Ep. 74: Gimme Those Sloppy Baby Kisses

[Music]

Shanna Micko: Hi. Welcome to Big Fat Positive with Shanna and Laura. On this week’s episode, we have our weekly check-ins. We have our special segment, Internet Insanity, where we think you’re going to get creeped out and skeeved out and we wrap it up with our weekly BFPs and BFNs. Let’s get started.

[Music]

Shanna Micko: Hi. Welcome to episode 74. Hey, Laura. How are you?

Laura Birek: Hi. So my baby is nine months and three weeks, and what we’re going through now is that we have our first true baby head cold. We’ve had some illnesses that I’ve talked about, but this is the first one that’s full-on snot and fever and coughing, the whole shebang.

Shanna Micko: Oh, no. So is this even worse than the hand foot and mouth that he got and that slap cheek thing and all the other stuff?

Laura Birek: All of those were very extremely mild.

Shanna Micko: They sound like so much more horrible than a cold though.

Laura Birek: I know. Well, I think they can be. They’re all viruses, right? 

So it’s all variable how you can react to the virus or how bad the infection is, I guess. I don’t know. But I know that with the parvo, the slap cheek one, and also hand foot and mouth, it can range from barely even noticing or not even noticing anything’s wrong to some kids I think with hand foot and mouth end up in the hospital. So I think that’s very rare, by the way. But it’s a thing that can happen. But for us, they were both very mild. You could barely tell anything was wrong. He was just like a little cranky, slightly feverish. But this was what you think of with a classic cold. So that was not the most fun. It only lasted a couple days, which was good. He has a little lingering cough, but lasted like three, maybe four days, the worst of it. So it wasn’t terrible, but it’s so hard to watch them be sick.

Shanna Micko: I know. It’s so frustrating. Hopefully, his cough doesn’t linger. CeCe’s cough, I swear, last like eight weeks or so. It’s crazy how long they can last.

Laura Birek: I know for me every time I get sick with a cough it lasts like months forever. We brought the humidifier into his room, so hopefully that helps. I think it was helping. When I started doing this thing where I have no idea if it helps or not, but it was kind of fun, which was instead of filling his bathtub just using the normal bath faucet, I started filling his bath with the shower head and closing the door so that the room kind of steamed up.

Shanna Micko: Oh, that’s cool.

Laura Birek: That seemed to help and also it made it less cold. The contrast between the bathtub water and the air was a little less, so it made it just feel better. 

That’s been a thing we’ve been doing. Very tropical feeling.

Shanna Micko: Oh my God, muggy.

Laura Birek: Very muggy. But so the other thing that I wanted to update everyone about this week is that if you recall maybe about a month ago, I had an OMG I’m Freaking Out about whether my baby even liked me at all.

Shanna Micko: Yes, I recall.

Laura Birek: He would push me away when he was sad and he didn’t want to snuggle with me and I was like, oh no, my baby doesn’t like me. Well, I’m here to report that all of a sudden he is very affectionate.

Shanna Micko: Yay. What changed?

Laura Birek: I have no idea. All I know is that all of a sudden he’s starting to bury his head in my shoulder. If he wants a cuddle, he’ll just lean his head in. It’s the best.

Shanna Micko: Love it.

Laura Birek: He’s starting to give those big sloppy baby kisses.

Shanna Micko: Oh my God, that’s the best. That is the number one thing that makes me want to have more kids, I swear, is the little window that you get those open mouth little sloppy baby kisses is just like, give me more babies. Give them to me.

Laura Birek: It’s so funny too, because he gets really serious when he is coming in for a kiss. So you just have this little baby face get very serious and big open mouth leading with the tongue.

Shanna Micko: Oh, yeah. I French kiss my baby more than my husband probably.

Laura Birek: Him having the cold really makes it extra slimy.

Shanna Micko: So gross. But you can’t deny it. I’m like, I don’t care. Give me the cold.

Laura Birek: I call them baby drool facials. He’s just all over my face. It’s so sweet and it’s a little different than how he used to sucker fish. He used to sucker fish on faces, but they weren’t kisses. I think that was him looking for something to teeth on or something. Now it’s like, you’re here. I want to give you affection.

Shanna Micko: Aww, I love it.

Laura Birek: So that’s really heartwarming and it just makes me feel so much better that he clearly does like me and not just because I’m default mom. He wants to get cuddles from me and I never want it to end. I just want his cuddles all the time.

Shanna Micko: Yeah, I know. So wonderful.

Laura Birek: I just love him so much. I think he’s on the mend now and we are having a lot of great cuddles and that’s pretty much what’s going on in our neck of the woods. We didn’t do much this week because of the illness, so what have you guys been up to?

Shanna Micko: Well, we’re doing great. CeCe is 10 months and three weeks and a few things have been going on. She’s been making great strides with walking. Pun not intended: making strides.

Laura Birek: See, I was like, what is that reshuffle? Right over my head.

Shanna Micko: That’s okay. It’s late. It’s a long day of mothers. So she has been taking steps and saying lots of words and then that all kind of regressed this week.

Laura Birek: Really?

Shanna Micko: Yeah, she’s kind of preferring crawling again and not really saying much and I just get all wound up about that. But then I’m like, okay, she has this bronchitis and an ear infection and I’m forcing this Augmentin down her throat.

Laura Birek: That’s right. Poor thing.

Shanna Micko: So I’m like, maybe she’s just dealing with that and maybe not putting all her focus and energy on learning massive life skills at the moment. I had to tell myself that to kind of just chill out and I’m wondering what you think of that theory.

Laura Birek: I don’t think we are looking at regressions at this short period of time. Is your worry that there’s some kind of developmental problem that’s making her regress?

Shanna Micko: I don’t know. Sure. Yes, anything. Now I’m like, but maybe her feet are too small. She is getting bigger. Maybe now her feet are too small to carry her body in a trajectory.

Laura Birek: I feel like the ability to do something isn’t linear. It’s mastery. I think we all think about it like, once a baby can walk, they can walk. It’s a lot more complicated than that. There’s also this thing about when do you call it walking. Is two steps walking? My mom keeps telling me, “You walked at nine months.” I’m like, “Did I really walk or did I take some steps?” You know what I mean? Because it’s one thing to take a step. It’s another thing to walk confidently around the house and that takes a long time to get from that point A to point B and I don’t think it’s every day they’re getting better and better and better. It takes time to sort of process it. She’s a very determined baby too, so it might also be a thing where she’s like, wait a second, I can crawl over there faster than I can walk over there. Why would I walk?

Shanna Micko: Exactly. I can definitely see that. Like, she’s standing there working so hard on balance with her eye on a toy and then it’s almost as if she’s like, fuck it and just falls down to her knees, puts her head down and charges so fast crawling and she gets there immediately. So I guess I kind of don’t blame her.

Laura Birek: I like to think of it sort of like learning an instrument. You practice and you practice and you practice and then you have to sleep. There’s that whole thing about you have to sleep before you can actually properly learn something, code it into your brain and so it’s all very incremental. I think she’s going to get to it when she’s ready to get to it, but I think the fact that she’s done it means that she’s well on her way.

Shanna Micko: Okay. I’ll stop worrying about it.

Laura Birek: Also, I think that walking is supposed to be a milestone by 18 months. So you’ve got 10 and 3. I think you’re okay. If I recall, it’s considered normal to walk between 9 and 18 months, which by the way is twice the amount of time. If you walk at nine months, it is normal and then nine months later it’s still normal.

Shanna Micko: That’s like a whole other lifetime in those months.

Laura Birek: It is. I think that just shows that milestones are just so, so variable.

Shanna Micko: Definitely.

Laura Birek: So I wouldn’t worry. 

I’m not worried at all considering she’s already taken steps and is well ahead of the game.

Shanna Micko: Okay. Thank you. All right. She’ll probably catch up with that later. I’m sure I’ll report on however this turns out. My other more fun thing is that I am planning CeCe’s first birthday party.

Laura Birek: Oh, yay. I got that invite.

Shanna Micko: I’m getting so excited about this. It crept up on me because this whole year has just absolutely flown by. I know that’s the most cliché thing you can say as a parent, but especially the second time around, I’m so distracted and busy and it’s just like I’ve blinked my eyes and she’s almost 11 months old now. So I got to get cracking on this birthday party planning.

Laura Birek: What are you going to do? Do you have any ideas?

Shanna Micko: Yes, I am going to keep it low key. We’re going to have the party at our house. We’re going to invite our closest friends and friends with babies and my favorite thing about this whole thing is I’ve decided it’s going to be rainbow themed.

Laura Birek: Awesome.

Shanna Micko: So I’m really excited. We’ve encouraged everyone to wear bright colors. 

I’m just imagining a party of people just dressed like a rainbow and we’re going to take a big group photo. I got to stop having all these wonderful ideas of how it’s all going to turn out because you know, especially with kids and babies, nothing ever turns out as you imagine.

Laura Birek: It’s good. But I feel like bright colors, people should be able to handle that. You know there are going to be a couple of people who show up in gray.

Shanna Micko: You know what? They’re not going to be allowed through the front door. They’re going to be turned away, so tell Corey.

Laura Birek: I know. I need to tell Corey actually, because he would probably be that person. Did I tell you about that friend’s wedding we went to recently where he didn’t bother looking at the invitation? He just kind of assumed I would tell him and I was busy taking care of an infant, so I didn’t really think to tell him anything. I just looked at it and it had a little line that was like, “Dress code summer cocktail casual,” and then it said, “No black.” I literally thought to myself that’s good because I don’t own a single piece of black clothing.

Shanna Micko: What?

Laura Birek: I don’t think I do. Have you ever seen me wear something that’s black?

Shanna Micko: Maybe not. Maybe yoga pants.

Laura Birek: Okay. That’s true. I should take it back. I do own black yoga pants, but I don’t own a nice black piece of clothing. All my clothes are like jewel tone, bright blues and greens and so I was just like, that’s no problem. There’s no way in hell I’d be wearing a black outfit and then literally as we were in the lift being dropped off at the venue, Corey made some comment about like, “Wow, all the guys are dressed really like dapper and very colorful.” I was like, shit.

Shanna Micko: What was he wearing?

Laura Birek: A black suit. It’s a nice suit. He was like, “Thanks for making me look like an asshole.” I was like, “You could have read the invitation, too.”

Shanna Micko: Yep.

Laura Birek: To be fair, there was a celebrity there who was also wearing a black suit.

Shanna Micko: Oh, good. He was in good company.

Laura Birek: He was. No one was paying attention to him, because everyone was paying attention to the celebrities that were there.

Shanna Micko: Too funny. Who was the celebrity?

Laura Birek: Luis Guzman. Do you know who he is?

Shanna Micko: Yes.

Laura Birek: This was for a friend who’s actually become a better friend of mine. She was an actress on a show Corey wrote for called Code Black and her name is Emily Tyra. She’s awesome. You guys should all look her up on Instagram. She’s really inspirational too. She just was diagnosed with brain cancer three months before her wedding and it was like a whole… She’s so awesome. She’s so inspirational. You should follow her on Instagram at Emily Tyra and so she was on this TV show. Like Marcia Gay Harden was there, Luis Guzman was there. I think those were the big ticket items there.

Shanna Micko: Aww, that’s exciting.

Laura Birek: It was very fun. I highly recommend going to a wedding with celebrities.

Shanna Micko: I’ll get right on that, Laura.

Laura Birek: This is my totally normal life.

Shanna Micko: In the meantime, I will plan my baby’s first birthday party with zero celebrities. But with a very strict dress code.

Laura Birek: I’m coming.

Shanna Micko: Oh, yes, yes. You’re the big draw for my baby’s first birthday party.

Laura Birek: My baby was on Modern Family. He’s coming.

Shanna Micko: That’s true. I should roll out the red carpet for you and the baby.

Laura Birek: Red is in the rainbow.

Shanna Micko: That’s true. It would match the theme.

Laura Birek: But the point is, we will be there in bright colors and Corey will also be in some form of bright color. I’m going to make sure of it.

Shanna Micko: I’m excited. The big news, well, it’s not news and it’s not big, I’m going to attempt to make a rainbow themed birthday cake.

Laura Birek: Oh, fun.

Shanna Micko: Yes, I’m getting my Pinterest on.

Laura Birek: Is it going to be one of those ones that I’ve seen on Pinterest?

Shanna Micko: Tell me what you’ve seen.

Laura Birek: The ones that are like multiple layers and when you cut into it, the layers are rainbow.

Shanna Micko: That’s a possibility. I’ve got a lot of possibilities. I have probably like a hundred pins on my Pinterest board of different cakes and I’m just getting really inspired and really excited and I need to practice ahead of time.

Laura Birek: Yes.

Shanna Micko: I don’t know when I’m going to find the time to do that, but it’s on the agenda.

Laura Birek: Well, if you ever need a taste tester, I will fall on that sword for you.

Shanna Micko: Okay. All right. I might have to have you come over and do a little taste test.

Laura Birek: That’s so fun. I can’t wait.

Shanna Micko: It should be fun. It’s going to be low key. That’s pretty much all that’s on our plate this week. Should we take a break and move on to our special segment? Let’s do it.

[Music]

Laura Birek: We’re back. Our special segment this week is Internet Insanity, where we discuss the crazy things we’ve found on the internet related to parenting or pregnancy. Shanna, tell us what you found.

Shanna Micko: Okay. You know how I just love to keep it always down and dirty with crap about bodily functions.

Laura Birek: Where is this going?

Shanna Micko: Oh, God. I just must be a magnet for bullshit like this. I don’t understand why this stuff comes across my consciousness. I came across online the fact that some people believe that putting baby urine on your face is good for your skin.

Laura Birek: First it was the foreskins. That’s from a previous episode if anyone’s forgetting.

Shanna Micko: Yes.

Laura Birek: But now they’re just like, well, once that foreskin’s gone, how are we going to use your baby’s genital parts? Is this supposed to help your skin?

Shanna Micko: Yeah, it’s supposed to help your skin. I guess really any urine will work for this. But since you have a baby readily peeing into a diaper, you can just pat it on your face, I guess.

Laura Birek: Oh my God.

Shanna Micko: That’s the appeal.

Laura Birek: What?

Shanna Micko: Sorry. If anyone’s eating breakfast, just fast forward. I am quoting this from an article on goodhousekeeping.com. It says Martha Christy, author of In Your Own Perfect Medicine claims that putting your urine on your face, it’s called uropathy. No, it’s called urotherapy.

Laura Birek: That makes more sense. Uropathy sounds like you have an illness having to do with urine, which I guess this might be also.

Shanna Micko: I think so: mental illness. Uropathy can help reduce the appearance…

Laura Birek: Not uropathy. Urotherapy.

Shanna Micko: “Putting pee on your face can help reduce the appearance of acne, eczema, and other skin conditions because pee contains minerals and nutrients.” I guess there’s something in urine called urea.

Laura Birek: I was going to say, was it the urea?

Shanna Micko: I guess it has some beneficial properties for moisturization and maybe some beauty products put that element into their product.

Laura Birek: They do. Urea is a thing that’s in a lot of beauty products if you look at the ingredients. When I was like a teenager and learned about urea in biology class and then looked at my face lotion, I was like, huh, okay. But I think it’s synthetic.

Shanna Micko: Probably.

Laura Birek: Maybe not. Maybe that’s where it all comes from baby pee.

Shanna Micko: Oh my God.

Laura Birek: I’ve just been throwing it away all this time.

Shanna Micko: I guess the crux of this is it’s a cost saving measure. If you don’t want to spend $8 on a tub of Eucerin or whatever you can find at the drug store for $0, you can just lay with your baby’s diaper on your face for a little while.

Laura Birek: But also, doesn’t the diaper have all kinds of chemicals and shit in it that absorb? Maybe cloth diapers. This would work.

Shanna Micko: Oh, yeah, maybe that would be better. I guess if you’re really, really serious about this, you might take a bath with your face in the bathwater if your baby has bathed in there, because you know that happens in the bath.

Laura Birek: I just don’t want any of that. I don’t want any of it near my face. I’ve definitely had my close calls having a boy baby.

Shanna Micko: Right.

Laura Birek: But I’ve never intentionally thought maybe I should intersect the stream, take care of those fine lines and wrinkles.

Shanna Micko: I’m just imagining like a slowmo shot from an eighties movie or something just Laura’s face is flashed in midstream.

Laura Birek: I’m sure there’s a lot of content online that someone could find if they really wanted to that’s similar to that. But I don’t recommend it unless that’s what you’re into.

Shanna Micko: I don’t recommend it either. This woman though does: Martha Christy. The end of the article says that not only does she do this, she also drinks a cup of her urine every morning.

Laura Birek: Oh my God, Shanna. No.

Shanna Micko: I always bring the gross stuff. What is it with me?

Laura Birek: I don’t know. You’re the person who doesn’t like talking about vomit.

Shanna Micko: I know. I would not report on anything that’s vomit-related.

Laura Birek: But this makes me want to do the thing that you do not like talking about.

Shanna Micko: Right. I’m really sorry. I will find a more benign internet insanity next time.

Laura Birek: Just no bodily functions.

Shanna Micko: Okay. None. I promise. I swear on my life no bodily functions. Your turn.

Laura Birek: So mine is an article that someone in my Mommy & Me group sent to our group WhatsApp. Our little group WhatsApp, there’s probably like 15 moms on it and it’s great for discussing what our babies are going through because all of our babies are within a month age of each other. So there’s been all this talk about how to get better baby sleep, all that stuff. So someone said, “Hey, moms. If you’re looking to improve your baby sleep, here’s a hack.” It’s an article from the New York Post that says, “Mom’s sleep plan backfires as boy bonds with creepy mannequin head.”

Shanna Micko: What?

Laura Birek: There’s this picture of this super adorable 14 month old named Harry, which is a very appropriate name, who is cuddling with this creepy ass disembodied mannequin head.

Shanna Micko: Does it have hair? Is it a bald head?

Laura Birek: Yes, he’s holding onto the hair. It says, “First time mom, Elane Clark 22 hoped that by letting her baby boy Harry play with a mannequin’s hair, he would stop pulling her own locks as he tried to get some much needed sleep. But her bedtime plan backfired as the 14 month old tot is now obsessed with the ‘creepy’ disembodied head and takes it with him everywhere. He naps, shops and dines with it.”

Shanna Micko: I just can’t wait till this kid gets older and looks back on pictures. Oh, no.

Laura Birek: Here’s the quote. “It started because Harry wouldn’t settle unless he was twiddling with my hair. He’s done it since he was a baby. I couldn’t leave him with his dad, because he doesn’t have any hair to play with and he just wouldn’t sleep at all.” She’s from England. So that must have been in a really cute British accent that I’m not even going to attempt. She said that she posted a plea on Facebook and a trainee hairdresser offered up a spare dolls head with hair the same length and color as the mom’s.

Shanna Micko: Oh my goodness gracious.

Laura Birek: “He took two it straight away. He absolutely loves it. Then it started getting weirder. He carries it around everywhere he goes. He won’t eat his breakfast or his meals unless the doll’s with him.” Apparently, her partner would see it and think there was someone in the room with the baby.

Shanna Micko: Yeah.

Laura Birek: So for the first couple nights I shouted, “Callum, there’s someone in the room.” Oh, man.

Shanna Micko: Oh my God, I feel like this is definitely going to create some sort of fetish or something later in life, right?

Laura Birek: Poor baby.

Shanna Micko: This is the mannequin movie, like the precursor to that.

Laura Birek: He doesn’t know. He just thinks it’s his mommy’s hair.

Shanna Micko: I know.

Laura Birek: At what age does it get pathological because right now he’s just a 14 month old? He’s just as sweetie. He’s so cute. We’ll post these links of course on our website, bigfatpositivepodcast.com because you have to see them. He’s just this sweet guy snuggling with this big creepy mannequin head. Wait, could I send it to you? I want you to see this.

Shanna Micko: Yeah.

Laura Birek: Text or Gmail?

Shanna Micko: Google.

Laura Birek: Right? He’s so cute. It’s so sweet.

Shanna Micko: He really is so adorable.

Laura Birek: Here’s the question.

Shanna Micko: That’s hilarious.

Laura Birek: You know how you’re supposed to have two loveys? If your child is really into a specific toy, you should have a backup for when they inevitably leave it somewhere.

Shanna Micko: Yeah.

Laura Birek: So she’s going to have to get another mannequin head.

Shanna Micko: Definitely. Unless she just wants to use her own head, which I guess apparently looks a lot like this head.

Laura Birek: I think the whole point is she needs to sometimes go somewhere and do something without the baby.

Shanna Micko: True.

Laura Birek: Oh, man. Does this still count as attachment parenting?

Shanna Micko: I think so technically, because he is attached.

Laura Birek: That’s a strong attachment he asked.

Shanna Micko: Aww, little guy. That’s so cute.

Laura Birek: I know. It’s cute. Hopefully, it doesn’t lead to anything. Everyone needs something to talk to their therapist about.

Shanna Micko: There you go. She’s just giving him fodder for that.

Laura Birek: Anyway, so that was fun. That’s a fun non-body excretion thing.

Shanna Micko: Yay. Thank you. Our listeners, thank you, too.

Laura Birek: Yes, should we take a break and then come back with our BFPs and BFNs for the week?

Shanna Micko: Sure.

[Music]

Shanna Micko: We’re back and we’re going to wrap things up with our weekly BFPs and BFNs. Laura, what do you got for us?

Laura Birek: I have a BFP.

Shanna Micko: Okay.

Laura Birek: Which is the NoseFrida Snotsucker.

Shanna Micko: Yes.

Laura Birek: Talk about gross. It’s kind of a gross product, but it’s an amazing product. I’m actually shocked that we haven’t had this as a BFP yet, but I went back through our archives to make sure.

Shanna Micko: I think that’s because our babies haven’t really had those colds yet that we’ve needed this.

Laura Birek: True. I got this when he was a newborn thinking I’m going to need it so much and I do have friends who needed it right away. Especially when they’re newborns, they’re obligate nose breathers, so it’s really important their noses stay clear. Thankfully, I never had to use it then, but this week we’ve had to use it a ton because his nose has been super clogged up and super snotty. So for people who don’t know what it is, it’s like a plastic tube.

Shanna Micko: Looks like a syringe.

Laura Birek: Or a turkey baster kind of with a smaller tube that comes off the end of it that you put in your mouth and it’s literally you suck and you suck this. You stick the little turkey baster on their nostril and you suck the snot out. It comes with these little, they call them filters. They’re just little pieces of not very dense foam that you stick in there. So I guess if any snot comes up it gets stuck there. I thought no way is this thing going to work. But it is a magical, magical device that I don’t know how else I would’ve gotten him to breathe on. He breathes through his mouth, but it really helped me feel better about him sleeping better at night because I got so much snot out of his nose and suddenly he could breathe so much better.

Shanna Micko: That’s great. How does he tolerate it because CeCe hates this thing?

Laura Birek: Not well at all. It’s a two person job, honestly, and if he’s tired, it can be better or worse. I discovered that if he’s really tired it’s better because he’s just like, whatever, just do it. But if he’s just a little tired then he’s like, no. He’s not saying no yet, but his body is saying no. His eyes are saying no. So it’s not an easy thing to do. But eventually once you get the docking, I think about it as those space movies where we’re docking the orbital lander or whatever. It’s like you’re docking in the nostril. Once you get that connection made, it works out really well.

Shanna Micko: You really only have like a split second of that seal being sealed and then you have to suck furiously before they turn their head.

Laura Birek: You have to really do some breathing exercises. It reminded me when I first started to learn to play flute when I was in third grade. I was getting lightheaded because I was taking deep breaths.

Shanna Micko: That is too funny. Well, I’m glad that’s been working.

Laura Birek: It costs like $15, which it’s not the most expensive thing. You know what I mean? It’s well worth it and it lasts a long time.

Shanna Micko: I’m using the same one that I used with Elle.

Laura Birek: It all comes apart I should say. So it’s easy to clean and sterilize so you don’t have to worry about it being gross after the first time you use it. You can actually wash the syringe part. Highly recommend it.

Shanna Micko: I will say, speaking of Elle, she’s three and a half now and I think at some point, maybe after a year and a half, she just like started using it on herself. She learned how to make the seal, stick the other end in her mouth and suck it out. Kids do learn to come around to this. They don’t fight it forever.

Laura Birek: Like for fun or when she needs it?

Shanna Micko: When she needs it.

Laura Birek: Wow.

Shanna Micko: She finds it fun and fascinating.

Laura Birek: That’s cool.

Shanna Micko: I’ve never tried it on myself though.

Laura Birek: I know. I’m like, huh, maybe this is better than a neti pot. Maybe we should be doing it. Oh my gosh. Million dollar idea: the adult NoseFrida.

Shanna Micko: Yeah, although we could just blow our nose. I guess that’s the whole idea.

Laura Birek: You know what I actually would like to use it on is my cat. He hasn’t had a flare up. This is my older cat Magnus. He has chronic sinus problems and he would get really, really stuffed up noses where I would like have to sit… Did I ever talk about this: how I’d have to sit in the bathroom steaming up the bathroom with him so he would get… Maybe this would actually help. That would be even harder, but not on a baby.

Shanna Micko: If you do, you need to take your phone, put it on video and capture this whole entire experience.

Laura Birek: How Laura went viral.

Shanna Micko: Yes.

Laura Birek: How Laura also died of blood loss.

Shanna Micko: Oh my God.

Laura Birek: Anyway, that’s my BFP. How about you? Do you have a BFP or a BFN?

Shanna Micko: Well, I have a BFN, which is ridiculous. I’ve had a cough forever and it totally was on the mend. I thought I beat this, it’s all better and then all of a sudden another day I woke up at 5:00 a.m. and I had the most insane coughing attack I’ve ever had in my life. We’re just like straight for an hour. You think you’re going to throw up. It’s just like so much coughing.

Laura Birek: I hate that.

Shanna Micko: It’s the absolute worst and then I got up to start the day and I had the most intense rib pain I’ve ever had in my life because I pulled a muscle coughing.

Laura Birek: Oh, no. Which part? Like where?

Shanna Micko: On my right side. Right in the middle of my ribs there’s some little muscles there or something that I thought I broke a rib or something.

Laura Birek: Are you talking sort of under your armpit type that side or more central?

Shanna Micko: More central. Just in the center of my ribcage.

Laura Birek: Huh?

Shanna Micko: It was so weird. Let me tell you the big reason it’s a BFN is because I have to continue parenting two children one of which weighs 35-ish pounds, one of which weighs 20 now and picking them up and doing all this stuff and I can’t breathe in without it hurting.

Laura Birek: Oh, no.

Shanna Micko: I can’t cough, laugh, anything. It’s just like torture.

Laura Birek: Have you ever heard of costochondritis?

Shanna Micko: No.

Laura Birek: I feel like that’s what you’re describing. Okay. Hold on. I have to look it up. I always thought it was cosochondritis, but it’s costochondritis. Also known as chest wall pain is an acute and often temporary inflammation of the costal cartilage, the structure that connects each rib to the sternum. I think that’s what you had. It’s like a thing.

Shanna Micko: Is it something where the pain is everywhere or just in one small area?

Laura Birek: I always understood it that it was in one small area. It’s the space between your ribs and you got inflammation in the one spot.

Shanna Micko: So do you think I did it by my insane coughing experience? It must have.

Laura Birek: Pain or tenderness usually occurs on the sides of the sternum affects multiple ribs and is often worsened with coughing, deep breathing or physical activity. Let’s see. On physical examination, a physician inspects and feels the patient for swollen or tender areas and can often produce the pain of costochondritis by moving the patient’s rib cage or arms. Was it like that if you moved your arms?

Shanna Micko: I don’t know if it felt bad while I was moving my arms. It felt bad always and of course, I did not see a doctor about this.

Laura Birek: Who sees a doctor for their own problems when you have children?

Shanna Micko: Nope, not at all. Didn’t do a damn thing.

Laura Birek: Did it help taking like ibuprofen or anything?

Shanna Micko: Yeah, it helped a little bit. That’s the only thing I did for it. That’s probably what I had. Next time I think maybe I should go to a doctor or do doctor on demand and try to get a muscle relaxing or something because it was pathetic.

Laura Birek: Those are fun too.

Shanna Micko: Exactly. My second favorite after Sudafed.

Laura Birek: One lifts you up. One glides you down.

Shanna Micko: Moms doing drugs. That should be the name of our podcast.

Laura Birek: Oh my God, I haven’t done any good drugs. I don’t do it, but I haven’t had Sudafed since pregnancy because it was safe during pregnancy, but I’m worried about it for breastfeeding.

Shanna Micko: Yes.

Laura Birek: The other night I was kind of lamenting Ambien. Before I got pregnant, I would take an occasional Ambien if I was having trouble sleeping and you just sleep so well.

Shanna Micko: Oh God, I’ve never tried that.

Laura Birek: It’s only occasionally and I think it can be really habit forming drug for people. For me, I would take it very occasionally, but just when I was like very, very stressed out or for whatever reason wasn’t able to sleep. Just the other day I was thinking about, man, what I would give it for like. It feels like you’re in a nice Jacuzzi tub and you’re just sinking down into comfort.

Shanna Micko: That sounds very good.

Laura Birek: I guess I could just find a Jacuzzi.

Shanna Micko: Yeah, you could. But obviously no.

Laura Birek: Obviously, I haven’t touched the stuff since I started trying to conceive and I don’t even think we have it anymore in the house.

Shanna Micko: Good old days.

Laura Birek: But at least you got to take some of our good stuff, the ibuprofen, if you were pregnant.

Shanna Micko: That’s right.

Laura Birek: Tylenol all the way.

Shanna Micko: Do you remember our rage against Tylenol when we were pregnant? At least I was like, what is this bullshit?

Laura Birek: After my C-section when they were like, “We’re going to be giving you Motrin.” I was like, “Thank you.” That’s all I wanted for the last nine months.

Shanna Micko: Oh my God, too funny.

Laura Birek: Anyway, is it feeling better yet or are you still hurting?

Shanna Micko: It’s starting to feel better.

Laura Birek: Okay.

Shanna Micko: It’s definitely lasted longer than I would’ve imagined, but I’ve been able to tackle my way through this episode without passive pain.

Laura Birek: I’m so glad.

Shanna Micko: I know.

Laura Birek: I hope you feel better soon.

Shanna Micko: Thank you. Laura, I think we should wrap it up. What about you?

Laura Birek: Yeah, I think it’s time to hit the non-ambient support.

Shanna Micko: Yes, indeed. If you guys want to share any of your favorite mom drugs, just kidding, or any funny articles or anything you found online lately. We love coming across wild and wacky things, so please share them with us. Laura, how can they reach us?

Laura Birek: We are on social media at BFP Podcast. It’s Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook at BFP Podcast. We also have a Facebook community group. 

Just search for Big Fat Positive community and click to join. It’s a closed group, but I will add you right away. We have a website, bigfatpositivepodcast.com. You can also reach us by email: [email protected].

Shanna Micko: If you love the show, please spread the word. If you know a pregnant person, someone trying to conceive, a new parent, let them know about the Big Fat Positive Podcast. Or if you would like, please leave us a review and a rating on whatever platform you listen. Big Fat Positive is produced by Laura Birek, Shanna Micko and Steve Yager.

Laura Birek: Thanks for listening, everyone. Will see you later.

Shanna Micko: Bye.

[Music]