This week, Dr. Renee White is back for Check-In Tuesday, with her weekly dose of practical tips and light-hearted advice to make your parenting journey just a little smoother.

In this episode, Dr Renee talks about the power of staycations for busy parents. Perfect for when you need a break but can’t handle the thought of flights, packing, and travel chaos. She's sharing why a nearby escape might be just what you need to refresh without the stress.

You'll hear about:

• Top Family-Friendly Staycation Spots: Thanks to RACV membership perks, Dr. Renee has the scoop on amazing discounts at family-friendly resorts in Victoria, Queensland, and Tasmania.
• Perks of Staying Close to Home: More relaxation, less packing. A nearby escape offers all the benefits without the fuss.
• Built-In Fun for Everyone: From splash pools to family suites, these resorts offer a balance of fun for the kids and relaxation for you.

Dr. Renee also shares her favorite tips on making a staycation special, think grocery delivery to your room and simple ways to feel like you’ve had a true escape.

If you found this episode helpful, please subscribe and share it with a friend who might be facing similar challenges. You can also explore Fill Your Cup for more resources, from nourishing lactation cookies to doula services designed to support you in every step of your motherhood journey.

Want to be nurtured and nourished after the birth of your baby, have a peek at our doula offerings.

Learn more about Dr Renee White and Explore Fill Your Cup Doula Services 

If you want to gobble up our famous Chocolate + Goji lactation cookies, look no further!

Got questions or feedback? Reach out anytime at hello@ifillyourcup.com, visit ifillyourcup.com

Or join us over on Instagram @fillyourcup_

[00:00:27] I'm Dr. Renee White, and this is The Science of Motherhood. Hello and welcome to episode 149 of The Science of Motherhood. I am your host, Dr. Renee White. Thanks so much for joining me today. We have got a Check In Tuesday episode today, which is always bookended each week with a guest episode. You would have heard the amazing Alice last week talk about and demystify reflux.

[00:01:26] We have got, uh, An amazing international guest, uh, Dr. Magdalena Martinez Garcia. She is going to be talking about the latest cutting edge research on women's brains and how they change during pregnancy. We've got breastfeeding myths busted. We've got fertility treatments, and we also have an amazing episode and we don't normally do these, but we have got a fantastic insight. Uh, Dr. Siobhan Kennedy-Costantini is coming on the podcast and she's going to be talking about her own perspective and personal journey through postnatal depression, anxiety, and psychosis. So that is all coming up in our summer series over December, January, and February.

[00:02:46] And, um, we mostly play over in Instagram. So at @fillyourcup_ send us a message. topics, guests, anything you want us to dive into. Happy, happy to hear your suggestions. So as I said, today is a Check in Tuesday episode. It is me sharing a little tidbit, a little insight, something that I think is going to make your life brighter.

[00:03:43] Tricky from an economical perspective, like finances, like it's expensive having a baby, right? And so I'm going to be talking about staycations. Now my, I'm going to talk from a personal perspective. I love traveling. It is one thing that my husband and I love doing. And before we had our baby, we tried to do as much of it as we possibly could, because we knew that things were going to be a little bit limited once we had our child.

[00:04:39] And I'll have to say that this is not a sponsored episode. This is me just sharing the love. And if you can get in on the action as well, then let's go for it. I'm going to talk about a particular membership. that I stumbled upon. Now, for all those playing at home, before we lived in Tasmania, we were living in Melbourne and, um, I was an RACV member.

[00:05:30] Now you don't have to sign up as a full blown RACV car assist, uh, member to access this. You can just be a regular member. It's 55 for the whole year. And you get access to their resorts at a discounted price in Victoria, Queensland, and Tasmania. And there's, I'm just looking on their website, one, two, three, four, five, six resorts in Victoria, two in Queensland, including Noosa, which we hit up, and Tassie, the Hobart Apartment Hotel, which we stayed at, all the time, uh, when we traveled here to see friends and family. It's absolutely amazing. And just to give you a little bit of an insight, I just jumped on and I hit up Torquay Resort. It's on an 18 hole golf course, you get dining. So there's restaurants and like lots of facilities. I'm pretty sure there's a pool.

[00:07:19] Absolutely bananas. So, let me just bring it back, staycations become an absolute norm, I think, for parents because one, you don't really want to be getting on an aeroplane if you don't need to with small children. I mean, that may be your jam, but it's not my jam. Um, I, I didn't really want to be doing that.

[00:08:19] And the benefit of the buffet is that it doesn't matter if your kid inevitably does not eat what you put in front of them because you've just paid one price. It's not a menu a la carte item where you're thinking, Oh my God, I've just paid like $20 for these pancakes or scrambled eggs on toast. And my kid is just not eating anything.

[00:09:05] But then we would go to like the fruit section. She might try like, I don't know. cantaloupe or, you know, like one time they had when we were in Noosa, they had, um, dragon fruit. We would just put that on the high chair, see what she liked, see if she liked it. So it was a really great opportunity to try different food for her.

[00:09:49] The other thing that I loved was that when we went to Noosa, we got like this gorgeous little, um, ground level apartment. And I think we were there for like a week. And so, I actually ordered Woolies online because it was like a serviced apartment. So we had a whole bunch of food delivered on the first day, kind of, you know, that foundational stuff, some cereal, some snacks, some fruit, things that you can kind of take on the go.

[00:10:48] So this I think it's like one of those things where it's like, it's, I'm thinking, is this secret? Like, does anyone else know about this? I can highly recommend. We have stayed at the Torquay Resort. We've stayed at the Cape Shank Resort. We did the Healesville Country Club and Resort, which was amazing because Healesville Sanctuary was right next door.

[00:11:53] And one of the things I loved about the RACV resorts is that typically they had a room option where The main bedroom could be cordoned off somehow. So at the Hobart Apartment Hotel, there was a door that would slide across. It was a frosted glass door, but nevertheless, you could slide it across, you know, your child could go to sleep at whatever time it is.

[00:12:46] Now, what do we do for like the next couple of hours? So that was another added bonus that I absolutely loved. I also want to give a shout out to the kid's spaghetti. My husband absolutely loves the kid's spaghetti. He would always order people like, I think the people thought that we had two kids, one adult, me being the only adult, because my husband would always order the kids spaghetti off the menu, even though there was all like, you know, the grownup menu.

[00:13:37] We don't want to jump on an aeroplane. If you're in Victoria, Queensland, or Tasmania, consider getting yourself a membership for RACV. You can save a ton of cash just with a $55 annual membership. It's amazing. All right, everyone. If you end up going on one of these staycations, please DM me. I would love to hear about it.

[00:14:21] Bye.

[00:14:47] Head to our website, ifillyourcup.com to learn more about our birth and postpartum doula offerings, where every mother, we pledge to be the steady hand that guides you back to yourself, ensuring you feel nurtured, informed, and empowered. So you can fully embrace the joy of motherhood with confidence.