This is an All-Ears English Podcast.
How to talk with someone about their new baby.
[♪ INTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Welcome to the All-Ears English Podcast.
Downloaded more than 200 million times.
Are you feeling stuck with your English?
We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection.
With your American hosts, Lindsey McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York Radio girl, coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA.
And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allyearsenglish.com forward slash subscribe.
[♪ INTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Even if you're not a parent or if you are, there are certain vocabulary words that come up around being a new parent.
Listen in for conversation starters to build connection today.
[♪ INTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ INTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Hello, Michelle.
How's it going today? Good.
Lindsey, how are you? Good.
Today is a Saturday. This episode is at one of our sassy Saturday episodes.
Yes. So fun. We love them.
Yes. Yes. So I'm curious.
Maybe your listeners are going to a yoga class or maybe someone's going to meet a friend, whatever you're doing.
I hope it is a nice and relaxing weekend.
Yes. Yes. Do you know anyone who's recently had a baby?
Yeah. I have a few friends who recently had a baby in the last year or so for sure.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's exciting.
Yeah. Well, we have a listener who recently had a baby.
And we, yeah. So we're going to answer a listener's question in an episode relating to babies.
So we're talking about babies today.
But again, I don't want somebody to hear babies and then think, oh, that's not for me.
Right? Lindsey, this is going to help you connect with many different people.
This always comes up, right?
Exactly. And this is not necessarily for the people having a baby, right?
This is not what that's about.
This is actually for the people of the friends of the people having a baby.
Exactly. You want to talk to your friend who had a baby.
Yeah. So I don't try this off.
If babies are not in your future, it is for everyone today.
I love it. And the question comes from Kske, who I believe I've met Kske on a call once a while ago.
And he's been a long time listener of Aller's English, which we love that.
Kske says, this is Kske.
I've been listening to Aller's English for five years.
Even after I came back to Japan, because I think he used to live in the US.
I still keep listening to your podcast all the time.
And then he says, I had a baby in May.
It would be great if you could provide an episode focusing on baby or kids English.
But today we're actually flipping it around.
And we're showing, what can we say to the person who just had a baby, right?
Right. I mean, it's really both.
It can be used in a lot of different ways.
But we're basically just teaching expressions, dealing with babies that are definitely good for talking to people or expressing your own situation.
But this is a great question.
And also congrats on the baby.
That's so exciting. Maybe you're listening to us while you're rocking your baby, Dysly.
Are youngest allers English listener?
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Well, thank you so much for listening.
Guys, before we get into this, we want to remind you, we had a good episode.
Episode 22, 25 was, are you saying end then too much?
So I think that was an episode with Aubrey probably.
Yeah, listen to find out if you're saying it too much.
And what to say instead?
Yes. OK. OK, so we're going into babies.
So these are specifically words and expressions.
Dealing with a pretty young baby.
So you're going to hear these words very often in English.
Again, if you don't have a baby, these are still for you because you should be connecting with everyone, including new parents.
And as you get to a certain age, it's going to, even if you don't have kids, pretty much a lot of your friends are going to have kids.
They're going to start to build their family.
So you're really going to want to have these phrases to communicate with native speakers for sure.
Yes. Exactly, exactly.
Good stuff. So all right, should we get into it?
Lindsay, what's the first one?
This is such a classic probably an old term, right?
I think it's been around forever.
So bundle of joy. When is your bundle of joy coming?
So that means the baby, obviously.
Yeah. Somebody, somebody, somebody always will just do, oh, bundle of joy about baby.
Yeah. Yeah. If it feels right, this is a little bit animated.
Well, if this feels like it reflects your personality to use this term, use it if not, we have other options for you.
OK. Right. You don't just say it in a way that doesn't acknowledge that it's a little bit unique.
Right. You don't just say, oh, how's the bundle of joy?
Correct. Right. You got to put something into it.
You're using it for a reason.
You're being cute, you know?
Stuff in your voice a little bit, right?
Baby kind of like gestures, that sort of thing.
Yes. Agreed. What's the next one?
Newest edition or new edition?
I guess newest edition feels right.
How's the newest addition to your family?
Yeah. So the person that was born.
And I guess if it's a first child, it would be new edition.
But new edition makes me feel like it's a magazine edition, edition of a magazine or something.
I don't know why it feels wrong, but it's a wrong word.
Edition with E. Right. Right, right, right.
Well, that's a good point.
So about here, we're thinking about the person that you're adding to your family.
I believe that. Yeah, but that could be like that as well.
The next one is, well, we have two really.
And actually these are not the same.
So newborn and infant. So a newborn, I'm just looking it up now because I guess I should have.
I can't remember. A newborn is younger than a new born.
Just in my Google search is a baby from birth to about two months of age, I quote.
Okay. Okay. Whereas an infant is from the time they're born until they reach one year old.
I see. Okay. I was wondering what the cutoff was.
So those are two different stages of life, right?
So just get to know that vocabulary guys.
So she has a newborn. So she's not getting any sleep.
Oh, yeah. Gosh. I guess, I guess also refers to newborn because they're both from birth, but you don't say newborn after two months, you would then say, okay, so it's like, infant is the umbrella term, right?
Yeah, for the really little one, I guess.
Yeah. Interesting. But I think people honestly use them interchangeably.
Kind of. I don't think anyone will say, wait a second, she's two months and two weeks.
No, it's not like that. The next expression that we're going to teach, this is a big one, is sleeping through the night.
So that's what you, in my understanding, a lot of people when they have a new baby, somebody will ask them about, oh, are you getting any sleep?
Are you sleeping at all, right?
Do you ask people that? Yeah, sometimes I do.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, because you know that's a common symptom of being a new parent.
Right? Yeah, yeah. So typically when we say sleeping through the night, we're talking about, it might not be sleeping through the whole whole night, but just for a night's long stretch of time, like maybe six hours, it's sleeping through the night.
I don't know technically, they cut off for sleeping through the night, but just not two hours, right?
Yeah. So you could say, oh, my baby started sleeping through the night at about six months old.
Yeah. The reason this is, you know, this is just a phrase you hear more often around new parents and newborns, right?
This is the phrase that's used.
Sure, you could use it talking about at any age, your sleep, how well you sleep, but it's often used in this world.
Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah.
Exactly. And the witching hour, I like this witching hour.
Oh, no, it's the witching hour.
He's so fussy. What is witching hour?
Oh, okay. So witching hour, I think most babies have this.
It's just that this time of day, usually right before dinner, I believe that the baby is just inconsolable.
And you don't know why they're crying and you don't know what to do.
And it's just witching hour.
And I think it even happens a little bit with older kids.
It's just that you're just trying to make it through the rest of the day and go a little bit, right?
I feel that sometimes. Yeah, exactly.
Exactly. I'll have a witching hour, don't we?
I mean, can't we have a witching hour, too?
I want a witching hour, yes.
Exactly. That's so funny.
Oh, yeah. So yeah, witching hour, that's a real thing for sure.
And then I think fussy is also a common term for referring to a child, maybe a kid, but really babies, right?
Crying all the time. That's everything.
Also good term. Oh, they're fussy.
Yeah, I mean, there's so many words.
So we wanted to give you a few of them today.
So yeah, those are some of the words for today.
Nice. Okay, Michelle. So which of these do you like?
Which of these phrases, you know, is it the witching hour?
The concept of sleeping through the night is my favorite.
Of course, I enjoy that.
But yeah, I guess the witching hour is always fun to relate to people with.
Yeah. I remember when my son was born and I remember Dan coming home and I would just hold him up and just see here.
And I would go and take a shower.
Wow. The hardest day of the day.
Yeah. I bet. I bet 100% witching hour.
Yeah, I like that one too.
It's kind of fun to relate to the fact that anyone could have a witching hour at any age and you can start a connection in English over this topic.
Right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I feel a little fuzzy at 5 p.m.
6 p.m. Yeah. Ready to go.
Ready to eat. Ready to just relax.
Yeah. Good enough of whatever you've been doing all day.
Right? And you just want to change your environment, go do something different.
I got it. I got it. Yeah. So, should we do a role play Lindsay to show how to put all this together?
Yeah. Yeah. So here we're talking about our friend who just had a baby.
So that's another way you would find a connection.
So it's friend A had a baby but then friend B and C talked to each other about the new right?
So a lot of dimensions of connection here.
Right. So. Yes. Oh, have you met Piper's newest addition?
Oh, no, not yet. I haven't spoken to Piper for more than two minutes.
I'm sure she's exhausted with a newborn at home.
More than two minutes. Okay.
So yeah, she will probably be exhausted at least until the baby's sleeping through the night.
Yeah. And I'm sure it's also tough because of the witching hour.
Yes. But I have seen pictures.
What a bundle of joy. Oh, I know.
Completely adorable. Yeah.
That phrase bundle of joy.
It just doesn't resonate for me for my personality.
You know what I mean? So that's okay.
It just doesn't feel right.
It just feels a little too.
I don't know. I'm not sure.
Yeah, cheesy maybe. Yeah.
Well, I do think that maybe bundle of joy could also be something you see on a card.
Yeah. To horror. Yeah. The gram, the gram parents might be using that more.
Totally. When you're in it, I would imagine.
I don't know. You have the experience.
But when you're in the thick of it, bundle of joy is maybe not the first word that comes to mind.
When you're just dealing with everything, you've got like vomit on your shoulder and all the things.
Maybe your eyes will be late.
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. That's good times.
But yeah. So, you know, consider if you want to use that one or not.
Just know it's a little bit cheesy, but everybody will know what it is.
So nice. I love it. Okay.
So I said, so have you met Piper's newest addition?
Right? And then you said I haven't spoken to Piper for more than, did you mean more than two months or more than two months?
Don't have many minutes.
Yeah. Like, right. Yeah.
I'm trying to get her on the phone, but a new mom can't talk very much.
At any given moment, you can't be on the phone longer than two minutes.
I say, yes. Yes. Yes. And then I said, I'm sure she's exhausted with a newborn at home.
So I used a newborn not infant.
Yeah. Wow. Okay. Yes. And then she'll probably be exhausted at least until the baby is sleeping through the night.
Right. And I said, I'm sure it's also tough because of the witching hour.
And I also think that's powerful because if we're just talking about babies, any event that everyone goes through is kind of a scientific thing can be a moment of connection in conversation.
Yeah. Yeah. Any life stage or any kind of thing that people just happens to everyone, that can be a source of connection.
So that's what I like. Yeah.
Oh my gosh. This really brings me back to having little babies.
But I'm so excited for our listener, Kiske, and just very, you know, enjoy the adventure.
And I hope you're sleeping through the night.
And I mean, while you're baby is sleeping through the night, and if not, then I hope you're we can maybe accompany you.
Maybe we should be singing a lullaby to the baby.
Go to sleep, baby. Go to sleep.
Yeah. And I think this is exciting this episode because I think that maybe I've never happened to me, but it could be isolating.
It could feel isolating having a newborn at home at times.
But this is giving you the language, the words that you could connect with a neighbor.
You could invite a neighbor over for a few minutes.
These might be the words that a native speaker might use to ask you about your experience.
Yeah. So we can get out of that isolation, maybe.
I don't know what to do about that.
Yeah. I totally agree. It can't be very, very isolating.
I mean, there's so many things we can do to follow up on this topic.
But yeah, in the beginning, it's very isolating.
It's really then you got to get your mom crew.
You got to make friends.
And that's when you got to go to groups.
And there's all sorts of things you can do so that you can feel like you're not alone because it's interesting.
I love that. I love that.
All right. Good stuff. Very interesting, Michelle.
And we will see you on another episode.
All right. All right. Bye, guys.
All right. Thanks for listening to All Ears English.
Would you like to know your English level?
Take our two-minute quiz.
Go to all earsenglish.com forward slash fluency score.
And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything.
See you next time.
