S7 Ep1 Transcription

Season 7 Ep 1

Martha: Hi friends and welcome back to the Dear NICU Mama podcast! It's your hosts, Martha and

Ashley: Ashley!

Martha: Look at us here. Who'd have

thought? 

Ashley: Look at us. And now I have my cool microphone to match, so I feel super legit. 

Martha: I know. It is so fun. Isn't, Doesn't it make you feel like you're in a spaceship?

Ashley: Yeah, and I'm like leaning back in my chair just like a little bit more relaxed than when I had to be like at my table. So 

Martha: Yeah, it's so, it's really nice and you can move it around. It's perfect for people with attention deficit, hyperactive disorder. 

Ashley:Who us? What

Martha: what, who? Her? Never,, season seven. Huh.

Ashley:what a trip

Martha: What a trip. It's been lucky number seven.

It is also the seven. Seven years. What is it?

Stretch? The seven

inning stretch ?

Ashley: Isn't seven dwarfs? 

Martha: Seven dwarves? This is great. We should keep this going. This is

premium content. 

Ashley:We're really good at this 

Martha: I hope you've had a nice time away from the podcast.

Ashley: I have, I hope you've also had a nice time away from the podcast. I remember when we took the break, summer felt so big and long 

Martha: Mm-hmm. 

Ashley:like it felt like we had so many weeks and now I can't believe summer's done. I 

Martha: It's done. 

Ashley: I'm kind in denial. Yep.

Martha: Yep. A hundred percent

She gone. 

Ashley:Gone.

Martha: it's so crazy. It's just like so much has happened. It felt like a very full summer for a lot of,

a lot of reasons. 

Ashley: a very, yes, a hundred percent.

Marthaar: And now here we are. 

Ashley: Here we are. Welcome back.

Martha: Welcome back, and there's so many cool things ahead for this

season seven.

Ashley: Mm-hmm. . Yeah, it feels very timely to kind of restart in the fall and when a lot of things are new and in shift and in fluxx. And so we've been busy recording episodes that are coming up soon that we're really excited to share with you, both from specialists, from mamas themselves, a little mix of everything, some round tables.[00:02:00] 

So we're really excited about this season and really excited to offer some fun new features for this podcast season as well. 

So one thing that we've wanted to do on the podcast since the beginning, but um, hashtag nonprofit funding, is being able to offer transcriptions.

And so we are super excited to say that because of some funding from the Prolacta Grant Foundation, we are able to offer transcriptions of each of our episodes. So those will be on our blog. , If you'd rather read the podcast, or just be able to reference different parts of the episode, this will be a really great way to do that.

So thank you so much Prolacta Bioscience Foundation for this grant to allow us to offer this as a part of our service here on the podcast. And, um, we're really excited to be able to offer that officially.

Martha: That's gonna be great. So , keep an eye out on the website for that. Also wanna call out too, , we had an incredible website refresh this past spring of 2023. We poured a lot of energy and effort [00:03:00] into it, which was wonderful because, we wanted it to be a more user friendly experience, a place where someone could go and easily access all the different things that Dear NICU Mama has to offer. And one of those things is the podcast. It was actually kind of crazy recently, Ashley posted on social media and she was like, how many of you guys know we have a podcast? And 60% said they didn't! Which is nuts because we post about it every single week. But this is social media for you.

And so definitely if you can think of someone you love, that could benefit from hearing the podcast, share it.

Um, share which episodes, , , what they mean to you, and what has resonated with you. Always feel free to tag us on social media, we love hearing from people but one of the cool features of our website actually makes it even easier to really navigate this huge backlog now that we have,

, of,, now seven seasons worth of episodes. So, we've gone through and index and tagged all of that content so that you can search by topic, um, by name, by keyword, to try and find what is best for you [00:04:00] and which topics are meaningful for you. So if you're looking for multiples mamas or medically complex mamas, or episodes about high- risk pregnancy or maternal mental health,

it's all there. We've done so much. We've covered so much content, and there's still so much more to do. So

keep an eye out for that and make sure to explore that at dearnicumama.com slash podcast.

Ashley:Yay. Well, Martha, we are kind of at like a weird time of year. It's like a good time of year, right? Like lots of shifting, lots of change. But I know for many of us in the community, transitions can be hard. Transitions and any change can be difficult 'cause so much of our motherhood journey from the start has been just constant fluxx and change.

And so maybe to kinda kick off season seven, we're talking a little bit about life after NICU. We're trying to encompass a lot of different topics, 

Martha: A lot of life 

Ashley:A lot of life. We could do seven seasons on life after 

Martha: after NICU , Exactly. Yeah. 

Ashley:But , you know, when we started this podcast, our babies were babies. [00:05:00] They were like one and under.

Um, and now our kids are your daughter's. Five. My son will be five in January, and 

Martha: Mm-hmm. 

Ashley: it's just wild. So maybe we can just chat a little bit about you know, who we are today as NICU mamas and how we've evolved. I know that could be, that's a very large question, but like how we approach the changing of season now, maybe differently than we did when we were like fresh out of the NICU.

As your daughter calls your name,

Martha: As she comes in, hello, how may I help you today? Are you done with that? Do you need anything? Okay, well that's, that's all, that's actually all that I have to say about this, this season of parenting for me.

Is that a toddler just, she just came in and handed me a listen to this,

Ashley:I was gonna say 

Martha:just 

Ashley: hearing 

Martha: handed me a tablet and walked away. So that's where I'm at. Um, Ash, what about you? Yours is probably meaningful and [00:06:00] beautiful and stuff.

Ashley:41: no, mine's just that daycare playing dinosaurs. Um, that was hilarious.

Martha: Oh

Ashley: That is life.

Martha: yes. Um, seasons, I will say, um, they're people now, you know, they're

like more like people 

Ashley: did that happen?

Martha: they've gotta do stuff like school. And for us, you know, me and my husband, we are pretty certain that the baby, baby family, growing years are done for us. So then that's just like a whole other thing.

It's kind of like finding your identity again.

Finding yourself, yourself as a couple again. Right, because your child has some more independence in some ways not, right? In some ways they still say that they don't know how to wipe their own butt, but they do. And then you get into battle with them. Uh, it's new challenges with parenting you didn't know about because they are, around peers a lot more than they are with you, which is new.

So that's big.

Ashley: Hmm. 

Martha: So yeah, I think we talked with, a veteran NICU mama whose kids NICU twins are like 20 recently, and she just says, it's always with you, right? Like this memory of the NICU. But it just changes over time and there's still time that it's poignant and beautiful. But you have this big like pie that is your life and the NICU is in it.

But then as they get older, they throw these other things into it too. And your, life pie gets more diverse and delicious

as you get older. Um, she was talking about, it was so cool.

Remember she was talking about how her , son's college girlfriend came over and they showed her pictures of him in the NICU, right.

And it brought her back and she experienced that. But she looked at it and reflected on it in such a different way because

here was her son who's a grown man and has a girlfriend and is closer in age to she was when she delivered them than she is now. And just taking that all in

and what it all means. So yeah, definitely dealing with a lot of change this [00:08:00] summer. Um,

With our kiddo going to kindergarten, so, but there's been some, there's some awesome episodes that y'all should tune into about these transitions and going into school, so

I won't dig into it too much. Ashley, how about you?

Ashley: Oh, man. Um, I mean, very similar. I feel like, , lately, whenever I'm getting Silas, like dressed after bath time, I look at him and I'm like, how are you so tall? Like all of a sudden he's like, not, he doesn't have like the chubby little toddler legs anymore. He's got like little boy legs and I'm like, wait a minute.

How are you so tall? How are you so lean? 

Martha: The knobbiest knees. 

Ashley: Yes, yeah.

Martha: they're

Ashley:Yeah, the pants that just are like a little bit too short but still too long at the same time, like you're still figuring out. , recently we did our back to, or our right on time backpacks, right?

Martha: Yep.

Ashley:And I wanted to do a video of like more of a diaper bag style.

And so , I wanted a Dr. Brown's bottle, right? And I was like, I don't wanna go to Target and buy one, I'll just go find one of my old ones. So I trecked down to my basement [00:09:00] and I found the NICU tote, lugged it out, opened it up 

Martha: Oh 

Ashley:and like immediately was like I was just like, okay, this is still, I was like looking for a bottle to use and I was trying to find a pacifier and I was just like, oh my gosh.

Like everything from his NICU, his little blood pressure cuff, his little blanket that he got and all these things were just staring at me and I like, shut the tote. And I was like, okay, I'll come back to this later. So I went to Target and bought a bottle for the shoot. 

Martha: Oh. 

Ashley:Um, but it's funny. Yeah, it's like I think about it so much less now, you know, being five years out and yet I see that tote of stuff and I'm brought right back to our whole experience and just what it was like to be like a new parent, right?

Like it's just as you get farther away from like the newborn stage, it's harder to remember the newborn stage and just like how tired you were and how exhausted you were. And, and now it feels like the transitions in this season of life are less about [00:10:00] like, you know, it's, it's less like diapers , and learning to walk.

It's like learning to find what they're passionate about. And it's like so much more about their little brains and their just like personalities. And it's like so wild to see them. You're so tired at the end of the night 'cause they're learning and growing so fast and they're talking a million miles an hour.

Martha:Oh my God, they never stop.. 

Ashley:What? Yeah, it's constant and you love it, but you're also like, oh my gosh. But yeah, it's, it's wild. . They're getting so big.

Martha:And I hope it's a good reminder for people who are right like in it, right, right now

to it's, you hear all the time when you're in the middle of it, like someday this will be a memory. When you're in it, it feels so big and it feels like every day it take that six weeks or you know, 87 days for you, or 127 days or whatever it is, you know, these, everybody's journeys are so different. But those days feel like a lifetime. It feels like it is never going to end. And then they come home [00:11:00] and like snap, like time moves forward so differently.

Ashley: mm-hmm.

Martha: Not that I wanna go back there, although I feel like I had less acne when I was breastfeeding. But anyway, I don't wanna go back to that time, but wow.

It just makes you think about it differently. So I hope that you can see, you know, hear this and think to yourself, someday this will be you. Someday you will look back down the road and see all of the things that you have accomplished and just be in awe of yourself. It's just ridiculous and also so tiring.

And I'm, I now just talking about, I just got really hungry. Just like, I'm so hungry all of a sudden.

Ashley: Please treat yourself to a snack after this.

Martha: I, I will. Yeah. Um, 

Ashley:Dear NICU Mama is in a really a fun place. We had a fantastic walking letter of Hope Day, which was made entirely possible because of this community. , and, we are excited for season seven and what's to come for Dear NICU Mama and this [00:12:00] podcast. And if you're a new time listener too.

I know Martha mentioned the library. We encourage you to look back on episodes that we've done. I mean, there is some gold in our seasons and we reference a lot, even throughout new episodes. We're like, oh, remember we talked about something similar in this season and like a million episodes ago. Um, but we hope this podcast is really just

It's just like a soft pillow to process your experience and your journey, and we want it to be a very gentle place and we hope that our voices really are soothing and lovely as we talk about our hormonal acne and how tired we are. 

Martha: Yours is soothing. Mine has always been grading. I'm

surprised that you were like, that's the voice we want.

Ashley:I love your voice. You could have been like in a commercial reading or like you could have been a narrator.

Martha: Oh, another, another life.

Ashley: Another side business 

Martha:Another side business. This, yeah. Uh, there's, yeah, there's, um, goodness ahead.

Ashley:Wink, wink,

Martha:Yeah. , I just as a reminder too, uh, like Ashley says, go check out the website because that's the other place you're gonna find all the other things that Dear Mama does and has available to you. We have a 7,000 member private Facebook group that is highly moderated by wonderful, compassionate moderators. It is a beautiful community and you, you can't say that about every online community, but you can say that about this one. Really, really good people in this group. Um, good people to reach out to. And then, uh, we have all of our letters that have ever been written. Remember now for four years, l o l we've had weekly letters released that are written from NICU moms for other NICU moms.

So cool. And if you're ever interested in contributing, make sure to check out the website 'cause there's

monthly prompts available. And I know Ashley and Savannah, our, dream team of letters are always looking for great contributors.

Ashley:Mm-hmm.

Martha: We have the podcast, obviously we have a brand new resource library too. So a lot of times we get emails from folks about what about [00:14:00] feeding? What about, you know, I'm looking for a therapist, or I'm looking for immediate resources that I can use to help calm my anxiety. And that's where it's at. Because we are peer support people. We know what we do well with Dear NICU Mama, but there's so much more.

So we spent over a year curating an over 200, Items in this indexed, uh, searchable resource library. So that's there

for you. And of course, we would be remiss if we did not mention the shop, the Walking Letter of Hope Shop. That was one thing that was really cool about Walking Letter of Hope Day in 2023, was all the people who were wearing these

apparel items that have these beautiful messages on them. All around the world. And their kids wearing them. And them wearing them. And

we actually have team members who got together. They're all from all around the country and we were not able to go sad day, but they got together recently. They had all their families get together on

this little farm in rural Michigan, and they all kind of camped out and seeing them all together wearing these [00:15:00] clothes, it's very, it's crazy to us.

And we have distributed over 4,000 of those items worldwide

Ashley:Mm-hmm.

Track 1: so cool. Um, we hope that you find them and look for them and find encouragement. And if you see something that a message that touches you, that you think that would benefit another mom or another family member going through it, that's there for you too.

Ashley:Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Martha:Did I get everything?

Ashley: Yeah, we love this community. Thank you for giving us the summer off. It felt so long to be away from you guys, but it was good for us. And now we're really excited to be back.

We've missed you all. We've missed connecting on here. Um, it's such a special place to get to know so many of you. And, , oh, I was gonna say, how do you feel about reading some reviews, Martha?

Martha: Yeah. Let's do it.

Ashley: So We thought it would be fun to periodically just read some reviews that we have, gotten on the podcast and reviews help us significantly. So thank [00:16:00] you to every one of you who has rated the podcast or left a review. , it truly, truly does help us so much and just gets us into the ears and connects us with so many more NICU moms and providers around the world.

So, alicia boy mom wrote, I just finished part one and listened to part twos of Kamille's story after having my 20 week anatomy scan today. I'm pregnant with my second baby boy after delivering my first at 29 weeks and having a 44 day NICU stay. Hearing the stories like Kamille's about a second pregnancy after this NICU in this season has given me peace when it's been difficult to find that throughout. Beautiful.

Martha: Love that. I love that it was Kamille too, 'cause I love Kamille.

Ashley: I freaking love her so much. Um, thank you so much for sharing that review, Alicia, and we are with you every single step of your pregnancy. Um, and then another one was from S R F M, jmr they used a a code name. Um, but the review was, [00:17:00] grateful for the sisterhood. This podcast and Instagram has provided me an incredible amount of support during my NICU stay. Thankful for the sisterhood.

We are thankful for you. We are so thankful for you and so thankful for each and every one of you that make up this sisterhood and this community. And we still pinch ourselves every day that we receive messages from you or reviews like this or just see how many of you are tuning in every week.

Um, we truly, when we started this, could not have dreamed that we would get to connect with so many of you like this. So thank you for making it possible and making it happen. And um, we're super excited for season seven. Do you feel good, Martha?

Martha: I feel very good.

Ashley: Okay. 

Martha:I don't feel good about how quiet it is in other parts of my house

right now, but 

Ashley: what is she up to?

Martha: I don't.

Ashley:: Oh my gosh, I love it.

Well, mamas, we'll be back next week as we officially kick off season seven with some amazing, amazing interviews. Um, we're really excited for all the content that's to come. And excited to be here with you [00:18:00] all. So make sure to subscribe, leave a review if you feel compelled to, and, us all over social as we celebrate NICU Awareness Month.