Placenta Pills Please w/Mary Elizabeth Ellis!
04.29.15 | Share: Share on Twitter Share on Facebook
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Totally Mommy Podcast
Episode 69
One of Elizabeth’s besties, Mary Elizabeth Ellis is back with her hilarious stories and full of heart insights to the aftermath of childbirth (bubble of peace to anyone who is pregnant for the first 25 mins!) why she’ll take placenta pills and of course their good/bad funnies! Then they give their unqualified advice to listener questions about pelvic pain during pregnancy, how to handle a kid who will not eat solids, and how to address a potentially touchy situation with a nanny regarding attention and care. Enjoy!
15 Comments!
I had sacroiliac issues throughout my pregnancy and it SUCKED! Chiropractor helped a little and physical therapy helped a lot. Daily walking first thing in the morning helped. It was so hard to find a comfortable sitting position-I sat on the yoga ball a lot. Thankfully, the pain was gone in a snap after the baby was born. Hang in there, SI pain sufferers!
Wanted to share this article I stumbled upon after answering the potty training question - this pediatric urologist says to NOT potty train before the age of 2, better still closer to the age of 3 and explains why.
http://www.parents.com/blogs/toddlers-kids/2015/04/22/health/7-crazy-important-rules-for-potty-training-success/
I just have to say THANK YOU for this article!! It was extremely informative. I’ve been very worried about my daughter’s potty training pitfalls which are definitely stemming from constipation. She just turned 3. This definitely gave me some information I was not aware of and makes me feel more hopeful for things I can be doing to help encourage success. Prior to seeing this, I decided to back off of her training bc I felt like the constipation was making it impossible to not stress her out and it is encouraging to know I am doing the right thing.
I would still have a small potty in the bathroom from around 1-1.5 years old. If you try to introduce the idea when they’re too old, the idea of sitting naked on this object will be very strange and you can have fighting about it. We started sitting my son on it from around 14 months ish right before and after baths. He started associated peeing with the potty. So whenever we potty trained at 23 months, he was totally ready for it. We still did pullups during naps and bedtime though because I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect them to hold it for 11-12 hours at night when they sleep. Just be flexible and adapt to what your kid is communicating to you.
Great episode, ladies!
I wanted to share my experience in a “mommy-share”; when I was expecting my first baby our dear friends found out they were expecting their first at the same time. Instead of sharing a nanny, I decided to leave my job and stay home with both babies. I had a similar experience to the writer-inner regarding the other child not having had much practice with being put down before he came in to my care (8 AM to 6 PM, 5 days a week!) when he was about 11 weeks old. The first week or so was a little rough, but after that I was able to get both kids into (ever-changing) routines and things were mostly peaceful until we ended the arrangement just before they turned 2.
My advice to the writer-inner is to FIRST talk with the other family about what their expectations are for the nanny’s strategies for both children so they can get on the same page. At the same time, the families can talk about how they can mirror these strategies at home so the children experience some continuity. Establish together what they are comfortable with vis-à-vis letting the babies cry at naptime, encouraging independence during playtime, and all the other stuff. THEN deliver this information as a united front to the nanny so there is no confusion.
GOOD LUCK!
Awesome perspective and advice - thanks Gretchen!!
Great episode - I always love when Mary Elizabeth co-hosts! I was the writer-inner with the eating issues with my son. Your advice was great and it was nice to hear ME’s grandfather’s assessment that no child with food available will let themselves starve.
I am proud to report a follow-up that he is now almost 13 months and he has become a much better eater than he was. He still doesn’t eat full size meals like some of my friends’ babies, but he does his thing and eats some of everything at most meals. We’ve also moved from formula to whole cows’ milk now, so I don’t know if that is making him more hungry. In any event, we’re definitely making progress each day and hopefully we continue to do so. So for those of you out there with bad eaters early on, stick with it and try to keep your spirits positive … it can turn around.
Thanks again, ladies!
For the writer-inner who is struggling with the monthly disappointment. After struggling with infertility for two years- the best thing I did for myself was to find a free infertility support group. It helped so much to know women struggling with the same thing, and to help deal with all of the emotions.
It’s really common to have an allergic reaction to dust mites, though it’s usually of the itchy face and sneezing variety. They thrive on down so if anyone has bad allergic reactions, especially first thing in the morning, doctors recommend getting rid of all down bedding. Serious game changer!!!
I had an allergic reaction to dust mites (I think) as an adult and it was MISERABLE! I’m still not entirely sure that my “itchies” were from dust mites because they were so huge that I think they could have been spider bites.
The entire issue was resolved when (in a fit of itchy anger) I washed every piece of fabric in my boyfriend’s house. When I took down his bedroom curtains a CLOUD of dirt came off them. I screamed at him “When was the last time you cleaned these?” He replied “Never.” Now we’re married and he insists that it couldn’t have been the curtains that gave me my bites because he never had a reaction.
Different people have totally different reactions to those things. But I listened to that whole story with such pity for poor Russell!
Regarding the email of trying to deal with not getting pregnant. It is an all consuming and gut wrenching feeling when you take that test and it comes up negative. I know because it took us 9 months to get pregnant with our first. After knowing what I know now, I believe I was too stressed from work and trying to get knocked up that my body would not let it happen. So just as Mary said..get drunk and have lots of sex. Try focusing on enjoying the things you won’t be able to enjoy when you have a kid…go to movies, go out for drinks, stay up late and sleep in. Just find things that make you happy in the interum and hopefully it will help you out.
I have such a girl crush on Mary Elizabeth! Love when she co-hosts
Regarding the elimination communication question - I haven’t done it but know a little about it. It’s not really potty training but rather picking up on baby’s cues from the beginning so you know when they need to “eliminate” and you hold them over a bowl or potty. I think people can really get into a rhythm with it and it just becomes second nature. The idea behind it is that babies are born aware of their bodies and toilet needs and we actually “diaper train” them and then have to re-train them to listen to their bodies again and use the potty. All that said, it was also way too much for me to wrap my head around and I’m now working on potty training with my 2yo. I’ve really just taken her lead and not forced the issue and she’s doing great and is so proud of herself when she goes in the toilet!
Yes! Thank you! I’ve heard now two more (later/since) episodes where this question is talked about again and it really should be made clear that no one is suggesting potty “training” an infant or super young toddler. Elimination Communication is actually about listening and paying attention to your child’s cues, and definitely is NOT pressure-filled at all. It can also just be about early exposure and making the potty mundane, which can make things easier in the future. I cloth diapered, so learning that my son had very specific cues and a very specific schedule for pooping just meant that we would go into the bathroom at those times, he’d sit on his little potty while I read him a book or sang a song to him, and he’d poop. He started this at 7 months old. I also work full time, so it was not a full time thing. But he then essentially “trained” himself (I really think of it as he “potty-learned” because I didn’t DO anything). He just started asking to go to the potty at 26 months old. He has never been pressured at all. Now, his younger brother is 29 months old, and we are still a little ways off from probably needing to gently nudge potty training along. Anyway, elimination communication =/= super early potty training. It’s totally different. It’s totally respectful to the child and not at all harmful.
I want to share few things a dietician told me. This stuff totally changed my perspective on feeding/introducing solids, when I was reaaaallly stressed over it.
First look at food as FUN more than anything before a year. Formula or breast milk is still the main source of nutrition and that’s ok. Second, the food guide (I’m Canadian so I’m not sure if there is a US equivalent to this) is not the number of servings that a baby/toddler needs to eat everyday, it is the number of servings they should have given. So they don’t need to eat 2-3 grains a day, they need to be presented with grains 2-3 times. The third thing was the game changer for me, practice the division of responsibility and don’t use pressure (positive or negative) ever. Basically, your job is to serve the food, their job is to decide what of IF to eat.
Here are two links that explain it better.
http://ellynsatterinstitute.org/cms-assets/documents/203702-180136.dor-2015-2.pdf
http://ellynsatterinstitute.org/htf/avoidpressure.php
I hope this helps! I can honestly say this approach has been so good for both my sanity and little one. We haven’t had any issues around feeding with our 2.5 year old (YET????)
Yes! This is exactly how we view it as well. You don’t want dinnertime to become a pressure point.