This is the Pursuit of Wellness podcast, and I'm your host, Mari Llewellyn.
Nice studio. We're dusting it off.
Thanks. You just dusted it off.
You just did an episode.
I know. How does it feel to see me at the office?
I've had a cloud of anxiety that I didn't really know why I had it.
But I knew you were anxious for your day.
A little bit. It's like first day of school, but...
Yeah, you just had summer break.
Yeah. So what was announced on episode one?
That I'm pregnant. And I told the story.
The HCG story. That was crazy.
Yeah, crazy. It was like I was remembering it.
Like going through it and saying it all out loud.
I was like, wow, that was really the worst thing ever.
Like if you guys haven't listened to my episode titled I'm Pregnant, go back and listen because I think it would give a lot of context as to what we're talking about.
But yeah, they know I've been gone for two months.
experience I've essentially kind of been like a hermit no social media I was like watching YouTube shorts I had no idea what was going on in the world Greg was like filling me in kind of I loved it I mean for context obviously like the biggest one of the biggest blessings in my life has been being able to have a career with my wife as Bloom has turned into this megalodon of a beast it has become much more than just Mari and I running Bloom of course or at least operating bloom.
And it has been nice to experience a slightly traditional relationship in the sense of having separate responsibilities.
I don't know. It's been a nice two months.
It's been a nice two months, like seeing you just happy and content at home, which I think is a huge reason for the success of this pregnancy thus far.
I know it's been really nice.
And I kind of always knew I'd want to take a break at a certain point, but it is kind of crazy because if you think about it since 2017 i don't think i've taken one significant break like this ever you've taken off more than three days no at least especially like not like literally deleting social media and your connection to the world i mean i remember like you didn't even know like the met gala was not that i didn't know the met gala was happening i didn't know the pope died yeah big news like i didn't know yeah that like you just assume everyone kind of knows and then i would listen to the podcast
a podcast to a date and be like oh my god you didn't tell me it was met gala that's so funny like it it was really crazy how disconnected I was actually it was the saddest part was like if I saw a really funny meme I didn't even want to show Mari because I didn't want to like give you that hit and break your your sobriety I wasn't interested honestly no no you weren't I've read so many books I didn't mention that on the episode I've read all I've been doing is reading no you explained it really well like explaining like the experience of a kindle versus a book oh yeah i wasn't even aware that i
was like almost done with the book i think i read like four books in the past two months it's almost like as we're watching a series of tv shows yeah and you don't even know you're on the last episode and then it's just over one day because you don't feel like the book getting thinner and thinner yeah and then you just go okay next one you only like run to barnes and nobles and get another book but it was also really nice being in like because i'm reading the queen of shadows series the girls who get to get it and um and being in like a fantasy world was really nice because I feel like now I'm
in a good place but a lot of our journey was very anxiety provoking we were super stressed social media at its core is like compare yourself to everyone else and I'm fully on this algorithm of like IVF girls and fertility girls which I love and perfect pregnancy girls well yeah that's everywhere like I was just saying on my solo episode how this whole town is pregnant well no I didn't say that actually but yeah our whole neighborhood is pregnant it's crazy we live in like a stroller capital of the world yeah we're all like very similar to me like just weeks and months apart from me which is amazing
it's such a blessing but there's all this like discourse on the internet right now about you know the clip I'm talking about it creates like this wild mental game where like even if you you see people in your community who are having like the amazing experience of life of fertility and procreation.
Something that you would normally just love and love to see.
And it's a beautiful thing.
You just by nature have like this sense of jealousy and why not me?
And I don't want to say negative thoughts towards other people's magic.
No, it's not that. It's just when you're in that that that really fragile time before a transfer or after a transfer like i would see a girl say this is my third transfer and i'm like oh man like do i have to go through this three times like you automatically just apply other people's experiences to your own and i didn't want to go into it with this like fear or anxiety like i wanted to be as calm as possible and i knew to do that i would have to not look at other people's stuff have you explained to the podcast what what your actual retrieval experience was.
Yes. Like Mari does not respond well to anesthesia, passed out, like crawling on the floor.
Told them everything.
Pretty, pretty dirty experience.
No, I have a whole episode on it.
So the idea of potentially needing to do that again was horrifying with the weeks of recovery that that required.
No, I literally said to the doctor, I can never do an egg retrieval again.
Which supposedly was a very unique experience, but does not mean that we wanted to do it again.
Most painful experience of my life.
Speaking of fantasy world from your book, I have a theory around IVF.
So we had several embryos.
They're ranked. Let's just say they're ranked good, good, good, fair, fair, fair, fair, fair.
And you can like, you can quite literally choose.
You could choose which gender and which ranking you want to do.
We didn't choose our gender.
I just want to say that.
Like we went into it not knowing the gender.
I told them to not tell me.
Yeah, we didn't know until two weeks ago.
We didn't know until two weeks ago.
but we picked i knew i had i'm just gonna say it we had two of the same gender and one that was different and we picked the better grade of the two that were the same does that make sense like we had three embryos that got through genetic testing i've never said that but i feel like now that i'm out of it i can say it yeah and we were we were lack of a better word satisfied and they said both genders were represented two of them are the same gender one of them are a different one And we picked one of the two that were the same And we picked the good, good grade, like the best grade And the other
two are frozen At basically three weeks of development Yeah Which is mind -blowing Like Mari could wait a decade And we can implant one of these frozen in time Three week old embryos No, I told them about how they handed me the picture Like the day of the transfer I think was the craziest day of my life Oh yeah, we have a photo of these frozen embryos Yeah, on the fridge insane it was the watching myself get impregnated was the craziest experience of my life i was in the room i was i think we were both just like oh my god crazy it was crazy i mean it was in a full it was in a full like you know
like i've never been in one of these rooms other than being in legitimate so i guess it is legitimate surgery like you're in an you're in an operating room really scary stainless steel scary operating room and yeah i'm just watching on the screen and I guess you're watching on the screen as they impregnate Mari.
Crazy. Like everyone was like, how did Greg find out?
And I was like, there was no secrets here.
No surprises. I mean, obviously I don't have anything to compare it to, but I still feel like it was a super like magical, we left a lot of things up to chance.
We didn't play God on too many factors here.
Like we were still full of surprises and delight and, you know?
I told the story of how we found out with that phone call, like on the walk.
That was nuts. What was your experience of that?
We didn't know when they were going to call us.
So, so much of this whole IVF journey has just been like this crazy waiting game of like, all right, blood tests.
Then you wait five days for the results.
Embryo tests, then you wait five days for the results.
Embryo retrieval and like how healthy, how many do you get?
And then how many actually like survive out of the retrieval?
Waiting five days for the results.
So we've been like just, we were just used to this holding our breath, can barely even focus on anything else, waiting game experience.
experience and so this was kind of the climax of the whole weight yeah um combined and so yeah we were just on a walk trying to distract ourselves yeah and we received the phone call and they and they told us it's successful which was amazing but that again we kind of thought we were out of out of the woods so then 48 hours later we received a call that there's a one percent chance that it's actually going to make it because maria's hdg was dropping yeah and so you know obviously i'm on chat gpt we're reading every forum mari's i mean rightfully so freaking out but i was like all right if the doctor said
one percent that's all mari's ever needed to do anything so mari's like we're like barefoot on the ground running to an acupuncturist trying every every holistic and science forward method we're like mari's shining herself with red light trying to like bring warmth and blood flow to the whole area um no i have a distinct memory of sobbing crying in front of the red light we're chugging we're chugging like this super bone broth oh my god i forgot about that it was so we were doing everything on the sun and then the next day we went in and the hcg started to skyrocket insane and i was literally
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not what absolutely not they are not showing any sign of that I don't agree you're crazy Arnold spent some time sniffing my uterus the other day but he also just fully jumped on my stomach you probably had like some mayonnaise from a sandwich on your tummy oh great thanks he is not being gentle with Mari at all he's more cuddly with me lately I already want to cover Mari in bubble wrap and this dog does not make me have any comfort uh it is it is not okay no guys i got really nervous because in the first couple weeks he like fully jumped on my stomach and i was like are you for real arnold thinks that were trampolines
yeah lulu i think has no idea yet so no i would say no i'd be curious i feel like if any animal were to recognize it it'd be marie's horse i feel like horses just like have that sense no i know but you didn't really have that experience i haven't seen your horse and forever.
I went to see him and he was sweet, but he really just wanted treats.
So maybe when the baby's bigger, does it feel real?
My first embryo transfer just stuck and it doesn't feel real yet.
That's like a big thing I've struggled with.
Is it not feeling real?
We'll be watching the scan and the baby's doing a backflip in her stomach. And I'm like, you feel this, right?
And you're like, no, I have no idea this is going on.
It's crazy. Like every time we do an ultrasound, sound it's like watching a movie they said in three weeks you'll start to feel it though huh i can't wait that'll be crazy so if you feel it can i yeah like you could put your hand on yeah you could feel it that's nuts i'm also freaking out like we're going to colorado soon and like mario's going to be at altitude and i'm just like concerned about all of these changes in environment not that i love her being in 110 degree weather in texas right now greg's been a bit paranoid guys but the doctor said that pregnant women have more red blood cells he
said He said that we have more hemoglobin.
But Rich, I think that is the same thing.
I don't know. And so you will adapt to lower oxygen faster.
He said that, but then my doula, I haven't even told him I got a doula.
My doula was like, it would be better if you drove to like acclimate.
You don't want to have a shocking experience of any sort, whether it's like cold water, hot water, change in altitude.
But I don't know. I mean, doesn't a plane kind of have a slow change in altitude anyway?
I don't know, babe.
I don't know. I don't know.
I'm driving. Mari's flying with Arnold.
I think so. We'll see.
yeah that's the plan as of right now we're going to aspen for a month i don't know if i said that because it's so hot here i mean right now it's not it's like raining but it's been so hot and i've been so uncomfortable because i'm internally so hot yeah we love colorado i mean obviously we lived there for a while yeah we lived in boulder for a year if you didn't know how has your relationship evolved throughout the pregnancy so far i felt like during ivf and the hcg scare we like really came together as a team like i think like anytime we've gone through something really hard or stressful we always
are like better do you know what i mean like i think you and me are really good at dealing with like hard things together it removes like every sense of outside noise it makes you realize what matters and what doesn't it's like any problem that was popping up in our jobs or the neighborhood or something was broken in the house it doesn't matter i didn't give a fuck yeah and that things that like used to like really trigger me i've I've never in my life heard you say that you didn't care about work until this moment.
And it was for a fleeting moment.
He was like, it's so weird. I don't even care about my job right now.
And I've never heard you say that.
And it was just that one day or a couple of days.
And for whatever it's worth, I think it's making me better at my job.
Sometimes you care about something so much that you don't actually do your best work on it.
And it's almost like being a helicopter parent.
Yeah. but if you care so much and you apply that care into your actions that like you end up actually doing a net a net a net negative to the scenario of what your goal is and so I feel like that like most of the things around my life like friendships and and and work and whatever it may be outside of us has actually benefited from me kind of having like this reset of what I care about but um back to our relationship yeah I think it's been really special it's been very special I think it brings out in people the way I think in men especially supporting their pregnant partner like how they show
care so Greg is kind of an Italian mother I would say he's very obsessed and not not in a toxic way very obsessed with everything I eat very and obviously we're both both very passionate about nutrition but like greg is the one making me eat fish eggs and like i would eat them anyway probably but you're definitely making sure i eat the fish eggs and like salmon once a week overall healthy fats he like oh yeah he's obsessed with me putting olive oil on things he's obsessed with me putting chia seeds avocado obsessed with me using collagen every day i actually didn't really care that much no matter
how many podcasts i listened to until I saw how fast this thing was growing.
And now I'm realizing every meal is literally resulting in growth.
So you're building it with whatever we feed you.
I think I told Greg one week, oh, I checked my what to expect app where it tells you the size of the fruit.
And I'm like, it said this week, the baby's growing muscles.
Something in Greg just like click, something changed.
Like his bodybuilder like demon eyes woke up and he was like, you need to eat protein.
And he just got really crazy.
so i think the way that you show me care is like through food yeah you always have been like that yeah you really have like and you really worry if i'm eating something bad like i don't know maybe it's because i just think of food all the time too i know i think you're kind of a weirdo but i also think it's an interesting time because i'm not necessarily like fully bumping yet oh also when we first did the transfer it's not like marie has had a normal pregnancy up until Until very recently.
So like Mari couldn't weightlift. Mari couldn't pick up the dog to put the dog into the car.
Mari, I mean, it was, it was, it was.
We were terrified of doing it.
Yeah, like I don't know what we were, we couldn't like even have intercourse for a while.
Like a lot, a lot of things couldn't go on.
Yeah. So you were in like a fragile state for two months.
Couldn't swim, couldn't drink cold things.
Yeah. But keep in mind, like this is all very conservative, like IVF stuff.
stuff like there's probably women pregnant listening being like oh no no it's not it's not traditional weeks are not a traditional pregnancy yeah you're wanting this thing to quite literally stick I guess but I was gonna say it's weird because for the guy like your life really hasn't changed at all like you come to work you work out you do all the same things you don't feel the symptoms that I feel like the only time you really are aware of is when you're looking at the ultrasound you know yeah and i think because i have not had bad symptoms like i've had a very like i think my biggest symptom
has been anxiety like just how anxious i've been but i'm definitely tired but i haven't thrown up like my symptoms are super mild i think because of that you almost like forget sometimes i mean you're always anxious though okay so exactly exactly like you don't even i only keep saying thing because i don't want to say the gender by I know.
But you know what I mean?
Like I think for the guy, it's like a little more difficult to wrap your head around.
Every day having some nausea or food aversion is like tough to understand.
But you realize I don't have it even that bad.
Like the fact that I can still eat meat and fish eggs is crazy.
You know, I just feel blessed I can eat anything.
There's girls who like literally lose weight.
It seems it's great.
I mean, you were pretty exhausted there, babe, for like eight weeks.
I'm pretty tired right now.
Yeah. I mean, Maria has never taken naps in her whole life.
i took some naps i'm like two hour ones this show is sponsored by better help i think something that gets really overlooked is men's mental health and the strength that comes from maintaining a healthy mind greg and i talk about this a lot and i notice with boys and the younger male generation they really aren't encouraged to talk about their feelings men today face immense pressure to perform to provide and keep it all all together so it's no wonder that six million men in the u .s suffer from depression every year and it's often undiagnosed it's okay to struggle and real strength comes from opening
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find out the reason?
No, everything checked out.
My sperm checked out, Mari's eggs and everything checked out.
I think the only thing I could really point a finger at was my PCOS and the fact that I had so many follicles and perhaps the egg wasn't actually able to release itself.
That, I mean, we were both like probably abnormally stressed for a long period of time, which is one of the reasons you took off from work for a while.
I don't know, stress seems to be a cause of so many modern day issues.
So, so we don't really know.
And I think we don't really spend a lot of time dwelling on it.
You know, we just kind of like put our heads down and got through it.
No, I mean, even though there's like so much science, obviously that we've been able to benefit from the amount of unknown that the best doctors in the world even still have has been shocking.
Yeah. So no, you feel pretty out of control.
It's crazy. Body image question are you struggling with the idea of gaining for pregnancy and baby I mean yeah you weren't struggling until they told you your weight obviously I look different right like I was pretty skinny when I started IVF and then IVF itself makes you gain weight because of all the hormones you're starving and then getting pregnant your boobs get grow like everything's just growing I don't know I have good days and bad days with it like this morning working out I was like oh my god it looks like I have a little bit of a bump happening and I get really excited about it and I've
waited so long like I truly don't care like that's just not front of mind but it has surprised me kind of how much it like I think because I'm also hormonal and I'm just like I cry a lot now I feel like it has sort of like taken me aback because all my clothes in my closet were for like someone who's like lean and had small boobs and like wanted to show off my stomach all the time and i literally feel like i have nothing to wear i think you know and i tell you all the time you look incredible everyone says marie's glowing you look you're a very beautiful pregnant woman thanks obviously if you're
putting on clothes from six months ago they don't fit and that probably is a head trip yeah like none of my bras fit like nothing you'll wear it in nine months i know and it's it is just weird like i guess i don't know i think being in a bubble kind of helped but now that i'm back on social media and people are like i'm on camera and people taking photos of me it's like a kind of a shock to the system and then they made me get on the scale which i don't like to do that was weird i was surprised they even told you your weight they should have asked you next time i'm telling them not to tell there's
no fucking point to know the number i guess well in pregnancy you want to know well they could tell you hey get this weight this is a concern i know i don't know but like tell you the actual number it just kind of flawed me but you're still strong like in the gym like you're still like able to no i know you kept a a decent amount of muscle i think that's made me feel a lot better it's working out um but it is a bit of a weird transition like you just don't look the same and it takes a minute to catch up especially when you're in the awkward phase of like before you have a bump and you're like
i just kind of look a bit fat i was driving to work yesterday and there was a car that said like a pregnant woman on board instead of baby on board cute i was like oh i should put that little magnet on your car yeah you should get that for me i feel like i smell my tuna sandwich do you no but that's all right oh yeah her smell's been out of control i smell it she's she's the fantastic five over here yeah honestly super sometimes greg reeks to me and i i feel like the person who smells the most though is me i'm like i smell disgusting you don't but then everyone else is like you don't smell and i'm
like no i really smell i think i just like come up with things or like we we we mar's been avoiding the construction site at our new headquarters obviously just because like there's dust and fumes and no need for mar to be in there but like what she did go for the first time before we realized that you were just like noticing all these crazy smells that no one else was smelling i was like something's bad in the fridge or arnold smulik threw up that one day to me i think he threw up that day would you guys recommend going through ivf my husband and i have been trying for three years you go first
ivf is like such a privilege to be able to do because it's so expensive and i feel really lucky we got to go through it it is i think equally the hardest thing and the coolest thing i've ever been through because i felt very involved in the process and like i learned so much you know like it was kind of wild and i felt very like involved in myself getting pregnant it's weird yeah it gave you it gave you a feeling or element of of control yeah i only know from our journey what it feels like but i think we had a pretty good experience i almost wish we did it sooner like that's how how good the experience
has been i know but it happened when it's supposed to yeah and i loved our ivf clinic i love dr mogadon yeah what is the baby's room vibe gonna be i feel like you don't even know so currently i wake up well before mari wakes up and that's kind of like been the case you wake up an hour before me so chill out i don't in the morning i don't use our closet or our bathroom just because we have a bedroom right next to our bed our master bedroom so you wouldn't fit in the closet i took up the whole thing and so i've just used this random guest room as my closet and my bathroom especially in the morning
to not wake up marie that room is being taken from me that room is the nursery because it's closest to our bedroom that room is becoming the nursery so the vibes i mean you have to get out how do you how do you explain the vibes without saying any colors obviously that's i'm like how do i describe what i want without giving away the agenda there will be color obvious okay ready stripes i would say it's giving traditional but fun natural materials natural materials actually i really want to bring the founder of branch basics on the show because she has all the good baby recs she sent me a crib
from europe that uses no formaldehyde or whatever like none of the toxins because Because, you know.
Throw a big Jasper air filter in the room.
For sure. Blackout curtains.
For sure. A lot of, like, you know, a lot of these, like, fire repellents and stuff.
I've already, like, ordered things on Etsy.
Like, this doesn't give it away, but, like, cute little DIY farm animals.
Nice. You know? I can't wait for the bookshelf.
Love a bookshelf. Can't wait to read books.
Yeah. I'm, like, big on reading.
I love reading books.
Can we have a rocking chair?
A glider, yeah. Do you know what a glider is?
Is that just like a… it's like a breastfeeding chair that like has an ottoman and like you lean back it's like a whole thing gotcha you'll sit in it too though okay where's lulu seriously the fact that they're still asking this is so crazy lulu's thriving i posted her the other day i think she's like 11 ish no she's 11 in august 11 so she's about to be 11 she does not enjoy this heat no so she'll probably go to grandma's for maybe a month or two or three or what she's summering in the hamptons She's summering at Grandma's when she's on Long Island.
Yeah. And she loves it over there.
So. Yeah. It's just too much. First trimester and keeping good eating habits, did we let the pregnancy cravings win?
I feel like I've had a really good balance of both.
Like my breakfast is always the same.
It's always the toast, the eggs, the fruit.
I have my one matcha.
My lunch is really where I let whatever I want take over.
like i'll order a sandwich or one time i got quesadillas or like it's not always like that though i've been really into my smoothies i have a smoothie every day that i make at home which i posted on my story with like banana strawberry bloom collagen organic whole milk you're keeping the dairy up there calcium's important i eat cheese pretty much every day some good yogurt every day yes um awful fat dinner we're cooking like we've been eating more pasta like i'm a little more lenient i guess but i always get my nutrients in it's always a protein source yeah things i'm like avoiding i mean raw
fish well you're not drinking alcohol you're not drinking coffee no you're not drinking bloom energy drinks yeah but everyone has their own approach you know what i mean like you're just saying what you're doing you and me tend to be a little bit more paranoid because of what we've been through i think some people are really chill you know but we know they are yeah and we're also just obsessed with nutrition and stuff i I really think the things you eat have a huge impact on the embryo and the fetus growth, you know, and if they don't, it's worth a try.
But I have never in my life received more unsolicited advice than I have pregnant.
Honestly, I'm sure I haven't even been on social media and I haven't even like posted yet or I've just started.
And my unsolicited advice has been like IRL.
It's really interesting.
Like I feel like the second someone finds out you're pregnant, they feel like they can can tell you what to do what not to do what to eat what it's bizarre and i think a lot of people's beliefs come from like something someone told them 10 years ago family heirloom that they like never looked in you know what i'm saying yeah what does a family heirloom mean like a family tradition that like they heard well no like doctors just say like you can't do this you can't do this but they all say different things so this book expecting better like tells you the statistics on like how likely it is you'd
get you're more likely to get sick from lettuce than you are from deli meat but like no one talks about that or people project their own experiences like it's just i don't know it's been kind of a wild experience and i i know a lot of it comes from care and i love and appreciate that when you're hormonally you're kind of like you've never really loved unsolicited advice no i haven't i think because i've received so much of it that i'm just like get out of my face and i've done fine like i figured out everything on my own and i'm fine is he all right will you do ivf for your future babies well
they say that you know fertility rates are through the roof after not only a pregnancy but after ivf so we'll see how it goes but in theory we have two beautiful embryos yeah i i think i'll do another ivf experience i mean unless you know something happened before that i just the fact that they're already tested is gives you peace of mind.
Why not? You know, even though they made me do the Natera test anyway.
Yeah. We just switched from the IVF doctor to just a normal OBGYN.
What was the biggest lesson you learned getting rid of social media?
How much other people are using it?
Crazy. Like the world literally is dependent on social media.
Like I, when I'm telling you, I did not know any information about anything.
Like I was completely Completely in the dark.
That's your news. Like, I didn't know what my friends were doing.
I didn't know what was going on in the world.
Like, nothing. But the world kept on spinning.
I think also how quiet my mind was.
I just, like, had— I felt, like, pretty, like— Other than, obviously, like, my main priority was the pregnancy and stuff.
But once we got through that scary time, I felt like my mind was just really, like, quiet.
And I was kind of like— Sometimes I found myself being like, I don't really know what to think about.
Was it nice? Yeah. Yeah.
I felt really like flatline kind of.
It has been funny to see people still participate in social media, even just in social gatherings while like you're off and I don't really participate how you do.
So like seeing people want to share what they're doing live time has just seemed like this, like you're able to watch the world from the outside in and realize like, hey, this might be an unhealthy habit it for our age or whatever it may be yeah it's like a weird phenomenon but now i'm back into it and i'm like kind of wanting to share it's weird though because now i'm like a little bit more i think i used to share very freely and i didn't really think anything through and now i'm kind of like i just like second guess everything i don't know is this something you want out in the world kind of like
it's like my first time ever having like true privacy does creating content content out of this ruined the experience for like the real life that I'm in.
Yeah. I mean, we obviously always had like this weird intervention with, or this weird experience with social media.
Like for example, when I proposed to Mari, just going back years, like do I set up a camera on a tripod and try to get this reaction for content?
Like you think about these things no matter what you're doing or if you're having an - We didn't, we didn't, you didn't film my engagement.
And I'm upset that you didn't.
Very much intentionally, because I was like, I don't want the camera rolling for this special moment.
as special moments present themselves in your real life it's like you obviously mar marie has created a whole career around creating content from her life but sometimes you need to draw the line on like hey what's so like for example did you do a full pr run announcing that you were pregnant okay you didn't explain that very well i got approached by press yeah to have an exclusive exclusive moment with announcing my pregnancy and I said no right because I don't like that I don't I want to control my narrative I've been through so much you only monetize this beautiful thing no it's so sacred to
me and it's such a I think I feel way more protective of everything than I ever have like I used to just I mean I'm so glad I shared my fertility journey I think that's so important for women to talk about like it really creates a sense of community and such such a lonely experience but like i would never yeah i don't want to like monetize it or blah like i we did a photo shoot we made it really special it was very personal we did a photo shoot yes right yes for our living room framed photos but we kind of have a unique perspective on things because like we've been in the game for a while we've
been in the game for a while and we've had a lot of really cool experiences and opportunities where we have like been in the press and what i I don't know.
I don't know what I'm trying to say.
I just feel different than I ever have. And I saw a lot of people asking, like, will you share your kids on the internet?
Which is, like, a big question.
You don't have to think about it.
And I don't even know if I'm ready to answer it.
I get it. I get why you wouldn't want to.
And I very much respect it when I see someone put an emoji over their kid's face.
I do, too. I think that that's a really cool thing.
I see both sides. Like, you're so excited you want to share your beautiful kid.
I think it's also a really cool thing when you show your beautiful kid I think both are really cool there's people who do like they'll show the back of the head and like do motherhood content but they don't fully show the kid it's kind of like we've never shown the front of our house one thing I would never do is make my kid the center of my content I will never do that I will never be the person using their kid to monetize what if they were six years old and they were like let's make some content mom they can get a flip cam and a little cute camera that they go make videos of and nothing happens
with those videos until they're 18 if they want to post them what about like 13 i used to make pretend youtube videos all the time and nothing happened with them if at 13 it freaks me out babe they were like i want to try to one make some money or to make some content and that's a good act that's now a career in in in the 2020s i don't know i don't think it's i don't think think they're meant to see all that there's so much like it's so adult on there yeah these 13 year olds on tiktok it's so sexual it's so insane that's crazy i i don't want that i don't know i don't want them to be on social
media i can't talk about this i'm getting upset like i just they can make little pretend videos you know we'll develop an app yeah we'll make them that has like fake people posting and commenting and it's all really like innocent it's all really just us commenting with different handles this episode of pursuit of wellness is brought to you by wild grain wild grain is the first bake from frozen subscription box for artisanal breads pastries and pastas i absolutely love wild grain especially when i have guests over it's the perfect way to throw something in the oven and it's fresh baked and it really
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the main way your thinking has shifted now on the journey to having a child i feel like we've wanted it for so long that like now it's actually happening i think i think about like their experience of okay next summer like where do we not that i'm going to be such a young baby but like i think about like okay what kind of camps should we do like we i want to make sure that they have this experience or that they grow up near their grandparents or i don't really just think about things like that yeah i think we're some of our top priorities are just like school they're like a healthy but active
social life we just talk about like education is like a top frankly concern for us um you know we both had odd experiences in in public education odd um then like i wouldn't want to replicate if i had the power to not replicate our exact experience.
And I think we're just asking questions more.
We're like meeting other parents and we're hearing about other experiences.
And it's like kind of crazy.
Some of the things that other parents are doing and compelling and I get it and I'd love to learn more on a few things.
Yeah. There's like so many more options now.
Super interesting. And I just, I think I'm thinking about the way I grew up and things I liked and things I didn't like, like, like, Like, oh, my God, I had such a, like, international upbringing.
I moved to so many different countries.
I heard so many languages.
Like, but we're not going to move country.
So how do I replicate that?
Like, how do we, you know what I mean?
Yeah. Am I eating liver?
Not yet. I wanted to, but Dr. Gabriel Lyons said you don't show any signs of needing more iron.
Yeah. And that's kind of like the main reason you would have the liver.
I think I'm nervous of doing anything too extreme.
Yeah. You know? know like if everything seems good like i've heard liver is beneficial but like i don't know it sounds like a lot for me right now yeah we asked her doctor that really like pro meat like you know she would have totally told us to yeah kind of hicks me out um they asked about my workouts and have they changed yeah they've changed yeah they're definitely like i'm not doing pilates anymore it's too much core and i'm just weight lifting i mean weight lifting i think think is just the queen i think your doctor said like at this point you can do whatever you want to do oh yeah i mean i
have so many different doctors we're referring to guys like i have my ivf doctor i have the regular ob -gyn i have dr gabrielle lion like and i just i take everything with a grain of salt and do it my way you know and i think with the weights i took it very slow though i gradually upped them over time i do things that are not core focused uh i've just started barbell squatting again i do a lot with dumbbells a lot of lunges a lot of like shoulders and biceps and stuff um i need to do more back okay yeah our home gym isn't really set up for some good back my back is unable to hold up my boobs at this point so we
need to work yeah my My little scoliosis forming over here.
OK, thank you. Greg just thinks my posture is not good.
How many kids do we want?
What do you think? More than one.
But I feel like we're so blessed to have one.
So I don't want to speak on that.
Let's see how it goes.
Yeah, I think three.
Sure. Yeah. I just don't want to wait too long if we decide to have more.
No, I know. But I think the thing I feel is because of how obsessed I've been with getting pregnant in now for two years and going through IVF, I would love to just take a beat and not think about it for a second.
I get it. And like just enjoy the baby.
Of course. How did we find out the gender?
So we didn't know the gender.
Most people who do IVF pick out the gender.
We could have. We could have. And we were like, no, thank you.
I don't know. I mean, I always kind of knew I wanted to do that.
So they put in, we picked the embryo based on the grade, but we didn't know the gender none of the doctors slipped once which is crazy like even doing the ultrasounds no one said the gender we found out privately and i'm gonna post that video at some point when soon okay how shocked were you oh man you were shocked yeah i was shocked i mean i knew i could tell based on my symptoms and i did every old wives tale test and all of them indicated this gender dude Mari was putting a ring on a string and waving it over her stomach to see how it spun maybe everyone does that the ring she chose was the aura ring
so I was like that's not a normal magnetic process this thing has like a you know processor inside of it I peed on baking soda I did the Chinese calendar I what else did I do just everything I mean I wonder I would love to to know their guesses based on my symptoms actually so maybe I'll let you guys guess let me know what you think do you have a birthing plan not fully yet I have a doula I mean I'm pretty I'm kind of crazy I like to do things ahead of time so I literally got a doula um I found a nanny I have a pediatrician like I have all this stuff lined up and I would love to to do a vaginal
birth. Um, I don't have super strong feelings on an epidural at this point.
I just want the baby to be healthy.
Like that's all I care about.
I would like to give birth vaginally, but if they told me I needed a C -section, I would do that.
I think like, yeah, I just don't have like insanely strong feelings.
I do about certain things.
I think I'm not as like opinionated about it as I expected to be.
Just safety first. Yeah.
Let's see what what happens you know as of right now my placenta is kind of covering my cervix but it seems to be moving the right way so we'll see about that did you know you were pregnant on the last episode no like the transfer episode no i didn't i hadn't even done my transfer peak this sucks oh my god i was such a mess i was like you're like i can't even fucking talk about anything no i literally was like a mess um did you implant one or two embryos i get this all the time yeah i think I think old school IVF, they would just do two, I guess the thought process was that it would increase the chance
of one sticking. Yeah, but you never do that now.
Things have changed.
Like, oh, my gosh, so much just the last five years.
Are you still a firm believer in pomegranate juice and seeds for fertility?
Yeah. I did that the whole time and my lining was really thick.
Yeah. I think it like did its job.
You got regular compliments on the uterus health.
The lining thickness.
And that helps with implantation.
yeah will you be having a home birth no i want to be at a hospital this was like not an at -home experience from the start and i don't think it's gonna end that way yeah that's okay even though my personality you'd think that but i just have been through so much at this point that i'm i don't know we're not like total granola heads shout out to them but like well you're pretty open -minded to whatever needs to be done sometimes i'm a grinner it depends yeah depends Depends.
Congratulations. Do you have any advice on something you believe helped you succeed with the transfer?
I mean, I did so much. To be honest, I don't know if any of it helped.
Squashing stress. I think, yeah.
I think taking a break really helped.
I think the warming foods, no ice water.
Like, I think that's a thing.
Avoiding the overall fight or flight that we were intentionally putting into your life.
Right? Like, the sauna is supposed to be a stressful thing.
The ice bath is a stressful thing.
Like work, we would take ourselves to stressful points.
We would, you know, push ourselves in adventures in life to stressful points because it was fun and exhilarating and adrenaline.
But like that is not the environment for fertility.
No. It's like our world was not really conducive of a fertile state.
I didn't travel that much. But you did previous to that.
So you stopped traveling.
Stopped traveling. Yeah.
Completely stopped traveling.
followed acupuncture twice a week you're a little stir crazy right now i am i'm ready to go yeah you wanna get the hell out of texas we get on a plane on saturday it also sucked because the last month i was on 14 flights oh this month i canceled basically all travel although i'm heading to the airport after this but yeah my first trimester i was like alone yeah that was a shame just kidding i wasn't alone um i followed chinese medicine practices pre -transfer warming Warming foods, no swimming in cold water, foot soaks, Brazil nuts, pineapple core.
Anti -inflammatory lifestyle.
Yeah. Good food, lots of water, limited caffeine, no alcohol.
I did all the things that people do.
I did all of it. Who knows if it helped.
French fries afterwards.
Yeah, we found some healthy ones from that Not a Damn Chance burger.
Yeah, tallow. Tallow fries.
No canola oil. Are we going to do a gender reveal?
I did a little one with my friends already.
A little private one.
I wasn't even invited, just girls.
Just girlies. But you and me did a private gender reveal.
Are we still doing the progesterone shots?
No. Those stopped like two weeks ago.
Thank God. Yeah, pretty much through the first, through almost to the first trimester.
They're not that bad.
Greg wasn't great at them.
I love you, but you weren't that good at them.
Yeah, Mari had a nurse come to the house a couple of times when I was, if I was traveling, because I guess you can't do it yourself, which makes sense.
and i could they're in the butt yeah yeah they're in the glutes and a nurse would come over and like marie claims she had fantastic experience couldn't feel it literally when this nurse did my shots i couldn't feel it when greg did it i was screaming in pain yeah and greg left bruises all over me and i still can't be touched on the side of my hip butt area yeah it's so sensitive and if i have to run like across the street or something it is excruciating well you shouldn't be running across okay if a car whatever you know if i have to move quickly yeah it's just so painful yeah we got to keep you foam
rolling on your glutes when's the baby due december are we going to launch a bloom prenatal it's not it's not even close to the pipeline actually i mean bloom baby obviously would be a hell of a brand any like ending statements no we're full of joy feeling very Very blessed.
Cannot wait. And so proud of you.
Oh, I love you. I'm really tired and I need to eat.
Good. Bye. Off to the airport.
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