Ep. 27: Countdown to D-Day!

[Music]

Shanna Micko: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Big Fat Positive with Shanna and Laura. On this week’s show, we have our weekly check-ins, we have our special segment, Check in the Inbox, where we respond to listener questions, and we end the episode with our weekly BFPs and BFNs. Let’s dive in.

[Music]

Shanna Micko: Hello, everybody. Welcome to episode 27.

Laura Birek: Welcome.

Shanna Micko: Hi. We start every week with our weekly check-ins. Laura, why don’t you start us off?

Laura Birek: Well, I am week 34.

Shanna Micko: Oh my gosh.

Laura Birek: I know. This week I started my maternity leave as I discussed in the previous episode, which is pretty exciting.

Shanna Micko: Yes.

Laura Birek: I have totally attacked the closet. We’re attacking the garage. I’m just feeling so good about just getting shit done. I’m so into it.

Shanna Micko: Nice.

Laura Birek: The big sort of pregnancy related thing I did this week is that I had that chiropractor’s appointment on Monday for that SPD, the pubic symphysis pain I’ve been having. So I went to this place in Pasadena that primarily, or almost exclusively, I think does pregnancy and infant chiropractics, which we discussed. I didn’t even know you could do chiropractic work on an infant. There was a little baby in there when I was there.

Shanna Micko: Aww, it walked away feeling much better.

Laura Birek: Not even walking. He was just a little itty bitty, like four month old I want to say maybe. It’s kind of sitting up on his own, so maybe a little older. I kind of was spying, because it’s kind of an open office. There’s a private room if you’re doing more sensitive things, but then there’s adjustment areas in the front and they warn you about that.

Shanna Micko: Wow.

Laura Birek: Which I thought at first, I was like, this is a little strange. 

But then at the same time, I was like, there’s pros and cons both ways. Nothing weird’s going to go on if you’re out in the open, right?

Shanna Micko: That’s true.

Laura Birek: So I got to see the other chiropractor. She was massaging the baby’s neck. It was pretty cute actually. The baby didn’t like it.

Shanna Micko: Oh, man.

Laura Birek: I went and it was really interesting. It was a long appointment and the chiropractor was super nice and very helpful and he did a whole diagnostic thing trying to figure out what side my pain was on, if he could figure it out. It was a little ego boost too, because even though I’ve been feeling like I’m waddling and can’t catch my breath and all this stuff, he was really complimenting me. He was like, “You’re still really agile, you can do plies, and you can take corners. I’d have you on my basketball team still.” I’m like, “Well, I can’t shoot for shit,” but I was like, wow. All right.

Shanna Micko: That’s nice.

Laura Birek: He said that the breach baby situation could be because I’m tight in my hips and so he wants to try to make it balanced out. But interestingly, he said, “You may have read online about all these inversions you can do, all this old fashioned stuff, these positions you can get into to try to spin a baby. I don’t really think any of them work. You can do them. They don’t hurt, but I don’t think they make much difference,” which I was not expecting, because I feel like this whole sort of world of alternative maternal health are all on the same page. They’re all: all doulas all the time, all yoga, all spinning babies, all natural birth and he was just sort of like, “Yeah, I don’t think any of that stuff actually works. What we’re going to try to do is create an environment that sets the baby up for being able to turn easily. It may or may not work.”

Shanna Micko: Nice. Refreshing.

Laura Birek: I was like, now I like you officially and I have to say he put some KT Tape. Do you know what that is?

Shanna Micko: Yeah, I haven’t used it though I don’t think.

Laura Birek: Kinesiology tape. It’s this sort of stretchy tape that you’ve probably seen it if you ever watch any sports these days. I remember I first noticed it in the Summer Olympics a few years ago when all the volleyball players had kinesia tape all over their bodies and these weird figure configurations. So he put some on me sort of as a trial to see if my skin would be okay with it and just trying things out. I felt good right afterwards and then the day after I felt so sore, like way more sore than usual.

Shanna Micko: Whoa! Whoops!

Laura Birek: But he warned me that might happen.

Shanna Micko: Okay.

Laura Birek: My brother who has been seeing a chiropractor here and there, he has long-term back issues, he warned me too. He was like, “You might feel worse the next day. Just know that.” The good news is that it’s now been two days and I feel fine today. So hopefully, it’s working and he sent me a follow-up email being like, “You might feel sore today. Let me know how you’re doing and we’ll figure it out.” So I have another appointment next week. I’ll see how that goes. He did recommend I go to a maternity swim class that they have I guess three times a week at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center.

Shanna Micko: What? That sounds so fun.

Laura Birek: You know what’s funny is that I’m like, ooh, I have to get in the pool. I don’t know why, I loved swimming as a kid, but as an adult, I find it so tedious sometimes. Like if you’re on vacation it’s one thing, but to go swimming in the middle of the day, I just have no interest. I don’t have a cap so my hair is going to get wet. You have to go. You have to change. I don’t know why I’m so exhausted.

Shanna Micko: Involved exercise, but man, I love swimming. Swimming is great.

Laura Birek: That’s too bad that we didn’t know about this before you were in your last week of pregnancy. We could have gone together.

Shanna Micko: I know. Well, let’s go in an hour.

Laura Birek: Let’s do it. That’s it. That’s my check-in and also, I went to that childcare and breastfeeding class that’s sponsored by my hospital.

Shanna Micko: Did you learn some good stuff?

Laura Birek: I think I learned some good stuff. I have some notes for you in case you forget about how often to feed the baby basically as often as they want to be fed.

Shanna Micko: Good.

Laura Birek: But no more than every two hours I think was the takeaway and lots of diaper things, swaddling stuff. Corey was very cute. He was taking notes and being real attentive. I feel like I have a little bit of an advantage on him just because I’ve hung out with newborns a lot more than he has. I’ve hung out with you when you had your newborn. I hung out with her friend, Jen, and I’ve real recently I’ve been hanging out with Keri and her newborn. So I’m just like, it’s not that I know exactly what to do, but I have a baseline. I’ve changed a diaper before. He thinks he’s never changed a diaper before.

Shanna Micko: That could be very possible.

Laura Birek: Which kind of blew my mind. I was like, really, never once? But that was good and I have to say, I have to give big props to my hospital, because I thought this was standard. My hospital, Good Samaritan in downtown Los Angeles, they have breastfeeding and childcare classes and they also have childbirth classes and if you’re giving birth at their hospital, they’re free.

Shanna Micko: That’s great. My hospital charges for that.

Laura Birek: That’s what I heard. I’ve heard that other hospitals charge and it says it’s like $150, but if you’re planning to give birth there, it’s way, which is really a great community service honestly because you’re educating people.

Shanna Micko: Good for them.

Laura Birek: I was really pleased with that and it was an all-day thing. It was very tiring, but it just makes you feel a little more prepared. So I was into that.

Shanna Micko: Definitely. It reminds me that I took a childbirth class for my first and the one takeaway, she had the pregnant moms sit backwards on a chair and put a pillow in front of us and she’s like, “Now your partner will massage your back. Partners, this is what you can do for your pregnant partner.” That was my main takeaway from my childbirth class is that my partner can give me massages and make me feel better. So well worth the $100.

Laura Birek: But at least you can be like, this is prescribed by the hospital or by the experts. You have to do it. Anyway, so I’m dying to know what’s going on with you this week.

Shanna Micko: This is it. This is the final hurrah. I know I’m week 38 and as you all know, I’m scheduled for my C-section on week 39.

Laura Birek: 39 weeks, zero days, right?

Shanna Micko: Yes, I have four days to go before that.

Laura Birek: Oh my God.

Shanna Micko: It’s getting real. This is the last podcast I will be recording as a pregnant person.

Laura Birek: It kind of makes me sad.

Shanna Micko: I know.

Laura Birek: I am excited, but it’s so weird. I feel like I’ve been pregnant for fucking ever.

Shanna Micko: Same.

Laura Birek: So the idea that it actually ends at some point is blowing my mind.

Shanna Micko: It’s weird it has so many mixed emotions. It’s truly exciting, because I’m going to have my child soon and meet her and I’m excited and I’m excited to be able to eat and drink all of things I’ve been missing. It’s weird and sad because in my mind, my plan is this is my last child. I don’t want to have more than two. So this is my last few days being pregnant and feeling a baby inside of me. My mom asked me the other day if I feel sad about that at all and it hadn’t occurred to me until she mentioned it and now that I’m thinking about it, I’m like, yeah, these little sensations, I’m not going to feel that ever again. So I’m kind of getting choked up about it ending, but also excited about it and it’s a huge transition and just so much is on my mind and on my heart.

Laura Birek: I do feel like the one benefit of the third trimester being a complete shit show is that it really prepares you to be like, all right. This pregnancy needs to be over.

Shanna Micko: I definitely feel more now than ever ready. Ready for her to come, ready for getting my body back, just more ready. So it only took me until four days before my due date to feel that way.

Laura Birek: What are your plans for the next four days? Do you have plans? What are you doing?

Shanna Micko: I don’t have anything specific plan. It’s just the general wrapping up my week of maternity leave and finishing things around the house and taking it easy I guess, doing some shopping. I really would love to get a haircut. I don’t know if that’ll happen. We’ll see. I have my last OB appointment today.

Laura Birek: Wow.

Shanna Micko: I’ve been worried a lot about what happens if I go into labor before my scheduled surgery. Like what happens if I go into labor in the middle of the night? Who’s going to watch my kid? I’ve worked that out with you and Jen. Everyone I’m sure knows of Jen. We’ve talked about her so much that I’ve got coverage if that happens. But I go to bed at night, like, okay. Is it going to happen tonight or do I get to wait until my noon appointment on Monday? We’ll see.

Laura Birek: Oh my gosh, it’s a ticking time bomb.

Shanna Micko: I know. It’s so crazy. I can’t imagine how I’m going to feel going to bed Sunday night.

Laura Birek: Oh my God, will you try to record a little audio? I don’t know. Maybe you won’t want to.

Shanna Micko: If I think about it, yeah.

Laura Birek: It is such a weird thing to know, because most people don’t have a scheduled C-section. So they don’t know that literally this time tomorrow I’m going to have a new baby in my hands. So weird.

Shanna Micko: It is weird and it’s very different from my first time around, because I had gone to the OB that day and she was just like, “You’re not even dilated, not phased and whatever.” So in my mind, I went home that day relaxed and chilled this baby’s not coming. We have time to buy that car we were going to buy all this time.

Laura Birek: You remember the car.

Shanna Micko: We were buying a car from a broker and he was supposed to come the next day and do all the paperwork and I was like, everything’s fine. I was so relaxed and sure nothing was going to happen and then that night my water broke.

Laura Birek: Did your water break just spontaneously?

Shanna Micko: Yeah, at 4:00 a.m. while I was sleeping.

Laura Birek: Just like gush?

Shanna Micko: Uh-huh.

Laura Birek: Oh my God, that’s unusual. It is less common. Most people start having contractions and their water breaks later.

Shanna Micko: I didn’t realize that, but I later found out that only 10% of women have their water break like that.

Laura Birek: It’s in all the movies, because it’s a visual, but it’s not a common thing. A lot of women have to have their waters broken by the doctors.

Shanna Micko: Exactly. My contractions didn’t start until hours later. That was my first sign, so it’s definitely going to be different or maybe not. Maybe I’ll go to bed tonight relaxed and then my water will break again. Who knows?

Laura Birek: No one knows, but we will let you know fair listeners what happens. I selfishly hope that you go in on your scheduled date, because I want you to come to my baby shower.

Shanna Micko: It’s just the day before.

Laura Birek: It’s literally the day before and I also know it’s selfish of me to even ask you to come a little bit, because you’re probably going to be a ball of nerves the day before, but it could be a good distraction.

Shanna Micko: What food are you serving?

Laura Birek: Barbecue.

Shanna Micko: There you go. Then I got to come.

Laura Birek: Delicious barbecue from Bartz Barbecue and because it’s my mom’s birthday, so there’s going to be two cakes and there’s going to be some alcohol and I feel like the day before your scheduled C-section you could have just like a little bit.

Shanna Micko: Less rah.

Laura Birek: No beans. I know you’re not into the beans, so I don’t think you’ll do beans.

Shanna Micko: Oh God, no beans. I’ll pass on the beans. I’ll take all the pulled meat and all the cake though for sure.

Laura Birek: That’s so exciting. I can’t wait to meet your little one. Also, this time next week, we’ll know the name probably, right?

Shanna Micko: Yeah.

Laura Birek: Yay! Although I don’t think the listeners will know the name.

Shanna Micko: I don’t know that I’ll share it publicly. Just respect my little one’s privacy for a little while.

Laura Birek: I’m with you on that.

Shanna Micko: Maybe I’ll share the initials at least.

Laura Birek: All right. Time to move on.

Shanna Micko: Let’s do it.

[Music]

Laura Birek: Okay. Our special segment this week is, Check in the Inbox, where we answer listener questions that have rolled into our inbox or people have asked us in person. So we have two questions this week. Shanna, do you want to read out the first one?

Shanna Micko: Yes, here’s a question that we have received. “Now that you’re in your third trimesters, what’s going to happen with the podcast after you both give birth?”

Laura Birek: That’s a very good question.

Shanna Micko: A very good timing seeing as I’m scheduled to give birth very soon and I had mentioned this is the last podcast I’ll record as a pregnant person, but Laura, what do you think? Are we going to continue as non-pregnant people?

Laura Birek: I think our goal the whole time was to roll straight into parenthood as a topic. So part of our title, “Big Fat Positive,” is obviously a nod to the positive pregnancy test, but we picked it specifically so it would be a transitional title. God, naming this podcast, Shanna, it took us forever. Remember?

Shanna Micko: Yes, I’m not surprised though because it’s taking me forever to name my child.

Laura Birek: True. But part of the issue was that we didn’t want to be so pregnancy specific, because we knew even though it felt like our pregnancies were going to last for our entire lives that it was a finite period of time. So we wanted to pick something that would be evocative of pregnancy, but not exclusive of other things or solely inclusive. So we chose Big Fat Positive, because you can have a lot of big fat positive emotions about having newborns. The plan is to just roll into talking about having newborns and there’s always a chance in the future. I’m going to get pregnant again. I can’t even think about it. So you never know how that’ll happen. This is an experiment for us. We’ve never done a podcast before, so we talked about maybe having our goal be try to do it for a year and then see if anyone’s listening. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait a year to find out if people were listening. We have great listeners and this week we hit 10,000 downloads.

Shanna Micko: That’s right. That’s so exciting.

Laura Birek: That’s with no budget. We’ll talk about that in the next question a little bit, but right, Shanna? We’re just going to roll with it into parenthood.

Shanna Micko: What I’ve been telling people too is as long as we’re still having fun doing it, which I love it, I’m having a blast and as long as it’s possible and we’re having a good time and stuff, I definitely want to keep going because goodness knows, there’s going to be a ton to talk about once the little one is in the world.

Laura Birek: I know.

Shanna Micko: Talk about BFPs, BFNs, weekly check-ins. Things are going to change and I’m sure we’re going to have so many hot tips, things to share with people that are helping us or whatever. So I think we still have information to share and things to learn too.

Laura Birek: We have a whole slate of guests we really want to bring on to the show that we’ve just had trouble being overwhelmed scheduling and a lot of them are also more specifically about having newborns or having infants or having children rather than the pregnancy specific. So we’re really looking forward to bringing more guests onto the show and sort of expand it a little bit.

Shanna Micko: We might sound completely gutted and tired and exhausted for a few weeks.

Laura Birek: That’s very true: weeks, months.

Shanna Micko: Who knows?

Laura Birek: There might be some times where we just literally have to get on the phone with each other and we don’t get to do our nice recording set up. You might hear some nursing babies in the background.

Shanna Micko: We got to do what we got to do.

Laura Birek: But yeah, you’re stuck with us.

Shanna Micko: Cool. Then we had one other question. Laura, do you want to read that one?

Laura Birek: We’ve been asked by multiple people, “With your busy lives and families, how do you find time to make the podcast ~ Johnny”

Shanna Micko: Good freaking question. People, I don’t know.

Laura Birek: With difficulty, I guess.

Shanna Micko: We make it a priority to record these.

Laura Birek: That’s true.

Shanna Micko: Part of the thing that helps that is kind of a behind the scenes thing that most people might not realize is that Laura and I often don’t get together physically to record and that has been super helpful, because we live about 30 minutes apart from each other in different parts of Los Angeles. So especially with me having a kid already and the full-time schedule, it would be so hard to get together physically, but we have “remote studio recording setups.” I put that in quotes, because it is really not very fancy.

Laura Birek: It’s not.

Shanna Micko: But we’ve got our microphones and our computers and that’s kind of all you need to make a podcast.

Laura Birek: The first four episodes we recorded physically in the same room.

Shanna Micko: Yes, it’s fun to do that. I enjoy it.

Laura Birek: By room I mean, the first two we recorded in my car in a parking lot outside of a strip mall.

Shanna Micko: Outside the backside of TJ Maxx.

Laura Birek: There’s a lot of outtakes of us being worried about people driving by slowly trying to murder us.

Shanna Micko: I know. Crazy. It’s such a safe neighborhood too where we’re still out at night, cars driving slowly.

Laura Birek: Of course, we are probably the ones people were creeped out by, what are those two women doing sitting in their car with a laptop glowing on their face and a mic set up between them?

Shanna Micko: So weird.

Laura Birek: Then the second two episodes we recorded in your laundry room if I recall and then we realized with our lives, it’s just very hard to get together regularly. We didn’t want that to hurt the schedule for recording because we record every week, but we actually release them on a delay. You’re listening to this about five weeks after we record it, because we need to have a buffer in, because the truth is we don’t have any real support. It’s Shanna and her husband, Steve, and me and the way it works is Shanna and I record separately, we each have our separate tracks and we put them together and that actually makes editing really easy because we both have clean tracks. Then I will do a rough cut of the episode and then I send it to Steve who does a cleanup and suites the audio and meanwhile, Shanna’s writing all the copy and doing most of the Instagram posts and then we publish weekly. So it’s a lot of work for three people who all have jobs and are pregnant and have kids and all that stuff. 

We have to have that buffer in or else, because some weeks shit happens or you have a scheduled C-section and it’s not really going to be super easy to get the episode edited. So we try to bank a bunch of episodes so that there’s never a gap, because we don’t want you listeners to miss out.

Shanna Micko: That helps a lot with the schedule and I have to try to do it when my two year old is not around. Being on maternity leave helps a lot, because I’m home alone during the day now because she’s in school.

Laura Birek: It’s been easier for me, because I work from home anyway. So my schedule’s a little more flexible, but it wasn’t so flexible. I could get in the car and drive a half hour every time when we needed to get together and chat, but we make it work and like you said, we make it a priority. We are writing partners, so we’re used to collaborating and making sure we set aside time to work on our projects, even though these are our projects we’re not getting paid on and it’s not our day jobs. But we have a couple years of experience specifically just working together and then a decade before that of working on our own projects of learning how to find the time to work on your own projects and I’m not going to say it’s easy.

Shanna Micko: No, it’s not easy, but it’s worth it. It’s fun.

Laura Birek: It is.

Shanna Micko: It’s creative.

Laura Birek: It’s so satisfying too. I have to say, I’ve been really surprised at how satisfying it is to put this podcast out and have feedback from listeners and just know that we’re contributing something fun to the world and people are enjoying it. So I love it.

Shanna Micko: I encourage anyone who’s got an interest in doing something similar to go for it, because it does feel good and fun and the hurdles to getting it done aren’t as big as maybe like making a short film, which we’ve both done a lot of and that can be really challenging too. But there’s something nice about just being in my pajamas and sitting behind the microphone and chatting with you.

Laura Birek: You don’t get dressed up for recording sessions?

Shanna Micko: I mean putting on my lipstick and doing my hair and curlers.

Laura Birek: We’re going to post. We both just took pictures of our recording setups and mine was a selfie, so you’ll get to see just how much I’m joking about that. My hair is a mess. I am totally in sweats and no bra and my glasses, didn’t even bother to put on contact.

Shanna Micko: So funny. Thank you all for your questions and comments. We love it so much.

Laura Birek: If you have any questions or comments or anything you want to know about our podcast or us as people, you can email us at [email protected] or there’s a contact form on our website, bigfatpositivepodcast.com or all of the social medias, which we will list at the end of the show.

[Music]

Shanna Micko: So Laura, let’s wrap up this last episode before I give birth with our weekly BFPs and BFNs, big fat positive and big fat negatives. What do you have this week?

Laura Birek: I have a big fat positive.

Shanna Micko: Yay!

Laura Birek: Which is Rent the Runway for pregos.

Shanna Micko: Woo!

Laura Birek: That’s not what it’s called. It’s just called Rent the Runway. I had used Rent the Runway in the past before pregnancy. For people who don’t know Rent the Runway is a website where you can go and rent higher end pieces of clothing or accessories for a set period of time. I think it’s like three or five days. So if you have a big event, you can get some super fancy dress and you pay $40 for it instead of $500 and then you send it back and you don’t have to own a $500 dress and you don’t have to worry about it. But every once in a while, there’s an event, whether it’s a wedding. I first used it, because I was invited to a gala and I was like, “What the fuck am I going to wear to a gala? I don’t have a gala dress,” and I realized I could try Rent the Runway. I got this really awesome I think it was Monique Lhuilliere or it was some super fancy really nice dress that was gorgeous that I absolutely loved and it was $35 to rent for the weekend and so I felt actually fancy going to this gala with all these fancy people.

Shanna Micko: That’s so cool. How often do you wear something like that? If you bought it, you’d probably maybe wear it for a weekend, anyway.

Laura Birek: Then you gain five pounds and it doesn’t fit anymore. You’re like, what the fuck am I going to do? But you can’t get rid of it so then 10 years later, it’s in your closet and you’re like, well, one day I’ll fit in it again. It costs so much money. So Rent the Runway, I’d used it for that fancy gala and I’d used it I think once or twice for other things. I was thinking I wish Rent the Runway did maternity stuff, because I have one more month left in my pregnancy, like five and a half weeks and most of the time I’m wearing sweats and nothings. But it’s December now and I have my shower, I have my friend’s bachelorette dinner, which I want to look nice for and then it turns out I have all these Christmas parties that are coming up and one of them is with my husband’s agents who are television writing agents at a pretty big agency and there’s going to be all these people around and for people who don’t know, Shanna and I, we were trying to be TV writers. So we want to make a good impression. I didn’t want to wear some ratty-ass thing that kind of works for maternity. So I look on Rent the Runway and lo and behold! They have maternity clothes.

Shanna Micko: Oh, yeah.

Laura Birek: It’s not a ton. It’s not the huge selection they have for other things, but they have enough and so I realized that Cyber Monday, they were having a sale, which was half off their monthly unlimited plan. I think it was $89 and you get four pieces and you can swap them out unlimited amounts during the month and I was like, perfect.

Shanna Micko: Wow.

Laura Birek: I have a month left of pregnancy and I have five events I need to go to, I’m totally doing this, because otherwise I’m going to end up buying one dress that’s $60, because I don’t want to spend much money on it. But I also need it to be nice enough. I was like, I don’t get to keep any of this, but I won’t need it after a month. So I got my four pieces. I got some super expensive maternity jeans. I’m like, I would never in my life spend $250 on maternity jeans, but I’m getting to borrow them.

Shanna Micko: Oh my God, have you tried them on yet?

Laura Birek: Okay. Bad news is that I got a size too small on that, so I’m sending them back and I still need to try on my other dresses. But I got a really pretty dress for my shower and I got another dress for the bachelorette dinner and I think I got a cute blouse. I’ll try them on and take pictures and we’ll post them on the Instagram so people can see.

Shanna Micko: I want to see.

Laura Birek: But I’m pretty excited about rental maternity clothes, because Lord knows, I won’t be needing a fancy maternity dress in a month and a half.

Shanna Micko: No, maybe in a couple years.

Laura Birek: Then the styles will be changed.

Shanna Micko: Exactly.

Laura Birek: Anyway, what do you have for us this week? BFP or BFN?

Shanna Micko: Well, I am ending my maternity time on this podcast with a BFP.

Laura Birek: Yay!

Shanna Micko: That is my daughter.

Laura Birek: Aww.

Shanna Micko: She’s almost two and three quarters now. One of the things that’s so emotional about this time is that this is my last week with her as my only child. I know I’m getting choked up talking about it. I’ve been so busy. I’m trying to do stuff around the house and last weekend I was like, no house stuff. I’m not going to worry about working on the nursery or doing anything that could distract me. I just want to focus on being a family with her as the only child for the last time and really try to soak her up and stuff.

Laura Birek: That’s so sweet.

Shanna Micko: It’s been great. It’s also challenging, because I think she’s having a hard time. Maybe she knows it’s coming and also she’s got a little cold, so bedtimes have been a little tough and there’s challenges.

Laura Birek: Didn’t you switch her to a big girl bed recently too?

Shanna Micko: I did that around Halloween.

Laura Birek: Okay.

Shanna Micko: So she’s transitioned to that.

Laura Birek: She’s cool with that.

Shanna Micko: She loves it. The other day I think she hugged her bed and was like, “Mama, I love my bed.”

Laura Birek: Aww, she’s so sweet. She’s such a sweet girl.

Shanna Micko: She really is and when I put her to bed last night or the night before like I said, we’ve been having a hard time with bedtime, because I think she’s not feeling good. She has a little cold. Towards the end, she just wanted me to give her so many hugs and so I kept giving her hugs and one thing I try to say to her a lot is, “You’re a wonderful person. I love being your mom. You’re a great person,” and just reinforce that how much I love her and so the other night she was giving me a hug and out of nowhere she’s like, “Mama, you’re a great person.” Just like, oh my gosh, I love you so much. Forget about that tantrum you just threw. Just tell me more how I’m a great person. It was just a great weekend with her. We went our little community here has a holiday parade and we got ice cream and mint cheese and went to the park. So I love her so much and I just really want to honor her that she’s my first child and this is going to be such a big transition for her and for us and I’m just going to do everything I can to just keep loving her as much as I always have and even more so now that the family’s blossoming.

Laura Birek: I know she’s so excited about having a baby sister.

Shanna Micko: Yes.

Laura Birek: Oh my gosh.

Shanna Micko: That’s true. She’s very excited and it’s very, very cute. She touches my tummy all the time and she knows baby sister is in there and she knows now she’s like “Baby sister coming December 10th.” She knows the actual date now.

Laura Birek: That’s so cute.

Shanna Micko: Yesterday I was like, “Honey, after baby comes, mom is going to have a boo-boo on her tummy and I’m going to be sore. I’m not going to be able to pick you up or hold you for a couple weeks and I know that’s going to be hard for you.” Because I wanted to explain to her that I’m not going to be able to do those things and so funny, it’s just like when I told her I was pregnant, she looked at me, she listened then she checked out and was just like, “What’s that over there on the table?” And went off. I just trusted that she heard it and sure enough, this morning she was talking to her Frosty the Snowman blow up Christmas decoration that she has an intense relationship with and she was telling Frosty, “Baby sister coming December 10th and blah, blah, blah and mommy not going to be able to pick me up. Mommy’s not going to be able to pick me up.” I was like, I knew it went in that little head of yours even if you act like it didn’t.

Laura Birek: Little sponges.

Shanna Micko: She’s so cool. I love her.

Laura Birek: I can’t wait to see them together. That’s just going to be so heartwarming.

Shanna Micko: Me too.

Laura Birek: Good job.

Shanna Micko: That’s it.

Laura Birek: Oh my gosh, this is a big sign off. It’s our last sign off before you have your baby. So thanks everyone for listening and following along Shanna’s journey and also don’t forget, I’m still pregnant.

Shanna Micko: Yes, of course. We’ll still be talking to you about your pregnancy and then we’ll have the big moment before you give birth too.

Laura Birek: Which is going to be a big surprise unless I maybe still breach and then I will also have a pre-scheduled C-section. We’ll see.

Shanna Micko: That’s true.

Laura Birek: But thank you everyone for listening. We really appreciate our listeners.

Shanna Micko: If you have any feedback, questions or comments, please reach out. Laura, remind everyone where they can find us.

Laura Birek: In addition to our website, bigfatpositivepodcast.com, we have all of the social medias, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook at BFP Podcast and there’s also a Facebook community you can join where we can discuss all kinds of things from our episodes.

Shanna Micko: Big Fat Positive is produced by Shanna Micko, Laura Birek and Steve Yager.

Laura Birek: Thanks for listening, everyone.

Shanna Micko: Bye.

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