Regular Good Stuff
Iz King, an accomplished gravel racer, explores the experiences navigating parenthood, racing, and life changes after having a baby. She discusses the challenges, surprises, and lessons learned along the way, offering insights for fellow athletes and parents.
Regular Good Stuff
Regular Good Stuff about sleep deprivation, milk supply, and running toddlers
In this episode, Isabel and Joe share candid insights into their life as new parents, balancing training, race days, and family life. They discuss the challenges of sleep disruptions, breastfeeding, and the humorous side of parenthood, offering relatable stories and practical reflections.
Introduction and Guest Backgrounds
IzThank you guys. Welcome. Welcome back.
JoeEpisode two.
IzWas that I forgot to ask you before, was that the first time you've ever done a podcast?
JoeFirst time.
IzWas it?
JoeIt was.
IzHow did it feel?
JoeIt totally wasn't my first time.
IzYou're a big podcast consumer. You are.
JoeYeah. Never uh never creator though.
IzI think that that's kind of a you're a big consumer in light. Well, I don't that sounds fine. You say you consume everything.
JoeAll I do is spend money.
IzThat's not me. But I feel like you're a big like I don't know, reader and and you just kind of take in the world rather than you don't No. Again, this is gonna sound really bad.
JoeThat's right. Welcome back. We're here.
IzDon't put anything into the world.
JoeYou contribute nothing, you take everything. Thank you. This is who I am. Uh I'm Joe. I'm is. Yeah. Um we're continuing our conversations on being parents.
IzYeah. Joe's putting something more out into the world.
JoeYes. I'm just kidding.
IzThis was your idea. You are being more vulnerable, and I've got to you. I appreciate that. Um you have to talk more this episode because I feel like I talked a lot last time.
JoeYeah,
Adjusting to Parenthood and Personal Growth
JoeI I think I think our talking split last time is it's about right.
IzIt's indicative of our lives generally.
JoeI get home from work and I'm like, I'm just out of words. I don't know what to and you do.
IzIt's it is one of those. I think generally you are more introverted and you spend your entire day talking to people. And then I am more extroverted and I spend my entire day talking to a baby, and you come home and I'm like, We need Hazel to start talking now for you.
JoeI can't wait. It's gonna be amazing.
IzShe's mastered dad-da. Like true. I think now I can confidently say that dad-da is connected to you. I think before, maybe she has been she has been dad-daying forever, which always kind of hurts in my soul.
JoeShe knows who you are. She does.
IzWe say let's go see mama, and she will She knows for sure. But we like you go back inside and she's like da-da-da-da. And you're like, okay. Yeah, am I a chocolate? No. And it's really sweet. Um she's got dad da and like occasionally makes kind of a b for a bottle. Oh, interesting. That's kind of the closest we've gotten. No, no, even inkling of a mama. That's fair.
JoeDo you think she English word or Spanish word first?
IzOoh, okay. So this is a so our nanny speaks his hazel in only Spanish. I try.
JoeIt's actually we ask we asked her to do that.
IzAnd we did. Oh my gosh. No. Like I think it's one of those I learned Spanish in school and never really got good until I spent time in Argentina. And then I was pretty good. And then now I've lost a lot of it just because I didn't practice. And so I think it's one of those I always wish that I learned earlier and it was kind of like ingrained in me versus like learning from a book, although I was incredibly fortunate to have a really good Spanish education. Yeah, so we asked her to speak in Spanish, and it's funny now. First of all, I think it's a good Hazel is a good person for me to practice on because I can talk incredibly slow and like actually think about conjugations, and she's not like, Mom, what the hell? Like she's just well, maybe she is, honestly. You speak like way slower than Indira.
JoeI like I like that we have some books in Spanish that I'm very good. I try to chop through poorly. I do like podemos.
IzYeah. That'll be a good one uh when she's she'll be like dead wrong with just terrible pronunciation. But yeah, it is one of those. Yeah, I always I think I said to you, I was like, I'm not really worried about the milestones. And you're like, because like she's hitting the milestones in the moment that she doesn't. Um I think now because we're speaking
Language Milestones and Cultural Experiences
Izto her in two languages, I think generally babies because she's processing two languages. Oh, this is where I'm rationalizing it. Please, please, please she hasn't actually like started saying words yet. Um although I'm not really sure when they're supposed to start either, but probably around.
JoeI I love she's this blue-eyed she doesn't have blonde hair, she has light hair baby who is gonna grow up in Santa Monica for at least the first no, that is where we live. Uh and if she comes out with like a Nicaraguan Spanish accent, it's gonna be it would be amazing. It's very funny.
IzI hope so. That's a good dream. I think she'll speak English, she'll be good. Um she's got data already, so you're good. So we're fine.
JoeUm a win is a win.
IzA win is a win. Yeah. You just take your wins where you got them. That's true.
JoeSo last time we left off by saying we want to talk more about you know our life and how it's changed. Really um post-hazel. Yeah. PH. PH, life pH. And I I don't I don't think that uh my life has changed as much as your life has changed. Um and it would just be interesting to dive into a little bit of how that's worked, um, some of the things that we've really struggled with, and some of the things that I think that we've done pretty well.
IzYeah, I agree with that.
JoeUm and I think that the the biggest shift, like obviously when the we first had Hazel, we were just in the trenches. Like wake her up every three hours, feed her back to sleep. And then we kind of got out of that like four months later. And then you started focusing on getting back to where you wanted to be from a bike racing standpoint. And I think that was the the hardest transition for us because it wasn't just Joan is trying to keep this little baby alive, it was Joan is trying to keep this baby alive and have a life outside of this and goals outside of this. And so, how how have you kind of addressed that, approached it?
IzYeah. I think it was interesting. So right now we have a part time that comes, she's the best. Um, and I feel incredibly comfortable with her. She's uh arguably better with little Hazel Basil than I am. Um Hazel loves her. Like I think it's one of those, it's all good things. And so with that, that was super helpful in terms of like getting me to kind of get focused on being back. But it was interesting. Like Arnani comes for four or five hours Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And like for that time, it was really, I think, leading into unbound, which was the first race that I did. It was if she's here, I need to be using that time to train. And it was kind of it's a little bit stressful now because all of our training grounds are kind of still recovering
Training, Race Recovery, and Parenthood Balance
Izfrom the fires. All of the mountains are getting, they're doing a lot of construction to put the power lines underground. And so that's one of those where like every time I got stopped at a stop, like a construction flipper, you're like, am I gonna get back in time? Am I do I have enough time to do this loop? Do I need to turn around? Do I need to change my route? Things like that. I didn't allow myself to like stop for a coffee or a croissant like at all going into unbound because I felt like if I had if I someone else was taking over my child, I needed to be like doing my job, doing my other job. Um I think that was really good to get me back in shape and kind of get me ready enough to do unbound and have that be a success. Um, but I think after that I realized I couldn't kind of burn the candle at both ends like forever. Um I was gonna have to slow down.
JoeAnd I think the recovery because at that time you were still waking up in the middle of the night.
IzYeah.
JoeStill and you were still breastfeeding pretty and and that was I think we forget now how much of a a drain.
IzYeah. I don't know if I ever actually like gave myself enough credit or my body enough credit for like how much my body was doing like an entirely different functionality that it had never done before. I had to wake up in the middle of the night to pump um on top of like whenever Hazel was waking up. Um so I think also like that on top of, I stopped nursing around four months, so I was exclusively pumping for six months, and like that was a lot of time with a machine, the robot. Um so I think on top of that, it was like, yeah, it's draining. It's an everyone's like, oh, it's an extra whatever five to eight hundred calories a day. But you're like, that's body like energy, calories are energy that your body is spending. So like it's as if you went for an eight-mile run on top of all of your training every single day, and you're not you're also not sleeping and stuff. And so I always was kind of like, wow, my body can't really like recover like it used to, but I kind of just attributed it to the fact that we weren't sleeping, and I think it was interesting after unbound. Um, I've talked about it a little bit, but through unbound, my milk supply, like my body was like, we can't make milk while you're doing whatever during during the race. During the race, whatever craziness I was doing, my body was like, We're not making milk.
JoeBecause you had planned on like stopping and pumping.
IzI had never gone more than eight hours without pumping. So I was like, I'm gonna have to stop to pump at 150 miles. And I think when I got there and you and Hazel were there, and that's I think the most emotional I was. I was like pretty exhausted and drained and started crying. It was like I got to see my family again. But in that moment, I was like, if I stop, like I'm not gonna get going again. Like there's no scenario that I'm gonna ride my bike another 50 miles after stopping and hanging out with my family. So I was kind of like, I think I thought I have to risk it. Um I'm glad that I did
Breastfeeding, Milk Supply, and Race Day Challenges
Izbecause my body had absolutely gone into survival mode and stopped, you know, producing milk. Um and it was really interesting to have the recovery metric of like the next few days. Like my milk supply came back, and I was kind of like, okay, great. And I think we talked about this a little bit last episode, but like Unbound has gotten so fast that we minimize how much of an effort it is. Um, and so I think in my head, like normally it would take me about a week or maybe two to recover. And I think four or five, then six weeks after, like I was still like just absolutely I could barely pedal my bike. I was just so demolished. I was still kind of like struggling to get milk supply back to where it had been. And I realized like this is something I have to choose. I have to either choose that my body is gonna be making milk or we're gonna stop. And I think originally I had in retrospect a very arbitrary goal of getting to a year of breastfeeding. I think it was kind of like that's when they transitioned in more food and whatever. That's what I had chosen before I knew anything about what the journey would be or how it would how it would feel about that. And so I think I was at 10 and a half months and I was like, oh, the idea of doing like six more weeks just for the ability to say that I did, it um didn't feel worth it. And Hazel at that point is like eating steak, and everyone like I don't really know why I'm putting myself through this when she could, you know, just be happy and and not really see a difference. And I think it was one of those I put so much pressure on myself. And as soon as I weaned off in transition, I like kind of started to feel myself come back, um, which is one of those that you don't really I guess I never really gave it credit until I like could see my old self coming back once I had stopped, which is interesting. And I don't know, I think that was probably unique to me, or maybe it wasn't unique to me. Um but uh yeah, I think since then it's I've felt kind of like a weight lifted because I think every time that I was going out training, I was like, am I eating too much sugar? Like, am I drinking enough? Am I making sure that you're like hydrating to have enough milk when you get home to feed your child? Like it was just like another stressor on top of it.
JoeUm and not even like you talk about feeling beat up, but your we have these Garmin watches, which are fantastic. So cool. Uh we would even make like when you were pregnant, we were talking to um your OB. You're like, are people's resting heart rates? And she's like, nobody has this data. Like you're the only person who's ever gotten pregnant with this data. Um but as your breastfeeding.
IzProbably we should you know, maybe look into that a little bit more as society. Yeah, it wasn't interesting. I I was making sure I think you're told in when you're pregnant, um, if you lay on your back, like you're there's a vein or an artery in your that you can like compress, and then your body, your baby doesn't get enough air. And so I had turned on the functionality of like um blood oxygen, and so I would track it overnight. And I was like, mine's getting down to like I don't know, 90 and 85 overnight. Like, what does this mean? And my doctor's like, truly have no idea. I don't think anyone, any none of my patients previously have ever come to me with this data, so it could be normal. Or get her off. It's like, but look, look at the watch. Look at my watch, look at this drop. And she was like, Your baby's fine.
JoeAppears to be fine.
IzSo I think that was the interesting maybe too much data can cause a little bit more stress. But yeah, it was super, super interesting when breastfeeding. The week that I stopped, my HRV, like pretty much it had been just like going down, down, down, down, down for the weeks after unbound, and then it just like bounced back. And it was one of those um cool, it's cool to see kind of like a very immediate reaction.
JoeAaron Powell And you recovered like it it took a week.
IzYeah. It was my body was like, oh thank God.
JoeLike the pressure just came off.
IzYeah. And so I think that has been a
Handling Sickness, Sleep Regressions, and Parenting Stress
Izbig change, I guess, just in the last probably two, three months. Um, which that seemed like so long ago, but it is one of those, I think yeah, made things, I guess, easier and simpler.
JoeAaron Powell I think too, first of all, Hazel, I don't think.
IzI don't I'm not sure.
JoeThe only change was that she immediately got sick and we were like, ah and she had been like never sick. Yeah.
IzAnd then the week To be fair, we did throw her in a ball pit at a at a two-year-old's birthday party.
JoeSo the ball pit was in retrospect a really bad idea.
IzYeah. In in co it might have been just causal, but not causality coincidence that you know the germ-infested ball pit and this stopping breastfeeding at the same time was I don't know which was the cause of her getting sick, but probably the breastfeeding.
JoeUh I I remember being at that birthday party and watching this two-year-old kid like actively wipe snot on the ball. And I'm like, our baby is toast.
IzShe was, yeah, but she was having a great time when we were like, I think that was sad. It was one of those, again, as first parents, everything is a first time, and seeing her get f sick for the first time, like she would just wake up like not being able to breathe out of her nose, and she was just genuinely scared, and that was so sad. Um, and then you sacrificed your body to clear her nose.
JoeI did. So the boogersucker thing, my throat hurt for weeks.
IzActual weeks. Yeah. So there's for non-parents, this will seem absolutely insane, and I never tried it because it is actually insane. It's like a but when when your baby can't breathe. When your baby can't breathe, you will do lots of things for them. Um, and so there's basically it's a tube where you stick one side into the baby's nose and you suck on the other side and it sucks the boogers out. And it has a blocker, so you don't get boogers in your actual mouth. Yes. But Joe, either the force of sucking or the germs straight into your throat messed you up for like weeks. You were on like the serious tea and honey regimen for like a good week, but even our friends were like, you sound terrible.
JoeLike, thanks.
IzAnd then you would come home and I'd be like, hey, his little nose is like a little stuffy, and you're like, your throat is an actual standpaper. Here you go.
JoeAnd the the the the answer that we ultimately decided to, I guess, implement was uh buying like a vacuum, basically. A nose vacuum. Which in in in in the next life, I think we just need to make like household appliances, but for babies that are five times as much.
IzYeah, that was a crazy. You were like, guess how expensive this was? And I was like, I would rather not know. A glorified vacuum with a cute little booger sucker on the end.
JoeYeah. Um so you stop, you stop recipe.
IzDo you want to pause to fix that? We can take this out.
JoeOkay. Uh our camera is like panning to me. It's like, stop, stop looking at me and start looking at ball of ads. Take Joe out. Um That is a funny dream.
IzI've been cut out, which is fine. Yeah. You are the star of the show. Your dream. Even the camera knows my dream.
JoeYour dream.
IzThe world's dream.
JoeYeah.
IzThe world needs to see.
JoeSo getting back to my favorite topic, you. Uh you stop breastfeeding after Unbound, and you start to recover. Yeah. And it's great. And then the next race is pretty soon thereafter.
IzI think it was one of those, it wasn't soon until it took me six weeks to recover from Unbound, and then it fell incredibly soon. Um, and I think initially the plan was to go to SBT, and that was six weeks after Unbound, and we were still I think it's also interesting, like both times that we've raced, Hazel has gone through serious um sleep disruptions directly after. And I think it's correlational. I think after Unbound, she was getting like these, she was getting teeth on top, and that really hurt, and she was waking up a lot. And then after Revel Worlds, she learned to walk, and we can't be sleeping if we're knowing how to walk now. Um, and so that was an interesting, I think, on top of both of them. If you talk about recovery, you're yeah, we got walloped both times. And I think the plan was initially to go to SBT. And I remember that Saturday of the race, it was like 2 p.m. and we got Hazel to fall asleep, and both of us looked at each other and we were like immediately to sleep. Like we was back, kind of like felt like the newborn trenches again, where you're like, she's gonna go to sleep for an hour. Like, we need to sleep because there's no respite overnight.
JoeThose those sleep regressions uh they they don't get as much play as they should. And people talk about them a lot. They need to talk about them more.
IzYeah, they get it they get a fair amount of play, but it is it is wild. Yeah. And I think it's one of those every time you Google it, you're like, they're, you know, nine, nine months and four days, and they're like sleep regression. You know, like it's just always that's always the answer. And so you're like, okay, at any point are we sleep regressing? They're like, yes. So I think because they come on pretty randomly, like for yes, predictable reasons, but you just have to figure out like what the reasons are gonna be.
JoeYeah, no, I think that's very and and and the other piece of it too. It's very funny. Um do you want to just pause for a second?
IzIt's funny. Like stay zoomed out.
JoeBut the the the sleep regression piece of it that I think is the best is she really does learn. Like she will when she was walking, as an example. I remember she couldn't walk.
IzYep.
JoeAnd then she took a nap. And when she woke up, she could walk.
IzYeah.
JoeIt was it's like I wish my brain like just made those connections, like if I just slept once. Yeah. So it's it's cool.
IzIt's the same with crawling, where it was like could only crawl backwards, kept getting stuck under the dresser, and then like slept overnight and
Household Challenges and Safety Concerns
Izwoke up and was like like zooming around. Our house also has like an incredibly long hallway, which as a house feature, like kind of random and weird. Um, kind of the first thing that everyone says when they visit, they're like, wow, it's a really long house. As a child, learning how to walk or push stuff or you know, crawl, fantastic. She's doing great. Yeah. She really loves the hallway. The only problem with the hallway is it ends in a stair, the only singular stair in the smallest stair. Maybe we just make it like a little ramp. No, that would be even worse. But we're trying to teach currently our trying to teach her to sit down to go over this because when she's holding her hands, she wants to just like walk off of it, obviously, but she can't do that with her little leggies. Um when she was crawling, she was fine. She could go off forward because it's shallow enough. Um but now with the walking, it's a different ballgame.
JoeBut it is funny, there's like one danger piece of our house. And it's just the one stair. Which is funny because when we when we bought this house, there were a lot of things that we didn't like about it, and we fixed a lot of them. That one that was.
IzIt's different. It's different. Or maybe it's just our house.
JoeHow did you decide to do that? Why was this a choice? Why did you put this birdbath in the backyard? Yeah. Yeah. It's tough. Um But we fixed most of them. The one thing that we can't fix is there. Yeah. Which is okay. It's important. It'll it'll like build some character, you know. Teach you that, you know, even in a safe space, there's a Yeah, no, there's always gonna be danger with her. Okay. Um okay, so getting back to Gravel Worlds.
IzYeah. Or general I think generally we were saying racing race days. I think to compare them what they used to be like as a pro and then what they are like now. I think previously We would go to on you know a race as a team and I would kind of flutter around and do my thing, my pre-race things. Um super shy stuff. Super shy stuff. Um being shy, just hiding in the corner. You would hang out being the center of attention. Camouflaging and not saying hi to anyone.
JoeThat that was me.
IzThat is actually you. You are actually in like a gilly suit hanging, hiding in the bushes, and I am wearing bright orange. Right. That's the dynamic. So that was what it used to be.
JoeYour orange, your orange camouflage.
IzI would be in orange camouflage, and you would hang out and actually do work in an Airbnb or hotel. And then when I was, you know, when it was race day, you would do bottles and you would go to the aid stations and have kind of a fun day in the car listening to podcasts and hanging out. I agree. Now that has changed, and I think it's one of those. This year I wanted to bring Hazel to a lot of the races. I thought that was super important. I think it's a lot easier to say, hey, you guys are gonna stay home and and I'm gonna go and do the exact same thing, and it's gonna be the same. Um, but I wanted to bring Hazel, and so it became more of a family affair. Um, and I think with that, your race day probably changed more than mine did. Well, race day specifically, I think I remember. When you were racing. The feeling of going, the morning of Unbound felt incredibly simple because all I had to do that day was line up and race my bike 200 miles, um, which sounds like a crazy thing to say, but I think the days leading in were so crazy trying to figure out like when does she need to sleep? It's really hot. Like, is my incredibly translucent pale baby gonna get absolutely scorched? Like, why is she not eating food? Like, we're in a weird environment. Like, when, you know, and I think it's one of those your pre-race days trying to coordinate if phasel's gonna be part of something that I've planned. And when I don't know, I think it's one of those where you have almost felt like a single parent with me jutting around and kind of you know, needing our baby for certain things um and events, and then me giving her back and being like, Oh, I gotta go on this shakeout ride. Like, here's here you go.
JoeI I will say though, like, as as hard as my life is quite difficult. Very hard. Our baby is the best. She is the best. She puts up with so much.
IzYeah. We don't put her through that much.
JoeIt's not easy though. I think you you poo-poo it a little bit.
IzWell, I think it's hard.
JoeIf I if I was Hazel, I'd be not as I think you as an adult are tired. That's that's true.
IzIt's one of those every time we come home from traveling, Joe's like, man, Hazel's super tired. And I'm like, oh, Hazel's tired. Hazel seems fine. Hazel had a blast. Are you tired? I am tired. I think that change has been fantastic. You're like, ooh, sorry. I can't do that. The baby needs it.
JoeThe one thing that is is sad to me though, is she doesn't want to like snuggle when she sleeps anymore. She loves her bed by herself. Thank God. Thank God for you. For me, it's
Parenting Humor, Relationship Dynamics, and Communication
Joereally sad. And it's funny. But it's it is funny how when she was a baby, she would like fall asleep on you. Yeah. And now she's like, Thank you for me. Just put me in a group.
IzYeah.
JoeIt is funny.
IzIt's okay. I don't parents like the co-sleeping thing is a big topic for parents. Um I was really scared of it, especially initially, because they're very small. Um, so she slept in a bassinet next to us. Um, but we went through a phase where she only wanted to um contact Nap. And so like those days looking back, um it's an interesting, I think I miss them in certain ways, where like in the moment I was kind of like, my baby is sleeping on me and like feels the safest here, and I need to remember that. Um and now she fell asleep on me the other day, and I was like, oh my gosh. But it is one of those that now you're like, now every time that she falls asleep on me is probably or close to that, might have been the last time she ever does. And so it's one of those like you have to kind of in the moment kind of embrace it. But I was, I don't know, I reached the end of the internet after like a two-hour contact down that nap. But for a while we did try co-sleeping, and Joe loved it.
JoeI did I did like it.
IzYou loved it, and I liked it later.
JoeBecause I had I had my girls right there. Yeah. And I didn't have to worry about it.
IzYeah. And I would wake up at every moment and take sure she was breathing, and Hazel and Joe were just snuggled out just like.
JoeI don't want to say one of our bigger disagreements, bigger friction points in our relationship. It was a pretty big one.
IzIt's a pretty big one, especially when I was like, I'm just over here pumping and just being with the machine, and you can just snuggle with our baby. And we were like, yeah, it's great.
JoeBut like everything in our relationship.
IzWe compromised.
JoeWe compromised.
IzYeah.
JoeAnd did what you mean?
IzHazel sleeps in her bedroom. Yeah. And that's okay. I do remember that first night I was like, we gotta put her in her crib. And this was the choice was that she needed, she had outgrown the bassinet, and the crib was too big to move back and forth between our room and her room. It doesn't fit through the doorway, so she would have to sleep in her own room. And she was about six months old at this time. We had a bigger bassinet that she slept in, but she started not liking it, and that's why we were co-sleeping for a moment a while.
JoeI will say the the thing that also changed our life and no free ads, but the mat that we put in her room.
IzNo free ads. But there's a specific type of mat that we have that if you want to know, we'll let you know. Um It's awesome. But it's a memory foam mat that has replaced our rug in her room, and we all fall asleep on it very regularly, and then you just changed that changed a lot. It did too. But um But I still remember the first night we had her sleeping in her own crib and we were alone in our bed, and you had the baby monitor cranked up to 120%. It was like you could hear her sound machine. You could hear her breathing. I was like, Joe, do you mind like turning that down? You were like, no, what if my baby starts crying? And I was like, we'll be able to hear her. We can hear her like actually inhaling currently. Uh yeah. But I do remember that night she slept well, and I was like, yes. Justified. So yeah, it's uh it's about compromises and mostly doing uh what makes your wife cry less.
JoeYeah. It's not so much like happy wife, happy life, like less crying wife, happy life. Yeah, less crying wife, happy life, yeah. But I do think that my my day-to-day wasn't as impacted as yours. Yeah, I agree with that. Like, sure. I was tired and I still had to go to work, but it it's pretty easy to drink more coffee and you know, try harder.
IzI think that was an interesting mentality that I was super thankful you went into this entire thing that you were like, first of all, like how lucky are we that we have this baby, this thing that we wanted, and like the three of us are awake in the middle of the night when the rest of the world is sleeping, and like you had a very glass half full view on that, where you're like, it's kind of like a beautiful moment that you're never really gonna get back, where it's just the three of you are trying to figure it out, like you're definitely you're all trying to figure it out, like she's new, we're new. Um, and that was a really good mentality to have. And then the other thing that you always reminded me that you were kind of like, what's the worst that happens tomorrow? You're a little bit tired, like drink some more coffee, you'll be okay. And it was one of those where, like, I think times where you're like, I can't figure it out. Why is she not going back to sleep? Um, to have that reminder of like, what's the worst thing that happens? You're tired, um, was a good mentality to have. And I was super thankful that you had that because I think I get a little bit more flustered and overwhelmed. Um, and I think we're also
Reflections on Parenthood, Growth, and Future Plans
Izpretty good at like seeing when the other person is getting close to running on empty and kind of picking up the slack and taking that on as well.
JoeYeah.
IzUm, but yeah, I think it was a difference. Your life day to day didn't change, your nights changed a lot. Um, but your day-to-day life, like your life at work and your body didn't change. Yeah.
JoeI think the other thing too that made it easier was we recognized that everybody was trying their hardest.
IzYeah.
JoeAnd I think that there were times when you probably felt like I was slipping a little bit. Like Joe's like he's 95% there. But like when everybody's a hundred, like all in, Yumi and Little Baze, I I think it gets a lot easier because you're like, we're all trying.
IzYeah.
JoeLike what can you do?
IzAnd I think you you have to always keep give your partner the benefit of the doubt, because it's really easy to be like he's just giving it to me because I don't know, like I'm the mom or whatever. Um and I think both of us were pretty good at being like, okay, they're trying their hardest. Like if I've tried to get her to sleep for an hour, you're like, all right, my turn. You know, I'm up, you go back to sleep, things like that. And we've split the workload um kind of in a way that works for us, which I think is good.
JoeAaron Powell And one of the things that we have worked really hard on in our whole relationship is just trying to communicate to each other about little stuff that bugs us. And I think this has been a really good test of little stuff that bugs us. But but I I do think that that's prevented a lot of these little things from getting bigger.
IzYeah.
JoeSo whether it's like hey Joe, can you just like unload the dishwasher? Or can you take out the trash?
IzOr kind of honestly, the unloading the dishwasher has been so when I was early trimester, I had like super smell, I think it's called. And the idea, even like opening the dishwasher was like the most overwhelming thing. Grocery store. Grocery store, unbearable. Too many smells. Dishwasher, fridge, kind of like trash, conveniently trash. But at that time, Joe took over loading or unloading the dishwasher duties, and you have continued that. And now it's almost been two years, and I appreciate that.
JoeSo, what have been some of the biggest like little things that have improved improv I would say um me unloading the dishwasher? Fantastic improvement.
IzHuge improvement.
JoeUm the bottle washer is probably a big one.
IzYeah. We I kind of was like, it's not that annoying. Like we were washing bottles and pump parts and everything, and then we invest again. We're like, that's kind of expensive. It doesn't need to be $300, and now it's an everyday use. We're still using bottles. Um I think that was in a life improver for sure. Um I think the hormones, I've always poo-pooed hormones before. I don't know if I'm allowed to say that, but I always was kind of like, I don't know. I never really felt like PMS hormones, or even when I was pregnant, I didn't, you could probably connect me if I'm wrong, but I didn't feel kind of roller coaster y and all of them. I was perfect. Thank you so much. Just very even keeled. But I will say the early postpartum hormones were unlike anything I've ever experienced. And I think that was a roller coaster that I don't know.
JoeBut I would say the hormones the hormones are like it's easier for you to cry.
IzYeah. Or like it's just one of those where like I think I took a lot personally. Yeah. Like I think my favorite story when we were Hazel was super new, um and she was crying and crying and crying. And it's one of those, like, their digestive system has been using an umbilical cord, and then suddenly they're just drinking cream all day. Like I would also probably have a tummy ache. Um, and so we were trying to figure it out when she was crying and crying and crying, and you looked at me and you were like, What did you did you eat anything differently today? And I was like, Oh my God, you think that I did this to our baby? And it's one of those where you're like, I have one job, it's to make milk, and you think that I'm eating spicy food to like make our baby cry this much. And again, it's one of those where like you absolutely meant the best, and you were just trying to figure out why our baby was crying, and I was like, took it the most personal anyone could ever take it.
JoeI would say though, your behavior didn't change, it was just uh you're a little bit more sensitive.
IzYeah, it was uh kind of explosive at a any trigger point. Which I also think like you're tired, you're hormonal, like you're you're all kind of on edge and you're trying to figure it out. And I think in retrospect, like some very funny moments, but in the moment, not funny. Don't you dare suggest this was my fault.
JoeUm we got through it.
IzWe got through it. We're still here.
JoeYeah. Um So as we keep having these conversations, I think this was really helpful just to understand some of the more the finer points of our lives and as they've they've shifted. But I would say like all this has been really good. It's just been a little bit more challenging.
IzYeah. I think the point is like there's humor and growth and challenges. And I think like with this, I want to share hopefully you make people feel a little bit less alone, maybe laugh a little bit, um, connect with them and and kind of hopes to yeah. I think I enjoy I'm pretty open on social media. I share a lot about our lives. We joked about that you didn't choose to share a lot about our lives, but you've married into it, and now that's you are the topic of sharing sometimes. Um and you have your own little fan club. So if you want to tell them about your kettlebell routine to make your back hurt less, but thank you.
JoeBut it's working well. Teaser. How's it working? Yeah, that's next time.
IzNext time, okay. Next time we'll share kettlebell routines. One thing that Joe did say pretty initially was like, man, dads really need to like have like a pre-baby like workout routine. You're in very good shape, and I consider you very strong. Tell me more, tell me. Tell me more. Um but like your back and arms immediately like you go from not carrying anything to carrying around a what we started out as a seven-pound kettlebell, eight-pound kettlebell. And then now she's 25 pounds, and so and she's very wiggly. So it's one of those that like I think for the moms, I slowly got bigger and my stomach got bigger, so my back got stronger, and then she was actually lighter at the beginning, and so you just kind of like I've been joking, I've been carrying around a weighted vest that's like slowly progressively gotten harder and heavier, and you went from like zero to immediately eight pounds all the time, and then she's gotten, I think, heavier faster than your body is ready. It's true.
JoeDrinking cream.
IzDrinking cream all day. Liking cheese the best.
JoeSame.
IzYeah, also same. The dream. Just shredded cheese on everything.
JoeSo next time we'll talk about Halloween costumes that were considered. Yeah, that's important. It's important.
IzUm teaser. Well, we don't know yet, but we have some ideas.
JoeWe do have ideas. We'll we'll take suggestions. So it's good.
IzJoe's kettlebell routine, dad dad hacks, if you will. What you're finding out on the Reddit threads. Joe's parenting is pretty pretty much exclusively from the dad Reddit threads.
JoeGoogle what I'm asking and then Reddit. Reddit. Yeah. Yeah. And then you're like, I don't want to hear about this.
IzIt's worked well so far. She's alive. Yeah, she and we're still married, which is good.
JoeYeah, it's true. All right, until next time.
IzBye bye.