The MamasteFit Podcast Episode 140 – Still Pregnant: Roxanne’s Third Trimester Update

Gina: Welcome to the MamasteFit Podcast. And we have a big announcement! Roxanne is still pregnant. She is still pregnant… and in this episode we’re going to be recapping with Roxanne how the final weeks of her pregnancy have been going, and what she’s doing for the final few days or weeks before her baby is here.

So Roxanne, how have you been feeling? How many weeks pregnant are you right now?

Roxanne: I am now 30…

Gina: A million?

Roxanne: …35, almost 36 weeks pregnant. Final stretch of one week? Two?

Gina: Four? Five?

Roxanne: Four or five weeks. Six? I mean, who knows?

Gina: I personally found the very, the last like month of pregnancy is the hardest mentally, ’cause it could be any moment now.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: Any moment my contractions can start.

Roxanne: I’m also like pretty in denial for most of my end of pregnancies that I’m like about to have a baby. Like I prepare, it’s not I’m just like, “Doo-doo-doo!” Like I prepare for postpartum and labor and birth, but every day I am like, “It’s not today. I’m not going to have a baby for a while.” And then the day it happens, I’m like, “It’s still not today.”

Gina: “I’m not in labor.”

Roxanne: It’s not labor. I like, I’m in denial until, (makes pushing noises), there’s a baby in my arms.

Gina: “I think I was in labor, guys!”

Roxanne: So I always, I feel like I probably overplan things, usually, in my final month of pregnancy. Like we did a mocktail workshop when I was like 39 and four.

Gina: We had a photo shoot.

Roxanne: We had a photo shoot scheduled, ’cause I was like, “Shh, I will still be pregnant,” and just made all these plans, and then…

Gina: I feel like I could not make any sort of plans in the last, like month of my pregnancy, ’cause I was like, I didn’t know. And so I felt like I was in this like limbo.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: Of waiting to see when this baby was going to decide to come- hoping that it would be sooner! Sooner rather than later. And for my fourth one, it did come sooner rather than later.

So what timeframes did you go into labor with your last three?

Roxanne: So all of them, I’ve gone within two days of my due date. So my first, I was 40 and two. I think I started labor at 40 and one, and then ended up having her at 40 and two. My second, I was 39 and five, but they changed my due date to like the June 30th, I think after my first trimester ultrasound, because I was breastfeeding and had only one cycle. So they’re like, “This would just be more accurate for you.” But I ended up actually having him on the original due date that I had based off my last menstrual period. Depends on who you ask. Was it 40 or was it 39 and five?

Gina: So here’s my prediction…

Roxanne: But my third baby, I did have the day after my due date. So all of them are around 40 weeks.

Gina: So when is your, what is your due date right now?

Roxanne: January 7th.

Gina: So my star chart prediction from chat GPT is that you’ll go into labor between the third and the fifth. Your secondary window is the sixth through the eighth.

Roxanne: I don’t like that window though.

Gina: I know you wanted a 2025 baby. So, let’s see…

Roxanne: What is the probability of a 2025 baby, though?

Gina: I did ask that, obviously this is super accurate ChatGPT, so…

Roxanne: Because it’s ChatGPT.

Gina: There is no…

Roxanne: but it’s based off my star chart, so it’s not like made up. It’s based off of the stars, and what the stars are telling you.

Gina: So this is what the stars are saying. The cancer full moon peaks January 3rd at 4:30 AM. This hits your Taurus moon in a perfect alignment for labor, which apparently Taurus is your, is a…

Roxanne: Well my oldest is a Taurus.

Gina: It’s your moon, which is, I think, important for birth. I am not an expert on this, obviously.

You, if you respond strongly to lunar energy, which most Taurus moons do, labor may begin within 24 hours of the full moon. So late January 3rd or the 4th, which works for me because I leave the 8th for the marathon that we signed up for. And then Roxanne’s over here sending me the HYROX reels. “Should we do this?” No, Roxanne, we’re not going to do this because I’m going to do it by myself!

Roxanne: No, I would do it. Would I train for it? Maybe I would train 50% for it and then suffer through the rest.

Gina: You’re going to get pregnant again!

Roxanne: But I also don’t even know what it is! No, I will not get pregnant again, ’cause my husband will be out of the country for a year.

Gina: Will he? Will he?

All right. Let’s see. I think I asked it, what about in January or December, but now I can’t find where it was. It was pretty low. Clearly. I asked a lot about myself.

Roxanne: Yeah, Gina. Gina told me she was going to look up my star chart to see when, I was going to give birth. And then it was, and then she proceeded to tell me about her life and her children and how her labors were predicted super accurately.

Gina: Why December birth is unlikely. All of your past birth happened three to four days after a full moon. So you could go into labor between December 19th to 22nd, but it’s very early. You’re 37 weeks at that point.

Roxanne: Yeah. Very unlikely.

Gina: You could do the Capricorn New Moon, which would be the 27th through the 28th of December, which is when your friend predicted it.

Roxanne: Yeah. Someone from work predicted December 28th. And that would be, he would be a Capricorn.

Gina: You have never responded strongly to a Capricorn or Gemini Moon phase before.

Roxanne: How did they know that? Maybe I respond positively.

Gina: Based on the moons from your previous births?

Roxanne: Yeah, my previous births. But what if like in life I respond well to the Capricorn moon.

Gina: Maybe, Roxanne. There’s a chance. I’m going to put it in my calendar.

Roxanne: December 28th. Stay tuned. If you are listening to this, we will probably have a guess when Roxanne has her baby, and maybe you have some insider knowledge now.

Gina: Yeah.

Roxanne: It’ll be one of the winners.

Gina: Good luck. Will it be December 28th or January 4th?

Roxanne: Or fifth? Or December 27th?

Gina: You never know. You never know. So those are our predictions based solely on the star chart. Because my star chart did predict when I went into labor with Zoe.

Roxanne: It did.

Gina: It did to the day. So we’re really putting a lot of money on this. So the 28th is a possibility if you like the Capricorn New Moon.

Roxanne: Let me retell myself I like the Capricorn.

Gina: I really want to get into star chart stuff more ’cause I think it’s really interesting.

Roxanne: I know, it sounds so cool.

Gina: But I just don’t know how.

Roxanne: There’s, I had no idea we had so many moons and I don’t even know, like I’m a Sagittarius. I know I’m a Sagittarius, but I didn’t know that…

Gina: You having a rising sign, a sun sign.

Roxanne: There’s so many.

Gina: Yeah.

Roxanne: I’m just still figuring out Sagittarius, in general.

Gina: So drop your book or podcast recommendations, ’cause I’ll listen to it on Audible and/or I’ll listen to a podcast that explains this all more. Yeah, because I do think it’s really interesting.

Roxanne: It’s super interesting.

Gina: Super interesting.

So what are you doing besides penciling in when you’re going to go into labor? ‘Cause now we can plan a bunch of stuff before the 28th, to the day.

Roxanne: But, we did that last time and I ended up going into labor, so it could be the 27th. So I don’t plan anything for the…

Gina: What are you doing in the last few weeks to finally finalize your preparation for birth? What do you have coming up?

Roxanne: Coming up. Oh gosh.

Gina: A baby.

Roxanne: A baby, yeah. I’ve got four to seven weeks left ’cause I am planning for 40 weeks mentally and physically. And so that would be like four weeks left. I have four weeks left.. Ish.

Gina: Yeah, it was like seven weeks… yeah, four to… yeah. I hope you’re not 42 weeks.

Roxanne: That would be four to six weeks. I guess four to seven would be past 42. But, mostly just nesting my entire home. Like that is what I have planned for the next four to six weeks is getting rid of everything, just slowly throwing it away. Not throw away, I am donating it, but, just making room in my home.

But also it’s the holidays, so I’m also planning easy things to do for the holidays. So normally we’re pretty late holiday people, we’re like, we don’t put our tree up till December 15th, ’cause my birthday is the 14th and that’s my day, not Christmas. And mostly ’cause I just forget until I’m like, “Oh yeah, we should probably put a tree up. Christmas is coming.” I don’t wrap my presents till Christmas Eve.

Gina: We need to start doing that.

Roxanne: I’m also panic shopping on Christmas Eve.

Gina: We need to do a half birthday for you. Celebration every…

Roxanne: That’s like June though. It’s like we already have the June extravaganza.

Gina: Exactly. Yeah.

Roxanne: So it’s too much.

Gina: You could just, join in on it.

Roxanne: Yeah. I’ll just join in on my half birthday.

Gina: July. July. Is your month.

Roxanne: I will take it, but, I’m fine also having December birthday because I feel like I make sure people know it’s my birthday. Like I think I, I saw a reel and I sent it to somebody who’s, it was John Snow’s kid- what is his real name?

Gina: You sent it to me.

Roxanne: And his birthday is December, like 27th or something. Also…

Gina: You know nothing.

Roxanne: But he’s like, “What are traditions that you do in your family?” And he goes, “My birthday is like December 27th. So that’s our tradition is that I make sure we celebrate my birthday and everyone knows that it’s my birthday and it’s not a part of Christmas,” or his is on Boxing Day, so I guess maybe the day after Christmas. He’s like, “We celebrate my birthday. It’s not a holiday. It’s no longer a holiday. The holiday is my birthday, and I make sure everyone knows that it is my birthday. That’s what we celebrate.” He’s like, “And that’s probably my favorite family tradition.” And I was like, you know what? I respect it because I also- although some years I do forget that it was my birthday and I was like, oh yeah, I am a year older today. It is my birthday. Even though Gina did pretend that she forgot one year, and I cried about it.

Gina: I don’t remember this, so it must have been a lie. I do not recall this.

Roxanne: She maybe did actually forget, that it was my birthday, but then like later it was like, “Oh, it was a joke. We didn’t forget!”

Gina: Do not recall this.

Roxanne: Middle children are always forgotten. So I was like, cruel joke.

Gina: Middle children are becoming a extinct, Roxanne.

Roxanne: I know they are. We have provided middle children for the world, though. Two of them! Middle children are the best children. Just saying.

But other things I’m doing other than nesting and preparing for the holidays is that we always do sibling, like our baby gets gifts for our siblings. So I’ve been finding, ’cause it’s like also Christmas, but it’s like I have to ensure that there’s one gift set aside for Harvey to give their siblings. So I’ve been trying to find stuff that I also don’t want to still give at Christmas at the same time because it’s hard. I want to just give them all of their gifts right now as well.

Gina: I already started.

Roxanne: Just sitting in the closet

Gina: Eoghan has been negotiating with me and I have been complying.

Roxanne: Yeah. But like my daughter, my oldest, asked me, “Is Santa real? Don’t lie to me.” She’s like, “You can be honest with me,” like a couple months ago. And I was like, “No, Santa’s not real.” But I was like, “We can pretend Santa’s real, or you can be Santa with Mommy and Daddy. Mommy and Daddy are Santa.” And she goes, “I’ll be Santa with you.” And then I think she forgot because she’s Santa’s going to bring me k-pop Demon Hunter Barbie dolls. And I was like…

Gina: Yeah, don’t do what I did last year where I thought we had a conversation that Santa was not real.

Roxanne: Oh yeah.

Gina: With my oldest.

Roxanne: She did. She did, her oldest forgot. She forgot she, because she told my daughter when she was three that Santa doesn’t exist.

Gina: But then she forgot also.

Roxanne: But no, Lily was like, Santa is real. You’re being ridiculous, Adeline. Like Santa is real, stop talking.

Gina: Adeline forgot that she was in on it.

Roxanne: Emotional trauma.

Gina: And was telling me all of this stuff that she was like really hoping for Santa to bring to her and I was like confused. My brain was obviously not working very well. And I was like, “What do you mean? Like you just tell me what you want and I get it for you.” And she was like, “What do YOU mean?” I was like…

Roxanne: Gina paid the Santa Cameo.

Gina: I realized I fucked up.

Roxanne: To be like “Your mom said that I’m not real, but she’s so silly. I’m obviously real!” Like Gina full sent it. Like, she called the Santa Hotline.

Gina: Adeline started to bring it up this year. So I was like, “I’m so sorry I lied to you. Santa is real. I did, I told you that he wasn’t because I forgot to send him your list.”

Roxanne: Oh my. Jeez.

Gina: “And I was worried it wasn’t going to get here on time.”

Roxanne: Double down.

Gina: So I lied. And she, so that, and then I paid for a Cameo of a Santa who was like, “Hey Adeline, your mommy’s a liar.”

Roxanne: “I did get your letter though.”

Gina: I got your letter. I don’t know why she’s trying to lie to you about what? Who? That I exist? And Adeline was like satisfied with that. And then I took it a step further and I had a photo of Santa.

Roxanne: Oh yeah, we both did this.

Gina: I did footprints from my fireplace to the tree with like powder. And then I had a photo that I took of a Santa in front of our tree, and then I insta-stacked it, and then I had that with a letter. And Adeline was like, “I’m so excited I can finally show William that Santa is real. I have proof.” And I was like, “Yeah, you can.”

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: Because I guess this boy was telling her.

Roxanne: But she also printed off the letter for me and I printed off the picture on my instax.

Gina: You’re welcome. I think you might have printed it for me.

Roxanne: I did print it. And our father, ’cause my husband was deployed, so our father came to my house to help me build the Lovevery kitchen that I got my children. And then he brought the picture to Gina and grabbed the letter and dropped it off.

Gina: I was shaking, jingle bells in my living room. And when I snuck into the bed, Adeline was like, “Mommy, I think Santa’s here. ’cause I heard jingles.” And I was like, “Hell yeah, he is!”

This year she started to bring it up and then she stopped ’cause she felt like it would embarrass me where she was like, “Hey, do you remember last year when you…” because we were talking about Santa, and then she was like, “…nevermind.” Where she was going to bring up, “Do you remember when you lied to me that Santa wasn’t real ’cause you forgot to send him the list?

Roxanne: My gosh. Are we like just…

Gina: This year my Santa story is that we had three bunnies that I left in our outdoor run, and when I returned in the morning, they were no longer in that outdoor run.

Roxanne: They were no longer alive.

Gina: They’re unalived. Which is very sad and tragic. My children do not know that they’re unalived. They are running, they ran away. They’re in the forest.

Roxanne: So to be fair, the mom actually did run away and probably was just chased and killed in the woods. So you didn’t find her body, but she could come back.

Gina: No, I found all of their bodies, Roxanne.

Roxanne: Oh, just kidding. Last time, last time you gave me an update, she was just missing. So new update for Roxanne, the mommy bunny is also passed.

Gina: They’re all passed. My children do not know this.

Roxanne: They’re Easter bunnies.

Gina: They, so Eoghan, my sweet boy, is like, “Don’t worry mommy. I asked Santa to find them ’cause Santa can see everything, and he knows where everything is, and so he can find them and bring them home. I’m really excited to have four bunnies.” ‘Cause that same day I went and I got two more bunnies, ’cause I was like, “I will mend their sorrows.”

Roxanne: With more bunnies.

Gina: With more bunnies. I had also literally just built a really nice setup for the rabbits.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: Which is why they were in the outdoor run. So he’s like, “Don’t worry, Santa’s going to bring them back. He knows where everything is.” And I was like, “Oh, the reindeer is going to scare them.” And he was like, “I talked to Santa. He said, they’re going to stay in the sky.” And I was like, this guy! With his solutions!

Roxanne: He is honestly genius.

Gina: And Adeline, who is like upset, is like, “Eoghan, I don’t think Santa’s going to get to them in time ’cause the bunnies are not going to survive the winter.”

Roxanne: Oh my gosh.

Gina: “They’re not wild animals. They’re pets. They don’t know how to survive in the forest.” And Eoghan, “Don’t worry. Santa, I told him to expedite this. Man to hurry up.”

Roxanne: What does he think Santa is doing?

Gina: He’s going to hurry up and find them for us.

Roxanne: Santa has a million children he’s gotta make toys for. He doesn’t have time to go find bunnies.

Gina: He’s magic. He’s a magic, Roxanne. My precious son, I could not allow him to be disappointed on Christmas, so I made a Christmas card from Santa holding our two bunnies with AI, and so I, and I mailed it to us. So the kids got this card from Santa and they were like, “(GASP) Santa found our bunnies!”

Roxanne: What did the back say?

Gina: And so Eoghan was super excited. He’s like, “See, I told you Santa was going to find the bunnies!” Adeline is like, “They’re on the porch!” And runs. And I’m like, did you read the card? The card has a message on it.

Roxanne: “I was able to quickly find your bunnies, but I have asked them to stay with me at the North Pole to help with the upcoming spring season. They’re the perfect fit for Easter Bunnies. Hope that’s all right. I’ll bring a few gifts from them for you all. They miss you all. Please take care of Gracie Puff and Tiny Pikachu.” I read that to my daughter- who also asked me if the Easter bunny was real, and I said, no, it’s not real. Like we are the Easter Bunny. I am the one that’s hiding the eggs.

Gina: Why are crushing all their dreams?

Roxanne: No, because she goes, “Don’t lie to me. It’s okay. I won’t be sad.” And I’m like, okay, fine. You, said don’t lie, so I’m not going to lie to you. But then, immediately forgot that Easter Bunny’s not real when I read this. And then she’s like, “Oh, okay. So the bunnies will be back after Easter.” And Patrick’s like, “Yeah, Roxanne, what happens after Easter?” ‘Cause it only…

Gina: They’re permanent employee, Patrick.

Roxanne: It was only for the spring season. So what, like the spring season ends, so do the bunnies come back permanent? Should probably, you should probably confirm this. That’s what I was telling Lily. I was like, “No, he’s going to use them for every Easter.”

Gina: Yes.

Roxanne: “So like they, they stay at the North Pole.” She’s like, “But they don’t need them af after Easter. What do they do?”

Gina: They prepare for the next season, Lily!

Anyway, so for those of you that were tuning in to listen to Roxanne’s birth preparation.

Roxanne: Gina’s gotta make it about her herself.

Gina: We’re talking about Santa Claus, which is a key part of a December birth.

Roxanne: Honestly. Yes. That is like all of the things, like we had only…

Gina: Maybe you could ask Santa to bring you labor for Christmas.

Roxanne: Yeah. Yes, Santa, bring me… but I don’t want a Christmas baby. I would just like to go into labor after Christmas, before the new year. Because all of my kids are born on even years, or, no, not even years, your kids are born on even years. And my kids are born on odd years, ’19, ’21, ’23, and it would really throw off my number.

Gina: Roxanne, my first child was an odd year, 2017.

Roxanne: Oh.

Gina: And the rest were even. So you can fit my pattern backwards.

Roxanne: Because I just have to copy everything to Gina does.

Gina: So I had a daughter and then Roxanne had a daughter. And then I had a son.

Roxanne: And I had a son.

Gina: And then Roxanne had a son. And then I had another daughter.

Roxanne: And then I had another daughter.

Gina: And then I was like, I’m actually going to have four kids. And Roxanne was like, me too. But she did not copy the sex of the baby.

Roxanne: No, I am having a boy.

Gina: But our brother did have a girl.

Roxanne: Did have a girl. So maybe that’s why, maybe he threw it off.

Gina: Within a year.

Roxanne: Like he threw off the juju.

Gina: He did have a baby this year.

Roxanne: And it was a girl.

Gina: That was a girl, who’s our little buddy for Zoe.

Roxanne: So if they have another one, it has to be a boy, then Harvey has a buddy. Even though they live really far away from us… it’s not that far, it’s four hours, but.

Gina: We’re planting the seeds anyways.

So what do you have going on with preparing for the home birth? What specific things are you doing differently than you did from previous births?

Roxanne: So I have to get all of the things in my house, whereas last time I would just show up and then they give you a little baggie to take home with you.

Gina: Oh no.

Roxanne: And they literally have everything at the hospital. Like you could show up with nothing, and they would have it all- to include a phone charger, honestly, ’cause people leave those all the time. Maybe just not food that would be appetizing.

Gina: The hospital has food.

Roxanne: The hospital has food, but like, good food. Although the hospital in Monterey did have that really delicious chocolate milkshake. But, I don’t know about the rest of it. I’ve only eaten their milkshakes. I mean they did have like pretty good snacks in the break rooms of the hospital, but that’s usually, even the birth center we tell you should probably bring food. Car seat and food.

Which, we have a car seat. We have two car seats, ’cause we got given a car seat.

Gina: Overachieving.

Roxanne: I know. We do have two cars, so makes sense. Even though one car can’t fit four car seats, so I don’t really know what the benefit of having a car seat for that car. I know. We’ll probably need a new car, but.

Gina: Drop your car recommendations in the comments below.

Roxanne: Yeah. I really, I’m a supporter of a minivan for my husband to drive around. I’ll drive the monster truck. He can drive the minivan.

Gina: I do like my monster truck too.

Roxanne: I know. I did like the minivan when I drove it for like short period of time. But I knew that I, it wasn’t forever and I knew I was going to get my monster truck back. I think that’s probably why I enjoyed it, but it’s practical. It’s a very practical vehicle. But they are very expensive now, which is annoying, but, tangent.

Other things that I’m prepping, so my midwife has like a little kit of all of the things that she would need at the birth, for just like midwife wise, like sterile gloves, gel pads to put on my bed or like to chase me around with if my water breaks, to protect my floor and my carpet. There’s a, it was a long list, and so…

Gina: Don’t worry, I got a little vacuum that’s supposed to suck all the stuff out of stains.

Roxanne: Okay, we’ll bring the vacuum over.

Gina: So I’ll bring that.

Roxanne: I’m going to bring the vacuum over. I also got, stuff for the pool. So I do need to get the hose and I keep meaning to stop at Lowe’s to get a hose and I just keep forgetting ’cause I’m like…

Gina: You ain’t going to have no water birth.

Roxanne: I know, I’m not.

Gina: If you don’t get a hose.

Roxanne: Which, I could still have a water birth. I have a nice tub in my bathroom, but it’s like a pretty tight squeeze for like other people. Not that I like necessarily need anyone else, I could just have my baby in my tub by myself… but I would like other people there. But it is pretty roomy if like I couldn’t get the…

Gina: Worst case stereo.

Roxanne: Yeah. If I couldn’t get the birth pool up and running.

Gina: It is nice with the birth pool compared to the tub though ’cause it’s bigger and you can move around in it.

Roxanne: It’s cushiony.

Gina: Yes.

Roxanne: I think that’s like the one thing that, usually even at the birth center people will be like, “I really liked the tub, because it’s like a solid tub, but like the bottom of it gets hard. It’s not cushiony down there.” And so there’s not, there’s not a way to cushion it and make it more comfortable for your bony butt. Even I don’t have a very big butt, so it’s pretty bony.

Gina: If only you had a prenatal program you can follow.

Roxanne: I did do it and it doesn’t really make your butt that much bigger. Just pregnancy does make your butt a little bit bigger. But I liked the birth pool ’cause I’m like, the bottom is cushioned and like you can lean over it and it’s cushioned.

Gina: I agree.

Roxanne: So that’s why I still prefer the birth pool.

Gina: But you do have the… So, Roxanne was initially saying that she wanted a hose that attaches to her shower. And I was like, that’s a horrible idea, ’cause then you have to detach it.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: And reattach it. But she did just get an electric water heater.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: Which is going to be really nice.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: Because if you recall my story with Sophie…

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: We put a hypothermia blanket on the pool to keep it warm.

Roxanne: Or you just have to keep it warm or to boil the water, and that whole thing is annoying.

Gina: And that was a horrible idea, ’cause it was like the contents of a diaper inside the water.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: At that point. But. So you have a shower curtain to put over top of it to kinda contain the heat, but it is really annoying ’cause you have to like, yeah, boil water and put hot water in it. ‘Cause you do want the water at a certain temperature, but now you can just use the heater.

Roxanne: You just throw that little heater in it and it keeps the warm, the water warm.

Gina: I did…

Roxanne: The only thing is if like you get like bodily fluids in it, you do have to like, you scoop it out, but like the solution to pollution is dilution. So normally when you change out the water, it makes it less polluted, for lack of a better word. So I wouldn’t do that, but.

Gina: But, having to do it every once in a while. I also find that during labor there’s less… it’s not as much going in the water.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: As opposed to birth.

Roxanne: Yeah. Yeah.

Gina: So it’s really not as much maintenance as you may think it would be.

Roxanne: I think it’ll be fine. We, and I have in my vision in my head, what, where it’s going to go, and it is close to an outlet for not like electrocution outlet, but…

Gina: We need to put some markers on the floor, or painters’ tape.

Roxanne: Just put painter’s tape on my floor so we know where the tub goes. But I do have like my Peloton in the background, I do, I did take one of the things from the gym, one of the, these thingies.

Gina: The barriers, yeah.

Roxanne: And normally I just put that behind me for my reels that I film at home. But now I’m going to put that in front of my Peloton.

Gina: You should put little birth affirmations on it too.

Roxanne: Yeah. And that was my plan, but I was going to do that for the aesthetics of just me not having to look at my Peloton.

Gina: Are you going to do Christmas lights on it or do you want white twinkle lights?

Roxanne: Ooh, I did order fairy lights, just white fairy lights, but maybe Christmas lights. I should do Christmas lights instead. I don’t know if I would like that though in the moment, like, rainbow.

Gina: Make sure you blow up the pool.

Roxanne: And the flashing.

Gina: So that’s something that you want to do ahead of time too, is to blow it up before you need it, to make sure that there’s no holes.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: Because you know what’s really sad? When it deflates as you labor.

Roxanne: Yeah, I do have a pump. I actually, we have actually have two pumps, ’cause one of them our PTs gave me a pump that she was going to use for her tub that she never used because, she had her baby too quickly.

Gina: This tub has not had a lot of success with subsequent water births.

Roxanne: Yeah. No, one did.

Gina: That’s true. One.

Roxanne: Yeah. But the other ones yeah, the other ones didn’t make it. But I have that pump, and then my husband has like a fancy pump for just life that he uses on our cars. So I was like, I got, we got pumps to pump it up. We just gotta get the hose and then we’ll blow it up, fill it up to practice just doing that whole thing before. And we have our home visit with our midwife this week.

The only thing that I still need to get on the list is towels. Surprisingly, I don’t have towels that I wouldn’t mind being destroyed ’cause I really do have fancy towels.

Gina: I have a lot. I have stolen some of Roxanne’s fancy Turkish towels.

Roxanne: Yeah, she has actually stolen my towels. ‘Cause I wonder every day I’m like, where are all my towels? And then I go to Gina’s house and I was like, do you have the same towels as me?

Gina: So funny story, to bring it back to me.

Roxanne: No, but to be fair, my mom did say, she’s been in Maryland for the past few weeks, and I texted her, I was like, “Please tell me I can have some of your towels.” And she’s like, “I have towels that I took from Gina. So you can have them.”

Gina: Yes.

Roxanne: Because Gina also bought towels for her home birth.

Gina: So I somehow ended up with one of Roxanne’s really fancy Turkish towels. They’re very soft, they’re very absorbent.

Roxanne: I got them for our wedding.

Gina: They’re very large.

Roxanne: It was like the one thing my husband and I splurged on our wedding registry was like really fancy towels.

Gina: So we somehow got this really fancy towel. Probably for two years, my husband was using this towel and he loved it.

Roxanne: The only towel.

Gina: And he like went on a tirade about how he hates cheap towels and I was so confused, ’cause literally every towel we own is a cheap towel.

Roxanne: Five dollars from like Target.

Gina: That I stole from my parents when I was like 18 years old. Like we do not own fancy towels.

Roxanne: Or my mom would buy the like cheap towels and bring them to you.

Gina: We did not own fancy towels. And he was like, “I hate cheap towels!” And I’m like, “Sir…”

Roxanne: “Have you used our towels?”

Gina: That is literally all we own is cheap towels. And so I then went to Bed Bath and Beyond as they were bankrupting, which I guess they’re not bankrupt. I don’t really know.

Roxanne: I know. I’m very confused.

Gina: And I bought like a stack of Turkish towels for him and I was like, “Here are some fancy towels, Sir. I provide for this family with soft, luxurious, giant towels.” And, but what I came to realize was he had been using Roxanne’s one Turkish towel.

Roxanne: So he was like, we have for five years, we have luxury towels. What are you talking about?

Gina: Now we have luxury towels.

Roxanne: I did buy like last, I think last Christmas or the Christmas before, I did buy the Cozy Earth towels and I love them.

Gina: But also Roxanne…

Roxanne: But I don’t want to use that for my birth!

Gina: Roxanne! Mom is really good at getting stains outta stuff. If birth touches something, it’s not instantly damaged forever. We can clean it up.

Roxanne: It’s mostly just like, they’re so thick and, yeah, they’re like, not like just a bath towel, they’re like, they’re a BATH towel. Like the long…

Gina: Yeah, that’s going to, you’re going to lose your baby in that towel.

Roxanne: Yeah. Like it’s, I would lose myself in the towel. I do, every time. So I’m like, I don’t know if this is the towel I really need, I need just like some plain ass towels. Which I do have towels from like, when I would go to the field in the Army, ’cause I didn’t want the cheap little- well, they weren’t cheap, they were still very expensive- but like the thin ones that like didn’t feel like a towel that like stuck to your body.

Gina: The microfiber ones.

Roxanne: Yeah, like, they sucked.

Gina: I did not like them.

Roxanne: They did not take a lot of room up in your bag. But I was like, I will accept a plushy towel in my bag. And so I do have those ones. And I was like, I don’t care about these. I will use these for my birth, it’ll be fine. But I need, I have two of those.

Gina: Did you take my bin of birth stuff?

Roxanne: I did not because I thought you got rid of it and gave it away.

Gina: I did not. I’ve been hanging onto it for sentimental value.

Roxanne: Bring it over and I’ll go through it.

Gina: So you can have all my chuck pads.

Roxanne: Yeah, you can’t have too many chuck pads, honestly. I did order extra chuck pads.

Gina: Let’s take a break from this week’s episode to talk about our podcast sponsor, Needed. Needed is a nutrition company that specializes in optimizing nourishment for the perinatal timeframe that both Roxanne and I personally utilize to help support our pregnancies, our postpartums, we’ll probably take it for the rest of our lives, and so we highly recommend them to you- and we only recommend brands that we personally use and love.

Roxanne: Something that I’ve been incorporating into my third trimester routine is Needed’s sleep and relaxation support, which is just, I add it to hot water before going to bed, and I find that it helps me sleep better. I don’t wake up in the middle of the night when I do find that I take it. And insomnia in third trimester can be very common, so I find that’s helping me get a little bit more sleep. I don’t have any like data to back this up from my Oura ring or anything, but I find that the magnesium in it and the chamomile in it helps me fall asleep easier. And I think just drinking warm things in general makes me have a little routine before going to bed. And it tastes pretty good, honestly.

Gina: I did use it in my third trimester with my last pregnancy because my solution for pregnancy insomnia was play Candy Crush, so I made it to like level like 700.

Roxanne: Oh damn.

Gina: In my third trimester, ’cause I was struggling to sleep. But the nights that I did take the sleep and relaxation before I did feel like I was actually able to go to sleep instead of staying up till 3:00 AM crushing candy.

Roxanne: So if you would like to try something for more restful sleep and not Candy Crush, the Sleep and Relaxation Support has been a big fan for both of us, and even my husband used it for a little while and he has pretty bad insomnia. So anecdotally, three people, team sleep and relaxation support. And you can head to thisisneeded.com and use code MAMASTEPOD to get 20% off your own sleep and relaxation support.

Gina: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

Roxanne: This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any diseases.

Gina: So coming back to that electric water heater. I’ve only had one client who was preparing to use that, and they were really excited by it, and they were like, “Hey, after we use it, you can take it for your next birth,” and I was like, “Sounds good.” We never had a chance to use it because she had a precipitous labor. I showed up and her baby was crowining. And the midwife also missed the birth, but the birth assistant was there helping her with it.

So Roxanne and I went over what do we do if Roxanne decides to also have a precipitous labor?

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: And who should I be calling and should I call an ambulance? Because Roxanne does have a history of hemorrhage. And guess what Gina doesn’t carry in her bag. Hemorrhage stuff. Hemorrhage stopping medications.

Roxanne: The doula kit does not include postpartum hemorrhage medications.

Gina: The doula kit does not include postpartum hemorrhage. I actually do have neonatal resuscitation stuff, because I do have that certification, in my birth assistant bag. But I don’t carry syringes and Pitocin.

Roxanne: Why not?

Gina: So part of our action plan that we’ve established is if Roxanne decides that she would like to have her baby unassisted, accidentally.

Roxanne: No. I’m not going to decide that, it’s just going to happen. The universe decides that.

Gina: The moons decide it. That, what was it, Sagittarius? No, not Sagittarius.

Roxanne: The Taurus Moon.

Gina: Taurus moon, or the Cancer moon, or… Capricorn moon!

Roxanne: Capricorn moon.

Gina: Capricorn moon.

Roxanne: Capricorn new moon. Oh, not just any moon. The new moon.

Gina: The new moon.

If, for whatever reason, this child decides that he would like to expedite his delivery, our current plan is I’m going to call the midwife and she’s going to FaceTime me, and Roxanne’s husband will call an ambulance. Because what we don’t want to happen is she is not there and Roxanne begins to hemorrhage.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: And we have no medications.

Roxanne: Which I don’t know if they would have medications on an ambulance for a postpartum hemorrhage.

Gina: But they could transport you faster.

Roxanne: But then if everything’s fine and they show up and they’re like, “Hello,” and I can just be like, “We good. Goodbye. Thank you for coming.”

Gina: Yeah. so that’s our current plan. If for whatever reason Roxanne decides to have a quick labor before her midwife has arrived and her midwife is not pulling in the driveway, we will be calling for assistance just in case.

Roxanne: Yes.

Gina: Now, if baby comes out. And, but there’s a problem with the baby, I can either hand stuff to Roxanne for her to do it, or I can do it as we wait for assistance.

Roxanne: Same thing, 911 though.

Gina: But I could not do anything if you were…

Roxanne: Yeah, I would like to not have to resuscitate my own baby.

Gina: That would be nice. But it is… So when I took the neonatal resuscitation course, so I took it as a birth assistant ’cause I’m supporting one of our home birth midwives in that aspect, instead of doing as much doula work, it was very comforting to know that kind of the main- and there’s obviously like extreme situations and nuances that are rare that could happen- that if you are giving

birth at home, it can still be a safe option even with some of the postpartum birth emergencies.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: If the baby comes out and they are not breathing or transitioning well, there are steps that we can take to help them do that as we wait to transfer.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: So essentially stabilize them or even get them to come up.

Roxanne: Honestly, a lot of the stuff that they would do at first we can do in community birth settings, ’cause most of the time you’re not giving oxygen right away. You don’t want to give oxygen ’cause it is a drug. You want to just use a compressed air tank of room air- 21% oxygen, which is what is in the air. ‘Cause a baby comes out and only has 60% oxygen in their blood. Like they don’t need oxygen, their body is going to slowly build it up. So all you do is, most of the time, is give them air and breaths to get them to figure out what the heck to do. And also clear out their lungs from all of that fluid. 90% of babies are born and need nothing, but there is that 10% that needs a little bit of assistance, and most of that 10%, like 9% of the 10% is just air. It may be a little bit of oxygen, but most of the time it’s just breaths. And then that like tiny percent needs like other things. But, and I think every time I take neonatal resuscitation, I learn something new. But it’s very reassuring to know babies are very resilient and they just need to air.

Gina: And there’s usually a lot that we can do to help support them, and there’s steps that we can take to make sure they’re transitioning well.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: So I thought that was really reassuring.

Roxanne: And I know some home births, the parents will give the inflation breaths themselves. And like I think my midwife had asked, she’s like, “If you want to do that, you can,” and I was like, “I will feel it out in the moment, but I think I would rather you just use the mask. I would rather not have to give my baby breaths in the moment.”

Gina: Yeah. So what you mean is like they put their mouth to baby.

Roxanne: Yeah. And they put their mouth on their baby’s mouth.

Gina: Kinda all…

Roxanne: Yeah, because, you, like, their lungs are like so little, so I feel like in the moment I would give too much air.

Gina: In the CPR class that we have in the gym every like few months, the instructor, when she’s talking about giving breath to a baby or a child if you had to do airway or CPR…

Roxanne: Which I love her tip, yeah.

Gina: She’s like, “You just fill your cheeks with air and that’s what you push into their lungs. So it’s a really small amount.

Roxanne: That helps you not overdo it. Or she recently has been saying, and she learned it from one of the parents in the class, was that you take a deep breath and you let it out. Whatever’s left in your lungs after you exhale, that’s what you put in the baby.

Gina: Yeah.

Roxanne: And I was like, I do that. Because also you’re freaking out ’cause you’re needing to give your child or baby breaths, so take a deep breath to calm down and then, whew.

Gina: Yeah.

Roxanne: But you have to breathe for a baby more than just that.

Gina: Yeah. So this was not to tell you what to do, how to do it.

Roxanne: This is just like things that I have in the back of my mind if I need to use them. but I would prefer to just give my baby breaths.

Gina: But I think it is, it can be a really helpful thing to have a conversation with your provider, whether you’re giving birth in a hospital or a community-based setting, on what could it look like if something, if baby doesn’t transition.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: What could I expect it to look like? Because that can be super scary in the moment when a baby comes out and they don’t start crying, like within a little bit of time, a very short period of time. It can be really stressful. And then people aren’t always explaining to you what’s happening ’cause they’re responding to this.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: And they don’t always have the personnel to like also communicate with you as they’re focusing.

Roxanne: Especially in community birth, there’s only two people, so that’s like a very learned skill.

Gina: And so it can be like, not a lot of information is being relayed to you. And like for me as a doula, like I don’t want to tell people what’s happening because I could not be totally understanding the situation. So I’m like, I don’t, I can’t be the person that tells you. I can tell you what I see, but I can’t tell you, oh, your baby came out and they weren’t transitioning well, and so they’re doing these things.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: Because it doesn’t feel like within my scope.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: And so I think it can be really helpful to either watch some videos on like neonatal resuscitation, like what to expect if baby doesn’t transition so that you can see it either in a hospital or in a community birth setting; talking to your provider on what that could look like and what to expect; in addition to if you are giving birth in a community birth setting, having an action plan with your midwife. What do we do if you’re not here yet?

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: Because that can happen.

Roxanne: And those are things that are usually discussed most commonly at the 36 week visit for both community freestanding birth center and home birth. So most midwives will usually come to your house at the end of your pregnancy for a home visit to, one, seek out the space, see what, see where you live, and like what all you have set up for birth. And then that’s usually when you talk about the not so happy kind of scary stuff, like resuscitation, transferring, all of that. And we’ve started at the birth center trying to implement going over resuscitation as a possibility of what to expect, like what does it look like? Like we keep you connected to the baby. This is what a mask looks like. This is what we’re using if we need to, this is what a LMA looks like if we have to get another airway, we put this down, we put this into baby’s mouth to help baby breathe a little bit better than the mask. And like all of these things that we’re doing so that if it does happen, they’ve seen it before and it’s not as scary. But they also know hey, this is part of a protocol to make you feel confident in the care that we’re giving you, because we have to take care of your baby.

And then, just a little aside that we talk about is that if your baby’s being resuscitated, you’re not getting that surge of oxytocin that you would be getting after you have a baby. So we would like you to not bleed postpartum while we also are taking care of your baby, ’cause again, there’s just two of us in a community birth setting, maybe a third. Whereas in the hospital, there’s like a bajillion people in most hospitals, usually more than not, maybe not a bajillion, but they have a lot more hands in a hospital, so if we can give you Pitocin in the moment of your baby needing like to be resuscitated, then that will prevent you from bleeding everywhere. And then we can just focus on your baby and not you hemorrhaging, especially if you have risk factors. That is like newer things that we’ve, we’ve been discussing starting at the birth center. And I know my, obviously I’ve been to home visits that she does, so I know my midwife does all of those things.

But it also, and obviously I do this for a living, so like I know what to do. Like I feel like in the moment I feel like I could turn it back on if I needed to have my own birth if no one else was there. But like my husband does not do this, and has never seen a baby needed to be resuscitated ’cause none of our kids needed it at birth. So I feel like he would be a little, a little traumatized. So it’s also beneficial for him to see all of these things and understand the plan, ’cause a lot of the times they are also the ones calling 9 1 1, it’s not the midwife, ’cause the midwife needs to be there and running the resuscitation, ensuring all of these things. So if he is available or your partner is available to call 9 1 1 and has a little script and we put it on our fridge of like where we would like to transfer, what we would like, and then if you have to call 9 1 1, this is what you say. To include, take a deep breath, which is important. It’s stressful though, in the moment, especially when it’s like your loved one or your family member.

I do think that’s an important part of community birth that needs to be discussed. If it’s not being discussed, like you need to initiate it. But it could still be beneficial for hospital births because what would that look like? In a lot of hospitals they do cut the cord and bring baby to a separate location for resuscitation, whereas in community birth we usually just keep you connected for the benefits of keeping connected.

Gina: I think it is helpful even in a hospital setting to have that conversation on what can I expect if something is maybe not going well?

Roxanne: Exactly.

Gina: Like even before the baby is born. If my baby’s, if a bunch of people come running in the room, like what are some situations? ‘Cause it can be really scary in the moment when people are responding and nobody is communicating to you, ’cause they’re focused on what is happening.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: Which is not necessarily like, bad that they’re focusing on it, but sometimes a little bit of a…

Roxanne: We could be better at type casting in the middle.

Gina: Debriefing afterwards would be even better.

Roxanne: Yeah. A good debrief can also be really beneficial and helpful.

But yeah, so I, I’ve got my kit. We’re testing out the tub. We have our visit this week for my husband. Gina will not make it ’cause she has another vacation planned. Impromptu, it’s just fine. But having the people there so that they can be aware of the plans can be helpful. So Gina’s just going to hopefully FaceTime in. Life dependent.

Gina: The other scenario that we were chatting about, one of our friends just had a surprise breech at her home birth. Which we were like, oh, it was probably good that she gave birth at home, ’cause if she was in a hospital she probably would’ve had an unplanned emergency C-section. ‘Cause it happened very fast, and the midwife like arrived like just in time to support. And I was like, look…

Roxanne: Her baby had not been breech prior!

Gina: No.

Roxanne: But he did move a lot.

Gina: So I was like, “Hey, Roxanne,”

Roxanne: Harvey is…

Gina: I think I, I have a grasp on what to do if the baby’s coming out, head down. I just let you do, I help you.

Roxanne: You literally just put your hands out to catch it.

Gina: Like I’m tracking what to do. I have never seen a breech baby born vaginally, and I also don’t know what to do if that baby has a problem. With the head down baby, I think the midwife could easily talk me through what to do if there’s an issue. I have an understanding of like shoulder dystocia and what these things look like. I don’t know what it looks like when a breech baby comes out. And so I was like…

Roxanne: Just toes.

Gina: I was like, I need you to just talk me through and then do some hands-on skills with this baby doll on what I need to look for to know that it’s okay that this baby is doing a good job and I just, let it happen, versus when do I need to intervene. And I need to walk through those skills just in case. Because again, I am mentally preparing for precipitous labor. For some reason, I don’t know why.

Roxanne: Gina, I’ve never had a precipitous labor.

Gina: I don’t know why. I am preparing for precipitous labor.

Roxanne: Oh, I’m also prepared to call my midwife like way early.

Gina: I know. I’m all about calling them super early, and then I get really self-conscious that everyone’s there. But I’m like, “Don’t worry guys, once it picks up, it’s going to pick up.” And it did. It did.

Roxanne: It does. It does every time.

Gina: But so my thought is Roxanne’s going to be in denial.

Roxanne: That’s true.

Gina: For a long period of time, and not tell anybody that she’s in labor until it’s like late. And then your midwife has like an hour drive. And so I’m like, let me just be prepared.

So we talked through what signs to look for that baby is doing fine if it was a surprise breach. What to do if they’re not fine. what techniques do I need to be prepared to do? Also, FaceTiming the midwife and calling 9 1 1, would be both the things as well.

Roxanne: If she saw feet, our plan is, and if my midwife is not there, she will call 9 1 1 just case.

Gina: In addition to case the midwife and FaceTime.

Roxanne: And again, we can send them away if need.

Gina: Because I’m like, the midwife could talk me through it, but I need to have some awareness in my body of what I need to do if that baby is…

Roxanne: Feet first.

Gina: Is feet first. ‘Cause I…

Roxanne: Or butt first?

Gina: It might be fine. It might be fine. It might not be fine. So I just want to make sure that I know what to do.

So we did review that as well. I don’t know why I am like, “It’s going to be a precipitous super surprise breech.”

Roxanne: Gina is prepared for one, I’m going to have to resuscitate the baby. I’m not in labor, and then the next second of baby is falling out of me.

Gina: Like, I am very prepared.

Roxanne: Like one minute I’m conversing, and then the next, “Oh my gosh, my baby’s being born!” I feel like Gina’s very committed to this.

Gina: I feel like, so Roxanne gave birth in a birth center for her second, and it was a pretty like smooth, very, I felt like it was very quick from when it started to really pick up.

Roxanne: He was my quickest, but he was also my smallest.

Gina: He was.

Roxanne: But I think like from start to finish, his birth was like less than 10 hours.

Gina: Yeah. But, like the first six hours you were in denial.

Roxanne: Yeah. I was also asleep for the first, yeah. Like I started having early labor contractions, I put on a TENS unit and fell back asleep until four or five. And then that’s when I woke everybody up. And then he was born at 11.

Gina: So when we made it to the birth center…

Roxanne: It was like six hours after I woke up.

Gina: …it was like three to four hours from when we made it to the birth center and he was born.

Roxanne: And I didn’t really want to go to the birth center at that point.

Gina: No.

Roxanne: But my midwives were like, “You can come in” when they heard me.

Gina: So when, Roxanne realized, “Okay, I think I might actually be in labor, we should go to the birth center,” it was like three-ish hours. It was a really undisturbed environment.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: You didn’t really have any, I think the biggest stress was deciding to go.

Roxanne: And it was like a five minute drive.

Gina: So in my mind, and then Joan we were like, “It’ll be faster,” and was actually slower, ’cause I think there was a lot of people, yours pushing longer.

Roxanne: I’m a private birther. I’ve realized.

Gina: There was a bunch of people staring at your butthole.

Roxanne: I did not really like that. And I, no, and I think I carried that into a lot of births. I always try to cover the butthole in all births.

Gina: Yeah. So I think the, I think it was still really positive birth for you with Joan, but I think there was a lot of people, and it probably slowed things down. ‘Cause we had to drive the hour to the hospital, which was stressful, which we definitely left early. You had to transition into the hospital.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: Then you had people popping in and out throughout the labor. And then there was like a pack of people at birth, ’cause it was change of shift and everyone wanted to stay.

Roxanne: Yeah. Poor time.

Gina: And it was like, you had two nurses, I think there was a student, your midwife, I dunno, like surgical tech.

Roxanne: I did keep my eyes closed.

Gina: All these people. Then there was meconium, so there was NICU.

Roxanne: I think I opened my eyes at one point and I was like, “That’s a lot of people. And then I just closed them.” I was like, “I’m going to be in denial that all these people are here.”

Gina: I think for me, I’m like, “Okay, Colin’s birth was on the quicker side ’cause she was pretty und disturbed.”

Roxanne: He was smaller, too.

Gina: Joan was a little bit longer ’cause there was a lot of commotion, but almost there was a lot of butthole exposure.

Roxanne: Colin was seven pounds, seven ounces. Joan was eight pound, eight ounces. She did have to create a bigger path.

Gina: Yes, but.

Roxanne: But I was probably holding some tension in my pelvic floor from the potentially 49 people staring at my butthole.

Gina: Yes. And so I think in my head I’m like, Roxanne doesn’t have to drive anywhere.

Roxanne: I don’t.

Gina: She’s going to not want to tell anybody.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: There’s going to be no disturbances.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: And her midwife is over an hour away. That’s if Rose is like sitting in her car, waiting to go.

Roxanne: She does have to pick up her birth assistant on the way.

Gina: And so in my head I’m like, it’s going to take her at least two hours to get to us.

Roxanne: That’s an excessive amount. I don’t think two hours, but it will take her some time.

Gina: If you woke her up in the middle of the night.

Roxanne: Yeah, that’s true.

Gina: You don’t think it would take her like 20 to 30 minutes to get out of her house?

Roxanne: Maybe not for me. If I called her, she would. She might be like, “Fourth baby…”

Gina: 90 minutes. At least 90 minutes.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: 90 minutes from the moment of call, if she’s ready to go.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: To getting to the house.

Roxanne: I’m like, “She’s just going to teleport when I need her. She’ll just be there.

Gina: So that’s why I am like, I don’t know, Roxanne, I think I need to be prepared.

Roxanne: I know.

Gina: To Rose pulling in the driveway with your baby rumping or crowning.

Roxanne: No. Oh, he better not be rumping. Sir.

Gina: So yeah, for some reason I’m like, Gina’s very prepared to, this is going to be a precipitous labor. Help catch a baby. I am ready. Not willing, but ready. Ready to go.

Roxanne: I don’t think I ever prepared mentally to catch any of Gina’s babies.

Gina: No.

Roxanne: Because I was like, her midwife will make her.

Gina: I always call her.

Roxanne: And her midwife lives like in near-ish to where my midwife is.

Gina: Yeah. But I call her really early. I know the moment that I’m in labor, I’m like, this is labor, Nancy.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: You should think about coming. And then my midwife will also come and do labor checks earlier just to see how I’m doing.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: And then she just like loiters in the area.

Roxanne: Loitering.

Gina: She’s just loitering, soliciting people.

Roxanne: Do you need a midwife?

Gina: So I know that she’s going to be there because I call her really early.

Roxanne: Yeah, I don’t.

Gina: And she comes and she just hangs out, which is fine.

Roxanne: But to be fair, we did go to the hospital fairly early last time. So I feel like I will know when I’m in early labor, and I will tell my midwife I’m in early labor and she will either come for the vibes, or she’ll wait a little bit and then come for some later vibes.

Gina: So I’m preparing for precipitous. And if Rose is there, and your baby’s not yet born, I will chill. And I’ll be like, cool.

Roxanne: Gina’s going to be just stressing.

Gina: I can just hang out. Take videos of you for the gram.

Roxanne: Yeah. And then we do have our birth photographer slash backup doula, if you’re at Disney for some reason.

Gina: Again, we ain’t doing no Hyrox competition, Roxanne, ’cause I ain’t going to be training by myself.

Roxanne: No. And we’ll just wait to sign up. I mostly don’t even know what it is. I don’t really know. I just keep seeing, “Oh, these moms! Like, these moms are so strong, doing this thing!” I’m like, what is it?

Gina: I feel like it’s…

Roxanne: What is it?

Gina: It’s like a set, like, CrossFit competition.

Roxanne: Is it? But it’s like a set, is it the same workout for every competition or is it like change it up?

Gina: I feel like it.

Roxanne: I do love a ski erg. Every time I see the Hydrox ads, it’s always the ski erg.

Gina: I’ll ChatGPT it!

Roxanne: I love a good ski. I love the ski. It’s my favorite. I hate the bike though. I’ve not seen anybody on the bike though in any of these Hydrox commercials. So maybe I’m just curated my feed to just what I want to do it. I’ll chicken out if it’s assault bikes, or the rower, I do not like that. I do not like that.

Gina: Not interested. Ski ergs? Yes. Show me ski ergs.

Roxanne: Last night my feed was all this cake on fire.

Gina: Oh my God. Every other reel was this grandma lighting her cake on fire.

Roxanne: But that is what I’m preparing for.

Gina: And even the parodies to it.

Roxanne: Oh my god. They were, that was so funny. The grandma just like in the background, too, she like hides behind the door. That was chaos.

Gina: All right, so Roxanne, you are preparing, you’re in your final moments.

Roxanne: I’ve got all my labor comforts, I’ve got all my postpartum supplies, I’ve got all my home birth supplies. We have our food ready. We do these tovala meals, which I’m a huge fan of. They’re pretty, they’re like ready meals, but that you have to cook in this fancy little oven that does everything for it.

Gina: It’s just a giant air fryer.

Roxanne: No, it’s…

Gina: Or, toaster oven.

Roxanne: It’s everything. It’s a steamer, it’s an air fryer, it’s an oven.

Gina: We are not sponsored, but we should be.

Roxanne: But we should be.

Gina: We need to reach out to them.

Roxanne: Sponsor my postpartum! But that’s what we eat, and so that’s what we’re going to plan to eat for postpartum. And then of course, Mama Kim. I did tell my husband, I was like, yeah, I’ll have to pick out my postpartum meal that I want to eat like after Harvey’s born, because the midwife just stays until I pee and then eat. So I don’t want her to like chill in there for 18 hours waiting for me to eat- which that would be a really long time to wait to eat in general- but I was like, I’m going to have to pick out my Tovala meal that I’m wanting. And he’s like, do you think your mother is going to let you eat that food? No. She’s going to freshly make like kibop and seaweed soup ready to go immediately after birth. And I’m like, you’re right. You’re right. So I, we don’t postpartum meal prep because my mom cooks for us. And by cooks for us, I mean that she mostly just makes seaweed soup for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Gina: And I’m not taking her to the marathon with me.

Roxanne: Yeah. So Gina’s going to have to be all by herself. How is she going to survive her marathon? But I will have seaweed soup galore for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for my postpartum foods.

Gina: Fortunately, we have forced all of our employees to also run races, so they will be there to help me with my children. Your current task as an employee is also childcare.

Roxanne: Yeah. You’re also bringing a friend, but yeah. So that’s what I have planned.

Gina: How do you feel mentally, emotionally?

Roxanne: I think I feel ready for birth. No one, I don’t think I’m like looking forward to a contraction. Like I don’t think I, I’m like, yeah, I would love to feel a contraction!

But I feel excited to meet him like, ’cause he is very full of personality on the inside, apparently, just moving and kicking me and scraping me and saying hello all the time, in the middle of the night. And so I’m excited to meet him, and also like the kids are so excited, like every day. “Are we going to meet the baby today? Are you going to have your baby today?” I was like, “No, after Christmas.” So it would be very unfortunate if I do go before Christmas, ’cause I would’ve lied. My oldest will be like, “You lied, Mommy. You said after Christmas.” So sorry. At least I didn’t lie about Santa and Easter Bunny, like Emo. Double down.

Gina: Photos and digital proof.

Roxanne: And then I’m also looking forward to postpartum, which is weird ’cause I hate postpartum, usually, I really don’t like postpartum. But I’ve never had a winter postpartum- so it’s not only is it hibernation season, just in general in winter, but now like I have like a baby to hibernate with and just, cozy season. I’m excited for cozy season.

Gina: It is really nice to just be in your own bed.

Roxanne: But like in the winter! In the summer it’s like hard ’cause you’re like, oh, it’s so nice.

Gina: Everyone’s doing things.

Roxanne: I can go out there, I’m missing out on things! But no one’s doing anything in January. People are like recovering from all the holidays.

Gina: I’ll be doing stuff.

Roxanne: Gina’s doing a marathon.

Gina: Going on four vacations.

Roxanne: What? Where are you going?

Gina: I’m going in Disneyland. We’re going to LA to teach the workshop.

Roxanne: That’s in February, end of January, yeah. But I will not be going.

Gina: Speaking of which, if you would like to hang out with me and not Roxanne, who’s going to be probably like two weeks postpartum.

Roxanne: Two days.

Gina: We’ll be in LA February 1st to teach our pelvic mechanics workshop. And then on May 2nd we’re going to be in Seattle. Roxanne will probably also not be there, but maybe if I entice you with, “you can meet the baby,” I can force her to come.

Roxanne: No.

Gina: If you sign up for the May workshop put in, “I will only come if the baby is coming.”

Roxanne: “Only if baby boy is present, will we attend this workshop.”

Gina: Yeah.

Roxanne: I have to go.

Gina: So if you want to come learn pelvic mechanics with just Gina, sign up!

Roxanne: For February or May.

Gina: ‘Cause Roxanne is ruining all of our joint sister plans.

Roxanne: I know. 2026 was supposed to be our year. Just kidding.

Gina: It was our star chart. Did not predict this. Or did it?

Roxanne: No. Or maybe it did. It did say it was going to be our year. Maybe this is the money tree.

Gina: He’s the start.

Roxanne: Because the money tree as in like the tree that grows and then you like have success. Not like actual money tree.

Gina: He’s going to bring us that bag.

Roxanne: He’s going to, he’s going to take the money, to be fair. All my money will go towards him.

Gina: Thank you so much for tuning in on our incredibly tangent filled episode.

Roxanne: I know. I don’t know if I told anyone really what I actually am planning.

Gina: Roxanne’s really pregnant, and soon she will not be. Stay tuned.

Roxanne: Yeah, stay tuned for when.

Gina: For the announcement.

Roxanne: He does have hair.

Gina: We will be sharing more of Roxanne’s postpartum preparation in, I think in a week or two will be that episode. So stay tuned for that if you’re really curious on what she’s putting in her bathroom and what she’s going to plan to put against her vulva.

Roxanne: Perineum.

Gina: Oh, we’ll be talking all about the postpartum prep, hopefully with less tangents.

Roxanne: Not, probably not.

Gina: Probably not.

Roxanne: Probably more honestly.

Gina: Probably not. Someone did comment on one of our videos of, “This is really great information, but these two keep talking over each other.” Sorry.

Roxanne: We’re sisters.

Gina: We cannot stop ourselves. So stay tuned for that. And thanks so much for joining us and we are all patiently awaiting this little dude’s arrival.

And if you would like more support throughout your pregnancy or your postpartum, we do have our fitness programs that support both pregnancy and postpartum. We have video-based workouts in addition to our self-paced app based workouts depending on how you like to work out. So you can check out both of those on our website.

If you want more of the education aspect, we do have our childbirth education course. We will be refilming our newborn education course with the little dude, in the next few months. So stay tuned for that in the spring for the release.

And if you are a professional, we do have our in-person workshops that are coming up in January, February, and May. Hopefully we’ll have some more in the later part of the year. We have our online courses as well with our fitness trainer course and our Pelvic Mechanics online course. So you can check out all of those on our website and use code Story10 to get 10% off any of our online offerings.

Roxanne: And this podcast is sponsored by Needed. Needed is a nutrition company focused on the perinatal timeframe that both Gina and I have utilized and I’m currently using it during this pregnancy. And if you want to check them out, head to thisisneeded.com and use code MAMASTEPOD to get 20% off your first order.