The UNEXPECTED Podcast

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In this episode Deb chats with bilingual SLP Karla Garcia about being pregnant with TWINS!

Trigger warning: there is mention of loss in this episode.

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In this episode Deb discusses a variety of prenatal tests and reveals the sex of her baby!

Later she chats with friend and fellow SLP Sarie Wu about pregnancy, birth, and parenthood.

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In this episode Deb chats with fellow SLP and podcaster Sarie Wu about her fertility journey. Everyone's story is different and Sarie's account of her experience was truly eye opening. Enjoy the show!

Sarie is also the co-host of the podcast SLP Happy Hour which is a self care podcast. Check it out on iTunes! https://www.slphappyhour.com/

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In this episode Deb chats with longtime friend Aislynn Ross about preparing her fur babies for the newborn baby!

Aislynn is the owner of Ace of Paws Dog Training based in New Jersey http://www.aceofpawstraining.com/

Aislynn has always had a deep love and understanding for animals of all kinds ever since she was a little girl. However, her true intrigue for understanding canine cognition began with the adoption of her first rescue dog Apollo. Apollo was about a year and a half old, and Aislynn quickly found out for the first time what it was like to have a fearful, insecure dog. Apollo was such a sweet, loyal, loving boy to her as his owner. However within a few months of owning him, Apollo started growling and lunging at their guests coming through the front door. Aislynn soon realized this was a severe issue, and needed to be managed as soon as possible. Aislynn felt completely helpless. Every trainer seemed to be thousands of dollars, and she didn't know where to turn. This is the beginning of what sparked her interest in learning as much as she possibly could about dogs, their behavior, and the way they perceive the world around them. At the time Victoria Stilwell’s “It’s Me Or The Dog” was a popular show on Animal Planet and she began to obsessively watch, and to study her own dog, Apollo's, behaviors. Aislynn began to understand the importance of positive based training vs punitive training, especially when it comes to fearful, insecure dogs. Apollo had many people that loved and helped care for him, but sadly his aggressive behaviors became too severe. Unfortunately, Apollo's story did not end as a happy one. Although heartbroken, Aislynn took that experience and made it her mission to help as many people and pets as possible in Apollo's honor.

After a few years Aislynn decided to take the plunge into the veterinary field and learned everything she possibly could to truly make a difference in this world. In 2011 Aislynn began as a receptionist (client service coordinator) at Banfield Pet Hospital in Marlton, NJ and worked as hard as she could to advance her career. Within four months she was promoted to Veterinary Technician (Pet Nurse), and was taught to excel as an exam room technician, phlebotomist, radiology technician, laboratory technician, among many other duties that were required of her. Six months later she was trained in surgical anesthetic monitoring (spays, neuters, dental cleanings) at Banfield Pet Hospital. 

In August 2012, Aislynn was hired as a veterinary technician at Mount Laurel Animal Hospital, and rapidly learned how fast paced an emergency animal hospital could be. It was at Mount Laurel Animal Hospital she learned true quality care should always be a priority. She learned about emergency care, pet CPR, extensive surgical monitoring, in patient care, & how to truly help clients through some of the most difficult moments of their lives. Most importantly, for her passion of animal behavior, she learned about proper restraint with pets in small confined spaces, and how to really be able to read body language efficiently in high pressure situations.

In 2013 Aislynn began Penn Foster Career School’s Dog Obedience Trainer program. Then in June 2014 she decided to take a risk and start up her own company for the first time ever, thus Ace Of Paws was born. July 2014 Aislynn decided to focus 100% of her time to Ace Of Paws, which unfortunately meant leaving the job she loved very much at Mount Laurel Animal Hospital. Luckily, the owners and staff at Mount Laurel are kind, compassionate, supportive people, and still to this day Aislynn has a great working relationship with them. 

In October 2014 Aislynn completed her first program in the dog trainer field and was now a Certified Dog Obedience Trainer/Instructor through Penn Foster Career School. Although Penn Foster's program taught her about the use of all dog training tools and methods, Aislynn decided it was her duty to educate dog owners about the large benefits of earning their dogs trust, and the importance of having a positive based training experience together.. 

​Aislynn has always believed in kindness, and treating others the way you would like to be treated. So she thought "Why would I run my business any differently?" For many years, Aislynn was told by many people that she would not get anywhere by training dogs solely positive based. Luckily deep down she knew there had to be a better way then “forcing a dog into submission” or pretending to be their “alpha”. Aislynn's goal from the beginning has been to build an entire team of like-minded individuals who truly value the bond between canine & human, and to genuinely help as many dogs and families as she can. Our mission is to educate owners, rescues, and the animal world about the importance, benefit, and the necessity of doing positive based training with their beloved companion. 

Aislynn is a proud member of The Pet Professional Guild, The Association For Force-Free Professionals, is a volunteer for Don't Bully Us Rescue, and is currently enrolled in CATCH Canine Trainer Academy's Master Class. Once her program is completed Aislynn will become a CATCH Certified Behavior Consultant, and will be able to take on more challenging cases as a whole. As of present day, Aislynn is a proud mommy to her new beautiful rescue girl Twixie (from Don't Bully Us Rescue). Unfortunately in December 2018 Coorise girl lost her battle with Canine Lymphoma & in November 2019 Evie girl passed away due to liver cancer. 

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The UNEXPECTED podcast is a pregnancy and parenthood podcast hosted by Deborah Brooks. 

In this episode, Deb chats with fellow Speech-Language Pathologist, Allison Fors about the recent birth of her daughter who was born with cleft palate and micrognathia.

A cleft palate is an opening or split in the roof of the mouth that occurs when the tissue doesn't fuse together during development in the womb. A cleft palate often includes a split (cleft) in the upper lip (cleft lip) but can occur without affecting the lip.

Micrognathia, or mandibular hypoplasia, is a condition in which a child has a very small lower jaw. A child with micrognathia has a lower jaw that's much shorter or smaller than the rest of their face. Children may be born with this problem, or it can develop later in life.

Here's a little more on Allison:

I’m Allison, a speech & language resource author. A little bit about me…

I have primarily worked with diagnoses of autism, Down syndrome, and developmental delays. My journey began when I realized most materials I was using weren’t engaging enough and weren’t targeted to effectively teach these populations. I realized I need to adjust my teaching to each child’s learning style and that the best learning happened when it didn’t feel like work!

That’s when I began making my own resources – especially for my pre-verbal, low attention kids. I found that interactive and engaging resources were an effective way to make progress with my students. I also found that if I made the resource flexible and adaptable with multiple goals to target (to meet a variety of needs and levels), I could use one resource with most of my students. After a few years, I began sharing and selling them!

My speech therapy resources are interactive and engaging, even for the hardest of kids to reach, and easily adaptable to target many goals and use with many students. Whether you are an SLP, special education teacher, ESL teacher, behavioral therapist, or parent, I hope you find my resources helpful! I am especially passionate about early language, understanding and incorporating sensory strategies into my sessions, and creating no prep and no print resources.

I also began making clipart to use in my resources and subsequently started selling them for other teachers to use in their educational materials! The images I make are functional and versatile to meet a variety of needs. They are appropriate for all ages (older students as well as younger) and are intentionally made to be able to teach language concepts and life skills. Each set comes with both color and black & white images in high-resolution PNG formats.

I love seeing how you are using my speech therapy resources and clipart in your classes and projects from around the world.

Please share them with me – on Instagram, Facebook, or via email!

I live in Sacramento, CA with my husband, our son and daughter, and 2 cats! I’m originally from the San Francisco Bay Area (Palo Alto) but I’ve also lived in Los Angeles, Utah, Hawaii, and Texas. I love all things outdoors, going on adventures, and traveling.

You can find me featured in the ASHA Leader (Jan 2018 edition, Jun 2019 edition, Mar 2020 edition) and on the Real Talk SLP Podcast and the Speechie Side Up Podcast.

Thanks for stopping by! Don’t miss your access to my exclusive speech & clipart FREEBIES section!

Would you like to hear more from me? Sign up to subscribe to my free email newsletter!

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The UNEXPECTED podcast is a pregnancy and parenthood podcast hosted by Deborah Brooks. 

In this episode, Deb chats with fellow Speech-Language Pathologist, Alana @thepetitespeechie about being a mom to a newborn and provides insight about the 4th trimester.

Alana lives in South Florida with her husband and daughter. She has been a pediatric speech language pathologist for 7 years, with a special interest in early intervention. Alana has always enjoyed working with children and could not wait to be a parent one day. This summer, she became a mom to her daughter, Maya. Alana runs the Instagram account The Petite Speechie and provides helpful tips for professionals and parents in the area of speech language pathology.

Also here's some helpful advice she sent Deb after the episode:

The term I was searching for before was round ligament pain! That’s the pain kind of by your hip/pelvic area as your ligaments are stretching. I think I had that pain around 16-18 weeks. So don’t be alarmed if you feel that down the road! Best of luck!! Feel free to reach out and ask me more questions, I’ll try my best to help! 

Lululemon Align leggings are great for pregnancy. They have a lot of stretch for your growing bump. For postpartum, get some good nursing bras! I love Kindred Bravely. They’re super comfy.

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The UNEXPECTED podcast is a pregnancy and parenthood podcast hosted by Deborah Brooks. 

In this episode, Deb chats with her fiance, comedian Mike Recine, about how being a father will change his life.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The UNEXPECTED podcast is a pregnancy and parenthood podcast hosted by Deborah Brooks. 

In this episode Deborah talks about what it was like discovering that she was pregnant.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.