162. Maternity Leave Is Over! How It’s Going & What’s to Come

Sara Whittaker 0:01

to this overwhelming inbox of: 1000

So overall, that side of my business ran really smoothly. And I'm really happy with how things worked out the other side of my business as far as like the courses that I have, and being on social media and sending emails that just did not get done. I had plan to send eat to continue sending emails, you've probably might have heard me say this before, but I'm somebody who likes to write the email the week that it goes out. It just feels fresh it feels in the moment and it just feels good to me. And so I did not batch those before I went out. I knew that I most likely would not be showing up on Instagram. I had already planned that out. I was just that was just something I was just going to kind of like let go during maternity leave. And that definitely proved to be true. I did not post on Instagram. When we were finally back from the NICU. I did do one post explaining what was going on. And I popped on my stories here and there but not nearly as much as I thought I was going to and emails are non existent. I have not sent an email in months. I can't believe I'm that person. But here I am. And really it was because our life was like turned upside down with this Nick use day. And by the time we did get home I just it just wasn't. It wasn't a priority. And that's just the season that I was in and so I kind of just accepted that and I am getting back into it now and it's going to be okay. And in fact I'm going to do an episode next on on what kind of effect that had on my podcast downloads. So I did continue, as you might know, releasing weekly podcast episodes, because I had those bashed out well in advance. It wasn't something that I had to do during maternity leave, I already had all of that set. But I was not showing up on emails or social media. So I'm gonna kind of break down in another episode, what impact that had on my podcast. So stay tuned for that. Okay, so that's kind of how my leave went as a business owner overall, did I show up as much as I usually do when I am not away from my business? No, but I'm okay with that. And kind of went into this expecting that that would be the case. As far as what maternity leave was like, as a mom, it's been tough. It's been you know, we have another daughter, our daughter, Adeline is seven. And so it's been seven years since we've had a newborn, and it is 100% more challenging when you have another child in the mix, going from one to two. You know, there's there's definitely pros and cons. I mean, I think a great thing about having a second child is that I kind of already knew what to expect in the newborn phase. But it's hard, especially because it's been summer. And so my oldest is out of school, she's home, she's old enough where she wants to be doing things all the time, she wants to be out of the house, she wants to be playing with her friends. And so that forces me to be out of the house with a newborn, much more than I normally would want to be. So that has definitely been a challenge. But we're getting through it one day at a time, I have definitely been reminded how much I thrive on routines. And a newborn doesn't exactly share my joy of routines, especially, you know, at this young age, those first few months, they're not necessarily on a set schedule, they're eating all the time. And so I've definitely been challenged to go with the flow. Because each day is a little bit different. And as much as I would love to be that person that goes with the flow and loves to go with the flow, I'm not that person. I really do love my routine. So it's been challenging, but like I said, we're getting through it. And, and honestly, it's been good for me, it's been good for my type a self to be forced to be okay with having a little bit of a different schedule every day. And, and knowing that, that can happen, we can do that we can have these different schedules every day and things are still going to be okay, it's gonna be okay. So some things that have really helped me during this postpartum season with a newborn is to prep whenever I can. So in those small pockets of time, I am thinking, especially like, you know, at nighttime or in the afternoon, like what can I do to make tomorrow easier for myself, I can scoop out my coffee into my coffee machine and fill up the water. So that in the morning, I just have to push the button and my coffee's ready and even have my mug right there. So my coffee's my coffee is ready. I can fill Adalind water bottle the night before and put it in the fridge so that when we have to wake up for summer camp the next day, I can just grab it and go, she has been doing some half day camps, which is a whole nother conversation. By the way. That is something I will not be doing next summer half day camps. She's had these camps that are like 9am to 12. And by the time you get them there, and then you pick them up. It's just really made your day that much more hectic and really just made it that much more choppy. And so we will not be doing half day camps next year, I think I would rather have less camps, maybe less days of camps, but full day instead of half day. Just a little side note, I don't know if anybody can relate to that. But half day camps have really, really thrown me for a loop this summer. So I can get my coffee ready, I can fill the water bottle and get her snack I can lay out her clothes and my clothes. So anything that I can do that's going to make my future self say Oh, I'm so grateful for yesterday, Sarah, for doing this so that it just makes things a little bit easier in the morning. Something else that's really helping me is to have a little daily to do list with a rank of urgency. And this isn't anything like formal that I spend time on. I just I always have like my notes app out. And for me, I'm a list maker. It makes me happy. It calms me to just get things out take 30 seconds and say okay, this is like what I need to do. You know, there's things in the back of your mind like I need to pay this bill or I need to return this thing at Target or I need to grab a chicken for dinner or Whatever, getting it out of my brain and into my notes app, it just helps me so much. So taking 30 seconds at the beginning of the day, and jotting down what I really want to get done with a rank of urgency. So maybe yeah, I've really wanting been wanting to return this shirt to target. But if I don't have time for it today, or if it doesn't make sense for us to go to Target today, I don't necessarily have to do it today. If you are listener of the lazy genius podcast, it's one of my favorite podcasts, she talks a lot about this idea of like Ranking Things, she calls it half to dues. And I think this is what she calls it, things you have to do and things you hope to do. So kind of breaking that up. Like I said, just in my notes app, really helps me to feel some sort of control over the day. I don't know if that sounds crazy or not, but it helps me a lot. So if you are in this crazy season, maybe consider kind of ranking, your things that you have to do and things that you hope to do each day. And that that's a mix of things with business and personal as well. And then the other thing that has really, really helped me during this season is gratitude, I have really been majorly leaning into practicing gratitude. And this might sound a little like woowoo. And I'm not a woowoo person. But truly, if you've never leaned into this practice, I really encourage it like even on the toughest of days when I haven't had any sleep. And I'm wondering how in the world, I am going to jump back into work with a newborn at home, taking a minute to be grateful that we are no longer in the NICU, that we have a roof over our heads that we are healthy, that I have a cold coke zero and the fridge that I can take out and have in the middle of the day. And it tastes so good because it's 100 degrees outside, like these little tiny things, taking a moment to just think about these things that you're grateful for or even I know a lot of people will have a gratitude journal has really made a big impact on my life this summer. And I know like this idea may be for you or may not be for you. But give it a try. Just give it a try. And see I really think I've even read that there's like science behind this of how much of an impact practicing gratitude can have on your, on your attitude and on your mental health.

So as far as like what's to come, I'm really unsure of what work is gonna look like for the next several months. And that pains me to say, but that's just the honest truth right now. That's where we are. I am not putting lily in childcare at this time. That was something that was really important to me is that I wanted to have both I wanted to be able to continue running my business, but also be home with my baby, because that's not something that I had with our oldest daughter. And that may change down the road and I'm open to it changing but for now we're just gonna write it out. We're gonna see how the rest of this calendar year goes, I will check back in with you and let you know how that's going. I know it's not gonna be easy, but I do think it's possible. And I also know that this is not forever this this season that feels difficult is not forever and there's so much beauty in this season. At the same time. I am going to be you know, working during naps might be working at night, my husband gets home fairly early from work. So we might be doing some some swapping when he gets home he's on kid duty I'm going to work we'll see how it plays out. It feels difficult, but it's also forcing me to be very intentional with limited work time, which is hopefully going to help with productivity. Plus adilyn start school in about a week and so we'll be able to be in more of a routine and I'll find my groove we'll get there. As far as what's to come with this podcast podcast is still going to continue my routines and my schedule for recording is going to look much different than than it did before I will probably be doing more solo episodes than guest episodes I will probably not be doing much batching but I am going to always continue to stay ahead of when episodes needed to air like I always like to be a few weeks ahead so that is the plan to to keep up with that. I am feeling the desire to make some changes to the podcast in terms of structure and maybe even a little bit of a rebrand I haven't entirely thought all of the details through yet but stay tuned for that because there might be some some subtle shifts happening with the podcast that that feels really exciting. So we'll see one edition that I know I am going to start is at the end of every episode I'm going to share something that I am loving and something that I'm listening to. I love when podcasters do little segments like this I always find really good recommendations. And I just like to hear, you know, personal details like this. It's fun to talk podcasts. It's fun to talk business. But I also think it's it's fun to hear a little bit about personal life and, and all of that. So let's get into what I'm loving right now, other than being a podcaster, and a producer. I'm also a mom and a business owner. So in each episode, I'll be sharing something that I am currently loving that supports one of these roles. So today's thing that I am loving is probably not going to excite you if you're not a parent with a small child. But what I am absolutely loving right now and grateful for like we talked about earlier with gratitude is I have this fold up changing table that we keep in our living room. We did not do this with our first daughter, this is a gift that I got at my baby shower, a friend got this for me. And it is the best thing ever. Literally everybody who walks into our house is like, wow, that is amazing. That is genius to have this in your living room. It's gray. It's not ugly, it fits in with the other decor, like it's not this big eyesore, but we just have it in the corner. And it has pockets that we can put diapers and wipes and burp cloths and extra changes of clothes. And it has space on the bottom for storage. And you can fold it up if you want to, but we just keep it out in the corner. And it has just been a lifesaver, honestly, because it's just a nice place that you have to change the baby without having to go upstairs to her nursery. It's just there. It's easy to clean. It's amazing. So if you are somebody who has a baby or you are on the lookout for a good gift for somebody who might be pregnant right now, I'm going to put the link in the show notes because it's glorious. It would be like the best present for somebody who's expecting. Alright, moving on to what I'm listening to. So at the end of each episode, I'm going to share something that I'm listening to could be a podcast could be an audio book could be a new album, that's out. But today I wanted to share a recent podcast episode that I listened to a very specific episode. And I already mentioned the lazy genius a few minutes ago, but this is an episode from the lazy genius podcast it is episode 369. It's called the snack episode. And if you are a parent, honestly, even if you're not a parent, you'll appreciate this episode for yourself too. I actually took some things away from my own snacking. But it is summertime and my oldest is seven. It's the first summer where snacking has become a problem I didn't I didn't know that this was a thing until this summer. And I've been very validated because I've heard a lot of other parents talking about this this summer, too. But you would think that these kids have never eaten before or that they're not fed. This snacking is out of control. My daughter's at that age, she has a lot of close friends. We've had a lot of friends over with her after her half day summer camps. And the snacking is out of control. I feel like every two minutes, it's kind of it's not kind of it's not gonna have a snack. And so this episode, Episode 369 of the lazy genius podcast has truly saved my life. In terms of managing the snacking, it gives so many good ideas that I actually took and implemented. And it's working beautifully to manage the snacks and not make you absolutely crazy during the summer. So if you're somebody who needs some snack solutions, go check that out. I will link that episode in the show notes. All right before we go, and this turned into a much longer episode than I expected, I thought it was gonna be like 10 minutes. Here we are not 10 minutes. But before we go something else new that I would love to try relates to podcast reviews. If you have not left a review on this podcast and you are enjoying this podcast, I would love for you to head to Apple podcast, it's going to take you 30 seconds, it's not going to take long at all. leave a review for this show. If you've already left a review, you might not know this, but you can actually edit your review. And you can add something to it. Okay, so here's what's new that I'm going to try. If you're a podcaster if you have your own podcast, and you leave me a review, put the name of your podcast in your review. And I will go and listen to your podcast. I promise I will do this I will actually listen to your podcast and then leave you a review. So it's kind of like a review swap. Well not kind of it is it is a review swap. You leave me a review. I will go and take a listen to your show and leave you an honest review. So you can do that on Apple podcast. Leave me your feedback, leave me a review and sign it with your name and your podcast name and I'll do the same for you. If you've already left a review before like I said, you can edit it and you can add the name of your podcast And if you're somebody who doesn't have a podcast yet, but you're listening and you're maybe thinking about starting a podcast, or maybe you're, you're just listening to listen, you can still leave a review. And you can also ask me a question in your review, and I will answer it in an episode. So let's try that out. All right, I got through this episode. Lily is still sleeping. Hallelujah. We did it. We did it. Friends. I'll see you next week. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. To keep this conversation going connect with me on Instagram at podcasting for educators. I'm always looking for an excuse to talk about podcasting. If you're looking for support and launching, managing or growing your podcast, check out my online course the podcasting for educators prep school at podcasting for educators.com/prep school. I'll see you here next time.

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