Nina is the co-founder and CEO of Baby Chick, a digital media brand and pregnancy to motherhood resource. She has a passion for serving others, especially women and babies. She is a doula, pregnancy planner, teaches childbirth education, and has over 10 years of experience in these roles, helping over 600 moms during pregnancy, labor, and postpartum.

Nina lives in Houston, Texas with her family. She is a wife, mom, and currently pregnant with her second child.

What we talked about:

• Her passion for supporting moms and providing great information to moms during all of the stages of motherhood.
• Recognizing that as a mom, she will never be the carefree woman she was before, but she also couldn't imagine life without her child.
• The challenges of being a working mom - feeling like she is nowhere and everywhere at the same time, but also recognizing that by working, she is teaching her son lessons she otherwise wouldn't be.
• The evolution of Baby Chick:
  • She wasn't sure what she wanted when she graduated from college and met with a life coach, which helped her realize her passion for women and babies.
  • Started as a baby planner, and attended one of her client's birth, which helped her decide to become a doula, becoming certified through DONA
  • Attended massage school 
  • Became a childbirth and newborn care educator
  • Noticed how the focus is often on the birth plan, but not the postpartum plan
  • Owned her own doula agency
  • Co-founded Baby Chick with her husband in 2015 - started as a t-shirt store and blog, but transitioned to a digital media company in 2017
  • Helping moms know they aren't alone
• Growing up with a twin brother, she was never alone, but also always had to share
  • He was diagnosed with autism at 3 years old
  • She felt like his protector and had to grow up faster, but also developed empathy and kindness
  • Her advice to parents with a child with autism is to start therapy as a family and have special dates with other children - 1:1 time!
• Importance of being consistent with discipline and boundaries with child

Connect with Nina and Baby Chick: on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Chick Chat: The Baby Chick Podcast, and the Baby Chick website

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Thanks so much for listening and for supporting our podcast! Please rate the show, leave a review if you liked what you heard and make sure to subscribe on Amazon Music, iHeartRADIO,  iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts or TuneIn!

Background on Jasmyn: Jasmyn is a stay-at-home mom to a (almost) 2-year-old daughter and a newlywed! She has a passion for mental health and has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and addiction studies as well as a master’s degree in family therapy. She’s worked with many young kids, teenagers, and adults as they confronted issues head-on. 

In the past few years she has experienced many highs from graduating with her Master’s along with the birth of her daughter, but has also had many lows consisting of panic attacks, depressive episodes that would last for days, and insecurity as a mother, partner, daughter and friend. Her goal through her blog is to share her journey through motherhood, mental health and how to stay motivated. She believes we are all much stronger together rather than trying to figure it out alone. 

What we talked about: 

• Being a newlywed and having to shift wedding plans because of COVID
• Graduating from her masters program around the same time that her daughter was due
• The scariness of transitioning to being a stay-at-home mom and worrying about money and logistics
• Discovering her passion for family therapy 
• Being aware of how our family dynamic growing up affects our relationships for the rest of our lives
• Working with teens with addiction in therapy 
• Getting down to the reasons why the kids she saw were using drugs and addressing the underlying issues
• Starting a blog to help her feel fulfilled and fuel her passion
• One of the most popular posts on her site - Taking Back Control with Positive Self Talk
• Writing down negative thoughts and will coming back to them later to re-write how she could say it or express it
• Her postpartum depression journey and the main symptom she experienced -  anger, which isn’t as recognized 
• Not seeing many other black stay-at-home moms in her life and 
• Convincing people that their decision for her to stay home was the right one for them 
• Utilizing Facebook groups to find support and how finding a black stay-at-home mom group to help her feel connected to others in her experience 
• How self-care is for you so it has to be something that you like to do 

Connect with Jasmyn on Instagram or visit her site. 

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Thanks so much for listening and for supporting our podcast! Please rate the show, leave a review if you liked what you heard and make sure to subscribe on Amazon Music, iHeartRADIO,  iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts or TuneIn!

Jenna is the owner of Wink & Bundle, a pediatric sleep consulting company based in DC Metro Area. She is a certified infant and toddler sleep consultant, pediatric nurse, and mother of four who loves to help tired parents teach their children how to get great restorative sleep!

She LOVES sleep, and her goal is create a non judgemental, nurturing environment for families where they can gain encouragement and knowledge though her experience and nursing background.

What we talked about: 

• Working at Children’s National Medical Center as a nurse and helping families in their worst days
• The grueling and lonely times of being a stay-at-home mom
• Feeling like she was missing something and wanting to help families in their time of need 
• Expecting to be able to handle the exhaustion of a newborn easily because she did the crazy shift work of nursing, but it hit her hard
• Getting certified to be a sleep consultant and talking to parents when they are at their breaking points
• The plans she has for her business and expanding 
• How people often ask her if she’s done having kids because she has four and two of each gender
• The anxiety of adding more kids to her family and the fear of not being able to love another kid as much
• The physical exhaustion of parenting and how she aches at the end of the day
• Coaching parents through sleep training and how rewarding it is
• Looking at the whole picture with her clients to narrow down what the issue is and helping them identify ways to change their routine to improve sleep 
• What the process of working with a sleep consultant is like
• The motivation and accountability that comes with having a sleep coach
• The most classic sign that your child is overtired 
• The importance of darkness in a room - between 4-6am is your lightest time of sleep for a child and if anything wakes them during that time - including light - it will shut off their melatonin 
• What age should children be dropping their nap
• How kids need quiet time even if they aren’t napping anymore 
• Things to look for in kids to see whether or not they are ready to drop a nap 
• Her favorite piece of sleep advice 
• How she makes everything work in her family with four kids 
• The importance of alone time 
• Wanting to be more spontaneous and present for her kids
• Setting lower expectations to achieve a happier life
• How the minivan has been the best thing that ever happened to her 

Connect with Jenna on Instagram @winkandbundle or visit her site. 

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Thanks so much for listening and for supporting our podcast! Please rate the show, leave a review if you liked what you heard and make sure to subscribe on Amazon Music, iHeartRADIO,  iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts or TuneIn!

Cassie Cercy has four children ranging from one to eight. She has eight years of experience working as an athlete coach for pregnant and postpartum women. She holds a Pregnancy and Postpartum Athleticism Certificate, and is ACE Group Fitness Instructor certified. She is a military wife and is used to rolling with the punches! She is a former instructor and owner of Stroller Strong Moms Savannah - a workout program for pregnant and postpartum moms. 

What we talked about: 

• The hardest adjustment between which number of kids and the chaos of the first six months with four children 
• An absolute horror story of moving with four kids, vomiting, a bloody nose a dog
• Having her husband deployed for their first year of marriage 
• What it’s like being a military spouse and being a part of that community
• Living in nine duty stations total since getting married - her 8-year-old has lived in five different houses already. 
• What it’s like living on post 
• Dealing with the uncertainty of the military and not having control over so many parts of your life
• Being on the same team as your spouse 
• Becoming a part of Stroller Strong Moms and how hard of a workout it was - becoming an instructor, then becoming a manager to eventually buying the business 
• The biggest challenges that she sees with women in pregnancy and postpartum 
• The mommy fitness culture and the unhealthy focus on body after baby 
• Rehabbing your pelvic floor correctly and developing different strategies to protect your body during pregnancy 
• The issues women face mentally when feeling like they need to get their body back quickly after having a baby 
• How the focus on the women’s body is not healthy - we should be thinking about how the mom is doing mentally and physically rather than how she looks
• Currently taking a break from the business side of women’s health and wellness, but not taking a break from the research and learning side 
• Dealing with remote learning for two school children and keeping her 3-year-old and 1-year-old occupied 
• Listening to leadership and motivational books to fulfill herself 
• How she focuses on doing more than nothing and gives herself a high five for what she IS able to accomplish 
• Giving yourself grace in motherhood because we’re all just doing the best we can 
• How she likes to build habits rather than have goals
• Goals can be daunting, but putting things into two minutes feels manageable - learned from the book Atomic Habits
• How her kids all react differently to her husband returning from deployment 

Connect with Cassie on Instagram!

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Thanks so much for listening and for supporting our podcast! Please rate the show, leave a review if you liked what you heard and make sure to subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts or TuneIn!

Tina Haupert is the owner of Carrots ‘N’ Cake as well as a Certified Nutrition Coach and Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner (FDN-P). She started the Carrots ‘N’ Cake blog in 2008 and has expanded her career over the years to become an online nutrition and fitness coach. She lives in the South Shore of Massachusetts with her husband, six-year-old son Quinn and their pug. 

What we talked about: 

• Transitioning the Carrots ‘N’ Cake blog from being her main profession to becoming a nutrition coach and functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner (FDN-P)
• How she loves being a FDN-P because she gets more information instead of guessing what the problem is and she is essentially a “body detective”
• How she uses a macro based approach to help her clients reach their body composition goals 
• Taking the blog from a side job to becoming a coach, creating fitness programs and writing books
• Her recently published “Everything Macro” cookbook!
• How she and her husband knew that they wanted to wait to have kids for a while, but a combination of being really sick with an ulcerative colitis flare and her sister having a child pushed them to decide to want to have kids 
• Thinking it was going to take a long time to get pregnant, but it happened very quickly 
• Still questioning whether or not they will have another child
• Having all ulcerative colitis symptoms go away once she got pregnant and having a very healthy pregnancy, but the delivery of Quinn caused things to fall apart 
• What it was like being sick for 3-5 months with a newborn and breastfeeding
• Her background getting diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and the journey she has taken with it from different treatments and holistic approaches to diet changes to her current treatment 
• How her son knows that she can’t eat certain foods and gets IV treatments, but doesn’t fully understand how serious ulcerative colitis is
• Tips for getting kids engaged in fitness and healthy eating 
• The power of getting a good night’s sleep 

Connect with Tina on Instagram, her site or her Facebook page. Make sure to check out her new cookbook, The Everything Macro Diet Cookbook! 

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Thanks so much for listening and for supporting our podcast! Please rate the show, leave a review if you liked what you heard and make sure to subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts or TuneIn!

Lindsey Hein lives in Indianapolis, IN with her husband and four boys. With four children eight and under, she has plenty of wisdom to share! She is the host of the I’ll Have Another podcast where she interviews motivating and inspiring runners. In addition to her own podcast, she founded SandyBoy Productions in 2019, which includes The Illuminate podcast and The Up and Running podcast. She is also a running coach and writes personalized training plans. 

Prior to launching her podcast, she was a stay-at-home mom and has slowly added in more childcare as her podcast has grown. Lindsey tested positive for the BRCA Mutation when her son was one-year-old and had a preventative double mastectomy. She shares her experiences balancing work and motherhood and the importance of taking time for yourself. 

What we talked about: 

• Knowing that their family wasn’t complete after two children and how she always knew they might have four kids
• Feeling like she is in two different phases of parenting because she has two older children and two younger children 
• How her house is always loud with four boys running around
• Feelings of guilt about having kids in daycare and not working full-time
• Her podcast I’ll Have Another and how the next step in the business was to start her production network, SandyBoy Productions
• The fine balance with social media and knowing what your mission is in your heart, but how people can’t always see what you’re trying to do online
• Her vision was always to have a couple days a week of child care and a couple days a week of work and how she is happier when she works
• Not reading parenting books for the first years of parenting, but starting to research positive parenting when her oldest got to 4 
• The judgement of other parents and family members and how it is one of the hardest parts about parenting 
• Getting tested for the BRCA gene mutation, finding out she was positive, and having a double mastectomy
• How she eases into her day by getting up early and sitting in bed, drinking coffee either reading or working and lighting a candle 
• Not having mom guilt to take time for herself because she knows she’s happier and a nicer person when she takes time to do things for herself
• Dreaming of picking up and moving somewhere for a year

Connect with Lindsey on her podcast, Instagram or Twitter. 

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Thanks so much for listening and for supporting our podcast! Please rate the show, leave a review if you liked what you heard and make sure to subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts or TuneIn!

Background on Ali: Ali Feller is a runner, freelance writer and is the host of the awesome Ali on the Run podcast. She was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when she was seven years old. She’s the mom of a 22-month-old named Annie and an adorable dog named Ellie. She spent more than 10 years living in NYC and most recently in Weehawken, NJ until they recently packed up and moved in with her parents in New Hampshire due to COVID. 

What we talked about: 

• What it’s been like staying with her parents for five months during the pandemic and how they made the choice to leave their apartment 
• Worrying about child care during COVID and balancing work with taking care of their daughter
• Having the conversation to move out of their apartment and the emotions of leaving the home where they found out she was pregnant and brought their daughter home
• Dealing with not knowing what is next, not knowing where they are going and making the decision on where they want to settle down
• Getting diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at seven years old
• How Crohn’s disease manifests in her - from having to run to the bathroom, to fevers, fatigue, and joint pain, and the uncertainty of a Crohn’s flare
• What Crohn’s was like during her pregnancy and postpartum and the lack of information available about pregnancy and Crohn’s
• If her daughter knows whether or not she’s sick and how they normalize “poop talk”  
• How she changed the narrative of having a chronic illness and how she wants her daughter to see her thriving in spite of having an illness
• How many children she and her husband want to have and wanting her daughter to have a sibling, but not feeling ready for another 
• Why she won’t let fear of a flare stop her from doing something in life - with the exception of marathon training and eating jicama 
• How Beyonce is (kind of) responsible for the worst flare of her life that lasted two years 
• Her transition to becoming a full-time podcast host. How she worked toward her dream job in college and earned it, but the environment wasn’t healthy for her, built a freelance writing career and the evolutions of her career into her current favorite place
• How COVID has changed the professional goals she set for herself in 2020 
• Wanting to set up a home that is their own and the excitement of her daughter having her own room
• The jogging stroller that she loves - Thule Urban Glider 2 
• Why it is so important to trust your gut as a new mom and give yourself grace. Why she believes it’s doing all mothers a disservice when we aren’t open and honest about our struggles 
• Her daughter’s aversion to her husband being shirtless 

Connect with Ali on her podcast, Instagram or Twitter.

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Thanks so much for listening and for supporting our podcast! Please rate the show, leave a review if you liked what you heard and make sure to subscribe on iTunes, Spotify or Stitcher!

Background on Megan: Megan is a pediatric nurse practitioner and lactation consultant, living in Minneapolis, MN. She lived in Washington, DC for several years and moved back to Minnesota to be close to family and friends. Megan is the mother of two wonderful children. While pregnant with her son, she discovered that her husband and she were both genetic carriers of Smith Lemli Opitz Syndrome (SLOS), a rare but devastating disease. After their son was born they grew their family through adoption, which opened her mind and heart to the many ways people grow their family. She is currently in the process of starting her own lactation business to help new moms on their breastfeeding journey. 

What we talked about: 

• How and when she and her husband decided they wanted to start having kids 
• What it’s like being a pediatric nurse practitioner and having friends/family reaching out as a resource and how it impacts her when her own kids are sick
• Becoming a lactation consultant and the most common problems she sees in new moms with breastfeeding
• Her own experience breastfeeding her son and dealing with his food intolerances 
• Taking the leap into starting her own lactation business 
• Balancing starting her own business with being a stay-at-home mom
• How her and her husband decided on adoption to grow their family 
• What it was like finding out that she and her husband were both carriers of a genetic disorder - Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome 
• Their journey from IVF with PGD to adoption 
• Benefits of open adoptions
• How she talked about adoption with her 2-year-old son while they were going through the adoption process 
• Finding out that they had been matched with their daughter
• Meeting their daughter’s birth mom 
• Living in another state until they were cleared to leave with no support system and a 2-year-old and newborn while her husband was still working
• Her relationship with her daughter’s birth parents 
• The guilt that came with adoption 
• Advice for those starting the adoption process 
• Her go to for self-care both pre and post COVID
• Trying to be more positive during COVID and finding a routine, especially as they go into colder months 

Connect with Megan at parklactation.com. 

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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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Background on Jen: Jen is a new mom and a brilliant communications professional living in Washington, DC. She and her husband welcomed a beautiful baby boy named Tristan on July 1st. Dealing with a delivery during a pandemic was the furthest thing from Jen’s mind when they found out they were expecting, but she managed to find the silver lining and stay positive through it all. 

What we talked about: 

• How she knew she wanted kids and how many children she and her husband want 
• How she found out she was pregnant 
• Being pregnant during COVID-19 and what it was like having check-ups at an active testing site 
• Not being allowed to have her husband at her check-ups 
• Getting a COVID-19 test prior to delivery 
• Dealing with all the “what if’s”: if her husband would be able to be at the birth, what if she tested positive and had to have her baby taken from her immediately after birth, etc. 
• Wearing a mask during labor 
• Needing an extended hospital stay 
• Being told that she would have to leave her newborn at the hospital and not see him again until the was discharged due to COVID
• Newfound appreciation for nurses 
• How visits from family and friends changed due to COVID 
• Taking newborn photos with masks on 
• The possibility that her son could celebrate his first birthday still in quarantine 
• How being quarantined helped her slow down in pregnancy
• The silver linings that COVID brought with pregnancy and a newborn 
• Having 20 people in the delivery room 
• What she’s doing for self-care 
• Advice for those who are pregnant and going to deliver during COVID 
• What she’s looking forward to doing with her son in the future 

Connect with Jen on Twitter. 

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Thanks so much for listening and for supporting our podcast! Please leave a review if you liked what you heard and make sure to subscribe on iTunes, Spotify or Stitcher!