On episode 22, we have Jessica from San Diego, California who is a stay-at-home mom and sells active wear. She was 46 during her pregnancy and 47 when she gave birth to her third child.
Jessica recently married her high school sweetheart, so she thought she missed the opportunity to have kids together. She thought she was going through menopause, so she took a pregnancy test before going to the doctor. She went to her primary care doctor for the initial confirmation when she got a positive pregnancy test. She said she saw other staff in the office trying to get a glimpse of the pregnant 46-year-old in the office. She was relieved to hear they didn’t want to call it a geriatric pregnancy. She feels like this pregnancy was a second chance with her husband and really enjoyed and embraced it.
Being on the cusp of being an empty nester and then starting completely over was something I needed to wrap my head around.
Motherhood started for Jessica when she was 25. She has two older sons who are 22 and 19 years old. She wasn’t sure how she was going to tell them, and she worried what others would think of her pregnancy at 46. Her 19-year-old just moved out! She was just about to become an empty-nester, and now she needed to wrap her head around starting over again.
She says this was her first experience with morning sickness which lasted for almost the whole first trimester. She wanted bland food during those times. Jessica says she shocked herself with an amazing pregnancy, though. She says her doctors were on high alert because of her age, but even they were shocked how well it went. She doesn’t use any topical products on her skin, just a ton of coconut oil to be super minimal.
Finding out the sex during pregnancy is important to her. Jessica feels more bonded with her baby when she knows the sex and is able to name them. With already having two boys, she said she would be lying if she wasn’t hoping for a girl. Of course, she would have been happy either way. The additional testing she had done allowed her to know the sex from very early on. She was very happy to have a girl this time.
I feel like I was a lot more relaxed during this pregnancy.
In her 20’s, she felt overly prepared for her two boys. She bought all of the things! At 46, she says her and her husband are just winging it. She says they honestly don’t have room in their small beach house but knows everything is going to work out. She doesn’t think she needed half the stuff she had the first time around.
Jessica says she didn’t feel the need for classes this time, but she did reach out to a lactation consultant. The women in her family have typically bottle fed, and that’s how she fed her boys when she was younger. She says she didn’t have the education in nutrition back then that she does now. She had her breast implants removed and wanted to make sure she could breastfeed. The doctors were confident she was going to be able to breastfeed based on how her implants were put in and removed, but it would be a little trail and error to see.
She thinks having an exercise routine prior to her pregnancy made it much easier at 46. Up until the last few weeks, she maintained a good exercise routine by keeping her core strong. She says she did palates up until her belly got in the way. She lives near the beach, so she likes to take a lot of walks. She also lifts weights, but pretty light weights she says. She rode her Peloton until her belly was in the way, too. Towards the end of her pregnancy, she was pretty much just walking and doing some light weights, but moving her body everyday.
Jessica says at 25, her eating habits weren’t stellar, and she didn’t exercise. She gained 60 and 50 pounds with her first two pregnancies. At 46, she is a certified holistic nutritionist, and she’s been vegan for 12 years. She says her doctor supported her diet through her pregnancy. She eats really clean nutritional food and drinks a ton of water. She says her lifestyle is completely different now from her 20’s. Jessica had her 47th birthday during her pregnancy, and she only gained 25 pounds.
She craved the sweet things during pregnancy. She said she would bake or make homemade ice cream with bananas, dates and peanut butter.
She had an emergency c-section with her first and a scheduled one with her second. She says she didn’t get a chance for a birth plan of her own this time. She has fibroids and scar tissue from her previous c-sections, so the doctor was concerned about her going into labor naturally. Because everything was going so well, her doctor decided she would have her third c-section at 39 weeks unless she went into labor earlier. She says she had no complications this time and her daughter was born weighing 6.5 lbs.
My recovery this go-around was so much easier than when I had my boys in my 20’s. I am in totally different shape!
Jessica says recovery was easier this time at 47 than in her 20’s. Jessica believes she’s been able to recovery more easily because her core is stronger.
Breastfeeding has been great and says her daughter has been a champ. She latched on right away which she was concerned about. She is pumping and giving her bottles during the day, so she’s able to see how much she’s getting. Jessica feeds her from the breast at night. She says this routine is working for them instead of cluster feeding all day. She even says she’s used YouTube to troubleshoot.
Being five weeks into postpartum I feel really good.
Jessica lost her brother during this pregnancy which she said was the hardest part. She says she had a good support to keep her metal health in check. Being five weeks into postpartum she feels good but knows it can come on at any time. Her doctor asked her metal health questions which she felt like was not talked about when she was pregnant almost 20 years ago. She loves that her doctor spoke with her husband at the hospital about signs and symptoms of postpartum depression to watch out for.
Here are the topics we discuss in this episode:
- Pregnancy
- Diet
- Exercise
- Breast Implants
- C-section
- Postpartum
- Mental health
- Breast feeding
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