% of people who are diagnosed with cholestasis will experience it with subsequent pregnancies (which she did).
  • She recommended a Cholestasis Facebook Group for support!
  • She recommended notifying your OB or midwife if you have itching during pregnancy
• Discomfort during her pregnancy: nausea and vomiting, carpal tunnel, cholestasis causing itching and right upper quadrant pain
• Being induced at 37 weeks and early difficulties with breastfeeding related to this
• 5 day NICU stay for jaundice with her first baby – after originally going home from the hospital. This made her feel like she had “failed” her daughter and increased her worry about her son’s jaundice (which was fine!).
• The impact of having a baby on her marriage/adjusting to life with a child!
• Experience with postpartum depression and anxiety
• Chemical pregnancies
• Relocating during a pandemic and living with her parents again!
• How having a routine helps her and her kids.

 
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