The Mikhaila Peterson Podcast - Pregnancy and Advice Q and A

00:00:00.320 That is definitely a baby bump. 0.99

00:00:02.840 First question, why did you hide your pregnancy 0.98

00:00:05.200 all this time?

00:00:06.760 So, how to take care of skin to avoid stretch marks?

00:00:11.360 Did you ever worry about your child's nutrition

00:00:12.880 in the womb while being a meat eater? 0.61

00:00:14.360 Did you change your mind about getting a surrogate?

00:00:16.280 How long was labor for your first kiddo?

00:00:18.180 Was it super painful?

00:00:19.200 Labor was weirdly quick, and I would like to credit

00:00:23.480 hypnobirthing, which sounds like the most hippie thing.

00:00:27.040 anger and resentment towards partner in first trimester do doctors get mad at your diet while

00:00:34.800 pregnant some would but like screw those guys what are your plans for postpartum rest are you

00:00:41.480 eating organ meat now for the baby what are some things a new husband can do to help his wife 0.98

00:00:46.180 during our first pregnancy i hate when couples say we're pregnant one of you is pregnant are you

00:00:53.620 working out or how are you staying the same size except the baby bump? I'll tell you guys what I'm

00:00:59.440 doing. Hey guys, welcome to my podcast. This is a pregnancy Q&A. Take a look at this.

00:01:10.600 that is definitely a baby bump I'm officially 35 weeks and I'm going to run through a bunch

00:01:26.500 of questions that you guys had kind of update you about why I didn't tell anybody and what

00:01:33.160 it's been like and how everything is going, what my diet is like, etc. So let's jump right

00:01:40.720 in. First question, how phenomenal is your baby daddy? He's pretty phenomenal. Why did

00:01:50.500 you hide your pregnancy all this time? So that's a bit of a long story. I would say

00:01:58.400 probably the main reason I hid it is because I wasn't sure if it was going to keep. That was

00:02:05.320 part of it. I wasn't sure if it was going to keep. Two, I don't think pregnant women are taken

00:02:10.260 seriously by anybody. I don't even think I take pregnant women seriously. And I'm running a number 0.99

00:02:15.720 of businesses. Too many. I'll get into that too. And negotiating with people, talking to lawyers,

00:02:23.300 talking to other business people is already difficult enough. I'm already difficult to take

00:02:29.500 seriously, I think, because of how I look and my blonde hair, etc. So add a pregnant belly on top 0.98

00:02:36.120 of that and you get someone who is not taken seriously at all. And so I didn't want people

00:02:40.680 to judge me. So that was part of it. As for the not taking, last year, August 2022, I had a

00:02:50.800 miscarriage. It was called a blighted ovum. And apparently, it's quite common. I had no idea

00:02:58.720 what that was like. I'd never heard of it before. It wasn't a great experience. I got pregnant.

00:03:06.040 I was eight weeks pregnant. And I went for my first ultrasound. I think it might have been

00:03:11.260 nine weeks. I went for my first ultrasound. And Jordan and I got there. And they're doing the

00:03:17.100 ultrasound and they get to the uterus and there is no baby it's just an empty sack and

00:03:27.240 I was like what on earth is this evil thing that I'm seeing because I didn't even know that that

00:03:38.580 was possible so what happens with blighted ovums is your body miscarries at some point and then

00:03:45.380 your body also continues to act as if it's pregnant so your uterus expands a little bit

00:03:52.760 you're still flooded with all the hormones you have all the symptoms of pregnancy and

00:03:58.360 there's no embryo and then there's no fetus it's messed up and after I went through that

00:04:05.820 I talked to some family members and it turns out that this is fairly common for people who've had

00:04:11.960 multiple babies and for women to experience and it's pretty horrifying so you guys should know

00:04:18.560 about it in case it happens to you it does seem to be weirdly common miscarriages are actually

00:04:24.260 really unfortunately common and they're extremely unpleasant but you're not alone if you're

00:04:32.120 experiencing one or have experienced them I had a really hard time with that pregnancy as soon as

00:04:38.240 I got pregnant I felt like I was going insane I was having suicidal thoughts and you know people

00:04:44.600 who suffer from depression can get intrusive thoughts and so I was having these intrusive

00:04:49.520 thoughts that I haven't really had on the carnivore diet which was just like violent intrusive thoughts

00:04:55.320 very unpleasant I felt very isolated and alone even though there wasn't anything in my relationship

00:05:02.100 that should have been making me feel that way it was purely hormonal and I had a miserable time

00:05:07.060 and i can remember praying like god make make this stop i can't handle it and then at about

00:05:15.020 eight weeks pregnant i started to feel a little bit more normal and then at nine weeks we went

00:05:19.380 for an ultrasound and like boom no baby so i don't know if i went like crazy because there

00:05:26.140 was actually something wrong and it was my body saying like something's wrong but um

00:05:33.080 eh wasn't a great experience wasn't a great experience so that happened so this time when

00:05:40.200 i got pregnant i didn't go crazy and so i didn't believe i was pregnant so i had these pregnancy

00:05:48.560 tests and i was like there's no way and jordan was like there's no way and we kept having these

00:05:52.940 positive pregnancy tests i was like there's i don't feel anything there's no way but we went

00:05:57.240 to get an ultrasound super early at like six weeks instead of waiting which i'm never going to wait

00:06:01.120 again because of the blighted ovum thing that can happen and there was a heartbeat everything's going

00:06:06.120 smoothly and then um I was as you guys know I was in between houses you might say because we'd found

00:06:15.100 black mold among other molds and bacterias in the water damaged house I was living in in Miami and

00:06:21.860 so we were living in hotels I didn't have a studio set up um one of these questions somewhere I'll

00:06:28.740 pull it up, but was, did you take time off because you were pregnant? Because I told people it was

00:06:36.360 because I was like sick from mold. I didn't actually take time off at the beginning when

00:06:41.300 I was pregnant. It was because I was sick from mold. I didn't feel pregnant for a really long

00:06:45.500 time. And I lost quite a bit of weight in the mold house. And when I call it a mold house, 0.61

00:06:51.560 it wasn't a mold house. You couldn't see mold. It was a really nice house. It was in the HVACs

00:06:58.280 and behind the drywall and there was no super clean we kept things super clean there was no

00:07:03.420 evidence of mold until the very end when i started to see it in one spot behind the paint was like

00:07:11.000 that's what's screwing me up um but yeah i didn't take time off at the beginning because i didn't

00:07:19.180 feel pregnant but what did happen pretty early on is i got a meat immersion so we'll keep going

00:07:25.000 we'll keep going for some new questions and i'll cover that soon hey guys one of you asked whether

00:07:31.780 or not you can sauna while pregnant i was saunaing while pregnant and then i had to stop near the

00:07:37.560 third trimester because my body couldn't handle it but i am so looking forward to using one of

00:07:44.060 these guys again it's going to be the one of the first things i do after i give birth because i

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00:08:44.340 what are some things a new husband can do to help his wife during our first pregnancy that is a

00:08:51.900 super cute question I hate when when couples say we're pregnant that's like a pet peeve I have 0.70

00:08:59.280 because you guys are both not pregnant one of you is pregnant and one of you is feeling it

00:09:05.040 and the other one is not feeling it however that's a very cute question and I would just say 0.97

00:09:10.160 have as much patience as you can because your wife is going to be such a hormonal disaster

00:09:19.000 at some point if not right away that she needs somebody there who's stable and calm and can kind

00:09:28.160 of listen to her neurotic thoughts and this goes for like my husband and my neurotic thoughts

00:09:34.140 normally i don't worry about things unless they're really really serious and normally i don't cry

00:09:42.780 very much i think i cry way less than the average woman like way less and normally i'm doing pretty

00:09:49.980 good uh but the hormones you get when you're pregnant are insane so now that i'm 35 weeks

00:09:57.500 i've been crying every day 100 like this morning i cried just because i was sad

00:10:03.080 why am i sad i've probably been sad for the entire third trimester just like sad a little detached

00:10:10.460 kind of feels like an alien took over my brain i don't have much of an internal dialogue it's a

00:10:16.220 lot harder to work and hormones are crazy right now like i've got six times as much estrogen

00:10:22.600 and i believe progesterone as normal no one's taking those for fun you're like hey you want

00:10:28.620 some extra progesterone by this much nobody wants that so i would say for taking care of your wife

00:10:35.600 just listen to her neurotic concerns about the house or work listen tell her you're going to

00:10:43.100 help her through it and don't argue like you would normally argue like if you're normally good at 0.97

00:10:48.820 negotiating things out and really getting into it just kind of take it easy because your wife is a

00:10:56.880 hormonal mess and she's growing another human and it is hard it's hard um kudos to like any mom out

00:11:06.880 there because it's hard and i know some people enjoy pregnancy and some people really don't

00:11:11.740 i'm not a person who does um but what i will say is this pregnancy as much as i'm having a harder

00:11:20.640 time now near the end and as difficult as aspects were it could have been so much worse and so i'm

00:11:29.000 really thankful for that because when i had scarlet that would have been seven years ago now

00:11:33.940 it was really really hard and all my autoimmune symptoms came back and i was miserably depressed

00:11:40.540 and there are multiple reasons for that but this is nothing like that thank goodness however near

00:11:49.380 the end it's been it's a hole it's a thing okay next are you still working and will this change

00:11:58.680 things for your dad's companies ps congratulations this will change nothing my plan for pregnancy

00:12:06.180 was to just work the whole time because i get so much dopamine from accomplishing things and from

00:12:12.840 moving forward towards goals that that's what i like to do and i was like well i don't really

00:12:18.540 want to take mat leave i'm not taking mat leave maybe i'll have to and i tried to figure out ways

00:12:23.960 to set it up if i slowed down but then about three weeks ago so around 32 weeks my body was just like

00:12:31.100 you're joking you're kidding yourself um and so i've been spending a lot more time like napping

00:12:37.440 and in bed i got a wicked flu so i was sick for like three weeks i've had a headache off and on

00:12:45.000 for the last eight days that's been pretty bad like enough to stop me from being able to see

00:12:52.300 very well and so nothing's changing with my dad's companies and with peterson academy everything's

00:13:00.360 moving forward uh and i'm still working but i've definitely tried to identify the main goals that

00:13:09.020 we need to accomplish and just focus on that and i've tried to limit my perfectionism so

00:13:15.980 normally if i see something that's a little bit off i'm like ah fix it it's got to be at this

00:13:21.380 level and now i'm thinking okay maybe we'll keep it at this level a little bit lower no one's going

00:13:27.600 to notice you know not everything has to be perfect uh that being said that's not a comment

00:13:33.060 on peterson academy because that's going perfectly but to give you guys an example like we've been

00:13:37.540 working on perfecting the courses that are going to go on the platform and the courses are on the

00:13:44.120 content's unbelievably good but I also wanted to make them catchy because like I'm not even

00:13:51.720 somebody who listens to podcasts or watches video content normally I just read otherwise I get

00:13:57.800 distracted I don't know if you'd call it ADD but we're gonna call it ADD uh for now I don't think

00:14:05.180 it qualifies as that but I need some stimulation during video content otherwise I start thinking

00:14:12.760 about other things so I was like I want to make these courses visually stimulating and better

00:14:17.260 than anything else we've seen and so Jordan and I have been like working with our production team

00:14:22.040 and working with the editors and going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth

00:14:24.940 and they are looking sweet I haven't seen course content that's actually stimulating before so

00:14:35.120 we're already at that level and I want to get this thing out there we had to delay our launch

00:14:40.760 was supposed to be in November and we had to delay because this is such a huge project

00:14:48.020 which I vastly underestimated it's such a huge project now we're looking for a launch of late

00:14:58.060 january and it's going swimmingly so things are going well but i have had to limit the amount i

00:15:05.980 can accomplish to more reasonable goals like i'm the type of person that likes setting really

00:15:11.240 stupidly large goals and then giving myself time frames that are not achievable just to like add

00:15:19.740 some stress to do things faster and i've had to dial that in so that's a long-winded answer to 0.98

00:15:27.500 will things change but no i'm still overseeing things jordan's overseeing things with me now

00:15:32.400 and we have teams in place that are amazing things are still moving forward as planned

00:15:37.960 and i do plan on slowing down in january i'm due january 7th that's key

00:15:44.900 right after my birthday my birthday's on the 4th so yeah like with the sleep deprivation from

00:15:53.940 breastfeeding because you breastfeed every three hours at the beginning um i'm gonna i'm just

00:15:59.480 forced to take things slower fortunately i work from home so i can still get things done but

00:16:07.520 it is a little bit stressful i don't really like taking time away but it's a baby so it's not

00:16:14.360 really time away right um another big thing what am i having there's like talking about peterson

00:16:22.620 academy more than the baby which is ridiculous but i'm having a boy which is so exciting because

00:16:29.980 i've got a little girl scarlet she's six and i don't have a boy so we're gonna have a little boy

00:16:37.340 january 7th okay next oh so just to cover the mold thing and then hopefully we don't cover the mold 0.55

00:16:46.900 thing anymore how soon after the mold exposure did you get pregnant was your body cleansed so 0.99

00:16:53.220 i told you guys before i got sick enough in that stupid house that i was having trouble walking 0.98

00:16:58.920 upstairs and i thought it was kind of funny i wasn't freaking out about it but i was like 0.96

00:17:02.740 going halfway up the stairs and being like a kid ah need a breather and then i'd like

00:17:09.680 chuckle about it and at a certain point i was like oh no this is not worth laughing about this is

00:17:15.560 actually serious and so we moved out of the house literally eight weeks later i got pregnant

00:17:22.020 and that's after almost two years of kind of trying and a miscarriage so it was like as soon

00:17:31.760 as the mold as soon as i was out of that house i got pregnant which was crazy i did not expect to

00:17:37.820 get pregnant that fast because i checked my before i found out it was mold i'd done a ton of blood

00:17:45.100 work looking at any possible reason why i was sick because i've been so dialed in with my diet it was

00:17:50.560 like why am i suddenly sick again and i looked at my hormones and my hormones were like pre-menopausal

00:17:56.360 flat and i found that out at the same time as we figured out it was mold so i was like oh okay

00:18:04.040 mold was causing it i'm sure they'll recover but they recovered quickly obviously otherwise i

00:18:08.720 wouldn't have been able to get pregnant like eight weeks no i wasn't fully recovered from

00:18:13.640 the mold exposure by any means it was kind of like oh now i'm gonna have to do the recovery

00:18:18.540 and be pregnant at the same time that sounds like a little rough but anyway it worked out

00:18:27.080 i wasn't fully recovered but i was able to walk upstairs without getting out of breath my eyes

00:18:31.660 weren't red anymore i wasn't congested anymore i started to have more positive emotion my internal

00:18:36.500 dialogue came back so i was feeling quite a bit better just eight weeks out of that house

00:18:40.960 um also taking a binder called cholestyramine so yeah very soon after mold exposure i got

00:18:50.920 pregnant but i i got out of that house as a working mom thoughts on studies on negative

00:18:55.880 effects of early child care no hate okay this is a great question there are a lot of studies on

00:19:02.800 early daycare having negative outcomes for your kid in pretty nasty ways so uh

00:19:12.160 I'll tell you guys what I'm doing and then I can tell you my opinions but what I'm doing is I'm

00:19:18.620 getting a newborn care specialist uh for for night times so I'll be breastfeeding at night

00:19:25.200 anyway but I'll have somebody there who can kind of bring me the baby I'll breastfeed and then they

00:19:31.780 can take the baby back calm them down put them back to sleep I've got such a difficult time I

00:19:37.780 have such a difficult time getting to sleep that if I didn't have help in that way I wouldn't sleep

00:19:43.420 and if I didn't sleep like that I wouldn't be able to continue with all these projects

00:19:48.860 that I'm doing that I want to continue with so I really need to focus on getting as much sleep as

00:19:54.280 I can so we have a newborn care specialist helping and I'm going to have a nanny as well

00:20:00.240 so that's two people helping me and thank god I can afford that at this point because with Scarlett

00:20:07.040 I didn't have anybody and it was really hard I started working pretty quickly after I had Scarlett

00:20:15.200 but when she was six months I was full-time working but I had like the baby on me at home

00:20:19.880 and I was working so I never did daycare and part of the reason for that was because

00:20:25.960 i was fortunate enough to be able to afford help so with scarlet i got a nanny um when she was

00:20:34.520 11 months old and i was still working from home so i was still able to breastfeed but it was

00:20:39.540 somebody there that could watch her while i was working and that's what i i could barely afford

00:20:47.600 that like that took almost all my money but uh that i think that that if that's something you

00:20:55.860 can do i think that that's a better idea than doing daycare when kids are really young uh

00:21:00.980 let me think

00:21:03.840 that that's my opinion and then there's also a realm of daycares you can look into like

00:21:11.840 sometimes daycare is your neighbor who brings over three or four kids and then she's taking

00:21:18.300 care of three or four kids in this really homey environment that's different than than like 14

00:21:24.240 kids to daycare resentful daycare workers that don't care about your kids and I think

00:21:29.940 that's where things get iffy and then I would say if you are going to put your kids in daycare you

00:21:36.660 can also judge how it's going like are you dropping off your kid and they're screaming

00:21:40.780 like screaming and are they screaming and it's been two weeks and they're still screaming when

00:21:47.160 you drop them off probably that's not a great sign right now maybe they're three and a half

00:21:52.920 and you have them in daycare and they're just going bye mom see you later i don't think those

00:21:57.120 are the kids that end up with problems so as a parent you need to judge that and be aware of that

00:22:04.260 and try to set up something that doesn't traumatize your kids that's important so for me i felt like

00:22:10.620 that was getting extra help while I was at home and I was like I said fortunate enough that I

00:22:15.880 barely could afford that but I could with Scarlett and now I can afford more help thank goodness so

00:22:24.740 I think you have to be aware of the negative effects of daycare on kids and make sure you

00:22:32.940 don't traumatize your kid right and I do think that the excuse of like well well that's what I

00:22:38.380 can afford or like i need to drop them off at this cheaper daycare where there's 14 kids

00:22:45.220 when they're eight months old maybe figure out something else because you don't want your kid

00:22:55.460 having trauma forever so maybe don't do that it's like figure out something else and i really don't

00:23:03.580 believe that people in general don't have options like you do have options you're just not willing

00:23:09.420 to pursue those options i also don't think that you should feel guilty though about getting help

00:23:15.280 and i felt really bad even when skyla was 11 months old and i got a nanny she's either 10

00:23:21.060 months or 11 months old and i got a nanny and i felt bad getting a nanny uh because my mom was

00:23:27.820 a stay-at-home mom and didn't have help and I thought that made me a bad mom and I don't think

00:23:35.920 that anymore at all I think that you need to do whatever puts you in a place where you're not

00:23:43.680 resentful and you're taking care of yourself so that you can take care of your kid because a

00:23:48.400 resentful parent especially a resentful parent towards their child is one of the most toxic

00:23:53.840 things that can happen to a kid so really try and plan out your life and figure out how to make this

00:24:00.040 possible for you and it shouldn't be something that breaks down your relationship or traumatizes

00:24:07.660 your kid there apologies if that wasn't as smooth as it should have been i'm i have no internal

00:24:17.560 dialogue because my baby ate my brain okay next did you change your mind about getting a surrogate

00:24:25.260 okay so i did i didn't talk about this either but i did egg harvesting about a year ago

00:24:36.060 just less than a year ago because i'd had this miscarriage and i wasn't getting pregnant not

00:24:43.480 that we were like really really trying but we were trying enough and I'm 31 and I was like I don't

00:24:51.660 want to be stupid and miss out on kids so I'm going to do egg harvesting and so I did that

00:24:58.860 thinking I might go the surrogacy route and I talked to you guys about that because I was also 0.99

00:25:05.960 really worried about serious mental issues and like dangerous suicidal mental issues during

00:25:11.780 pregnancy um so have i changed my mind well i mean i'm having a baby um am i going to pursue

00:25:19.980 surrogacy in the future possibly because it's still pretty hard on me and i don't want to

00:25:32.760 like i want to be careful with it because like i said this could be much much much more difficult

00:25:37.520 but it's quite difficult. I think I mentioned I've been sick for the last three weeks. I've

00:25:45.700 been in bed quite a bit and I've had like a near migraine for about eight days and I know I'm near

00:25:51.080 the end but what's made it more difficult is I'm still on the lion diet and I've had a meat aversion

00:26:00.400 the whole time and so I've actually lost weight during the pregnancy because the meat aversion

00:26:07.600 was so bad. I tried to incorporate other foods so just starting with like chicken and honey

00:26:12.620 and those gave me autoimmune symptoms and the autoimmune symptoms are more intolerable

00:26:17.700 than the meat aversion so I had to pull back from that so it was kind of like a

00:26:23.080 force myself to eat and probably don't eat as much as I need to eat. Now fortunately when you

00:26:29.560 have a baby the baby just takes from you so it takes your vitamins it like it just it just takes

00:26:37.300 everything to grow so the baby's fine he's like growing just as he should but i can tell that i

00:26:45.620 haven't gained as much weight as i should um for instance all my rings are loose which normally

00:26:53.120 your rings don't fit as well especially near the end of pregnancy so i really haven't gained any

00:26:58.160 extra weight which is like a blessing and a curse because hey i'm not going to have anything to lose

00:27:03.080 but the reason part of the reason at least that i'm haven't gained as much as i would have liked

00:27:09.900 to is because of the meat aversion on an all-meat diet yeah so that's the answer to that question

00:27:17.540 i'm not working out i haven't actually recovered from the mold exposure to the point of having

00:27:22.420 enough energy to work out. I tried to do squats about two months ago and was sore for about three

00:27:31.360 weeks, which is just like an abnormal inflammatory response to exercise. It's not because I haven't

00:27:36.500 been exercising and then you get extra sore. I know what that's like. It's an actual inflammatory

00:27:41.560 response. So it's not like sore because I was growing muscles. It was just sore because I'm

00:27:48.000 full of cytokines from having an inflammatory response to exercise so i'm not recovered enough

00:27:52.560 to do exercise i'm just skinny because i have a meat aversion and i'm on a meat diet that being

00:27:58.920 said i definitely credit the diet and keeping my autoimmune symptoms under control for not being

00:28:06.120 completely nuts during this pregnancy and making sure my environment is clean next okay a ton of

00:28:14.560 people asked about giving birth and the birth plan so I'm going to cover that. So with Scarlett

00:28:21.080 I gave birth at home and that was partly because I had a hospital phobia at that point in my life

00:28:28.100 and that was after I figured out that diet was causing most of my issues and that I could control

00:28:34.260 my issues through diet and that manifested and turned into a hospital phobia. So anytime I went

00:28:42.000 into a hospital I would have a panic attack and I was like this is not ideal you know I'd be totally

00:28:48.760 fine I get in a hospital I'd be like having a panic attack and I talked to my dad about it and

00:28:54.620 he goes well given what you went through that's a completely normal response I was like well that

00:29:00.340 doesn't help the panic attacks in hospitals like what if I have to go to the hospital during the

00:29:04.980 pregnancy. Anyway I didn't manage to get that phobia under control during Scarlett's pregnancy 0.85

00:29:11.460 so I gave birth at home and it went it was really smooth. So I've already done it once so obviously

00:29:19.860 I'm planning on doing it again. I have midwives instead of doctors. The midwives are amazing

00:29:26.100 and I'm going to give birth at a tub at home assuming everything goes well if there's some

00:29:33.560 sort of sign that things aren't going well then I'll transfer to a hospital but I don't think

00:29:39.280 that's going to happen. Fingers crossed. Here's another question. How long was labor for your

00:29:45.440 first kiddo? Was it super painful and did you get an epidural? I didn't get an epidural because I

00:29:50.340 was at home. Labor was weirdly quick and I would like to credit luck but also some preparation.

00:30:01.220 I did hypnobirthing which sounds like the most hippie thing I don't even like talking about it

00:30:11.140 because it just it sounds so out there but I spent about six weeks learning how to calm my body down

00:30:18.380 because I was really depressed with Scarlett during that pregnancy and I was like gotta keep

00:30:23.140 my cortisol low and the reason you have to keep your cortisol low is because when you go into

00:30:28.700 labor, your oxytocin spikes and that starts giving you contractions and oxytocin will go up and your

00:30:34.580 contractions will go up and that's what puts you into labor. If your cortisol spikes, it directly

00:30:40.300 counteracts the oxytocin. So part of the reason I didn't want to go to a hospital was because I knew

00:30:45.940 that if my cortisol spiked, my oxytocin would lower, that would extend the contractions. And

00:30:52.680 if the contractions are too slow and you're in the hospital, they like to give you something 0.92

00:30:56.780 called pitocin which is similar to oxytocin but it's not exactly the same and if you give a woman

00:31:06.420 pitocin her contractions are more intense and they're more painful and that leads to epidurals

00:31:12.180 and then epidurals and painful contractions and an extended labor can lead to something like a

00:31:18.540 c-section and i really wanted to avoid a c-section because who knows what role that played in my

00:31:24.180 autoimmunity with not passing on the proper microbiome right at birth so how long was the

00:31:33.340 labor it was really easy with scarlet from like it started around 11 a.m till like 8 p.m it was

00:31:41.740 just kind of it feels like a muscle like 30 of a muscle cramp you know how painful muscle cramps

00:31:48.660 can get it was it just feels like your uterus is just like tightening and letting go and tightening

00:31:54.680 and letting go so i wouldn't really call it painful it was just kind of interesting

00:31:57.680 it was like well this isn't so bad and then it started wrapping up around 9 p.m and by 11 p.m

00:32:05.040 i was like okay this is getting real like this is painful but it only got the whole labor only got

00:32:12.180 to about an eight out of ten on the pain scale that might have been a bit skewed because at the

00:32:17.720 time my ankle replacement from having an ankle replacement from arthritis was installed crooked

00:32:26.560 and it was causing me chronic pain. So I was already used to being in chronic pain. So having

00:32:32.880 a baby didn't feel like, it didn't feel wrong like a badly placed ankle replacement. So

00:32:40.840 the nice thing about not getting Pitocin and not having these abnormally strong contractions

00:32:47.420 is you get a break in between the contractions so even when you get to active labor and it's

00:32:51.880 really intense it kind of goes like eight and then it stays at an eight but then you have like

00:32:57.720 a little bit of time to catch your breath before another one hits it's not just like constant pain

00:33:03.580 um and active labor for me lasted three hours and the midwives who were totally useless for my first

00:33:11.560 baby one of the midwives missed it because she was like you're a first-time mom you're gonna have a 1.00

00:33:16.360 really long labor. I was like, the baby's coming. And she was like, no, it's not. And so she missed

00:33:22.840 it. But I didn't want her there anyway, really. So it was fine. My mom was there and another

00:33:29.120 midwife. Now, when you go the midwife route instead of the doctor route, you get two midwives 0.99

00:33:35.160 that come to your birth. So it wasn't that long for the first kid. And theoretically, it's supposed

00:33:42.760 to be shorter for your second kid although it's been so long we'll see what happens but I'm

00:33:46.600 expecting a snappy labor so we'll see what happens and I wouldn't call it super painful

00:33:53.760 it got to an eight and it was very intense at the end but it wasn't something that uh

00:33:58.940 was traumatizing or well it wasn't something that was traumatizing and I think if you

00:34:05.720 oh and then back over to hypnobirthing hypnobirthing is just this technique that

00:34:10.860 teaches you how to stay calm and I really do believe that if you can stay calm and keep your

00:34:15.180 cortisol low your body just does birth you don't have to learn how to do it it just does it it's

00:34:22.000 kind of like throwing up not like you don't have to learn how to throw up um like a nasty comparison 0.77

00:34:28.420 but it's kind of like that so I would just say suggestions for like other women you don't have

00:34:35.900 to do a home birth I would do a birth wherever you feel calmest so if you feel calmest in a

00:34:41.700 hospital and you think okay I'm taken care of by all these doctors I can get an epidural if I need

00:34:46.440 one and you're going to be in your zone in there do that right if you're going to try and force a

00:34:53.680 home birth and you're going to stress out because you're worried about it that just counteracts the

00:34:57.960 purpose of a home birth so just go where you feel safest and give birth there like a dog giving

00:35:03.700 birth under a porch that's kind of like where I'd like to spend the next what five weeks maybe less

00:35:11.580 is just I just want to go to a cave just talk to me in like six weeks I'll arrive out of the cave

00:35:19.660 with a baby everything will be fine leave me in a cave for the next month oh how to take care of

00:35:25.740 skin to avoid stretch marks these are one of those things that I think is genetic I don't have

00:35:31.680 stretch marks thank goodness I'm so happy about that I don't even credit diet for not giving me

00:35:40.480 stretch marks I actually think some people are just more prone to stretch marks and that that's

00:35:45.040 a genetic thing could be way way off uh so I don't know much about like creams or anything that help

00:35:51.920 all I know is I don't get them but my mom never got them either and she wasn't on any fancy diet

00:35:59.540 So that's my answer to that. I think it's genetic. That being said, not gaining excess weight during pregnancy obviously helps your skin stretch less. And I'm all for doing carnivore or animal based or paleo or keto during pregnancy.

00:36:18.040 I think if you have a caregiver that's like, yeah, eat more carbs or like follow your cravings, then you should get a new caregiver, doctor, person.

00:36:31.280 Now we're going to go to the diet section.

00:36:33.640 Tons of people asked, like, what's my diet like during pregnancy?

00:36:37.300 Because I normally only eat meat.

00:36:40.200 And like I said, I'm still only eating meat.

00:36:43.760 Would I recommend it for pregnancy?

00:36:45.660 I would recommend you do the diet that makes you feel the best during pregnancy so unfortunately

00:36:52.280 for me that is still the lion diet I can't incorporate other foods if I could eat anything

00:36:59.640 else without getting autoimmune flare-ups and by an autoimmune flare-up I mean arthritis my skin

00:37:06.440 breaks out which I hate badly and I go crazy I get super volatile I can't think I get brain foggy

00:37:15.500 i get anxious i just want to hide in bed if that didn't happen when i ate other foods i would 100

00:37:21.240 be eating other foods in general but especially during pregnancy the number of times i've cried

00:37:27.640 over not being able to eat a cucumber during this pregnancy is at least i would say that's

00:37:33.520 happened at least 15 times uh because of the meat aversion during the first trimester all i wanted

00:37:42.200 was like cucumbers and it you know people should be able to eat cucumbers without getting autoimmune

00:37:48.360 symptoms which I still think is because I was living in mold for most of my life but time will

00:37:54.320 tell for that but I would say do the diet that makes you feel the best don't just give into your

00:38:01.020 random cravings for bad foods because that does impact your health and it does impact the health

00:38:05.600 of your baby so you shouldn't just be loading up on carbs and gaining excess weight and not caring

00:38:11.280 about your body um but by no means do i think that you should be only eating beef like me

00:38:18.560 it doesn't even feel like that's what i should be doing uh right like the fact that i wanted a

00:38:26.660 cucumber so badly it's just like it's just some vegetables like it's not that big a deal

00:38:31.040 but alas i can't do that yet so anyway yes i've done carnivore throughout the pregnancy it has

00:38:38.500 been difficult. I don't know very many pregnant women that actually stuck to a very strict

00:38:43.160 carnivore diet throughout pregnancy. Most people add in at least a variety of meats

00:38:48.840 and dairy, eggs. And then a lot of people are like, well, I couldn't even do that because I

00:38:56.000 had a meat aversion. I went back to like a paleo diet. I think that makes sense, but I couldn't do

00:39:02.920 it which has made this difficult any food or supplement you recommend for pregnancy i think

00:39:09.620 on any restricted diet and and any diet it's just the standard american diet for sure you should be

00:39:17.080 monitoring your vitamins i've i know now that your vitamin levels aren't just from what you eat

00:39:24.240 they're also from your environment my vitamin levels were totally fine for like five years and

00:39:29.800 then I moved into this particularly moldy house that made me really sick and a whole bunch of

00:39:34.700 them plummeted this was right before I got pregnant so fortunately I had started supplementing the

00:39:40.500 really deficient vitamins prior to pregnancy so folate for example I was taking by injection

00:39:47.320 I'll link the injection below if you guys want to inject folate I couldn't take the oral version

00:39:53.140 because it gave me insomnia for who knows like why for whatever's wrong with my body so I injected

00:39:59.480 it, got my levels back up to normal, and then that was about eight weeks after we moved out of mold

00:40:06.100 and that's when I got pregnant. So I would suggest monitoring your vitamins and supplementing

00:40:11.200 whatever's low and looking at folate specifically because at the very beginning folate's important

00:40:17.580 for the baby. Are you eating organ meat now for the baby? Hell no. Hey, this dies hard enough with

00:40:25.920 a meat aversion i don't like organs the idea the idea of liver is so nauseating no i'm not eating

00:40:38.080 organs i still don't really believe the whole organ thing i think if you're on a regular diet

00:40:42.180 and you incorporate organs in you can get some benefits but i think if you're only eating meat

00:40:46.280 i don't i don't i haven't seen any definitive evidence of adding in organs and getting some

00:40:54.700 sort of benefit so i'm not doing it i also think it's weird to desiccate something that you don't

00:40:59.820 even want to swallow and then force yourself to take it by pill if your body is like trying to

00:41:05.620 make you spit it out so that's still my opinion no i'm not eating organs having any issues with

00:41:11.800 blood sugars during pregnancy on carnivore so they get you so when you have a midwife they

00:41:17.240 pretty much follow what an ob-gyn would do although they explain like what certain blood

00:41:23.500 tests are for and they let you opt into things but i did keep an eye on my blood sugar for like

00:41:28.840 a week just to see it is very difficult to get gestational diabetes if you only eat meat

00:41:35.900 if you're not having any carbs not that any mainstream doctor would admit to that but

00:41:40.860 how do you get high blood sugar when you only eat meat so no my blood sugar has been about

00:41:46.120 83 to 87 for the entire pregnancy uh and i have been in ketosis the whole time 0.95

00:41:52.380 do doctors get mad at you your diet while pregnant some would but like screw those guys

00:42:01.180 the the world is made up of people who say they know what they're talking about and don't

00:42:09.020 most people so if you get a doctor that's like well you can't do that for all these reasons

00:42:15.120 do what makes your body the healthiest be smart like monitor your vitamins make sure you're not

00:42:22.000 getting a deficiency of some sort oh if a doctor's getting mad at you too get a new doctor i haven't

00:42:28.100 even talked to a doctor have i talked to a doctor throughout this whole pregnancy

00:42:30.880 no for the first ultrasound i was in dubai and so then a doctor was like an ultrasound technician

00:42:39.740 did the ultrasound and then the doctor was like yes that's a baby that's the only doctor i've

00:42:45.200 talked to and it's gonna stay that way assuming everything goes well do you ever worry about

00:42:51.180 your child's nutrition in the womb while being a meat eater no i mean i've had like when i was

00:42:56.520 when i had scarlet i was eating salad and meat and i had so many people freaking out about me

00:43:05.240 only eating salad and meat freaking out it was really stressful um my family wasn't freaking

00:43:14.080 out but everybody other than my parents was freaking out even though i was just trying to

00:43:21.240 keep my arthritis under control was like those foods give me arthritis that can't be good for

00:43:25.740 the baby so do i worry about the child's nutrition no because babies will take what they need from

00:43:32.080 you so if you're so deficient in a vitamin that the baby can't even take that vitamin from you

00:43:36.960 that's when you get a problem so keep an eye on your vitamins my vitamins are good i have been

00:43:42.560 supplementing folate just in case so no I'm not worried about that at all I think that it's I

00:43:51.140 think the diet I'm on is healthier than what most people eat so even though I'd like to expand it

00:43:56.840 and I think it would be better I don't even know where I stand with that exactly I would really

00:44:01.340 like a cucumber so I feel like I should have be able to eat a cucumber if I really want one

00:44:06.040 but um my body doesn't like it yet so we're gonna wait on that i am still using electrolytes

00:44:13.360 i don't use them very often but i take electrolytes sometimes but i'm really just

00:44:18.420 eating beef so like right now because the meat aversion is still here and unpleasant i'm eating

00:44:24.880 a lot of tri-tip for some reason tri-tip isn't as nauseating as like aged steak lamb is completely

00:44:33.680 off the table lamb is oh i don't know what i'd rather eat liver or lamb but they're both pretty

00:44:40.060 low on the list so lamb's gone that was way too hard uh if fish tasted bad didn't make me feel

00:44:47.720 very good even chicken kind of tasted like fish everything's just tasting like fish in a bad way

00:44:52.020 or blueberries like i've gone out for steak and i've been like why does the steak taste like

00:44:56.560 blueberries and jordan is like what are you talking about like us meat aversion this is

00:45:02.500 so i'm eating tri-tip and like here's my sexy bag of jerky i love jerky but i don't really

00:45:11.000 love jerky pregnant but i'm eating it i still need to eat so diet's the same i took folate

00:45:19.940 as like a prenatal and throughout pregnancy by injection and yes i still include electrolytes

00:45:26.120 i haven't changed other than that although i did try to because the meat aversion was so bad and

00:45:30.440 it didn't go well okay hey we're doing this let's see what else oh okay this is this is a good one

00:45:39.860 anger and resentment towards partner in first trimester so i would say try anger and resentment

00:45:46.000 towards your partner throughout the entire pregnancy i think that's really normal so how

00:45:51.900 do you counteract that because so for like my instance I wanted a baby I love kids and I want

00:46:02.480 more kids and I wanted a baby and we were both trying to have a baby so why would I get resentful

00:46:08.360 during pregnancy to somebody who gave me a baby you can you do I have now I avoid resentment by

00:46:17.080 communicate like over communicating everything so if i'm ever annoyed about something i don't

00:46:22.300 keep it in my head at all and the reason i know that is because i used to do that and that's what 0.90

00:46:28.040 breeds resentment so if you're worried about something even if it's stupid even if it sounds 0.98

00:46:32.560 stupid to you i would say something like you know babe i'm extremely hormonal right now 0.98

00:46:41.380 and i'm really worried about x and i might be overly worried about it but i really need help 0.99

00:46:48.360 getting through this because i can't handle it by myself so we need to talk about it

00:46:51.760 and figure out a plan and then you as the man instead of saying getting irritated

00:46:59.720 or being like that doesn't matter stop worrying about it even if it doesn't matter and she should

00:47:07.520 stop worrying about it talk her through it here are the potential solutions here's what we could

00:47:13.740 do about it does any of that make you feel better if you guys can keep open communication then you

00:47:20.840 can avoid the anger and resentment now there's still going to be some anger so i don't have a

00:47:26.400 resentment problem but i've been so angry especially third trimester like my volatility is normally

00:47:33.440 i'm not volatile i'm very volatile right now i'm like yelly when i get frustrated about something

00:47:40.780 and part of that is because jordan's so stubborn like he he's a formidable partner but

00:47:49.900 it's because i'm extremely volatile and i'm being volatile about things i wouldn't normally care

00:47:55.320 about which he can't understand because he's not flooded with six times the amount of hormones he

00:47:59.320 normally has uh so you have to just keep communication open try not to hide thoughts

00:48:05.100 in your head because they don't just go away you don't just bury them and they go away right they

00:48:10.340 just destroy your life and breed resentment so just keep communication open and before you have

00:48:20.040 a baby try to make sure your partner's on board with walking you through things you're going to 1.00

00:48:26.080 be angry and stressed out about because pregnant women are crazy they're crazy especially near the 1.00

00:48:36.380 end I'm crazy right now it's really annoying I don't really like having a little alien take over 1.00

00:48:42.400 my brain it's frustrating I'd like to think about things like I normally think about them or think

00:48:47.420 about things logically without having this overwhelming compassion for everything that

00:48:54.360 i wouldn't normally care about it's really frustrating experience ideally your partner

00:48:59.080 can help walk you through ways to fix whatever you're freaking out about and not just belittle

00:49:04.860 you for being an anxious mess did you co-sleep with scarlet and won't you or will you for this

00:49:12.980 baby i did co-sleep with scarlet because i was breastfeeding like every two and a half hours 1.00

00:49:19.180 and she was it was it was two and a half to three hours and then she'd breastfeed for an hour

00:49:24.180 and i was too tired to like move her to a crib i was like it'll be easier if she's right next to me

00:49:29.620 it seems like the more natural thing to do i'm gonna co-sleep i am not going to be doing that

00:49:36.100 again because i didn't sleep for like a year she didn't learn how to sleep through the night

00:49:42.740 because she was with me and could just like reach over for the boob whenever so obviously she's not

00:49:48.580 going to sleep through the night no i'm not going to co-sleep i need to sleep or i won't be able to

00:49:54.900 function and i don't like not being able to function so i'm not doing that again and that's

00:50:00.120 part of the reason why i'm hiring a newborn care specialist to help with the nights uh for the

00:50:04.540 first three months and then last question yeah what are your plans for postpartum rest i have

00:50:12.200 my own business and planning mat leave is hard i'm having a really hard time with this i know

00:50:19.900 that i'm going to be very sleep deprived for the first month at minimum plus recovery from child

00:50:26.460 birth which is a real real physical recovery uh so what's my plan i don't have a very well

00:50:36.500 thought out plan other than really identifying the important goals that I want to hit and only

00:50:42.420 focusing on those and trying to not to get bogged down by the little things because the little

00:50:46.960 things can be pushed off so I've separated out the companies and I have my like I'm doing so many

00:50:53.820 way too many things to add a baby and we moved into a new house that's been under construction

00:51:00.640 for six months longer than it should have been which is a whole nother thing and then I have

00:51:08.440 like my brand my dad's brand to manage my podcast to do the fuller health supplements these guys

00:51:17.780 which I'm looking forward to so I can't enjoy these bad boys but you can and it'll save you

00:51:27.360 if you drink over the holidays even once it's after party the hangover pill i launched poorly

00:51:34.260 timed really because after we were done testing i got pregnant but if you haven't tried it it works

00:51:40.020 insanely well to reduce the feelings of a hangover we have a 30 day money back guarantee i would

00:51:45.240 order it now to get it in time for christmas although shipping is really fast i think we have

00:51:48.940 two day shipping so you'll be okay but order now anyway get it for new year's and the holidays and

00:51:55.640 christmas go to fullerhealth.com code mp for 15 off and you guys can enjoy the holidays in a way

00:52:03.620 i cannot enjoy the rest of this episode um and peterson academy and it's

00:52:11.700 too many things for somebody who isn't pregnant i've finally hit what i understand as too many

00:52:20.040 things at the same time so yeah like I said I've just tried to identify exactly what goals I need

00:52:26.940 to focus on and move everything else to the side for the first four to six weeks and then I'm

00:52:35.240 hoping I'm going to be at like I work from home so I'll be able to breastfeed I'm going to have

00:52:39.860 help so that they can watch the baby but then I can breastfeed I can hang out with baby but I can

00:52:45.960 like plan meetings and do work when the baby's sleeping and when someone else is entertaining

00:52:51.600 the baby. So I kind of just plan on doing both, but definitely slowing things down for the first

00:52:59.440 four weeks because I need to recover, need to focus on having the baby and that's what's

00:53:04.260 important. I guess the last thing I could cover are what are the pregnancy symptoms for people

00:53:10.340 who haven't been pregnant and for me it was mainly a meat aversion um I can't get comfortable

00:53:19.160 I haven't been comfortable in like two months I'm waking up twice at night to pee because the baby

00:53:26.000 is sitting on my bladder I'm sleeping with a pillow under my legs or between my legs on my side

00:53:31.900 one behind my back one under my stomach and a heating pad I'm also sitting elevated because

00:53:38.980 my nose is so congested this pregnancy i've spent six months maybe breathing through my mouth and

00:53:45.620 that's partly because my allergies have skyrocketed during the pregnancy i moved to arizona where it's

00:53:50.440 dusty i have a dust allergy it's like i'm going to be allergic wherever i am but i've had to sleep

00:53:55.480 sitting up as well uh what else are the symptoms and then most of the symptoms i have are emotional

00:54:04.140 i'm more volatile i'm angrier and i haven't had the positive dopamine emotion in

00:54:12.540 i don't know six months which is really like i'm okay on the podcast right now when i'm talking to

00:54:22.740 you guys about it but like it's not fun i'm really looking forward to january 7th and

00:54:27.460 feeling more like me because it's hard on my mood so

00:54:34.980 those were my main pregnancy symptoms they're much better than they were when I had that

00:54:42.040 miscarriage it was much worse and with Scarlett it was much worse and this is much better and

00:54:49.680 I'm really grateful for that but this isn't great uh mood wise it's also frustrating to like get

00:54:56.860 invited to things and have to not go because my body can't handle it even though my brain really

00:55:02.500 wants to so I didn't go to dad's arc convention in London because I was like I'm in Arizona

00:55:08.740 it's just something like a nine hour time difference to London I think it was at that

00:55:14.400 point anyway and I was like I'm not going to be able to do it I was about 30 weeks pregnant to

00:55:20.460 that point I was like it's just going to kill me I'm going to be miserable so I'm missing things

00:55:24.760 and I'm excited for this portion to be over I'm very excited to have the baby and the suffering

00:55:33.220 right now is worth having the baby uh for the next month I'm going to be doing one or two more

00:55:40.160 interviews and maybe my body's kind of been like you're done Michaela just lay down stop doing

00:55:47.740 stuff but I have one more interview planned that I really want to do and then I'm going to do I

00:55:54.740 think a podcast with my mom a podcast with my dad probably a podcast with both my mom and my dad

00:56:00.300 because they've come to stay with us for the next month they're trying the mold treatment and

00:56:05.980 yeah and just kind of try and take it easy attempt to calm myself down for the next month so thanks

00:56:14.800 for listening good luck to any other pregnant women out there and having a baby is totally worth

00:56:20.720 that having there's nothing like having a kid and i do believe like i don't believe that you have to

00:56:27.460 be the trad mom i hate that fad if you want to stay home that's amazing do that it's a full-time

00:56:35.780 job like calling it a stay-at-home mom doesn't encompass the like six jobs that you actually

00:56:42.960 have as a stay-at-home mom so if you're able to do that and it fulfills you kudos i think that

00:56:49.380 would be that would be nice but i'm too i don't know addicted to dopamine or something to be able

00:56:57.020 to to do that without getting resentful and feeling like i'm missing out on accomplishing goals

00:57:01.940 whatever that means so either way whether you're the type of person and i don't mean to like insult

00:57:11.580 traditional women because that's not what I mean at all good for them seriously I'm more annoyed 0.51

00:57:19.320 at the people talking down to women if they're not doing the traditional female role that are

00:57:26.300 kind of in the red-pilled weird area that sickens me but I think there's a way to figure out your

00:57:36.920 life so that you can attempt to do both I don't think doing both is easy like you do miss out on

00:57:45.140 you know if you're going to go to work you're going to miss out on part of your kid's life 0.53

00:57:48.980 so you have to balance it's a balancing act as a female and it's hard so good luck to 0.68

00:57:56.740 all the women out there and I will talk to you guys soon 0.81

00:58:06.920 You 0.98

The Mikhaila Peterson Podcast - December 07, 2023

Pregnancy and Advice Q and A

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