
Ep. 38: Never Have I Ever: Parenting Edition
March 25, 2019
Listen Now:
In the new segment “Never Have I Ever: Parenting Edition,” Laura and Shanna share hilarious incidents they never thought they would experience until they became parents. Also, Shanna discusses her baby’s new toy-smacking skills, and Laura talks about the ups and downs of being home alone with her baby all day. Finally, the new moms reveal their BFPs and BFNs for the week. Shanna’s baby is ten weeks old, and Laura’s baby is six weeks old.
Show Notes:
- Owlet Smart Sock Monitor* Tracks your baby's heart rate and O2 levels *affiliate link
- Peepee Teepee* Cute shower gift or cultural appropriation? *affiliate link
- Oogiebear* Gets those bats out of your baby's tiny nose cave. *affiliate link
- Breastfeeding laws by state A good cheat-sheet for each state's laws regarding breastfeeding in public.
This episode's sponsors:
BetterHelp
Big Fat Positive: A Pregnancy and Parenting Journey is sponsored by BetterHelp. Join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health. BetterHelp connects people with licensed, professional therapists in a safe online environment. BFP listeners get 10% off their first month.
Simply Magnetic Me
With SewSafe™ magnetic closures, Simply Magnetic Me makes changes practically effortless. Plus, their supremely soft fabrics are cozy and sustainable! Get 20% off your order with promo code BFP.
Yummy Mummy
Order insurance-covered breast pumps like Madela, Spectra, and Elvie right to your door from a certified Women-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE).
Episode Transcript
[Music]
Laura Birek: Hi. Welcome to Big Fat Positive with Shanna and Laura. Today on the show we have our weekly check-ins, we have a new, special segment called Never Have I Ever: Parenting Edition where things get psychological and we close with our BFPs and BFNs for the week. Let’s get to it.
[Music]
Laura Birek: Hi, everyone. Welcome to the show. This is episode 38 and Shanna, hello?
Shanna Micko: Hi.
Laura Birek: Hi.
Shanna Micko: Hello.
Laura Birek: You want to tell us what’s going on with your week this week?
Shanna Micko: I do. All right. So my baby is 10 weeks old now.
Laura Birek: Aww.
Shanna Micko: We’ve talked a little bit about like the Wonder Weeks and being in leaps and stuff like that and my baby’s wrapping up a leap and I’m starting to see signs of new development, which is really exciting.
Laura Birek: Ooh, like what?
Shanna Micko: What she’s done this week is she started reaching for her toys.
Laura Birek: Oh, fun.
Shanna Micko: It’s so cute.
Laura Birek: I’m so anxious for stuff like that, because I’m just like start doing something kid.
Shanna Micko: Yeah, it just came out of the blue. It was so cute. So I have a pack and play, which has a little mattress that is kind of up more towards the top that I put her in and put a bunch of toys in and she’s got like this butterfly toy with rings hanging above her and all of a sudden, the other day I just noticed that she’s grabbed the rings and is holding onto it and moving the thing around and giggling at it and laughing and totally entertaining herself and it’s awesome.
Laura Birek: Aww, go CeCe.
Shanna Micko: It’s so cute and what else is great about that is now she can entertain herself for longer periods of time in that area or on her play mat whereas before I think she would either get bored or confused or just sad that she was alone and want to be held a lot. So I’m noticing now I could put her in there and if she’s in the right mood, she’ll reach for her toys and laugh at them and interact with them a lot more and that gives her more time on her own and gives me a little more time to make coffee and do things like that. So it’s really exciting.
Laura Birek: That sounds heavenly.
Shanna Micko: Then another thing I wanted to report is you know and listeners probably know that CeCe’s been sleeping in the SNOO, the robot crib and that comes with an app that gives you a lot of statistics about your baby’s sleep and I noticed a statistic. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this in yours, Laura, but it tells you the total amount of time that your baby spent in the SNOO.
Laura Birek: You mean of all time?
Shanna Micko: All time.
Laura Birek: I didn’t know.
Shanna Micko: So don’t look at yours yet, because I want to see if you can guess how much time CeCe has spent in the SNOO. We’ve had it for five weeks now.
Laura Birek: Are you doing all the naps in the SNOO or just some?
Shanna Micko: No, just some. This is mostly nighttime sleep.
Laura Birek: Okay. Let’s say 322 hours.
Shanna Micko: That’s really, really close. It’s about 348 hours, which equals 15 days, 21 hours and 33 minutes and counting, because she’s currently napping in there right now. But I was like 15 days of her life has been spent strapped in that SNOO, rocking away, listening to white noise.
Laura Birek: Wow. They got to sleep to grow.
Shanna Micko: They do. But when you put it in terms of like days, I was just like, wow.
Laura Birek: Especially for someone that’s been alive for 10 whole weeks of their life.
Shanna Micko: Exactly.
Laura Birek: So that’s almost two full weeks. It’s like one fifth of her life.
Shanna Micko: Yes, you’re right.
Laura Birek: That’s only in the last four weeks, right?
Shanna Micko: Oh gosh, she sleeps so much in the first few weeks, because just sleeping newborns. But anyway, that’s pretty much all I have to update everyone on this week. What about you?
Laura Birek: Well, my baby is six weeks old. I’ve been home alone again. Actually, my mom and stepdad came into town, but only for the weekend. The weekends Corey’s usually home, so I have help anyway. So I’ve been home again for another week with the baby all by myself and I have to say it’s starting to get to be a little bit of a grind. I’m trying to get out of the house more and getting into a rhythm, but he’s still little and he was going through his leap and then I think he was going through like a crazy growth spurt. I feel like he went through his leap a little early, but now I’m like, maybe that was something else, because he’s been extra hungry, extra clingy, extra sleepy, but then not sleeping at night. He’s just been a bit of a pill this week, but an adorable one that I love. It’s just sort of anytime I put him down, I’m like on edge, because I think he’s about to wake up and it’s just been a bit of a challenging week. So I’m tired and I’m sort of like, why did I agree to let Corey go back to work?
Shanna Micko: It is a lot to do by yourself. I’ve been lucky, because Steve’s on paternity leave and my mother-in-law is here right now too so there’s always someone else who can hold the baby if I get overwhelmed or something. So it’s been nice. I’m sorry that you’re feeling the grind of it.
Laura Birek: It’s just sort of the logistics of everything. I don’t mind holding him. Let’s say I want to sit in a different spot, I need to have the swing or rocker or something in that spot so I can keep an eye on him. But I can’t move him in it, because that’s not safe. So then I have to figure out where I can put him that’s safe so I can move the swing so I can get him back in the swing in the right position.
Shanna Micko: Are you talking different rooms of the house or just the other side of the room?
Laura Birek: I live in a pretty small house. It’s a two bedroom house and then there’s a big open concept living room area and kitchen area and so it’s generally I’m talking about from the living room side to the kitchen side, because I can’t see him. Usually, I’ll put the swing right next to the couch if I’m watching TV or just hanging out on the couch. But if I want to work on my computer and I have an external keyboard that’s set up in the dining area and I could leave him in the swing and I do sometimes, but I can’t see him. I have to stand up and I’m still paranoid enough to not feel comfortable just leaving him without having easy eyes on him. So it’s stuff like that and you can probably hear him in the background. He’s stretching. Hoping he naps for a long time right now in his bouncer. But after a diaper change, if he’s really upset and maybe he’s spit up so I have to change his clothes, I don’t have a hand really to take the dirty diaper and walk it to the trashcan. Just little silly things like that but they add up to the point where you’re just like, I wish I could just flop the baby down. I do flop him down and sometimes I’ll just put him in his SNOO without it being on just because I need somewhere safe for him to be for like 90 seconds so I can go to the bathroom.
Shanna Micko: Totally.
Laura Birek: Then you feel guilty and then you worry. My mom in her visit, she came down and we were talking about how much we love the Owlet Monitor, which I think I talked about the little sock that measures their heart rate and blood oxygen level and it’s been really reassuring to have. At some point during this visit, my mom was like, ‘Well, you put it on him for naps, right?” I’m like, “Well, some naps. If he’s in the SNOO and I’m in the other room and the video monitor is on him,” and she’s like, “Okay. Good, because naps are when SIDS happen.”
Shanna Micko: Whaaaaat?
Laura Birek: I was like, great. I’m really glad to have learned that. So now, he’s right next to me. You can probably hear him breathing, but I have the Owlet on him, because I’m being paranoid.
Shanna Micko: Wait, can we back it up for a second?
Laura Birek: Yeah.
Shanna Micko: I feel like me and maybe the listeners need to know why SIDS happen in naps.
Laura Birek: This is a good question. I don’t know. I think it happens anytime. I think that’s the thing. It just seems like it would happen at night, because you’re not paying attention. But it’s probably just as likely to happen any other time the kid’s sleeping. So I don’t know. It was a very throw away comment that has haunted me. I’ll have to call her and ask her.
By the way, SIDS is so rare and I try to remind myself that.
Shanna Micko: Okay, good. Thank you for saying that.
Laura Birek: It’s incredibly rare. It’s so rare that it’s hard to study, because you don’t have a big enough population of kids to study with it. Anyway, I try to remind myself that, but also, this is the other thing that I just want to get off my chest and then we’ll move on to the next segment is that I feel like I’m getting these two completely contradictory messages and it’s driving me crazy. One is that everyone is telling you constantly you got to do safe sleeping. SIDS is a big concern. You have to sterilize all your bottles. You have to do all this stuff or else your baby is probably going to die if you don’t do every single thing right. Then the other side is stop worrying so much. I’m like, somebody tell me how to reconcile those, because every single person is telling me you got to do this everything you read online. I know online will make you do that. But my mom shows up, suits up and SIDS naps. Okay, great. Then two hours later I text her. I’m like, “Is this normal?” She’s like, “You need to stop worrying so much.” I’m like, “You just told me SIDS happen.” This is a conundrum for me. I feel like I’m being gas lit by everyone.
Shanna Micko: Right.
Laura Birek: It’s like, you’re worrying too much. Don’t stress. But do stress about every little thing.
Shanna Micko: I don’t know. Are you supposed to stress about everything?
Get everything in line perfectly and then have a margarita and chill out about it all.
Laura Birek: Well, that sounds lovely. Can we do that right now? But drinking increases the risks of SIDS. I think that’s with bed sharing, which we’re not doing.
Shanna Micko: Okay.
Laura Birek: It’s exhausting and also I think it’s extra exhausting being home alone, because like for instance, before we started recording, I was like, does your baby snore? He’s kind of snoring a little bit. I don’t know if that’s normal. I’m freaking out about it and you’re like, I don’t know. My baby doesn’t snore but it seems okay. I’m looking at the Owlet Monitor. It’s like 100% blood oxygen level. So I’m like, okay. He’s probably fine.
Shanna Micko: Well, it’s good you have an Owlet Monitor to give you that peace of mind.
Laura Birek: When you’re home alone with the baby, you are the only person keeping this child alive. It is 100% my responsibility right now, which I’m okay with. That’s what I signed up for. But telling me that you need to calm down and be a more chill mom, I’m just like, look, I’m about as chill as I’m going to get right now. I’m not rushing him to the ER every time he coughs. I’m just asking questions. Leave me alone.
Shanna Micko: You could be so much more paranoid and worried and uptight than you are. So I think you have struck a nice balance.
Laura Birek: Thank you.
Shanna Micko: I think you’re doing great.
Laura Birek: Thanks, Shanna. All right. I’m going to take a deep breath. Let’s move on to something funny after this word from our sponsors.
[Music]
Shanna Micko: Hey. Welcome back to the show. We are excited to introduce a new segment, which we call Never Have I Ever: Parenting Edition in which Laura and I talk about situations or thoughts or experiences we’ve had as parents that we never thought we would experience as human beings ever before having babies. So Laura, why don’t you kick off this new segment by telling us what you’ve never done before?
Laura Birek: Okay. So never have I ever watched someone I love pee on his own face twice.
Shanna Micko: I’m assuming this is your baby not Corey.
Laura Birek: Yes, can you imagine? We don’t talk about anything intimate, but then all of a sudden I’m like, oh, and Corey has been peeing on his own face. No, it’s my infant son. Shanna, you are a girl mom.
Shanna Micko: Yes.
Laura Birek: So you maybe don’t know the joys of the projectile pee pee situation having a boy?
Shanna Micko: No, I have no idea.
Laura Birek: Well, I was warned about this in our childbirth and childcare class at the hospital. They actually were like, who’s having a boy? Everyone raised their hand and they’re like, okay, you’re going to have to watch the pee pee. We were like, okay. We’re on it. I thought I was on it. Basically, every diaper change, it’s a race to make sure that the pee pee can get covered up as fast as possible. Obviously, you need access to wipe down and apply butt cream or whatever you need to do. So it has to have some air every once in a while.
Shanna Micko: Right.
Laura Birek: So I’ve always got eyes on the pee pee. I’m watching for signs that it’s about to erupt. But as much as I think I’m getting good at it, who knows how many hundreds of diapers I’ve changed at this point? I still mess up sometimes and my sweet little baby has a tendency to spit up when I put him on the changing table. Anytime we lay him flat on his back, he gets a little reflux and blah. So his sort of best favorite move is we’ll put him on the changing table, I’ll take off his old diaper, I have the new one underneath ready to go and then he’ll spit up and I’ll get distracted and I’ll take my eyes off the pee pee. So then I have to go wipe his face off, make sure he is not choking on spit up and that’s when the pee pee fountain happens. The other day this was the exact scenario that happened. Usually, you try to make sure the penis is pointed down so at least it goes that direction. But I was remiss in my penis mind and it was pointed straight up and he peed on his face. So as I was trying to clean up the pee on his face and he’s crying of course, because no one likes getting pee on their face, he did it again.
Shanna Micko: Most people do. Maybe Donald Trump. Isn’t there a thing about that? Anyway.
Laura Birek: Topical. We’re still waiting to verify if it’s true.
Shanna Micko: Right. Okay. Continue.
Laura Birek: As I was cleaning up the first round of pee pee on his face, he got a second round in. So that inspired an impromptu bath. I was like, okay, baby. We are going straight into the bathtub.
Shanna Micko: One pee pee on the face, okay. Two, we definitely need to take a bath.
Laura Birek: That’s the threshold.
Shanna Micko: Yes, that’s a good threshold. That is too funny.
Laura Birek: I have been thinking about investing in Pee-pee Teepees.
Shanna Micko: I was going to say isn’t there an invention that’s supposed to curb that.
Laura Birek: I might just have to get it, because it would make the diaper change easier because I wouldn’t have to be constantly on alert and then also, I feel like as he gets older, it’s just going to get worse, because there’s going to be more volume.
Shanna Micko: Right. Stronger stream I would imagine.
Laura Birek: Stronger stream probably. You’d be surprised at the height. One day I should try to measure the height, because it’s like a high jump. It works really well.
Shanna Micko: I feel like the Pee-pee Teepee would need to have enough weight to it to hold it down. Otherwise, it would be a boulder on top of a gear just like shoot up with the stream.
Laura Birek: Well, maybe I’ll get something just to report back.
Shanna Micko: Please do.
Laura Birek: I think I’ll do that. I’m going to put it on my Amazon list. So anyway, that’s my Never Have I Ever. What have you experienced that you never thought you’d experienced in parenthood?
Shanna Micko: Okay. Never have I ever flashed a parking lot full of strangers at Target.
Laura Birek: I’ve done that once in college.
Shanna Micko: That’s your weekend hobby. No, in college, Laura, but for me this is a new territory. It’s just being out and about with the baby and it’s time to feed her and it’s like, all right. I guess I got to do it in the car and a parking lot is actually a very busy place. I don’t think I ever really realized that. I was with Steve. We were coming home from the pediatrician and we wanted to stop at Target to kill some time and I’m like, “Go to that far corner. That’s where we’ll do it.” He pulls up and of course, there’s a van right next to us with a dude sitting in it. I’m like, “No, I’m not going to do it here. Over there.” So he backed out, went to another parking spot and there was a woman sitting in her front seat reading her phone and I’m like, “Oh God, no. Go over there.” We go over there and there’s someone else sitting in the car, so the back corner of Target parking lot is where people just randomly sit in their car to do weird things, just so you know.
Laura Birek: Noted.
Shanna Micko: I was going to join the crew doing my thing. Finally, I was like, just pick a spot. So he just kind of went to the middle of the lot, which was by the sidewalk and by other cars and I just whipped out the tea and there it was in Target parking lot. It’s natural. I’m uncomfortable with public breastfeeding in general.
Laura Birek: Are you?
Shanna Micko: It’s always awkward and uncomfortable and I don’t really like flashing and some dudes walking by the sidewalk and I’m like, ugh, trying to cover myself up.
Laura Birek: Something I’ve discovered about myself in the last six weeks is that I think I’m like one of those militant feminist, like, so what? Fucking look at my boob, man. It’s for feeding my baby. If you have a problem with it, that’s your problem. This is my attitude.
Shanna Micko: That’s good. That’s a great attitude. Wish I had that, because it would make things a lot less awkward. I’m like got to cover. I’m trying to put this thing over her face and I’m like looking under this sheet.
Laura Birek: I’m not fucking around with those covers. I just decided, because people say that it really is annoying and the baby doesn’t like it, right?
Shanna Micko: I don’t think so. It’s probably cutting down on her oxygen flow.
Laura Birek: I have to say since I’ve only recently been cleared for activity, I haven’t had that many opportunities to breastfeed in public, but I did whip them out at a gastro pub the other day.
Shanna Micko: Nice.
Laura Birek: I was having lunch with our friend Allison and he started getting fussy and I was like, you know what? Whipping it out right here. I did have to say I kind of looked around and was like, well, who’s around? Because I didn’t want to be like super obnoxious. If anyone had challenged me, I think that’s when I would be like back off, dude. But I did want to be a little respectful. But we looked around and realized it was all women around us and I was like, fuck it. So boob comes out.
Shanna Micko: That’s definitely helpful. We were at a coffee shop the other day and it was time to feed her and I was doing my whole covering thing. But right at the moment that I started to breastfeed, the empty table next to us got taken over by two young dudes that were about 20 years old and they were facing me and I was just like, oh my God, I’m like nervous sweating while holding my baby in an upright chair that was so uncomfortable.
Laura Birek: Oh, jeez.
Shanna Micko: I was just like, oh my God.
Laura Birek: I’m going to try to mentally send you some of my obnoxious righteousness.
Shanna Micko: Please.
Laura Birek: I did look up breastfeeding laws in California for this purpose, because I wanted to be able to challenge anyone if they said could you move or cover up and we are protected.
In California, there is a civil statute that says that we are allowed to breastfeed in any public or private place. The only exception is someone’s private residence. So if I went to your house and I was like, “I’m going to breastfeed,” and you’re like, “I would rather you didn’t do that here.” First of all, that’d be super fucking weird, but it would be your right.
Shanna Micko: That is so rude.
Laura Birek: Hey, so only I’m allowed to breastfeed in this house.
Shanna Micko: You have to step outside to the street.
Laura Birek: Can you go in the bathroom?
Shanna Micko: Yeah, well, that’s good to know. That’s very, very handy.
Laura Birek: But I get it and no one really wants to flash the Target parking lot. But no one really wants a screaming hungry baby.
Shanna Micko: No, it’s worth it to get her fed. That’s for sure.
Laura Birek: Plus, some people got a free show. Win, win. Just kidding.
Shanna Micko: Win for them. That’s my breastfeeding Never Have I Ever, but your pee pee one actually reminded me of one that I’ve had recently with my daughter. Obviously, not pee pee fountain related, but never have I ever thought to myself that is a beautiful poop.
Laura Birek: Tell me what it looked like. I want to know what about it is beautiful.
Shanna Micko: It was glistening. She’s been having some poop issues lately, like a little constipation and for a while, the poops are described as like C. diff. They’ve got like chunkiness to them. Do you know what I mean?
Laura Birek: Yeah, I’m trying to think of how I can explain it. It’s sort of like if you took a bunch of turmeric mixed it into some yogurt and added a few like pieces of oatmeal.
Shanna Micko: Like ground oatmeal ground. Not the full flakes. The steel cut flakes.
Laura Birek: Yes, but very brightly colored.
Shanna Micko: So just a little chunkiness. Anyways, recently she’s been constipated and we’ve been like, oh my God, please poop. Please poop. Please poop. So after about 48 hours, she finally pooped. I was grateful. Already I was coming into it from a place of gratefulness and I opened the diaper and it was just smooth almost like a honey mustard salad dressing.
Laura Birek: I’m never eating honey mustard salad dressing again.
Shanna Micko: It filled the diaper, so I was so glad that she had finally gone there and gotten that poop out and it looked gorgeous and literally never in my life thought that I would have that thought until I was a parent of a constipated child.
Laura Birek: I have to say that I have had that thought before, but with my cats.
Shanna Micko: Okay.
Laura Birek: Well, actually my cat that passed away Molly and my cat that I still have who’s an old man, Magnus, they both have had gastrointestinal issues and Magnus has to go on antibiotics a lot, because he has like chronic, upper respiratory infections that sometimes turn into bacterial infections. It’s a whole thing. So he gets the shits a lot because of that. I have to say that it’s such a relief when I’d go to the litter box and I’d be like a solid poop. Amazing. That’s a beautiful poop. Good job, Magnus.
Shanna Micko: It’s very emotional.
Laura Birek: I’ve been there, but only with animals.
Shanna Micko: But you know what? Your talking about your cats’ poop actually reminds me of an incident I had with my dog Chili. Maybe I have had this thought before. One time he got into a box of black licorice and ate the entire box.
Laura Birek: Oh my God, Chili.
Shanna Micko: Yes, he gets into everything and the poops he had for the next couple days were shiny black onyx looking like. They were pretty. I marveled at those poops and was like, dang! That’s kind of gorgeous.
Laura Birek: Good job, Chili.
Shanna Micko: Oh, man.
Laura Birek: Wow.
Shanna Micko: Fun topic. Anyway, that’s our new segment, everybody. Thanks for playing along. You have any Never Have I Ever: Parenting Edition, you’ve got to reach out and let us know.
Laura Birek: Yes, please let us know your Never Have I Evers. We’d love to hear them.
Shanna Micko: All right. Let’s move on to BFPs and BFNs right after this break.
[Music]
Laura Birek: We wrap up every week with our big fat positives or big fat negatives of the week. Shanna, what do you have for us, a BFP or a BFN?
Shanna Micko: I have a BFN this week.
Laura Birek: All right.
Shanna Micko: It’s not just this week. It’s forever more.
Laura Birek: Uh-oh.
Shanna Micko: We bought a house without a master bathroom and I’m already regretting it so much, because it does have a second bathroom. But it’s on the other side of the house and when my mother-in-laws staying with us, she uses it and it’s really tiny. It’s got a tiny standup shower and it’s not really one that I use very often, so our big bathroom is in our hallway. You’ve seen it and it’s not even that big. It’s just like a standard tub, shower dillio and we have to share it with everyone on this side of the house, which is me, my husband, my older daughter, and eventually the newborn. It’s just a lot of activity going on in that bathroom and I’m already starting to see how that is a major problem. Taking a shower, I just want to have a few minutes to stand in hot water and I’ll be luxuriating in that and it’s like, boom! The door bursts open, “Mama, I have to go poo poo,” and it’s like, okay. So I’m taking a shower while she’s going poop and Steve has to come in to help wipe her butt. So everyone’s in there and he’ll be holding the baby, because he’s got to multitask and suddenly, the entire family has descended upon my shower and I’m like, why did we buy this house?
Laura Birek: No, it’s so funny I never really put that together, but you’re right, because I guess I don’t really go into your master bedroom that much. So I just kind of in my mind assumed there was a bathroom there, even though I knew. You gave us the grand tour when you moved in. I think your house is so much bigger than my house. You have so much square footage. It just is so interesting. You’re right. That was an oversight by whoever built it or renovated it.
Shanna Micko: 100%. I’ve done the mental gymnastics of how could we put in a bathroom, which we can’t even afford anyway. But even if we could, there’s really nowhere for it to go unless we cut into the backyard, which is already kind of small. So it’s a bummer and I can see that’s going to be a problem as the girls get bigger and just want more bathroom time to get ready and stuff. I don’t know what’s going to happen, Laura.
Laura Birek: Well, you have time. CeCe’s not going to be using that bathroom by herself for years.
Shanna Micko: Right.
Laura Birek: Lots of things can change in a few years. We’ll probably have a hit show, because our TV writing career is going so well right now.
Shanna Micko: 100%. I’m going to be living in a mansion obviously in like two years. So I’ll have like four master bathrooms.
Laura Birek: So don’t worry about it.
Shanna Micko: Problem solved.
Laura Birek: Just don’t worry. No, I feel you though. I have to say that that was a deal breaker for me. When we were house hunting in LA, if you want to be anywhere like central ish, you’re not going to get a lot of square footage unless you have above a million dollar budget. We were fine with having a smaller square footage. We downsized our apartment we were renting in Silver Lake before we moved, which Silver Lake is a very hip neighborhood, very central. It was I think almost 1700 square feet with a car garage.
Shanna Micko: That is huge.
Laura Birek: It was too big. Honestly, there was three bedrooms. We barely used one of them. It was Corey’s office supposedly, but he was never using it and we had so much storage, oh my God. The closets for days. Then we downsized to this place, which you know we bought this place. So I’m very happy with it and it’s nice. It has a yard, so we have more space outside. But inside it’s less than 1200 square feet and there’s two closets, literally two in the entire house. But one thing we have is we have the ensuite bathroom. It’s not big. It’s like a shower and a sink and a toilet and it’s cramped. But the ensuite is very important for us and then we do have a second full bath with a tub and that was a deal breaker for me. We would go see other houses and they’d have one bathroom and I’d be like, this is not going to work.
Shanna Micko: One bathroom, oh God, no.
Laura Birek: I get people live with it, but for me, my first thought is like, what happens when we all get our first stomach flu?
Shanna Micko: You just know how to strike fear in my heart. I haven’t even gone there mentally. I’m just like, what if two people have to poop at the same time.
Laura Birek: That’s essentially what I’m saying.
Shanna Micko: Okay. I was thinking throwing up. I guess I didn’t talk about that.
Laura Birek: No. No, let’s not go there. But any type of gastrointestinal distress, first food poisoning or whatever.
Shanna Micko: Yeah.
Laura Birek: Also, just sometimes you just need to be able to close the door and have a couple minutes to yourself.
Shanna Micko: Yes.
Laura Birek: So I feel you on that. I’m sorry.
Shanna Micko: Thanks. It’s all right. I’ll get over it. What about you? What do you have for us this week?
Laura Birek: I have a BFP. On a good note, it’s a very fun little BFP. It’s this product called the Oggiebear. Do you know about this?
Shanna Micko: Is that the one you showed me when I was there that you put in the baby’s nose?
Laura Birek: Yes, I thought it was called the Oggieboogie, because it just makes more sense to me. But it’s called the Oggiebear and I have it right here actually. It’s this little silicone plastic or whatever little thing that it’s kind of about the size of a Q-tip and at the end, there’s these cute little bears. Then at the very end, there’s these little soft plastic scoops and therefore scooping boogies out of your baby’s nose and it was actually recommended by our friend Keri. I was like, I don’t know if I need this and she’s like, no. No. No, you need to get it. It’s so great, because there’s the NoseFrida for when you have really gooey congested nose.
Shanna Micko: Right.
Laura Birek: This is for when it’s like the dry, flaky ones.
Shanna Micko: Like bats in the cave.
Laura Birek: Exactly.
Shanna Micko: Got you.
Laura Birek: It’s very safe. They’re very small. I’m sure if you go too far, it’s not safe. But you just go right in the little surface. Much easier than trying to sort of get it out with your finger.
Shanna Micko: Their nostrils are so tiny.
Laura Birek: Oh my gosh, I know. There’s also like the bats in the cave that are like semi wet. They’re kind of dried at the end and crusty, but they’re still adhered. The two sides are different. One side is for the wet ones and one side is for the dry ones.
Shanna Micko: Clever.
Laura Birek: They’re not too expensive. Let’s see. You can get at Target, Bed Bath & Beyond. I got mine on Amazon, so let’s see how much it costs on Amazon today and we’ll put a link to this on bigfatpositivepodcast.com so you can find it. You don’t have to remember. Okay. They’re $20. So it’s not like the cheapest thing, but they’re totally reusable.
Shanna Micko: Huh? Got to say I thought that was going to run more in the $599 range.
Laura Birek: $20 for two, I should say.
Shanna Micko: Oh, okay. All right. Well, that sounds useful.
Laura Birek: Yeah, I think it’s very useful and it’s also adorable.
Shanna Micko: Cute.
Laura Birek: It’s kind of fun. I don’t know about you. I’m kind a person who grooming. I love brushing his hair and I just love putting baby oil on his dry skin and I very much enjoy cleaning out his nose.
Shanna Micko: That’s so cute. Aww, what a cute mama. Good mama. That’s really sweet.
Laura Birek: That’s it for me. I think we are playing with fire. My baby is still sleeping, but that could change at any moment. So maybe we should wrap up for this week. Huh?
Shanna Micko: Let’s wrap it up. That was a great show. Thanks, Laura.
Laura Birek: Thanks. It’s always fun to talk to you, Shanna.
Shanna Micko: Thanks for listening, everyone. If you have any questions or comments or want to share any stories with us, we would love to hear from you. Laura, where can they reach us?
Laura Birek: We are on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at BFP Podcast. We also have Facebook community group you can join and we have a website, bigfatpositivepodcast.com, where we post our show notes and links to 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.
[Music]