The MamasteFit Podcast Episode 150 – Roxanne’s First Month Postpartum

Gina: Welcome to the MamasteFit Podcast. In this episode, we have Roxanne who is gonna be sharing her early postpartum journey and what she’s been doing in the past…. how many weeks are you now?

Roxanne: Five.

Gina: Five weeks. What she’s been doing to help support reconnecting with her pelvic floor, with her core, just recovering in general.

This was the first postpartum that Roxanne did not have postpartum hemorrhage, and so it was huge difference from her previous one. So I’m excited for you to hear how she has been healing after giving birth to little baby Harvey, who is also here. So if you’re watching the video, you can get a little sneak peek of this little guy.

Roxanne: I mean, you’ve been getting a sneak peek on Instagram.

Gina: Yeah.

Roxanne: But.

Gina: He has not been kept a secret.

So Roxanne, you gave birth to your fourth baby. How do you feel?

Roxanne: I feel great physically and mentally, so kudos to me.

Gina: “I’d like to thank me!” Not me, like you, it’s like you saying that.

Roxanne: I was like, Gina would take the credit for all of this.

Gina: No, I meant it as like the funny quote that Roxanne is saying.

Roxanne: I’d like to thank me for all of my efforts to prepare for this moment.

No, I’ve been feeling really good. mostly physically and mentally. I didn’t really have a ton of issues immediately after, like we had the baby, didn’t hemorrhage, got up to the bathroom, didn’t pass out, so two there just by itself, honestly.

Gina: Did you think you did anything to help prevent the hemorrhage this time? I know sometimes it’s probably unpredictable, but do you feel like you did anything different? ‘Cause that was a big question that we’ve been getting.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: What have you done, or what did you do?

Roxanne: What did I do? I mean, the only things that I did differently compared to my previous births in pregnancies is one, I was not anemic this pregnancy. So I really focused, a little bit with lots of gentle pushing from my midwife of eating healthy, or having a well-balanced diet, ’cause “healthy”, I don’t love. But, a well-balanced diet where I was eating foods that were helping the, like vitamins and nutrients that I was not doing well in prior to. So like my vitamin D levels, my iron levels and making sure that I wasn’t anemic was something that I wanted to really focus on- and not just like taking iron and taking vitamin D, but like going outside and eating iron rich foods. So I think that definitely helped with like my nutrients. And not being anemic probably helped me not hemorrhage.

I did pick a home birth, so I think that also played a part in like my oxytocin release right after having a baby- ’cause not only was it like, oh, super excited rush of oxytocin ’cause I just delivered this baby ’cause I’m a box ass bitch- but, also like seeing my daughter look at him and she was just like beaming, and like everyone there was just beaming. And that just like also helped me have an oxytocin surge, which I think helped potentially not bleed out everywhere.

We did choose to do active management of the third stage, which just means that we get Pitocin once the baby is born and then encourage the placenta to come out. We didn’t necessarily do the encouraging of the placenta, but we definitely did the Pitocin and then I did not have any crazy bleeding, so we continued to wait until I had the urge to bear down, or cramping for the placenta to come out. So I don’t know if I did that with my second or my first, because I didn’t have an IV with my first and my second, I was in the birth center, so I didn’t get Pitocin immediately, so those were different. With my third, they definitely gave me Pitocin right away. But I also think the third my placenta was like ready potentially to be delivered, before they started giving me the Pitocin, ’cause I didn’t need any other medications, so I think that also plays a part. Like hemorrhages that like all you needed was Pitocin and it stopped, like still a lot of bleeding and long-term effects, but I didn’t need any of the other postpartum medicines. Whereas someone who hemorrhage and needed like everything that would be like, different potentially.

Gina: Yeah.

Roxanne: In like preparing for future pregnancies, whereas I only needed the Pitocin, so then I got it, and I think that helped. But I think nutrients where I was delivering, as well as who was there, and then Pitocin.

Gina: Yeah, so one of the… did you take any iron supplements during pregnancy?

Roxanne: I did take some iron supplements in like first and second trimester, but then we did another blood test for like around 28 weeks, and then again later in my third trimester, and my levels were great those times, so I didn’t supplement additional iron, just like whatever is like the basic amount of iron. But I did supplement a lot with vitamin D, which there’s like some small studies that also support vitamin D levels could help prevent postpartum hemorrhage or decrease the risk of postpartum hemorrhage if you have an optimal vitamin D level- which is like 50, and mine was, I think the first time I ever tested my vitamin D was like 9, so not optimal.

Gina: The supplements that we personally take are from Needed. If you want to check them out and you want to see the supplements that we personally take, not to say that’s what you should take, but we just really the brand a lot, you can head to the notes of this episode where we’ll have like our wholesale link, which is the only way that we get commission from Needed is through the wholesale link. So if you do want to support us, it doesn’t cost you any more. Our code, I think it’s MAMASTEFIT.

Roxanne: for 20% off.

Gina: For 20% off, but you have to go through the wholesale link. But I used their iron during my last pregnancy when I was like borderline anemic, and that really helped me in the third trimester. We used their prenatals. I drink their collagen like every day in my coffee, but it was something that Roxanne used in her last pregnancy as well to help support her nutrient levels. And they do a lot of research on making sure that their stuff is good, which is pretty cool. They do a lot of like women’s health research, which I love.

Roxanne: So yeah, we really trust Needed.

Gina: If you want to check them out, head to the notes to go through a wholesale link so that we do actually get like a commission, ’cause we don’t have any more podcast sponsors for our episodes. That will give us a little bit of a commission- if you want to check out their products! But no pressure. No pressure at all.

Alright, so you didn’t hemorrhage this time. How did that impact your healing in comparison to previous births?

Roxanne: Just, I mean, healing…

Gina: Or just, how you felt.

Roxanne: I felt 10 times better. I was like, “Whoa. This is what people feel like after having a baby that doesn’t bleed out their half their blood volume? This is great!” Whereas, like with Joan, I was like a asleep pretty much the entire month. I couldn’t, I don’t think I could take a full shower without like almost passing out for a month.

Gina: Yeah, you were pretty…

Roxanne: It was like a really long time.

Gina: Little out of touch, for a minute. I would text and I’d be like…

Roxanne: I’d be like, “Yeah, I’ll do that in a second.”

Gina: Four hours later…

Roxanne: and then I’d wake up 2 hours later when Joan needed to eat and I’d be like, “Oh, I am awake. I am awake.” Whereas this one, like I took naps, ’cause like it’s still tiring, like you’re not sleeping as well throughout the night- but like I didn’t need to take the nap because I was like short of breath, exhausted and like borderline dying.

Gina: We actually got to do puzzles.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: And hang out. last time you were passed out.

Roxanne: Yeah. Like I was just asleep. Granted, Gina was also like jet setting across the world.

Gina: I know, I was!

Roxanne: But this time we like, I felt good enough to sit and do a puzzle, as well as I get up and walk around, go to the bathroom without feeling like I was gonna pass out.. I took a shower the second day after having a baby, whereas with my last one, I don’t think I showered for a couple days ’cause I was a little afraid to get in the shower without someone being readily available.

So the second day after I gave birth, I was able to take a full shower without passing out, and I was able to have my first bowel movement, which is always a big scary thing that a lot of people are fearful of. As well as myself, ’cause I do have a rectocele, which just means that my rectum is pushing in through my vaginal wall. So bowel movements are always pretty scary for me, after having kids, not because I’ve had any experience of it being bad, but just knowing that it’s there, is scary.

So I didn’t also, with previous ones, I’ve, I had issues with tailbone pain and constipation, which I did not have this time, which was really great. I had a daily bowel movement postpartum without any issues, which I loved for me.

Gina: Do you think anything contributed towards that, or just luck of the draw?

Roxanne: I think like a diet probably helped a lot. High fiber and water.

That makes

Gina: a difference.

Roxanne: That makes a big difference. But I also think that all of the prep that I did like with pelvic floor probably was beneficial. I was also able to like actually move around more this postpartum, whereas previous ones, ’cause I was just sleeping, I was just like, ugh.

Gina: Yeah.

Roxanne: On my back, tailbone pain, like lots of pain. And then I usually would have a little bit more symptoms and like physically after having a baby, your pelvic floor is still recovering, so it just can’t physically hold and support the organs as much as it normally would. So it’s normal for the organs to sit lower within the first few weeks postpartum. So I usually have more prolapse symptoms within the first few weeks usually, just from that normal thing. But then when you add on like someone with a rectocele adding on constipation, it can worsen the symptoms where it feels even more like pressure wise, where you need to like splint more externally, internally if it doesn’t get better, just to have a bowel movement- or like potentially like disimpaction, which is where you go in and scoop it out.

Gina: Like a canary.

Roxanne: Yeah, it was @WorkingMoms, like, “You go in there and scoop it out like a canary eating a papaya,” I think that’s what she said! But that can be like if you already have rectocele that could increase those symptoms and potentially make it feel like it’s sitting a lot lower, or, like it is sitting lower because the pelvic floor is not able to support it. So I’m always pretty cautious for the first few weeks because I have the prolapse, I need to monitor my symptoms that I’m not doing too much too soon until that pelvic floor feels ready to support my organs a little bit more than they do immediately after pushing a baby out.

But I haven’t had any crazy symptoms for the first month. But then once we started doing more activity, recording podcasts, and like moving more- more than just around my house and like down the block- I did start having more heaviness and it felt like my prolapse was sitting lower than it had been the previous weeks. And so I did have a little bit of a mental spiral. Not that I had, again, any symptoms of like constipation, or pain with pooping, or anything like that. But the heaviness after just like working all day, made me spiral. And so I laid again in bed for two more days in hopes that it was a fluke. And I have like still felt heaviness since that day, every once in a while, but I think that it’s, just gonna, it just needs some time to fully heal. But I think like giving myself the grace and room to still be worried about prolapse and know that it’s not the end of the world, but like I’m still allowed to be like, upset about it when I’m feeling the symptoms, ’cause it’s, ugh, I just want to do stuff! I feel so good this time that I just want to do stuff, but like my pelvic floor says, calm the fuck down, sit down.

Gina: Ease off.

Roxanne: Yeah. So that probably is like the one thing that has been different this one. Because I just, again, never had to worry about it in the past ’cause I was like six or seven weeks by the time, like I was actually like moving around and like my pelvic floor had felt better at that point. Whereas this one, I have not. I was like four weeks, I was like, “I’m ready to get back in the gym!” And my body was not ready to get back in the gym. Slowing down was harder this time.

Gina: Because you felt good.

Roxanne: ‘Cause I felt good, but like my pelvic floor was not ready.

Gina: Which I feel like is always hard for people as they’re navigating like the early postpartum. Usually for me after about- just to make it about myself- usually around like the week, like 10 day, 14 day mark, I start feeling like much better to where, “Oh, I could probably go and do a workout,” or I feel like I can do so much more at that point. And I think most people who don’t hemorrhage probably feel like good compared to, I mean, in comparison…

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: …to, like, one day postpartum. And so I think it’s easy to be at that point of, “Oh, like I feel like surprisingly good! I feel really energetic. I feel like healed at this point.” And then you like go do something and you’re like, “Oh, I’m not.”

Roxanne: No.

Gina: “I’m not here yet.” But it’s really easy at that point to do too much because you feel good. And so it’s hard to know what the gauge is of, when do you get to do stuff. I did a whole episode on just like the tissue healing timeline in the postpartum. If you’re curious to understand, like when is it like quote unquote like “safe” to start exercising again. But typically it’s outside of a four week window from giving birth just based on how our tissue just normally heals, regardless of your prior fitness status. So typically no earlier than four weeks is when most folks are probably like legitimately ready to start really loading that tissue in a really slow and progressive way, with more structured exercises.

But prior to that, like there’s still things that you can do to help support reconnection to add in that gentle movement. But it’s really common to be like, “Oh, I feel good, so I can do more,” and then…

Roxanne: Yeah. And then.

Gina: What were some things that you noticed that told you like you really needed to ease off? So you were feeling more heaviness. Did you notice anything else?

Roxanne: So I feel more heaviness like, like a tampon, almost- as if something was like sitting there, is how I would describe heaviness in that area. But I would also feel like pressure in my butt, which like with someone who has rectocele or like a history of those like butt issues, that is usually what I would feel, where it was either just like pressure or like painful in that area. And that was, I noticed when we started to do more appointments for Harvey ’cause he did have a tongue tie and so we had to eventually leave our house after two weeks and venture out and do all of the appointments for him. And when we had to drive to Raleigh for one of our appointments, so it’s an hour drive there, appointment and drive back, that was a lot for my butt and body. And that’s normally what I would feel like heaviness wise, either in the vagina or butt area, and then I would lay down for the rest of the day and feel better the next day.

But the two easiest things is the heaviness and then looking for vaginal bleeding. So my vaginal bleeding would increase every single time. Like I would feel the heaviness, and then the next day I would wake up and like still be bleeding heavy again. Not like heavy, but like heavier than I had been, more than spotting. And so the increased vaginal bleeding is the one easiest thing to look for if you’re doing too much, too soon. Because our heavy, like bright red blood, and like almost the still heavy, dark red blood should resolve by the first to second week of postpartum. And then it should just be like maybe spotting, or like yellow, pink kind of discharge for the next couple weeks. So if it persist past the two weeks, it could be that like we are doing too much activity, especially if it’s more than just spotting or like wearing a panty liner.

So around day, like seven to 10, sometimes as late as 14, there is an increase in bleeding that does happen, that’s normal, and that’s just from that placenta scab coming off. And so it’s called the escar bleeding, and it’s an increase in bleeding of that bright red blood, whereas you probably had more of the dark red blood previously, but then it should resolve and slow back down to your normal bleeding by the next day. But I would have like spurts of the bright red bleeding and then the next day it would be like spotting because I was like, okay, I did too much. So my bleeding did take longer, which I also think fourth baby, very common that it would take longer, like three-ish weeks. And then I was spotting for a week or two and I was like really annoyed. I was like, “I just want the bleeding to stop,” because that’s usually the sign like, oh, you could probably start like doing more activity. But it did take me a while to stop leaving this time, like fully healed.

Gina: Do you feel like you have more of this desire to do more this timeframe?

Roxanne: I do think like I want to get out of my house. I wanted to get- not like fomo, I definitely didn’t have fomo, ’cause I definitely enjoyed like being in my home and just snuggling my baby- but I did want to do things other than lay in bed and do puzzles. Which, I love puzzles, but like I did want… and I think it’s also there were no TV shows really out, out when I was initially postpartum. So I was like, what do I do? So I had to like find one, I did start watching Suits, because everyone told me, they’re like, “Oh, did you name your baby after Suits?” And I’m like, “I don’t even know. I’ve never watched this show.”

Gina: Is he a good character?

Roxanne: Harvey Specter is like one of the main characters. He’s a really badass lawyer. Skirts the line of…

Gina: He’s morally gray?

Roxanne: Morally gray, but like a good guy. And he’s pretty badass. So I’m like, okay, not a bad person to be named after. It’s not who we named him after, but I’m liking the show. But I did start watching that and then I was like, ah, I got a little tired of the law show, so I had to find some other shows. But then at that point, now all of my shows are back, so now I’m like, I could go back to my cocoon, like if I could be postpartum cocoon now and not go back to work, that would be cool to watch all of the shows that are now releasing, like Bridgeton.

But I did want to do more ’cause I think I also felt good. And mentally and mostly physically I felt like great that I could do more, but my pelvic floor and uterus said, “Sit down.”

Gina: “Sit your ass down.”

Roxanne: Sit down.

So now like I think having this experience also makes, it makes me understand like why people are like going back to the, or wanting to go back to the gym at two weeks. ‘Cause like previously I was like, “I was still napping like 23 out of the 24 days. Like I was so exhausted, I don’t know how people do it or feel ready to do it,” if that makes sense. Whereas now I’m like, “Okay, now I can sympathize,” because it is hard when you did not hemorrhage and it doesn’t feel like the world is ending, mentally.

Gina: So what did you do in the early postpartum timeframe to support, like reconnecting with your pelvic floor? And movement wise, before you were like in the gym, crushing the weights in the gym.

Roxanne: I’m not doing that! I’m body weight. Kneeling squats.

Gina: Were you doing anything other than laying in bed and doing puzzles, and going to Raleigh?

Roxanne: Some days I was just laying in bed with my baby, ’cause they do require a lot of you, and he does love laying on me. So some days I did just lay there. But, when I would do movement, obviously did our early postpartum program, where I was just doing breath work. So I didn’t feel like I needed to do it every day, and I think that made it less stressful, ’cause I think last postpartum I was really stressed because I was so tired and I was like, “I need to do this every day to help heal my pelvic floor,” whereas this one I was like, “eh, I could do it like a couple times a week, then I’ll be fine.” So that helped that it gave me something to do, like breathing wise, like reconnecting, and I think that did help wake up the pelvic floor a little bit more and where I feel like more connected with it. But it’s still got some ways to go, healing wise.

But I did the first week and then the second week, like in line with the timeline of the early postpartum program, which is four weeks that slowly progresses over the four weeks. But I did do the second week twice, and then I did the third week twice. So I just finished week four last week, or I guess, yeah, this week, whatever that math time’s out to be.

Gina: I have no idea. My brain’s not, it’s not working.

Roxanne: But I did repeat weeks because I didn’t feel ready to go to the next week. But that I think did help me feel better and it gave me something to do when I couldn’t do more than that. I did run from my house to my car yesterday and I was like, “I feel good.”

Gina: Like legit run, like, bounding? Or like, quickly walking?

Roxanne: No, it was like a bound, but, not like fast.

Gina: I need to see the Ring video!

Roxanne: It was a jog because I think, I don’t remember, one of my kids forgot something and was just screaming and I was like, “Aaah! We’re late!” And I was like, “I feel good. That felt good to me.” Did not do any more of the running for the rest of the day, I just did gentle walks.

But I think that doing that intentional movement so that now that I am back in the gym this week, all of that helped, like foundational wise, that I’m not starting from nothing this week. I did all the breath work to reconnect and now I can focus on the keeping the connection and strengthening.

Gina: So our early postpartum recovery course is a free offering that we have. I made it after Sophie was born in like 2022, or…

Roxanne: Oh, I don’t know,

Gina: Whenever, I don’t know. And so it includes breath work, it includes some gentle mobility, and then starting around like week three or four of the program- which as Roxanne did, you could start whenever, it doesn’t have to be at week three postpartum, you can be four weeks postpartum, you can be five weeks postpartum- is when we start to incorporate the gentle core exercises in addition to some guidance for walking, if you wanted to incorporate that. So it is free, we’ll link it down in the notes below. It’s something that we have personally used and that we obviously have offered to thousands of you as well. And it’s a really loose guide- you can do it once a week, you can do it two times a week. There’s, there should be no pressure with it at all. It is just to help you add in a little bit of movement to reconnect without having a structured program by any means. It’s also free, so you could also get it and then not do it at all, and it’ll be, it’ll be fine.

Roxanne: It’ll be fine, yeah. ‘Cause I definitely did not do it ever, in my last postpartum.

Gina: I didn’t do it every single day, even my own postpartums.

Roxanne: Yeah. With Joan, I did not do it for the first month, I was asleep. I started it the second month. So you can start at any point.

Gina: Yeah. So let’s talk about now you. You’re feeling a lot better this postpartum, you’re monitoring symptoms and now you are back in the gym, crushing the weights with our postpartum recovery, or our postpartum return to fitness program. So how has it been being back in the gym, you’re trying to work out with a baby, which I feel like is always really challenging for folks. What are some strategies that you’ve used to help you do your workouts?

Roxanne: I have an angel baby.

Gina: Well yeah, that’s step one, have a completely compliant child.

Roxanne: A perfect baby who just sits there and watches me work out.

Gina: The whole time.

Roxanne: That is the key. No, he honestly has been pretty good though, where he will just stare at me.

The first day it did take me a little bit longer, and I think like fourth kid, I’ve accepted that I will never get a workout in uninterrupted until they’re like not in my home anymore. Maybe like 18? ‘Cause they’ll always need things from you. So he did need some milk, so stopping and just attending to your baby, the workout will be there when I need it to be. But floor time, rockers, swings- all of the things, having them available. Right now he doesn’t really need to look at anything, so just those things is all I have. But eventually I’ll add in some toys to entertain them as well.

The second day he, didn’t interrupt me actually at all, which was pretty cool. Actually, I was limited by time ’cause I had to pick up my toddler, so she interrupted my workout. And then today I actually did a workout and he did need me to tend to him and feed him a couple times, so the workout took a little bit longer. But I think it’s okay. I’ve come to the point that it’s okay if I need to take breaks, whereas like after Lily, when I had to stop and take breaks, it was a lot harder mentally, ’cause I’m just like, “Ah, I just want to get my workout in and get out!”

I think the workout, it’s only six movements, but it still takes you like an hour and a half because of the breaks of feeding your baby. Baby wearing, depending on the workout, is also like a tool that I’ll have. Obviously if I’m doing like some floor movements on my belly, I can’t really baby wear them, but, that’s usually how I get a lot of my workouts in is a lovely sling or baby carrier. This is from Sakura Bloom. I really like it, but I also have their structured carrier that, that’s how I got a lot of my workouts in with Joan, was with the structured scout carrier from Sakura Bloom. So I have all of those things ready, yeah.

Gina: So other things that you can do to help with workouts with little babies and just children that are very demanding- which is usually very often- is you can split the workouts up, too. You don’t have to do the full workout in one training session, which I’m sure Roxanne will find herself needing in the next few months.

Roxanne: Or I just don’t do it.

Gina: Yeah. So you can also break it up into smaller sections, which is something that I did in my last postpartum when Zoe was like not sleeping and I was very tired, was you can just do like part A of our workout and then the next day do part B, and then the next day do part C. So you can split it up to where you’re still getting 10 to 15 minutes of movement in, and then over time you’re finishing the workouts as opposed to all or none- “I’m either gonna do this whole workout or I’m not gonna do anything.” But just that little bit of movement can sometimes really help too. So our workouts are designed where they’re easy to break up into smaller sections. And so luckily Roxanne’s been able to do the full, the first like week or two, they’re shorter.

Roxanne: I was also, I was, I had to be at the gym for two hours to coach, but nobody showed up. I was like, “Like I have the two hours to sit here and do this entire workout while taking breaks with a baby.”

Gina: Yeah.

Roxanne: Whereas I don’t always have that. So if I’m like limited on time or I’m just like, “Hey, he’s like…” where I can just leave, ’cause I’m not like there to coach a class, I will split up. And I usually will do either A or A and B and then just call it a day on C.

Gina: You can do C the next day.

Roxanne: Usually I just skip.

Gina: It’s still helpful, but it’s all right. Yeah, we actually have an in-person training facility here in Aberdeen in North Carolina, but we do a horrible job of marketing it, ’cause we don’t want the gym to be crowded.

Roxanne: And it was crowded today.

Gina: We like everyone having space to work out with their kids. So if you hear this and you want to join our gym, you can, we don’t like tell people to NOT join.

Roxanne: Yeah, please come

Gina: But, we just don’t do a good job marketing it, ’cause we like it being quiet. It is a 24/7 hour facility, which we love.

So what, are your plans? Do you have any big, like goals, fitness wise, or anything for yourself as you’re recovering?

Roxanne: Running.

Gina: Excited to get back to running?

Roxanne: Yeah. So that’s what I did after Colin was like, focus on running. And we ran a half marathon after him. But, we lived in Monterey where there’s like freaking running trails everywhere and it was glorious to run on the beach. But here, I’ll probably, run a lot on treadmills. But I, we were both runners all through middle school, high school, college. I stopped after college, Gina continued to do crazy ultra marathons, but I stopped. But I always loved running. I think it was the aspect of I got tired of the competition portion of having to always like train for, like the sport. I lost the love of it. So it was nice getting back into it after Colin. and I attempted after Joan and then I got pregnant.

Gina: We were in the progress, or process, of getting back to it. Roxanne did one long run with me.

Roxanne: Yeah. I’m excited to get back into running and like just doing it for the fun of it and the joy and not the stress of having to win competitions- which, I like, medals and I like doing well. But also, our first long run that we did together last year, Gina and I, Gina was like, “Oh, we’re running so slow!”

Gina: Oh, God!

Roxanne: And I was like, “This is my running pace now.”

Gina: “I love this pace!” No, I hate that pace. I was like, “Ugh!”

Roxanne: It was like a ten minute pace, and Gina was so distraught about it. I was like, “I love it. I’m fine with a 10 minute mile!” So we’re, we might be in different head spaces racing wise, but I’m excited to get back into running. I do need to get a single running stroller though, because I only have doubles, and I won’t be running with all of my children. Mostly on a treadmill though, so.

Gina: It’ll mostly be on a treadmill. There’s not like a ton of stroller running here.

Roxanne: I’ll be utilizing Gina’s Peloton treadmill.

Gina: We did just order one specifically for our office so that we…

Roxanne: Yeah, we did. So I will be utilizing that one.

Gina: Roxanne has no excuse now to not train because I’ll return it if she doesn’t use it!

Roxanne: She will sell it!

Gina: I will sell it to the lowest bidder if Roxanne doesn’t utilize it.

Roxanne: No, I’m excited though for running. And I mean, I do want to get back into lifting heavier weights. I think for the past couple years I’ve been slacking on my weight lifting. Like I would get up to a higher number and then I would take a month off and lose all my gains, so I’m excited to get more consistent and especially now that I’ll have more of a consistent schedule.

Gina: Have you been doing anything the past few years that maybe was interfering with your ability to…

Roxanne: yeah, I don’t know, just a little bit of grad school, and like moving across the country. No biggie!

But I’m excited, ’cause like with clinicals last year, like even before I got pregnant, it was hard to like always schedule like times to do things, ’cause one week I’d be in like clinic for four of the days, and then the next week I was at the hospital for three of the days. And the inconsistency of that schedule was harder to be able to get into the groove in working out, whereas this time like I’ll have a set schedule of when I’m working here and when I’m working at the birth center, that it’ll be easier to schedule out my life with kids, working out, and work like work job wise, so I’m looking forward to that as well.

Gina: I will not be running a 10 minute pace for the 10K in October.

Roxanne: Okay, I guess I have a little bit of stress to run faster than 10 minutes. Or Gina’s just going to abandon me.

Gina: I’m gonna abandon you.

Roxanne: Granted, Gina probably will still abandon me.

Gina: Probably.

Roxanne: Even if I ran an eight minute mile.

Gina: No, I would stay with you! Maybe. We’ll see.

So we have officially signed up for the Wine and Dine Run Disney Challenge.

Roxanne: So I have to run.

Gina: So Roxanne does have to get back into running eventually.

Roxanne: At least 6.2 miles.

Gina: You also signed up for half marathon.

Roxanne: I did, but I that, that’s… I could walk 13 miles.

Gina: That’s true. So we are actually trying to figure out a charity to support for, we already have our bibs, but we want to support one of the charities that are part of like Run Disney. So if you have any recommendations, drop ’em in the comments below, ’cause we are still trying to pick which one we want to fundraise for over the next few months. I’ve been fundraising for the Parkinson’s Foundation for the Princess Race, which has been like a really fun thing to do, and so we want to find another charity to fundraise for the October races. So if you have any recommendations, let us know and continue to motivate Roxanne to keep running.

Roxanne: Just a daily, like a weekly check in, “Roxanne, did you run?” “Did you do your run today?”

Gina: Not yet. She’s got a few months, like she’s probably got two months before she’ll start like really running. We’ll get there.

Roxanne: Yeah, we’ll get there.

Gina: So besides fitness goals, which is obviously like what I am always thinking about, what other things have been going on in the early postpartum that you’ve maybe had like challenges with, or that you’re currently navigating, or maybe you’ve resolved and you’re feeling pretty good about that might be different or the same as previous ones?

Roxanne: So with all of my kids, they’ve all had tongue ties, breastfeeding issues, and he is not, he was not the outlier in that situation. So he also had a tongue and lip tie. Breastfeeding was not great feeling. The first few days we tried to get his latch like a little bit deeper, but I just we could not to get it. So I did have some nipple damage and pain with latching. But eventually we got bodywork done, so we took him to the chiropractor. Our friend came over and did some cranial fascial stuff, and that helped him like be more relaxed. And I think that helped his latch, but it wasn’t like magic where like before it was painful and afterwards there was like no pain, because his tongue tie needed to be addressed. We took him to a lactation consultant who also does body work.

So she gave me a bunch of like different exercises and those did help over time, ’cause I think it helps strengthen his tongue. But she had said that most likely he would need a revision or a release.

So after I think we were like almost four weeks postpartum is when they finally had an opening for an appointment up in Raleigh. And so we went up there, they were like, “Yep, probably needs to be released. It’s still up to you, but that would be a recommendation.” So then we went back the next week and got that revision done, or release done. And we’ve been doing his stretches for afterwards and he is now like doing good, I think on that, like it’s no longer painful, which I like.

Gina: Yeah.

Roxanne: He’s still struggling on opening his mouth all the way, but we’re working on it and he’s getting better at his exercises. He does prefer my right breast over my left one, which every baby does, so I’m really forcing him to drink both sides so that I’m not lopsided like I was with my past two babies, which was really rude. But now we’re feeling, I feel like we’re like finally in the groove of things with feeding. I did have clogged ducts and potentially like early mastitis signs with like fever, chills, pain, and it was the worst with him. So we had it twice, the second time I think it was self-inflicted ’cause we went out for Gina’s birthday and I did not bring a pump.

Gina: Oh my God. That meal took forever.

Roxanne: It was, it took so long.

Gina: It was so good, but it was like so slow.

Roxanne: It took forever, and my mom ended up feeding Harvey a bottle so that, ’cause he got hungry during the three hour long meal! But I didn’t pump, so I think that caused me to get a clogged duct and mastitis, ’cause it was literally like the next day. So I think that one was my own fault. But I don’t, I didn’t, I would like to not have that again. So I’m glad that he seems to be better after the tongue tie. I don’t, he doesn’t love the stretches. I don’t love the stretches. ’cause it makes me sad, but feeding seems we go better. You hate them!

He’s sleeping well, better than he was, so that he was like waking up pretty often to nurse ’cause he wasn’t like getting full feeds before. Yeah! So that’s going better. Feeling better physically, mentally, just checking in with a therapist. Breastfeeding’s going well. My kids are obsessed with him, so that

helps honestly, that they would rather hang out with him than me, so then I get a little break.

Gina: They’re just babysitting for you.

Roxanne: Because that’s always the fear is like when you bring a new baby in, that your other babies are like, “I need you to also pay attention to me at the full level that she once did,” but it’s hard ’cause you’re like pretty focused on this baby. But they would just come in say, “oh hey mom, can I play with Harvey?” Or, “Can I hold Harvey?” And then they would be like, “Okay, I’m good. Goodbye.” And then just leave. And then they like, were fine not needing to be tended to.

Gina: So you didn’t deal with any like sibling jealousy?

Roxanne: Yeah. Which was really, I think that helps a lot.

Gina: Have you dealt with that in the past or has it been pretty smooth each time?

Roxanne: I think only with my first. Like, Lily loved Colin, and she loved playing with him, but I think it was a big shift ’cause it was never, it was always just me and her and then my husband, or just me and her. And so then when the new baby was there, she’d be like, “I like him and I enjoy being with him, but can you just take care of me real quick? And spend time, just me, real quick?” So that was hard because it was also just me most of the time with him, where I couldn’t just hang out. Like, “Oh, let me just put this baby on the ground. He’ll be fine! Let’s go play!”

Gina: Yeah. But you had also just moved to Monterey as well.

Roxanne: Yeah. So really she had like nobody else to play with other than me, so that was also hard. But, it wasn’t like for a long period of time, but that’s probably the only like little experience that I had. Most of the time they’ve been very excited to have a baby, and again, did not care about me for that month. Until I emerged from the bubble, and then they’re like, “Okay, now you must play with me.” ‘Cause that’s like yesterday, we were out all day Saturday, for like my older kids, they do ice skating lessons and we left our youngest daughter with my mom, and like you did the same. And then we taught yesterday, our childbirth education, and my youngest Joan was like, “No, you stay with me, or I come with you.” Like, “I miss you. Hang out with me!” And I was like, “Oh!” ‘Cause I’ve just been home all the time, so now that I’m emerging from my bubble, I think my kids will miss me more.

Gina: All right. do you have anything else to add about your first month postpartum- the update for our listeners?

Roxanne: Anything else to add about my postpartum? Home birth, great. Didn’t have to leave my home for two weeks. Highly recommend. Take your time. Listen to your body.

Gina: But also force yourself to rest.

Roxanne: Forceful resting.

Gina: Because if you just listen to your body, you might be like, “I feel good.”

Roxanne: Well, but you are listening to your body, because I was having heaviness and bleeding. That’s listening to your body as well, listening to the signs of your body’s communicating to you, THAT listening to your body. And then, yeah, I like having my family nearby. And puzzles are great. I also really love this caramel miso from this coffee shop, local, and it’s been in my obsession for postpartum. Highly recommend.

Gina: Amor Ciego, we love you.

Roxanne: Every time lately, every time I’ve gone, they’ve been out of it, and I’ve been so sad! But that’s my parting word, Amor Ciego’s Caramel Miso.

Gina: Get more caramel miso.

Thank you so much Roxanne, for sharing your postpartum journey with our listeners, ’cause this is also your podcast.

Roxanne: Yeah.

Gina: You’re not a guest on this podcast.

Roxanne: Sometimes I’m just a guest.

Gina: If you want more support in your postpartum. So let’s say you just had a baby and you’re trying to figure out like what to do, check out our free early postpartum recovery course, where we just gently guide you through some movements that you can do to reconnect, pretty low pressure, you don’t have to follow it exactly. It just gives you an idea of some gentle stuff that you can do now, in case you do feel good and you want to do something, but you don’t want to overdo it to cause issues or to cause whatever.

It’s normal to have symptoms in the early postpartum. It’s normal for those symptoms to fluctuate based on your activity level, based on how you’re healing. It’s not linear by any means, and you may find like a few months from now, symptoms pop up. There’s tons of professionals that you can work with to help support you in your postpartum healing, such as a pelvic for physical therapist, occupational therapist. You can work with your midwife or your provider. You can work with pre and postnatal fitness traders, so there’s a lot of professionals out there to help guide you during this healing process as well. You don’t have to do it by yourself, by any means.

Now if you do want to work with a fitness trainer, though, we do have a postpartum recovery, or postpartum return to fitness program, that gently guides you from about week four or six, or whenever you feel like starting it, until however long it takes you to finish. I think most folks take about six to eight months to finish the program, just ’cause babies get a big say in how long it takes you to do your workouts. In our postpartum return to fitness program, we essentially gently guide you through progressive overloads- so we are going to slowly introduce movements to you to help you reconnect with your core on your pelvic floor, and then gradually make those moments more challenging over time, so that you feel really strong going into whatever your next block of training is. So for Roxanne, we’ll be training for her half marathon, that she will be running at more than a 10 minute pace, maybe not, I don’t know. We’ll see. No pressure. Lots of pressure.

Roxanne: Half marathon, maybe not.

Gina: Half pressure, lots of pressure.

Roxanne: 10K…

Gina: Half the pressure.

Roxanne: 10K, maybe.

Gina: So if you want more support in your postpartum, we would love to support you. We would love to help you. Let us help you! You could check out all of our fitness programs on our website at mamastefit.com, and use code STORY10 to get 10% off any of our online offerings, which includes all of our postpartum fitness programs that have videos that you can follow along the first 24 workouts. It’s self-paced workouts as well, if you’re like, “I don’t want to watch Gina.” I think Roxanne posted a video that was like, “I work out in silence, what do you listen to?” And some people were like, “What if I listen to Gina, will I work out?” ‘Cause they follow my videos.

Roxanne: I listen to Gina.

Gina: So we try to make our workouts as accessible as possible because there’s so much fluctuation to this phase of life. And if you want to check ’em out, head to our website.

Roxanne, are there any favorite products of yours that you are using that you would like to share with our listeners, so if they want to grab it for themselves, they can? ‘Cause again, we have no sponsors for this podcast. The way that we pay ourselves for sharing all this information is with affiliate links and commissions.

Roxanne: Yeah, so we do have an Amazon list of all our bar postpartum favorites that we use. So loved obviously the rail disposable underwear. I can’t beat it. As long as some perineal spray, I used like the Earth Mama one, and then one that I got from the birth center, love them. But other than that, obviously my Bodily bras cannot survive without my Bodily bras. The everything and ever effortless bra, I think I like lived in those.

Gina: And then Love Steady also has a postpartum bundle with us now, which has their bloomers, bralet and I think some other little likes socks.

Roxanne: Yeah, like cozy socks.

Gina: Little trinkets.

Roxanne: Yeah. So I loved the bloomers from Love Steady. I would wear them like when I would get up out of bed and do movement. But for one day I, when I was having like more of the heaviness, I did wear them like even when I was laying in bed just for that gentle compression. And that I think did help me feel a little bit more comfortable. So you can wear them while you’re in bed, but they’re like also really helpful for like up and moving around.

Gina: If you have to go to appointments.

Roxanne: For that, like support.

Gina: Our code is MAMASTEFIT for Love Steady to get 10% off as well.

Roxanne: So I also have usually only had babies in the summer, so this was a difference ’cause I’m cold all the time, like robes all the time. So having a baby where like they needed easy access to milky in the winter was a bit of a struggle. So, have been wearing lots of pajamas, which I don’t really wear pajamas or robes like as a clothing. I usually wear just like my fluffy robe. So I’ve been wearing a lot of robes and pajamas that I got from Caden Lane and Cozy Earth, and I highly recommend they’re, I think I’m gonna be a pajama person now, I mean, check back in, in six months maybe. Maybe I’ve given up on the pajamas. But like the button down and like the pull apart from the robe is just so much easier, but I’m still warm, which is like key.

Gina: Which is key.

Roxanne: Especially when bed sharing with an baby.

Gina: Yeah.

Roxanne: Because I can’t have a fluffy blanket over me instead. My pajamas are it.

But yeah, those are the things that I’ve been really liking. other than like just all of the snacks. LMNT, bars, beef sticks. My Easy Jug.

Gina: Your Easy Jug.

Roxanne: I did. I was wary. I was using a different water bottle that was like just big, and my husband would just refill it for me. But then I was finding that it was hard when I was nursing to reach over and grab the bottle and drink it. So then I did pull out my Easy Jug for the long straw, ’cause that made it more accessible, and actually stay hydrated.

Gina: Yeah. So we’ll link everything down in the notes of this episode below in case you do want to grab any of the stuff that Roxanne was personally using in her postpartum. We love sharing about products that like we have personally used and love. We only share about stuff that like, we actually like. But yeah, we don’t have any podcast sponsors. This is how we are getting paid for our podcast now is affiliate links. So you don’t have to buy anything, but if you’re interested in any of this stuff, you can head out, head down to the notes below. We’ll also include any discount codes that we have also.

So thanks so much for joining us. Thank you baby Harvey, for hanging out with us as well. I don’t know how many more podcasts we’ll do with just him hanging out with us, but probably a few more. So thanks for joining us. We release new podcast episodes every Wednesday, so if you want to be sure that you get notified whenever we release a new one, be sure to subscribe to our channel, subscribe to our podcast, leave a review if you liked it. If you don’t like it, don’t ever tell us. We’re very sensitive. But yeah, thanks for joining us.