Pregnancy and Advice Q and A

Intro

That is definitely a baby bump. First question, why did you hide your pregnancy all this time? So, how to take care of skin to avoid stretch marks? Do you ever worry about your child's nutrition in the womb while being a meat-eater? Did you change your mind about getting a surrogate? How long was labor for your first kiddo? Was it super painful?

Labor was weirdly quick and I would like to credit hypnobirthing, which sounds like the most hippie thing Anger resentment towards partner in first trimester. Do doctors get mad at your diet while pregnant? Some would, but like screw those guys. What are your plans for postpartum rest? Are you eating organ meat now for the baby? What are some things a new husband can do to help his wife during our first pregnancy? I hate when couples say we're pregnant.

One of you is pregnant. Are you working out or how are you staying the same size except the baby bump? I'll tell you guys what I'm doing. Hey guys, welcome to my podcast. This is a pregnancy Q&A. Take a look at this. That is definitely a baby bump.

I'm officially 35 weeks and I'm going to run through a bunch of questions that you guys had, kind of update you about why I didn't tell anybody and what it's been like and how everything is going, what my diet is like, etc. So, let's jump right in. First question, how phenomenal is your baby daddy? He's pretty phenomenal.

Why did I hide the pregnancy all this time?

Why did you hide your pregnancy all this time? So, that's a bit of a long story. Uh I would say probably the main reason I hid it is because I wasn't sure if it was going to keep. That was part of it. I wasn't sure if it was going to keep. Um two, I don't think pregnant women are taken seriously by anybody. I don't even think I take pregnant women seriously.

And I'm running a number of businesses, too many. I'll get into that, too. And negotiating with people, talking to lawyers, talking to other business people is already difficult enough. I'm already difficult to take seriously, I think, because of how I look and my blonde hair, etc. So, add a pregnant belly on top of that and you get someone who is not taken seriously at all. And so, I didn't want people to judge me. So, that was part of it.

Um as for the not taking Last year, August 2022, I had a miscarriage. It was called a blighted ovum. And apparently, it's quite common. I had no idea what that was like. I'd never heard of it before. It wasn't a great experience. Uh I got pregnant.

I was 8 weeks pregnant, and I went for my first ultrasound. I think it might have been 9 weeks. I went for my first ultrasound. And Jordan and I got there, and they're doing the ultrasound, and they get to the uterus, and there is no baby. It's just an empty sack. And I was like, what on earth is this evil thing that I'm seeing? Because I didn't even know that that was possible.

So, what happens with blighted ovums is your body miscarries at some point, and then your body also continues to act as if it's pregnant. So, your uterus expands a little bit. you're still flooded with all the hormones, you have all the symptoms of pregnancy, and there's no embryo, and then there's no fetus. It's messed up. And after I went through that, I talked to some family members, and it turns out that this is fairly common for people who've had multiple babies, and for women to experience, and is pretty horrifying. So, you guys should know about it in case it happens to you. It does seem to be weirdly common. Miscarriages are actually really unfortunately common, and they're extremely unpleasant, but you're not alone if you're experiencing one or have experienced them.

I had a really hard time with that pregnancy. As soon as I got pregnant, I felt like I was going insane. I was having suicidal thoughts, and you know, people who suffer from depression kind some can get intrusive thoughts, and so I was having these intrusive thoughts that I haven't really had on the carnivore diet, which was just like violent intrusive thoughts. Very unpleasant. I felt very isolated and alone, even though there wasn't anything in my relationship that should have been making me feel that way. It was purely hormonal, and I had a miserable time, and I can remember praying, like, "God, make make this stop. I can't handle it."

And then at about 8 weeks pregnant, I started to feel a little bit more normal, and then at 9 weeks we went for an ultrasound, and like, boom, no baby. So, I don't know if I went like crazy because there was actually something wrong, and it was my body saying, like, "Something's wrong." But, um eh, wasn't a great experience. Wasn't a great experience. So, that happened. So, this time when I got pregnant, I didn't go crazy, and so I didn't believe I was pregnant, so I these pregnancy tests and I was like, "There's no way." And Jordan was like, "There's no way."

And we kept having these positive pregnancy tests and I was like, "There's I don't feel anything. There's no way." But we went to get an ultrasound super early at like 6 weeks instead of waiting, which I'm never going to wait again because of the blighted ovum thing that can happen. And there was a heartbeat. Everything's going smoothly. And then um I was as you guys know I was in between houses, you might say, because we'd sold on black mold among other molds and bacteria's in the water damaged house I was living in in Miami, and so we were in living in hotels. I didn't have a studio set up.

Um one of these questions somewhere, I'll pull it up, but was "Did you take time off because you were pregnant?" Cuz I told people it was because I was like sick from mold. I didn't actually take time off at the beginning when I was pregnant. It was cuz I was sick from mold. I didn't feel pregnant for a really long time. And I lost quite a bit of weight in the mold house. And I when I call it a mold house, it wasn't a mold house.

You couldn't see mold. It was a really nice house. I it was in the age facts and behind the drywall and there was no super clean. We kept things super clean. There was no evidence of mold. Until the very end when I started to see it in one spot behind the paint. It was like, "That's what's screwing me up."

Um But yeah, I didn't take time off at the beginning because I didn't feel pregnant. But what did happen pretty early on is I got a meat aversion. So we'll keep going. We'll keep going for some new questions and I'll cover that soon. Hey guys, one of you asked whether or not you can sauna while pregnant. I was saunaing while pregnant and then I had to stop near the third trimester because my body couldn't handle it. But I am so looking forward to using one of these guys again.

It's going to be one of the first things I do after I give birth because I miss it so much. Bond Charge sauna blankets would be a sweet gift for anyone, and they're so handy. These blankets work just like traditional sauna-ing. They help you break a sweat, burn calories, reduce inflammation. Setting it up is super easy, taking less than a minute. The benefits for me include a mood boost, reduction in brain fog if I'm having any brain fog. I'm having a lot of brain fog with pregnancy.

That is a super cute question.

What can a husband do to help a pregnant wife?

I hate when when couples say we're pregnant. That's like a pet peeve I have because you guys are both not pregnant. One of you is pregnant. And one of you is feeling it, and the other one is not feeling it. However, that's a very cute question, and I would just say have as much patience as you can because your wife is going to be such a hormonal disaster at some point, if not right away, that she needs somebody there who's stable and calm, and can kind of listen to her neurotic thoughts. And this goes for like my husband and my neurotic thoughts. Normally, I don't worry about things unless they're really really serious and normally I don't cry very much.

Like I think I cry way less than the average woman, like way less. And normally I'm doing pretty good. Uh but the hormones you get when you're pregnant are insane. So now that I'm 35 weeks I've been crying every day, 100%. Like this morning I cried just cuz I was sad. Why am I sad? I've probably been sad for the entire third trimester.

Just like sad, a little detached, kind of feels like an alien took over my brain. I don't have much of an internal dialogue. It's a lot harder to work. And hormones are crazy right now. Like I've got six times as much estrogen and I believe progesterone as normal. No one's taking those for fun. They're like, "Hey, you want some extra progesterone by this much?"

Nobody wants that. So I would say for taking care of your wife, just listen to her neurotic concerns about the house or work. Listen. Tell her you're going to help her through it. And don't argue like you would normally argue. Like if you're normally good at negotiating things out and really getting into it, just kind of take it easy because your wife is a hormonal mess and she's growing another human and it is hard. It's hard.

Um kudos to like any mom out there because it's hard and I know some people enjoy pregnancy and some people really don't. I'm not a person who does. Um but what I will say is this pregnancy as much as I'm having a harder time now near the end and as difficult as aspects were, it could have been so much worse. And so I'm really thankful for that because when I had Scarlett that would have been 7 years ago now it was really really hard and all my autoimmune symptoms came back and I was miserably depressed and there are multiple reasons for that but this is nothing like that thank goodness however near the end it's been it's a whole it's a thing Okay next.

Am I still working? (and Peterson Academy)

Are you still working and will this change things for your dad's companies? PS congratulations. This will change nothing. My plan for pregnancy was to just work the whole time because I get so much dopamine from accomplishing things and from moving forward towards goals that that's what I like to do and I was like well I don't really want to take mat leave. I'm not taking mat leave. Maybe I'll have to and I tried to figure out ways to set it up if I slowed down but then about 3 weeks ago so around 32 weeks my body was just like you're joking you're kidding yourself. Um and so I've been spending a lot more time like napping and in bed.

I got some wicked flu so I was sick for like 3 weeks. I've had a headache off and on for the last 8 days that's been pretty bad like enough to stop me from being able to see very well and so nothing's changing with my dad's companies and with Peterson Academy everything's moving forward uh and I'm still working but I've definitely tried to identify the main goals that we need to accomplish and just focus on that and I've tried to limit my perfectionism. So normally if I see something that's a little bit off I'm like ah fix it it's got to be at this level and now I'm thinking okay maybe we'll keep it at this level a little bit lower no one's going to notice, you know, not everything has to be perfect. Uh that being said, that's not a comment on Peterson Academy cuz that's going perfectly. But to give you guys an example, like we've been working on perfecting the courses that are going to going to go on the platform. And the courses are on the content's unbelievably good. But I also wanted to make them catchy because like I'm not even somebody who listens to podcasts or watches video content.

Normally, I just read. Otherwise, I get distracted. I don't know if you'd call it ADD, but we're going to call it ADD uh for now. I don't think it it qualifies as that, but I need some stimulation during video content, otherwise I start thinking about other things. So, I was like, I want to make these courses visually stimulating and better than anything else we've seen. And so, Jordan and I have been like working with our production team and working with the editors and going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. And they are looking sweet.

I haven't seen course content that's actually stimulating before. So, we're already at that level. And I want to get this thing out there. We had to delay. Our launch was supposed to be in November. And we had to delay because this is such a huge project um which I vastly underestimated. Uh it's such a huge project.

Now, we're looking for at a launch of late January. And it's going swimmingly. So, things are going well, but I have had to limit the amount I can accomplish to more reasonable goals. Like I'm the type of person that likes setting really stupidly large goals and then giving myself time frames that are not achievable just to like add some stress to do things faster. And I've had to dial that in. So, that's a long-winded answer to will things change, but no, I'm still overseeing things. Jordan's overseeing things with me now.

And we have teams in place that are amazing. Things are still moving forward as planned, and I do plan on slowing down in January.

When am I due? And boy or girl?

I'm due January 7th. That's key. Right after my birthday. My birthday's on the 4th. So, yeah, like with the sleep deprivation from breastfeeding, cuz you breastfeed every 3 hours at the beginning, um I'm going to I'm just forced to take things slower. Fortunately, I work from home, so I can still get things done, but it is a little bit stressful. I don't really like taking time away, but it's a baby.

So, it's not really time away, right? Um another big thing I'm I having I was like talking about Peterson Academy more than the baby, which is ridiculous, but I'm having a boy, which is so exciting, cuz I've got a little girl, Scarlett. She's 6. And I don't have a boy, so we're going to have a little boy January 7th. Okay, next.

How soon after mold exposure did I get pregnant?

Ooh, so just to cover the mold thing, and then hopefully we don't cover the mold thing anymore. How soon after the mold exposure did you get pregnant? Was your body cleansed? So, I told you guys before, I got sick enough in that stupid house that I was having trouble walking upstairs, and I thought it was kind of funny. I wasn't freaking out about it, but I was like go and halfway up the stairs and be like, I can't. Ah, need a breather. And then I'd like chuckle about it.

And then at a certain point I was like, oh no, this is not worth laughing about. This is actually serious. And so, we moved out of the house literally 8 weeks later I got pregnant. And that's after almost 2 years of kind of trying and a miscarriage. So, it was like as soon as the mold as soon as I was out of that house I got pregnant. Which was crazy. I did not expect to get pregnant that fast because I checked my before I found out it was mold I'd done a ton of bloodwork looking at any possible reason why I was sick cuz I've been so dialed in with my diet that it was like, why am I suddenly sick again?

And I looked at my hormones and my hormones were like premenopausal flat. And I found that out at the same time as we figured out it was mold. So, I was like, oh, okay. Mold was causing it. I'm sure they'll recover, but they recovered quickly obviously. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to get pregnant like 8 weeks. No, I wasn't fully recovered from the mold exposure by any means.

It was kind of like, uh, now I'm going to have to do the recovery and be pregnant at the same time. That sounds like a little rough. But, anyway, it worked out. I wasn't fully recovered, but I was able to walk upstairs without getting out of breath. My eyes weren't red anymore. I wasn't congested anymore. I started to have more positive emotion.

My internal dialogue came back. So, I was feeling quite a bit better just 8 weeks out of that house. Um, also taking a binder called cholestyramine. So, yeah, very soon after mold exposure I got pregnant, but I I got out of that house.

Negative effects of daycare?

As a working mom, thoughts on studies on negative effects of early child care. No hate. Okay, this is a great question. There are a lot of studies on early daycare having negative outcomes for your kid in pretty nasty ways. So, uh, 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 getting a newborn care specialist uh for for nighttimes. So, I'll be breastfeeding at night anyway, but I'll have somebody there who can kind of bring me the baby, I'll breastfeed, and then they can take the baby back, calm them down, put them back to sleep. I've got such a difficult time I have such a difficult time getting to sleep that if I didn't have help in that way, I wouldn't sleep.

And if I didn't sleep like that, I wouldn't be able to continue with all these projects that I'm doing that I want to continue with. So, I really need to focus on getting as much sleep as I can. So, we have a newborn care specialist helping and I'm going to have a nanny as well. So, that's two people helping me. And thank God I can afford that at this point because with Scarlett, I didn't have anybody and it was really hard. I started working pretty quickly after I had Scarlett, but when she was 6 months, I was full-time working, but I had like the baby on me at home and I was working. Um so, I never did daycare and part of the reason for that was because I was fortunate enough to be able to afford help.

So, with Scarlett, I got a nanny um when she was 11 months old and I was still working from home, so I was still able to breastfeed, but it was somebody there that could watch her while I was working. And that's what I I could barely afford that. Like that took almost all my money, but uh that I think that that if that's something you can do, I think that that's a better idea than doing daycare when kids are really young. Uh Let me think. That that's my opinion. And then there's also a realm of daycares you can look into like sometimes daycare is your neighbor who brings over three or four kids and then she's taking care of three or four kids in this really homey environment. That's different than than like 14 kids to daycare resentful daycare workers that don't care about your kids and I think that's where things get iffy.

And then I would say if you are going to put your kids in daycare, you can also judge how it's going like are you dropping off your kid and they're screaming? Like screaming. And are they screaming and it's been 2 weeks and they're still screaming when you drop them off? Probably that's not a great sign. Right? Now maybe they're three and a half and you have them in daycare and they're just going bye mom, see you later. I don't think those are the kids that end up with problems.

So as as a parent you need to judge that and be aware of that and try to set up something that doesn't traumatize your kids. That's important. So for me I felt like that was getting extra help while I was at home and I was like I said fortunate enough that I barely could afford that but I could with Scarlett and now I can afford more help. Thank goodness. So I I think you have to be aware of the negative effects of daycare on kids. And make sure you don't traumatize your kid. Right?

And I do think that the excuse of like well well that's what I can afford like I need to drop them off at this cheaper daycare where there's 14 kids when they're 8 months old. Maybe figure out something else. Cuz you don't want your kid having trauma forever. So maybe don't do that. It's like figure out something else. And I really don't believe that people in general don't have options. Like you do have options.

You're just not willing to pursue those options. I also don't think that you should feel guilty though about getting help. And I felt really bad even when Skyler was 11 months old and I got a nanny. She was either 10 months or 11 months old and I got a nanny and I felt bad getting a nanny. Uh because my mom was a stay-at-home mom and didn't have help and I thought that made me a bad mom. And I don't think that anymore at all. I think that you need to do whatever puts you in a place where you're not resentful and you're taking care of yourself so that you can take care of your kid.

Cuz a resentful parent especially a resentful parent towards their child is one of the most toxic things that can happen to a kid. So really try and plan out your life and figure out how to make this possible for you. And it shouldn't be something that breaks down your relationship or traumatizes your kid. There. Apologies if that wasn't as smooth as it should have been. I'm I have no internal dialogue because my baby ate my brain. Okay, next.

Did you change your mind about getting a surrogate? Okay. So I did I didn't talk about this either, but I did egg harvesting about a year ago. Just less than a year ago. Because I'd had this miscarriage and I wasn't getting pregnant. Not that we were like really really trying, but we were trying enough. And I'm 31 and I was like I don't want to be stupid and miss out on kids, so I'm going to do egg harvesting.

Would I consider a surrogacy?

And so I did that thinking I might go the surrogacy route, and I talked to you guys about that because I was also really worried about serious mental issues and like dangerous suicidal mental issues during pregnancy. Um so have I changed my mind? Well, I mean, I'm having a baby. Um am I going to pursue surrogacy in the future? Possibly. Because it's still pretty hard on me and I don't want to like I want to be careful with it because like I said, this could be much much much more difficult. But it's quite difficult.

Um I think I mentioned I've been sick for the last 3 weeks. I've been in bed quite a bit and I've had like a near migraine for about 8 days. And I know I'm near the end. But what's made it more difficult is I'm still on the lion diet. And I've had a meat aversion the whole time. And so I've actually lost weight during the pregnancy because the meat aversion was so bad. I tried to incorporate other foods, so just starting with like chicken and honey, and those gave me autoimmune symptoms and the autoimmune symptoms are more intolerable than the meat aversion.

So I had to pull back from that, so it was kind of like a force myself to eat and probably don't eat as much as I need to eat. Now fortunately, when you have a baby, the baby just takes from you. So it takes your vitamins. It like it just it just takes everything to grow. So the baby's fine. He's like growing just as he should, but I can tell that I haven't gained as much weight as I should. Um for instance, all my rings are loose, which normally your rings don't fit as well, especially near the end of pregnancy.

So, I really haven't gained any extra weight, which is like a blessing and a curse, cuz hey, I'm not going to have anything to lose, but the reason, part of the reason at least, that I'm haven't gained as much as I would have liked to, is cuz of the meat aversion on an all meat diet. Yeah, so that's the answer to the that question. I'm not working out. I haven't actually recovered from the mold exposure to the point of having enough energy to work out. Uh I tried to do squats about 2 months ago and was sore for about 3 weeks, which is just like an abnormal inflammatory response to exercise. It's not cuz I haven't been exercising and then you get extra sore. I I know what that's like.

It's an actual inflammatory response. So, it's not like sore cuz I was growing muscles. It was just sore cuz I'm full of cytokines from having an inflammatory response to exercise. So, I'm not recovered enough to do exercise. I'm just skinny because I have a meat aversion and I'm on a meat diet. That being said, I definitely credit the diet and keeping my autoimmune symptoms under control for not being completely nuts during this pregnancy and making sure my environment is clean. Next.

What is my birth plan?

Okay, a ton of people asked about giving birth and the birth plan. So, I'm going to cover that. So, with Scarlett, I gave birth at home and that was partly because I had a hospital phobia at that point in my life. And that was after I figured out that diet was causing most of my issues and that I could control my issues through diet. And that manifested and turned into a hospital phobia. So, anytime I went into a hospital, I would have a panic attack. And I was like, this is not ideal.

You know, I'd be totally fine again in a hospital. I'd be like having a panic attack. And I talked to my dad about it and he goes, well, given what you went through, that's a completely normal response. I was like, well, that doesn't help the panic attacks in hospitals. Like, what if I have to go to the hospital during the pregnancy? Anyway, I didn't manage to get that phobia under control during Scarlett's pregnancy, so I gave birth at home and it went it was really smooth. Ah.

So, I've already done it once, so obviously I'm planning on doing it again. Um, I have midwives instead of doctors. The midwives are amazing. And I'm going to give birth at a tub at home, assuming everything goes well. If there's some sort of sign that things aren't going well, then I'll transfer to a hospital. But, I don't think that's going to happen. Fingers crossed.

Here's another question. How long was labor for your first kiddo? Was it super painful and did you get an epidural? I didn't get an epidural cuz I was at home. Labor was weirdly quick and I would like to credit luck, but also some preparation. I did hypnobirthing, which sounds like the most hippy thing I don't even like talking about it cuz it's just it sounds so out there, but I spent about 6 weeks learning how to calm my body down cuz I was really depressed with Scarlett during that pregnancy and I was like, got to keep my cortisol low. And the reason you have to keep your cortisol low is because when you go into labor, your oxytocin spikes and that starts giving you contractions and oxytocin will go up and your contractions will go up and that's what puts you into labor.

If your cortisol spikes, it directly counteracts the oxytocin. So, part of the reason I didn't want to go to a hospital cuz was cuz I knew that if my cortisol spiked, my oxytocin would lower. That would extend the contractions, and if the contractions are too slow and you're in the hospital, they like to give you something called Pitocin, which is similar to oxytocin, but it's not exactly the same. And if you give a woman Pitocin, her contractions are more intense, and they're more painful, and that leads to epidurals. And then epidurals and painful contractions and an extended labor can lead to something like a C-section. And I really wanted to avoid a C-section because who knows what role that played in my autoimmunity with not passing on the proper microbiome right at birth. So, how long was the labor?

It was really easy with Scarlett from like it started around 11:00 a.m. till like 8:00 p.m. It was just kind of it feels like a muscle like 30% of a muscle cramp. Cuz you know how painful muscle cramps can get? It would It just feels like your uterus is just like tightening and letting go and tightening and letting go. So, I wouldn't really call it painful. It was just kind of interesting. I was like, "Well, this isn't so bad."

And then it started wrapping up around 9:00 p.m. And by 11:00 p.m. I was like, "Okay, this is getting real. Like this is painful." But it only got the whole labor only got to about a eight out of 10 on the pain scale. That might have been a bit skewed because at the time my ankle replacement from having an ankle replacement uh from arthritis was installed crooked, and it was causing me chronic pain. So, I was already used to being in chronic pain.

So, having a baby didn't feel like it didn't feel wrong like a badly placed ankle replacement. So, the nice thing about not getting Pitocin and not having these abnormally strong contractions is you get a break in between the contractions. So, even when you get to active labor and it's really intense, it kind of goes like eight and then it stays at an eight, but then you have like a little bit of time to catch your breath before another one hits. It's not just like constant pain. Um and active labor for me lasted 3 hours. And the midwives, who were totally useless for my first baby, one of the midwives missed it because she was like, "You're a first-time mom, you're going to have a really long labor." I was like, "The baby's coming."

And she was like, "No, it's not." And so, she missed it. Uh but I didn't want her there anyway, really, so it was fine. My mom was there and another midwife. Now, when you go the midwife route instead of the doctor route, you get two midwives that uh come to your birth. So, it wasn't that long for the first kid and theoretically it's supposed to be shorter for your second kid, although it's been so long, we'll see what happens, but I'm expecting a snappy labor. So, we'll see what happens.

Um and I wouldn't call it super painful. It got to an eight and it was very intense at the end, but it wasn't something that I was traumatizing or Well, wasn't something that was traumatizing. And I think if you Oh, and then back over to hypnobirthing. Hypnobirthing's just this technique that teaches you how to stay calm and I really do believe that if you can stay calm and keep your core as low, your body just does birth. Like you don't have to learn how to do it. It just does it. It's kind of like throwing up.

Not to Like you don't have to learn how to throw up. Um like a nasty comparison, but it's kind of like that. So, I would just say suggestions for like other women, you don't have to do a home birth. I would do a birth wherever you feel calmest. So, if you feel calmest in a hospital and you think, "Okay, I'm taken care of by all these doctors. I can get an epidural if I need one." And you're going to be in your zone in there, do that, right?

If you're going to try and force a home birth and you're going to stress out cuz you're worried about it, that just counteracts the purpose of a home birth. So, just go where you feel safest and give birth there. Like a dog giving birth under a porch. That's kind of like where I'd like to spend the next what? 5 weeks? Maybe less. Is just I was I just want to go to a cave. Just talk to me in like 6 weeks.

I'll arrive out of the cave with a baby. Everything will be fine. Leave me in a cave for the next month.

How to prevent stretch marks?

Ooh, how to take care of skin to avoid stretch marks? These are one of those things that I think is genetic. I don't have stretch marks. Thank goodness. I'm so happy about that. I don't even credit diet for not giving me stretch marks. I actually think some people are just more prone to stretch marks and that that's a genetic thing.

Could be way way off. Uh so, I don't know much about like creams or anything that help. All I know is I don't get them. But, my mom never got them either and she wasn't on any fancy diet. 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. I think if you have a caregiver that's like, "Yeah, you need eat more carbs." Or like, "Follow your cravings." Then you should get a new caregiver doctor doctor person. Now we're going to go to the diet section.

How has my diet been during pregnancy?

Tons of people asked like what's my diet like during pregnancy because I normally only eat meat and like I said I'm still only eating meat. Would I recommend it for pregnancy? I would recommend you do the diet that makes you feel the best during pregnancy. So unfortunately for me that is still the lion diet. I can't incorporate other foods. If I could eat anything else without getting autoimmune flare-ups and by an autoimmune flare-up I mean arthritis, my skin breaks out which I hate badly uh and I go crazy. I get super volatile.

I can't think. I get brain foggy. I get anxious. I just want to hide in bed. If that didn't happen when I ate other foods I would 100% be eating other foods in general but especially during pregnancy. The number of times I've cried over not being able to eat a cucumber during this pregnancy is at least I would say that's happened at least 15 times uh because of the meat aversion during the first trimester all I wanted was like cucumbers and it you know people should be able to eat cucumbers without getting autoimmune symptoms which I still think is cuz I was living in mold for most of my life but time will tell for that. But I would say do the diet that makes you feel the best.

Don't just give in to your random cravings for bad foods cuz that does impact your health and it does impact the health of your baby. So you shouldn't just be loading up on carbs and gaining excess weight and not caring about your body. Um but by no means do I think that you should be only eating beef like me. It doesn't even feel like that's what I should be doing. Uh right, like the fact that I wanted a cucumber so badly is just like it's just some vegetables. Like it's not that big a deal. But alas, I can't do that yet.

So, anyway, yes, I've done carnivore throughout the pregnancy. It has been difficult. I don't know very many pregnant women that actually stuck to a very strict carnivore diet throughout pregnancy. Most people add in at least a variety of meats um and dairy eggs and then a lot of people are like, well, I couldn't even do that cuz I had a meat aversion. I went back to like a paleo diet. I think that makes sense, but I couldn't do it. Which has made this difficult.

Any food or supplement you recommend for pregnancy? I think on any restricted diet and and any diet just the standard American diet for sure, you should be monitoring your vitamins. I've I know now that your vitamin levels aren't just from what you eat, they're also from your environment. My vitamin levels were totally fine for like 5 years and then I moved into this particularly moldy house that made me really sick and a whole bunch of them plummeted. This was right before I got pregnant. So, fortunately, I had started supplementing the really deficient vitamins prior to pregnancy. So, folate for example, I was taking by injection.

I'll link the injection below. If you guys want to inject folate, I couldn't take the oral version cuz it gave me insomnia for who knows like why for whatever's wrong with my body. So, I injected it, got my levels back up to normal and then that was about 8 weeks after we moved out of mold and that's when I got pregnant. So, I would suggest monitoring your vitamins and supplementing whatever's low and looking at folate specifically because at the very beginning folate is important for the baby.

Am I eating organ meat?

Are you eating organ meat now for the baby? Hell no, okay? This diet is hard enough with a meat aversion. I don't like organs. The idea The idea of liver is so nauseating. No, I'm not eating organs. I still don't really believe the whole organ thing.

I think if you're on a regular diet and you incorporate organs in, you can get some benefits, but I think if you're only eating meat, I don't I don't I haven't seen any definitive evidence of adding in organs and getting some sort of benefit. So, I'm not doing it. I also think it's weird to desiccate something that you don't even want to swallow and then force yourself to take it by pill if your body is like trying to make you spit it out. So, that's still my opinion. No, I'm not eating organs.

Blood sugar issues?

Having any issues with blood sugars during pregnancy on carnivore? So, they get you So, when you have a midwife, they pretty much follow what an OBGYN would do, although they explain like what certain blood tests are for and they let you opt into things, but I did keep an eye on my blood sugar for like a week just to see. It is very difficult to get just gestational diabetes if you only eat meat, if you're not having any carbs. Not that any mainstream doctor would admit to that, but how do you get high blood sugar when you only eat meat? So, no, my blood sugar has been about 83 to 87 for the entire pregnancy. Uh and I have been in ketosis the whole time.

Do doctors get mad at my diet?

Do doctors get mad at you your diet while pregnant? Some would, but like screw those guys. The The world is made up of people who say they know what they're talking about and don't. Most people. So, if you get a doctor that's like, "Well, you can't do that for all these reasons." Do what makes your body the healthiest. Be smart, like monitor your vitamins, make sure you're not getting a deficiency of some sort.

Oh, if a doctor's getting mad at you, too, get a new doctor. I haven't even talked to a doctor. Have I talked to a doctor throughout this whole pregnancy? No. For the first ultrasound, I was in Dubai, and so then a doctor was like an ultrasound technician did the ultrasound, and then the doctor was like, "Yes, that's a baby." That's the only doctor I've talked to you. And it's going to stay that way, assuming everything goes well.

Do you ever worry about your child's nutrition in the womb while being a meat eater? No. I mean, I've had like when I was when I had Scarlett, I was eating salad and meat. And I had so many people freaking out about me only eating salad and meat. Freaking out. It was really stressful. Um My family wasn't freaking out, but everybody other than my parents was freaking out.

Even though I was just trying to keep my arthritis under control. It was like, "Those foods give me arthritis.

Am I worried about my diet’s effect on the baby?

That can't be good for the baby." So, do I worry about the child's nutrition? No, because babies will take what they need from you. So, if you're so deficient in a vitamin that the baby can't even take that vitamin from you, that's when you get a problem. So, keep an eye on your vitamins. My vitamins are good. I have been supplementing folate.

Just in case. Um so, no, I'm not worried about that at all. I think that it's I think the diet I'm on is healthier than what most people eat. So, even though I'd like to expand it, and I think it would be better, I I don't even know where I stand with that exactly. I would really like a cucumber. So, I feel like I should have be able to eat a cucumber if I really want one. But, um my body doesn't like it yet, so we're going to wait on that.

I am still using electrolytes. I don't use them very often, but I take electrolytes sometimes, but I'm really just eating beef. So, like right now cuz the meat aversion is still here and unpleasant, I'm eating a lot of tri-tip. For some reason, tri-tip isn't as nauseating as like aged steak. Lamb is completely off the table. Lamb is aw. I don't know what I'd rather eat, liver or lamb, but they're both pretty low on the list.

So, lamb's gone. That was way too hard. Uh, even fish tasted bad, didn't make me feel very good. Even chicken kind of tasted like fish. Everything's just tasting like fish in a bad way. Or blueberries. Like, I've gone out for steak and I've been like, "Why does the steak taste like blueberries?"

And Jordan's like, "What are you talking about?" Like, "Ugh, meat aversion." This is So, I'm eating tri-tip and like Here's my sexy bag of jerky. I love jerky, but I don't really love jerky pregnant, but I'm eating it. Still need to eat. So, diet's the same. I took folate as like a prenatal and throughout pregnancy by injection.

And yes, I still include electrolytes. I haven't changed other than that, although I did try to because the meat aversion was so bad and it didn't go well. K, hey, we're doing this. Let's see, what else? Ooh, okay. This is This is a good one.

Resentment towards partner during pregnancy?

Anger and resentment towards partner in first trimester. So, I would say try anger and resentment towards your partner throughout the entire pregnancy. Uh, I think that's really normal. So, how do you counteract that? Because hahaha. So, for like my instance, I wanted a baby. I love kids and I want more kids and I wanted a baby and we were both trying to have a baby.

So, why would I get resentful during pregnancy to somebody who gave me a baby? You can. You do. I have. Now, I avoid resentment by communicate like over communicating everything. So, if I'm ever annoyed about something, I don't keep it in my head at all. And the reason I know that is because I used to do that and that's what breeds resentment.

So, if you're worried about something, even if it's stupid, even if it sounds stupid to you, I would say something like, "You know, babe, I'm extremely hormonal right now and I'm really worried about X. And I might be overly worried about it, but I really need help getting through this cuz I can't handle it by myself. So, we need to talk about it and figure out a plan." And then you as the man, instead of saying getting irritated or being like, "That doesn't matter. Stop worrying about it." Even if it doesn't matter and she should stop worrying about it, talk her through it. "Here are the potential solutions. Here's what we could do about it.

Does any of that make you feel better?" If you guys can keep open communication, then you can avoid the anger and resentment. Now, there's still going to be some anger. So, I don't have a resentment problem, but I've been so angry, especially third trimester, like my volatility is Normally, I'm not volatile. I'm very volatile right now. I'm like yelling when I get frustrated about something. And part of that is because Jordan's so stubborn.

Like he he's a formidable partner, but it's cuz I'm extremely volatile and I'm being volatile about things I wouldn't normally care about, which he can't understand cuz he's not flooded with six times the amount of hormones he normally has. Uh so, you have to just keep communication open. Try not to hide thoughts in your head cuz they don't just go away. You don't just bury them and they go away. Right? They just destroy your life and breed resentment. So, just keep communication open and before you have a baby, try to make sure your partner's on board with walking you through things you're going to be angry and stressed out about.

Because pregnant women are crazy. They're crazy. Especially near the end. I'm crazy right now. It's really annoying. I don't really like having little alien take over my brain. It's frustrating.

I'd like to think about things like I normally think about them or think about things logically without having this overwhelming compassion for everything that I wouldn't normally care about. It's really frustrating experience. Ideally, your partner can help walk you through ways to fix whatever you're freaking out about and not just belittle you for being an anxious mess.

Will I co-sleep with the baby?

Did you co-sleep with Scarlett and will you or will you for this baby? I did co-sleep with Scarlett because I was breastfeeding like every 2 and 1/2 hours and she was It was It was 2 and 1/2 to 3 hours and then she'd breastfeed for an hour 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." Seems like the more natural thing to do. I'm going to co-sleep. I'm not going to be doing that again because I didn't sleep for like a year. She didn't learn how to sleep through the night because she was with me and could just like reach over for the boob whenever.

So, obviously, she's not 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 function and I don't like not being able to function. So, I'm not doing that again and that's part of the reason why I'm hiring a newborn care specialist to help with the nights uh for the first 3 months. And then last question.

What are my plans for postpartum rest?

Yeah, what are your plans for postpartum rest? I have my own business and planning mat leave is hard. I'm having a really hard time with this. I know that I'm going to be very sleep deprived for the first month at minimum plus recovery from childbirth, which is a real real physical recovery. Uh so what's my plan? I don't have a very well thought out plan other than really identifying the important goals that I want to hit and only focusing on those and trying to not to get bogged down by the little things cuz little things can be pushed off. So, I've separated out the companies and I have my like I'm doing so many way too many things to add a baby and we moved into a new house that's been under construction for 6 months longer than it should have been, which is a whole another thing.

So, yeah, like I said, I've just tried to identify exactly what goals I need to focus on and move everything else to the side for the first four to six weeks. And then I'm hoping I'm going to be at like I work from home, so I'll be able to breastfeed. I'm going to have help so that they can watch the baby, but then I can breastfeed, I can hang out with baby, but I can like plan meetings and do work when the baby's sleeping and when someone else is entertaining the baby. So, I kind of just plan on doing both, but definitely slowing things down for the first four weeks because I need to recover, need to focus on having the baby and that's what's important. I guess the last thing I could cover are what are the pregnancy symptoms for people who haven't been pregnant? And for me it was mainly a meter version. Um I can't get comfortable.

I haven't been comfortable in like two months. I'm waking up twice at night to pee cuz the baby is sitting on my bladder. I'm sleeping with a pillow under my legs or between my legs on my side, one behind my back, one under my stomach, and a heating pad.

What were my pregnancy symptoms?

I'm also sitting elevated because my nose is so congested this pregnancy. I've spent 6 months maybe breathing through my mouth. And that's partly because my allergies have skyrocketed during the pregnancy. I moved to Arizona where it's dusty. I have a dust allergy. It's like I'm going to be allergic wherever I am. But I've had to sleep sitting up as well.

Uh what else are the symptoms? And then most of the symptoms I have are emotional. I'm more volatile. I'm angrier. And I haven't had the positive dopamine emotions in I don't know, 6 months. Which is really like I'm okay on the podcast right now when when I'm talking to you guys about it, but like it's not fun. I'm really looking forward to January 7th and feeling more like me um because it's hard on my mood.

So those are my main pregnancy symptoms. They're much better than they were when I had that miscarriage, it was much worse. And with Scarlett it was much worse. And this is much better and I'm really grateful for that, but this isn't great uh mood-wise. It's also frustrating to like get invited to things and have to not go cuz my body can't handle it even though my brain really wants to. So I didn't go to Dad's Ark convention in London cuz I was like I'm in Arizona. It's a something like a 9-hour time difference to London.

I think it was at that point anyway. And I was like I'm not going to be able to do it. I was about 30 weeks pregnant at that point. I was like it's just going to kill me. I'm going to be miserable. So I'm missing things and I'm excited for this portion to be over. I'm very excited to have the baby.

And the suffering right now is worth having the baby. Uh for the next month I'm going to be doing one or two more interviews and maybe. My body's kind of been like, "You're done, Michaela. Just lay down. Stop doing stuff."

Wrap up and plans!

But, I have one more interview planned that I really want to do. And then I'm going to do, I think, a podcast with my mom, a podcast with my dad, probably a podcast with both my mom and my dad cuz they've come to stay with us for the next month. They're trying the mold treatment. And yeah, and just kind of try and take it easy. Attempt to calm myself down for the next month. So, thanks for listening. Good luck to any other pregnant women out there, and having a baby's totally worth it.

Having a There's nothing like having a kid. And I do believe, like, I don't believe that you have to be the trad mom. I hate that fad. If you want to stay home, that's amazing. Do that. It's a full-time job. Like, calling it a stay-at-home mom doesn't encompass the like six jobs that you actually have as a stay-at-home mom.

So, if you're able to do that and it fulfills you, kudos. I think that would be that would be nice, but I'm too I don't know, addicted to dopamine or something to be able to to do that without getting resentful and feeling like I'm missing out on accomplishing goals, whatever that means. So, either way, whether you're the type of person And I don't mean to like insult trad- traditional women cuz that's not what I mean at all. Good for them, seriously. I'm more annoyed at the people talking down to women if they're not doing the traditional female role that are kind of in the red-pilled weird area. Uh, that sickens me. Um, but I think there's a way to figure out your life so that you can attempt to do both.

I don't think doing both is easy. Like you do miss out on, you know, if you're going to go to work, you're going to miss out on part of your kids' life. So you have to balance. It's a balancing act as a female, and it's hard. So good luck to all the women out there, and I will talk to you guys soon.