Not Another Momcast

Strap in as Laura recounts the scariest week of her life for Danielle, sharing the rollercoaster ride that was a full week's worth of unlocking scary parenting milestone experiences as Peanut battled multiple respiratory viruses and an especially gnarly case of croup. Multiple trips to the ER, overnight hospitalizations, an ambulance ride, the ever-present parental guilt of not being able to be in multiple places at the same time, and the importance of finding time and space to process the tough stuff in between the moments of chaos. Laura's story has a happy ending, but we can't help but think of the many families who can't say the same. Please consider donating to one of the foundations mentioned in the episode, for the countless families living through the waking nightmare that is having a sick baby! St Jude Children's Research Hospital  The Ronald MacDonald House

Welcome to Season 3 of Not Another Momcast! We're back, and we're switching it up this new season by coming to the mic with absolutely no agenda in mind! Come hang out with us as we catch up on our chaotic summers and ponder the future of Not Another Momcast. No scripts, no agenda- just blind confidence and some serious belly laughs.

For today’s episode, we decided to do something completely different… We take turns interpreting each other’s dreams! Laura shares a recurring dream she has had almost every night for the last three and a half years straight, and Danielle will do a deep dive into the vaults of trippy childhood dreams to share one that always stuck with her. Our interpretations come from a combination of cursory Google searches, as well as taking into account what we know about each other. So strap in, because in typical NAM fashion, we will get weird, deep, and very silly!

In this episode recorded shortly before Laura's son was born, we go over some of the questions that we think are super valuable to have in mind while looking for childcare. As first time parents, we didn’t even know what we didn’t know, and therefore hoped that maybe putting this episode out there would be helpful for any of our listeners who are approaching that parenting milestone and maybe feeling as overwhelmed or just uninformed as we were. Some of our questions even came from our wonderful listeners, and you guys came up with some good ones!

We are back! This is our first episode we are sitting down to record since the birth of Laura's son, just about two weeks before this recording! The goal tonight is to do a super short (which in Laura time is at least 30 minutes worth of ranting) episode to just check in and get an initial first impressions run down of the similarities and differences in being freshly postpartum, the second time around.

In this episode we decide to discuss a concept we have alluded to a couple of times, and that is the idea that two completely opposing emotions can exist within us at the same time - especially as parents. The term that describes this concept is called “ambivalence”, and we wanted to chat about the ways in which we have experienced this in our own lives. It often feels like we live in a culture where everything and everyone has to prescribe to one extreme or the other, but what if life is more about the "AND" than the "OR" ??

In this episode we define and discuss the unfamiliar (but, turns out, very familiar) term of "matrescence." We heard the term in an Insta reel, did a little Googling, and definitely connected to what we were learning and experiencing thus far as parents. Basically, matrescence defines the transition into motherhood; like, every aspect of transitioning into motherhood. It is a continuous lifelong transition because every period, every phase of motherhood, is new to you and your body and your mind. And so, if you ask us, the rest of your life is considered a transition into motherhood, or, matrescence!  PS - this term/concept easily applies to all parental/caregiving figures, including non-carrying parents and adopted parents, alike!  Articles we reference in this episode: How to Navigate Matrescence: The Ups and Downs of New Motherhood This Is Exactly How New Moms Feel—So Why Isn’t Anyone Talking About It?

In this episode we get absolutely schooled about the rarely discussed truths of both having, and being, a stepparent by our good friend, Karsen Daily. Karsen is a lot of things, like a crypto-genius-queen and an absolute freakin’ ray of hilarious, tangible sunshine. She has also recently stepped into the role of stepmom to a 4-year-old boy. When we heard about her entry into the wild world of raising a human, we asked her to come on the pod to talk with us about this extremely important and under-represented form of motherhood. In typical Karsen fashion, she blows our mind with her blatantly silly yet secretly insightful take on a topic that is often misunderstood and unfairly stigmatized. Check out Karsen's Instagram here, and her podcast, The Karsen Daily Show here! 

This week we discuss so many of our favorite topics with our wonderful guest, Meg Martineau, of owner and creator of Vibrant Mama Wellness. This inspirational Mompreneur sits down to talk about changing the postpartum narrative for moms out there through the importance of finding a healthy and fulfilling life after pregnancy, actively doing something about the lack of support there is in the postpartum, and even the importance of taking risks and manifesting our true destinies. So. Good. Listen to this episode, not only for inspiration, but for some real actionable tips that you can implement TODAY!  Find more about Meg and her incredible business supporting Mamas HERE! 

We were inspired to tackle this controversial topic after Danielle recently commented on someone’s Instagram reel hinting at the idea of maybe not being ready for another child, and it led to a surprising outpouring of responses and support. Though the struggle of realizing your lifelong family plan has changed was something we had discussed privately many times before, this particular post interaction made us realize it would be a valuable conversation to have here on the pod. So, in this episode we talk about potentially being one and done- meaning, a one child, single child, *only child* household - and how navigating that choice in today's society is, honestly, kind of brutal. 

Okay, so, we didn’t successfully figure out how to do a “live” episode; BUT, we were still super excited to be celebrating Christmas together, and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to record in the same state, let alone room! It’s been a lovely but busy few days of wrangling basically twin toddlers and hosting all of the rest of the local family for all the traditional dinners and special events, so we were down to the wire recording this one, and therefore kept it short and sweet...  We take a few minutes to reflect on our holiday visit, and then spend some time unpacking our manifesting goals for next year. BONUS content, two of the cutest co-hosts ever "help" us open the show! 

In this episode we read and discuss an article about marriage after kids. It’s no secret parenthood can do a number on relationships, often making you feel united as a team in new and wonderful goals of raising your little ones, yet completely isolated as individuals and unsure of who you are to each other. Trippy, right?  So, what does one expert say we can do about that?? We based this conversation off of an article entitled "How to Save Your Marriage from Parenthood", by Amie Gordon, published July 20, 2016 in Greater Good Magazine. You can find the full article here! 

We're back with the second part of our two part episode dedicated to our conversation with old friend and new dad, Michael DuBois! In this second part, we continue to ride the emotional rollercoaster that is parenting, as Michael answers more of our questions and shares a bit about his journey through parenting after the loss of his mother. Michael continues to be the perfect blend of profoundly insightful and impossibly silly, and we already look forward to having him back again some day!  If you want to find Michael F. (as in Francis) DuBois and enjoy more of his quality content, check out his website here, or his Instagram here. 

In this episode we are very fortunate and very excited to have another guest on the show! We sit down and have a long chat with an old friend and new dad, Michael DuBois. So long, in fact, that we had to cut it into a two-part episode! In this first part, we begin to cover what his journey has been like so far as a work from home dad/entrepreneur who also happens to be primary caregiver to his little boy (a relatively rare role for new fathers). We really love getting the dad perspective, and Michael always brings the perfect blend of humorous and heartfelt to the table.  For more of Michael's journey as a new parent (and plenty of beautiful, insightful, and profound art), check out his website here, or his Instagram here. 

In this episode we begin to talk about something that we've mention dealing with in other episodes: grief. Specifically, grieving while parenting. Now, we both have our own personal experiences with loss and grief but we aren’t quite ready to tackle that on air, mostly because we both are not prepared to cry through an entire episode. So tonight we will read and discuss, "Grieving While Parenting: 8 Tips for Juggling Heartbreak, Loss and Raising Children" an article written by Yolande Clark-Jackson and published on Care.com. That being said, it’s easy to connect your own experiences to those you read about, as loss and grief are very emotionally charged topics. Please know that we are sensitive to that and do what you need to take care of yourself as best you can. This episode just might not be for everyone, but hopefully others out there will be able to find some comfort in knowing that you’re not alone in this process.

In this episode we discuss the shameful (yet effective) fear-based techniques that most advertisers and social media influencers use to prey upon parents who are already super emotionally charged. Raising humans is hard enough without being terrified that you're doing it "wrong" or missing out on some life changing trend or product, and we would LOVE to break that cycle and see that narrative change. We hope to encourage our own kids, and listeners, to rise above and find a way to tune out the fear tactics and terror in parenting to blow outs & skipped naps. 

We have a VERY special guest joining us for this one, our beloved friend, Lindsey. Lindsey survived the middle and high school years right alongside us, and despite SO many reasons to pretend she doesn't know us at all, here she is! Lindsey recently became a mom, and a super good one at that, so we asked her to please come on the show and talk about how this whole parenting thing is going for her so far. Though she was on solo baby & puppy duty for the evening, she happily agreed to sit down for a chat. So join us for some big life updates, a new fake ad inspired by Laura's recent birthday, and the reason you should stock up on Draino now if you're soon to be postpartum...

Today's episode is SUPER special to us, as for the first time ever, we were able to record TOGETHER in the same room! While Laura visited her parents in the same state Danielle resides, we took advantage of a few hours to catch up in person, and decided to make an episode out of it. This one is about as genuine as it gets, folks; and Danielle informs Laura that life updates are currently all the rage on YouTube, a platform we're not currently on...so we should be insanely famous any second now... 

Turns out, we enjoyed pretending to be professionals by reading an article and discussing it in our last episode SO much that we decided to do it again! Today we read and discuss an article we think is relevant to our interests entitled, “5 Parenting Trends We’re Embracing in 2022 (And 2 We’re Leaving Behind)”, written by Alexia Dellner, Published Dec 15, 2021 on PureWow.com. We discuss Parental Leave, Staycations, Trauma, and more, so check it out and see what you think about what parents are embracing (or ditching) in 2022.  Read the article HERE! 

We heard that sometimes professional people will come across an article related to something in their field and then have a little chat about it. Tonight we have stumbled upon an article about breaking cycles from the website ScaryMommy.com and we felt like this was a great one to start with, given our particular niche as parents. This is not the first time we have discussed this topic and will certainly not be the last!  Read the whole article here!