The 4th Trimester: A Year in Review Part 2

As you probably gathered from Part 1 of this journey, during my 4th trimester I made it my mission to do whatever I could for my mental health and wellness. Did I succeed? I don’t know – ask my husband. Do I feel like I did everything I could to make it as easy as possible? Jury’s still out but I truly believe so. That’s because I enlisted the help of brands that have disrupted the space – for every tension I experienced, I looked for a brand to save my sanity. The best way to show you how this unfolded is to give you a history of my consumer journey with these brands because there’s nothing like diligence, in-situ – so here it is….

It all really started with Clue. My husband and I were ready to start a family and I wanted a way to track my cycles and ovulation aside from just peeing on sticks. Through clue I was able to do all AND do a gut check on my emotions, sleep, energy, and even skin. I understand that you can now do this in the Apple health app 👏 After a year filled with fertility ups and downs, including 2 miscarriages, I fortunately became pregnant. I cautiously and optimistically started to move into the next phase of being pregnant and thought – I wish there was something out there that could help connect me with other soon to be, same stage moms. You guessed it – there was! In walks Peanut. It’s like Tinder for moms. Mom match-making… momatching™? I set up a profile and I was on my way to swiping through and matching with other soon to be moms. It is still where I go every time I have an “is this normal” question and I’ve gained some mom-friends along the way.

For me, exercising was crucial but when the pandemic hit and kettlebells and weights were sold out everywhere. I needed an alternative to the gym and that’s when I found Expecting and Empowered through a recommendation from my friend. I used their program all the way through their postpartum guide. Along with fourth trimester body struggles comes shopping for clothes. At first – I was going into work and doing the ole hair tie around the waist button/belly band trick. Then March came around and I suddenly found myself stuck at home in sweatpants everyday which, let’s be honest, is the best possible scenario for someone that was in their third trimester. So I invested in a pair of BLANQI maternity leggings – the compression was 🙌. It was my quarantine uniform. In addition to that, I invested and was gifted items from HATCH. Pregnancy luxury – I still wear my dress from there many months PP. They win.

But then I met the women of Nyssa and tried their FourthWear™ it was like the PP underwear gods had spoken. Their FourthWear™ felt like the most comfortable high-waisted bathing suit bottoms that you could wear around all day and it was glorious. Thank you, ladies.

Then came one of the hardest and least discussed topic – breastfeeding. “Fed is best.” “Your mental health matters.” “Do what’s best for you.” All things you tell yourself you’re going to practice when the time comes but when things don’t go the way you thought they would you tend to forget those affirmations. Unfortunately, I forgot them – I battled with getting a good latch no matter how many lactation consultations and things I tried. So I exclusively pumped with a (fortunately) healthy supply for about 6 months.

I wish I had tapped into some brands out there that provided more support in the above instance but here I am, giving those affirmations to moms alike. After I started calling my hospital grade breast pump “the old ball and chain” I knew I needed something to keep me sane – so I purchased the Elvie hands-free pump. It was the sanity I needed – I could make a sandwich, empty the dishwasher and go to the bathroom all while pumping. This was HUGE. With breastfeeding comes the monitoring of supply… enter Majka. I ate the bites, poured the powder, and overnighted the overnight oats. In the end, not sure if it helped as my supply started to decrease largely due to the fact that I was hitting month 3 of my breastfeeding journey and a regulated supply was at the forefront.

Lastly, people tell you that your hair falls out during PP but they don’t tell you HOW MUCH. So in an effort to save the locks, I sought out a new hair regimen and a few IG served ads later, Prose and Needed collagen protein were delivered. I’m still using this regimen and if it’s not helping it’s at least Prose is giving me the feeling of luxury when I maybe get the time to shower. Keyword = maybe.

It’s crazy to think about all of the things that I experimented with and tried. Do I feel like I had a relationship with any of the brands as a new mother? Not really… except for maybe the sanity dependency I had for my Elvie. But my advice is to try it all – what works for one person’s sanity may fail for another. Mom’s out there, dabble. Dabble because these brands rose up on a mission to make a mother’s, heck, a parent’s life easier – and YOU DESERVE IT! But there’s still work to be done out there. A mother’s mental health is the most important piece of the puzzle and there’s the opportunity for a brand to grab it by the baby bottles and simply help.