THE SENSORY MADE SIMPLE PODCAST

Transcript

Well, hello there.

It has been a long, long time since I recorded a solo episode, and it feels so good to be back on here talking with you again.

In the coming weeks, we'll definitely be jumping back into all types of sensory, feeding, and developmental tips and tricks.

But before we do that, I thought it would be fun, and maybe even a little therapeutic for me, to do a life and business update.

You guys have had tons of questions, and many, many kind wishes over on Instagram.

It's Dr.

Sam Goldman, if you haven't connected with me there yet.

So in this episode, I figured I would share some of what's been going on behind the scenes.

If you've been here a while, you know that my life has looked quite a bit different these past two months.

If not, I'm excited to share that JR and I welcomed a baby boy into our family.

And let me tell you, these first two months have been filled with a lot of ups and downs.

Everyone tells you how magical having a baby is, but they forget the part about how challenging the newborn face truly is, especially postpartum.

It's wild how your life totally changes, and now you are completely responsible for taking care of this little new person when you can hardly sit up or take care of yourself.

Now that we're about two months in, things have definitely started to become a little bit easier, and it feels more like we're starting to speak the same language as baby sea.

We've learned his cues, his cries, and what helps him soothe.

Right now, his absolute favorite is bath time.

There's a couple questions we've been getting asked pretty frequently, so I'm gonna share a little about what we've been up to in our personal life with Sea, but remember, this is all just our personal experience.

Every baby is different and benefits from different things.

Question number one, how is he sleeping?

I would say he's sleeping as well as a baby could at his age.

Every single night is so, so different, but in general, he does give us anywhere from four to eight hour stretches.

Last night was his first eight hour stretch and we could not have been more grateful and excited.

He definitely makes lots of noises and wakes up frequently throughout the night, but recently he seemed to put himself back to sleep.

We've been following the taking care of baby's newborn plan, and it's been so helpful for us to have a guide.

Naps, on the other hand, is where we struggle.

They range anywhere from two minutes to two hours.

I love a good contact nap, but sometimes he really just isn't into that either and will stay awake for hours before we can finally help him fall asleep and relax.

If you're struggling here, I see you.

This sleep deprivation is probably the hardest thing I've ever felt in my life aside from grief.

Remember, every single baby progresses at their own rate.

There's so much that can go into this, like how do they nap during the day?

How many weeks are they?

Are they drinking formula?

Are they drinking breast milk?

The list goes on.

I think of this more as a roller coaster.

Tons of ups and downs, and we are just along for the ride.

Question number two, how's eating?

Overall, C is a pretty consistent eater.

While I would have loved to breastfeed, my milk supply never came in, even though we tried it all.

The pumping, the supplements, the works.

I never even made the decision to stop.

The amount just went down and down until we hit zero.

So now C is exclusively formula and bottle fed, which he thoroughly enjoys.

We've been using Dr.

Brown bottles since day one.

I think I'm a little biased towards Dr.

Brown, since that's what we used primarily when I was working as a feeding therapist at Children's Hospital Pittsburgh.

I personally really like how the shape of the bottle fits my hand, the different choices of flow rates, and the fact that all the nipples are tested multiple times for consistency.

What I don't like is cleaning all of those parts, but we did try different bottles at the beginning to see what worked best for him, and he always just seemed to do best with the Dr.

Browns.

From the very beginning, what's been really important to me is establishing positive feedings.

So we are using QBase and responsive feeding, meaning that we let C guide us on his feedings.

We noticed the flows were initially too fast for him, and until recently, we're using one of the slower flows.

Now that he's a little more confident and organized with his eating, we've moved up to the level one.

We've also chosen to feed him an elevated side lying and hold the bottle horizontally to his mouth instead of tipping it up.

Both of these naturally slow down the flow of the milk and allow him to pace himself when eating.

However, if we notice that he starts to gulp, seem overwhelmed, or lose milk from the sides of his mouth, we tilt the bottle down to pace him so he doesn't cough, choke, or aspirate.

We also allow him to tell us when he's full.

Thankfully, we haven't had any concerns about his eating or growth, and he's been staying in the percentile, according to his pediatrician.

Question number three, how's his head?

It's adorable, of course.

Kidding aside, I shared on Instagram that he was born with a little bit of torticollis and a flat head because he stayed in the same position in utero for a full 20 weeks.

They literally identified the head preference until immediately after delivery, which was so crazy for me to see because I usually see torticollis get diagnosed super late.

I am not a wait and see kind of person, so we immediately got started with positioning and working on turning his head to the other side.

But I quickly began to realize that it's way different practicing with your own child, so I reached out to both a private PT and early intervention.

We've been working super hard and it's gotten so much better, but there is still a lot of flatness.

No matter how many times we reposition him or turn him, he will always turn back to his left during sleep.

We've got about two more months to work on it before going to get evaluated for a helmet, so we're doing everything we possibly can to prevent it.

But I also know that if we need one, it's not the end of the world.

We'll do whatever he needs to help him.

I know it can also seem really overwhelming when your little one needs OT, PT, or speech therapy, especially when you're thinking about the financial implications.

I do want to remind you that early intervention is available absolutely for free for qualifying kids from zero to three years old across the US.

We decided to do a combination of both because even though Seek qualified, we still have yet to have our first session with early steps.

So I think that's about everything personal that was asked so far.

Now on to the business.

Obviously, the biggest question has been what is gonna happen with my business now?

For now, I'm gonna be home with Seek and working on the business.

But having a child of my own has really changed my viewpoint on this business.

And I mean this in a couple ways.

On one hand, I truly understand what it looks like to have zero time or mental energy to focus on anything except keeping my child alive, but also knowing I need to learn and continue to take steps forward in order to support baby seas development.

And I know that's what a lot of you feel too.

So I will be making some adjustment and changes to my programs over the rest of the year to help you get the information you need as fast and as easily as possible without the fluff.

So you can immediately start to try things out and see wins and changes.

I've really been focusing on listening to you and gathering info over the last couple months.

And I'm so excited to start putting these changes into effect.

On the other hand, having a child has also changed how I want to run my business as a business owner.

I have to admit, I might have had some unrealistic expectations of what coming back would look like.

I'm realizing I don't have the same opportunity to sit down and focus.

Even the short podcast has taken me five days to write.

So all that to say, I'm not really sure what it's gonna look like right now.

My goal is to stay with the weekly newsletters, the blogs, and the podcast episodes, but I'm gonna give myself grace and just go at my own pace and seize pace, getting out whatever content I can without losing its quality.

I also accepted a position for a little side hustle, doing virtual handwriting tutoring.

Babies are seven times more expensive than I ever imagined, especially when you're frantically ordering at 3 a.m.

during those night feeds.

Many of you have reached out to me about handwriting in the past, so if you'd like to work with me, send me a DM on Instagram at DrSamGoldman.

I'm not sure if I can share who I accepted the position with yet, but it's someone many of you should be familiar with.

Little man is currently waking up from a contact nap, so that's all for now.

But if you've got any other questions, let me know.

I would love to answer them.

In our next podcast, we're gonna start getting back to some normal content, so I'll see you then.