Rant Session + April Favs

This week I’m sharing a quick life update from the newborn trenches and a few of my April favorites that are helping me feel like myself again: evening walks, getting back into workouts, postpartum outfit fails, quiet nights at home, and a few things I didn’t expect to love this season.

Nothing groundbreaking this week - just a real-life check-in from the postpartum bubble and a reminder that sometimes the little things are just the right things!! 

Website: hanaostapchuk.com

Instagram: @hanaostapchuk

Submit your question to be featured in next week's ep!
Hey Hana Hotline: Submit your questions here

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hello everyone, welcome to Hey Hannah. I'm your host, Hannah Ostatka Krause. Happy midweek, everyone. If you ask me what day it is, I actually I have to think about it for way too long to give you an answer. And I'm not gonna do the thing where I just talk about how tired I am because nobody wants to hear that. I actually really hate when I start a podcast and somebody is just talking about how exhausted they are because I'm like, hello, we all are tired. I'm just not trying to bring anyone down, you know? But you can imagine. I'm six weeks postpartum. I'm a little lopsided mentally, physically, emotionally. But it's all good. Getting to the point where I was actually recording this podcast feels like a huge win right now. So we're here, we're doing it, we're rolling. I say this every week. Oh my gosh, I promise I'll stop talking about that. Quick life update. Like I said, six weeks postpartum. Peter and I are in what we like to call the trenches. I talked to some of my new mom friends about this, and they're like, oh yeah, you're in the thick of it. It's funny looking back on my pregnancy, I did so much research on being pregnant. Like every ounce of the type of food I was eating, I knew what it was gonna do to the developmental health of my baby. I was researching every detail of everything that I was putting into my body that I was exerting, etc., etc. Why did I not look into like how to raise a child? Like, why did I stop my research in just my pregnancy? If I could go back, I would be like, you know what, do your best in pregnancy. It's all a little crazy. But do some research for postpartum as well. A postpartum body is insane. It's always that thing. Oh my god, this is so bad to say. It's always that thing when you're like holding the baby and you walk past a mirror and you see the hunch. I don't know what it is. Any breastfeeding moms out there, even if you're not breastfeeding, you totally get it because nonstop, you're just hunched over. You're carrying this child, you're doing an arm workout all day, every day, and the posture has been put on the shelf. Perfecting it is just not of importance. And everything is always running smoothly until I see myself, I catch myself in a reflection, and I'm like, who is that? Who is that standing like that? Yeah, like I said, we're doing our best. But the body being one thing, um, my mind being another, I just had to stop and pause this because I was like, what the heck was I talking about? The fact that I couldn't even remember what I was talking about. Hello, that's what I was talking about. Holy heck. Also, the process of just having a newborn. They call this the first, the fourth trimester for obvious reasons. It feels like it's still such a learning curve. I have bought a few sleep training programs to all the moms out there. I feel like you know what this is. I bought moms on call and I bought taking care of babies. I have sort of done a loose version of both of those. And just this past weekend, I decided to just sort of throw it overboard. And I'm gonna say something crazy. I think I'm done tracking. Now, she's only six weeks old, so I probably should be in the beginning of starting tracking. But the way that the Huckleberry app has had a grip on me. Okay, to explain to anyone who's not a new mom, Huckleberry is this app that you time when you fed the baby. You could even go down to like, did you bottle feed? Did you do the the right boob or the left boob? How much time did you spend? Like you hit a timer every time I sit down to feed, right? I have to get my phone and hit start. I do the same thing when they're napping. I like hit start so I can see how long they've been asleep for. And it's been great. Like it's been good to do that. But I feel like I've lost a little bit of myself in this process because I am just a slave to Huckleberry. I am always looking at the wake windows and like, oh my gosh, how long have they been awake? How long have they been sleeping? Like, I need to wake them up so they can sleep later tonight. And I just decided this weekend, I'm like, you know what? They're gonna do whatever the heck they want. Andy is gonna do truly whatever the heck she wants. I cannot control it by like watching her times like a hawk. I think I just need to pull back the reins a little bit. I'll watch the wake windows like I've been doing, but I don't need to look at it to every minute detail because that's what I've been doing. And like I said, I've lost a little bit of my mind by doing that. So funny enough, this weekend I decided like, okay, I'm going off the app. I'm not doing this. I'm anti-Huckleberry this weekend. And Peter and I had a good weekend. We Saturday we had to go to an event for his work a few hours away. And we have that down to a science now, taking her out of town. Weirdly, it works out. She sleeps on the way there. And then when we get there, I can take her out. I'll go back and forth between Peter's work and just doing mom things around town, just keeping her like up and at him. And then she'll sleep the whole way back. So Sunday, because our because we didn't really have a full Saturday, we were like, oh, we gotta have a day on Sunday. Woke up, had a good breakfast, immediately went to the gym. Then we went for a long walk in a favorite neighborhood, got some coffee, got lunch, went and did some shopping. And then we realized it was dinner time and we had plans to go to Peter's parents for dinner. You guys, the absolute terror that came from my child at dinner time, we had to leave early. I felt so bad. She would not stop screaming. I was like, what did we do wrong? And of course, I deleted Huckleberry. So I really had no idea how much she slept, if she ate enough. I was sort of wigging out at my lack of control in that moment. Oh my gosh, I don't know if anyone else has recurring dreams when they're stressed. My recurring dream is always that I'm involved in some sort of car crash. And it's a very specific type of accident. It's like I'm in a car that can't slow down and I can't hit the brakes. The brakes don't do anything, and I inevitably end up hitting a wall or falling off a ledge or like something catastrophic and freaking awful. But I have this dream every time I'm really stressed. And I always see that as like, okay, I feel out of control. That's what that dream tells me. So I've had that dream all weekend, which was really reflective of the evening we had on Saturday. I just think we were going too hard, we were doing too much, and she was so sick of us. She wanted to just be home and to do the whole routine. So this week I'm trying to be extra careful about not running around and making sure I'm sticking to very calm, soothing home routines with her and hoping that that helps. But man oh man, this phase of parenthood, the newborn stage, is really changing your mind like every three days, depending on how the baby feels. Like every three days, I'm like, okay, I discovered this new thing and I think we should do this. And then like three days later, Peter's like, wait, I thought we were doing this. And I was like, no, actually, I think we should tweak it because she's doing this. It's like, I can't keep up with myself. I sound a little nutty. Any new mom listening to this, please tell me if I'm alone in this because I just, I don't know if it's the hormones or me just trying to follow the rhythm of the boss, and the boss is the baby, but you gotta roll with it, right? In other news, I wanted to do a quick episode today about all of my favorite things in the month of April. I feel like time is flying by. I can't believe that it's almost May. It's almost summer, the best time of the year, I think. I'm such a Florida baby, by the way. I will always think that being hot and sweaty is the best time of year. I always want to be in shorts and a tank top and running around town with the windows down and your hair up in a messy bun and just like it's too hot to care, you know? That's the best mentality. Anyways, what am I talking about? Oh my God. I can't believe it's almost May. In my mind, that means summer's here. So I just wanted to do a quick little episode that's just about my favorite things of April. I feel like it's always good to hit the pause button and reflect a little because, like I said, time is moving way too fast for me, and just talk about some of our favorite things of the month of April. Okay, starting off strong with the fact that we can now go outside and enjoy leisurely walks. I'm sorry, this is so base level, but I don't care. The greatest thing in the world for me right now has been going out and going for a long walk in the evenings, in the mornings, anytime I can squeeze it in. Typically, Peter and I will try to go in the evenings together. We'll like try to reflect and talk about our days, even if we both feel just exhausted and like just a quick lap down the street and back. Like anything works. And I think him and I always say how healing it is. A, for a relationship, just like no matter what, talking about anything that comes to mind while you're walking is so healing and just weirdly bonding. But B, it's physically healing. You just feel like, okay, you're moving after dinner. It just makes you feel less sluggish going into the night. And don't get me wrong, we all have those nights where you're on the couch and you're like, how do I ever get up? But the fact that the weather is nice now and we can actually just go and enjoy and be outside is key. So we've been bringing, you know, the dog, the baby, all of it, and just trying our best to take a lap and talk about the day. I said this in a past episode, but um, Peter and I always do this silly, I don't even know what to call it, like a conversation starter where we talk about our peak, our pit, and our platypus. It's really stupid. I don't know where we got this idea, but your peak and pit is like, you know, everyone does that. It's sort of a fun way to talk about your day. And to even think, like if I think like what's the peak of my day or a pit of my day, like it reminds me of being a kid at the dinner table, but it's a fun habit that makes you just think about what part you liked and didn't like about your day. The platypus is about just like an odd thing you found. So it could be an observation, it could be just like a silly thought, it could be something you thought just something off track, something that doesn't fit in either peak or pit, always works as platypus. Again, I don't know where we came up with that or saw that and started doing that, but we've been doing it for a while now. So that has been one of my favorite things of April. There's just something about the long, like coming out of a long winter and looking at everything blooming. It sounds so cliche, but you know, as a Florida girl, I didn't grow up with seasons. And then I moved to New York City. And in New York City, of course, you have seasons, but you don't have a lot of earth, you know? It's a lot of just like concrete. There's a few trees on your block that will bloom, and it's like, oh yay, the trees are back. But that's really it. I have forever underestimated the amount of detail that goes into spring. And I know I sound like I'm 60 to 70 years old, and I don't care. But one of my favorite parts about spring is the fact that I can just look outside and be like, oh my gosh, that tree is starting to get a little bud, or look at that tree over there. Wow, the flowers are blooming. Like the amount of times that I just walk around and talk and think to myself, oh my gosh, that tree popped, or this one's about to pop, or look, that plant became yellow is so fascinating to me. I've never in my life experienced living in a full spring the way that you do in the Midwest. I mean, it's so beautiful. And I love how it makes you slow down and like appreciate the things around you and all of that, but it does make me laugh. I just never knew how much talking about like random plants around you growing could be a part of conversation with everyone. Like I go, I'll go to Peter's parents' house and we have the same conversation. Like we're all talking about, oh my gosh, look at that bush. How cool. It's so pretty now. Like, did you see that the trees on this street popped? It's just, it's a foreign concept to me, but I've been loving it so much. I never realized how sweet spring could be for that reason. And again, coming from New York, spring would always be euphoric in like a different way. It was because everybody got this energy and everybody was out again. And I always describe spring as everyone like leaving their caves. You know, you just see a bunch of like super pale people finally showing some calves, and everyone's ready to like hit the town and go out, and like all of the little bistro tables are set up on the sidewalks, and like everybody's out and about in their cute outfits and ready to be seen. In the Midwest, it's the same but different, you know? Everyone's still coming out of their caves, and everybody is so active here. Everybody is out and about and on a bike, and the whole family is somehow on a bike. I've never seen so many families on bikes and so many families on runs. And so yeah, it's like half of the fun is experiencing it yourself, but then the other half of it is just like watching everything come back to life. God, I sound like an old woman. I mean, it is insane that I could talk about that. Do you remember in COVID times where we would make fun of people who were watching birds? It's what I become. It's what I become. And I'm a little sleep deprived. And yeah, I'm walking around the house trying to get my baby to go to sleep for like two hours. So I'm looking outside the window. I'm looking at things to keep myself entertained. Another thing I've been loving in April is wearing jeans again. I know this is going backwards because I just talked about how I love loving in shorts. And yes, that's true. I'm very much looking forward to continuing to wear shorts. But I have an entire collection of jeans that I sort of shoved up in the top right-hand corner of my closet, never to be seen again when I was like a few months pregnant, because it got to the point where I couldn't fit in any of my jeans and it was so depressing. I had to go buy new maternity wear and new pants to fit me. Anyways, the fact that these jeans now can fit me again. Now they don't fit super comfortably, and they don't all fit, but some of them, some of them fit me. And that has been a favorite thing of April so far. Just there's something about the postpartum energy of putting on an outfit you used to wear all the time before you got pregnant that makes you feel like, okay, we're back. And even if you're just squeezing into it and you're so deeply uncomfortable, oh my gosh, this actually reminds me. I put on an outfit that I've worn a thousand times. I don't know if I should tell the story. I have this white t-shirt I got from Brandy Melville that I mean, the minute I get it stained, I'm gonna go buy another one. I'm obsessed with it. I wear it all the time. It's just a basic little baby white tee, whatever. It's the perfect little crop. It's not too cropped, it doesn't show anything, but it's not too long. Anyways, that with a pair of jeans from favorite daughter, black jeans, and just little black boots or little black loafers, something with like a little tiny heel. I'll even wear like an open-toed sandal with them sometimes. I have worn this outfit a million times. I wear it on first interviews, first dates, like all of that. I went to go put these jeans on and they fit okay. Now, to someone else, they fit just fine. To me, they were the type of pants where as soon as I got in the car, I had to unbutton them. You know what I mean? And so I wore this outfit. I was determined to wear this outfit because it was honestly, it's just like easy, a white tee, black jeans done. You can add any accessory you want, whatever. I had to rush to go to a work meeting. I was meeting all these new people about an opportunity I'm really excited about. And I got in the car and I had to, you know, unbutton the jeans because they were a little too tight around my waist still. So again, I'm six weeks postpartum. So I unbutton the jeans, I I rush over to the meeting, I get out of the car. As soon as I get out of the car, or no, as soon as I pull into the parking lot of this facility, I see one of the people I'm supposed to meet with. So I immediately just like start waving. Hi, hello, get out of the car, start talking to them. They lead me into the the boardroom, the meeting room. I mean, you guessed it this entire time. I forgot to button my pants again. I can't. I mean, this is the most typical, like new mom back to work type thing. Oh my god. I did eventually realize that my pants were unbuttoned. And I don't know if anyone saw. I did one of those things where I like really quickly just turned my back to everyone and without looking down, just like button them. So embarrassing. Whatever. I mean, just out here doing my best, you know. I hope they didn't notice, but can't win at everything. Anyways, they're too funny. The fact that I put that outfit on, great. Now I haven't worn it since then because I keep thinking about how my button was undone for half of a meeting, but I'll get to wear that outfit again, I'm sure. And hopefully next time I wear it, it won't be to the point where I need to undo some of it to make it comfortable. Um, another thing I've been loving in April, and this is so annoying of me to say, you guys know I'm a TV girl. I've been obsessed with television my entire life, and I will ride hard for my TV shows. I have not been watching anything this month. I swear. Obviously, I've been watching Summer House, a little bit of Beverly Hills, but it seems so slow. Like I don't even feel like I'm watching it. I'm I'll just like binge an episode or two on one day, but I feel like I haven't watched anything new or anything really great this month. And I bring this up because I'm actually, don't kill me, but I'm loving it. I've been asking people, like every time I see someone, I'm like, what are you watching? Because I need ideas, but in reality, I'm not actually tuning into anything new. I haven't watched anything new. I keep talking about how I want to watch the new season of Your Friends and Neighbors on Apple TV Plus, but I haven't watched it yet. So I'm going to eventually get back into it, but I've really just been enjoying having some quiet time. And I think it's also because, hello, I'm I have a six-week old. There's not a lot of quiet time. Like when she does nap, it's like, oh my God, nobody move. But when she's not napping, it sometimes can be quite loud. So I think we've just gotten to the hang of when it is quiet. We're like, okay, no noise, you know? It's kind of nice for right now. Eventually, I know we'll get into a rhythm where she goes to bed at 7:30 and Peter and I have our quiet night routine back together where we can watch one of our favorite shows together and get into that habit a little bit. But I think right now I've really just been enjoying no noise when there doesn't need to be noise, you know? With that being said, another one of my favorite things this month actually just goes against everything I just said because one of my favorite things has been listening to music again. I've gotten back into the rhythm of going to the gym and I have to say shout out to my husband. That's partially because he's been helping me go back. It is so hard to be like, oh yeah, I'm gonna leave the house today to do something for myself that is no benefit for my child. It sounds silly, but it it is, it makes it more difficult to like actually get up and leave the house when you're like, you know what, I don't need to go. I just need to stay home with her, make sure she naps on time and da-da-da-da-da-da. He's been like, no, he knows it's good for my mental health and all of that. So he's like, come on, let's go together. And you know, we help, we take turns watching the baby while we work out. We have a whole system and it's easy because it's his gyms and he's at work anyway. So, anyways, my point is because I listen to so many podcasts now in the middle of the night when I'm nursing, when I go work out, I've decided to listen to my music again. And I just have to say, shout out to Justin Bieber. I loved his performance at Coachella. I've loved the sort of resurgence of him that everyone now loves him again after Coachella. I think his two albums, the swag albums, are some of my favorite albums of all time. I also love that he brought out Big Sean. A random fact about me is that I'm obsessed with Big Sean. He I think he is like not only one of the best rappers, but spiritually, he is just the coolest and most insightful rapper I've ever listened to. So I was like overjoyed when he brought him out. And so yeah, when I go to the gym now, I'm back to listening to the swag albums. I'm listening to old Big Sean albums, just getting into that rhythm again where I can work out, even if it's for just a quick 30 minutes and I'm doing whatever I can around the gym really quickly. It just makes you come alive. It's the dumbest thing. But so I've been enjoying listening to those albums. And I was not a huge Haley Bieber girl, but admittedly, I just started following her on Instagram with this Justin Bieber resurgence. I've just sort of become obsessed with her. I know I'm very behind. Um, but I just have a new love and a new appreciation for the Bebes and for Haley and for everything that they brought to the table in Coachella. And just sort of their unit. They just seem like, forgive me for saying this, but they just seem sort of normal for everything, you know, which I find really impressive. I just really like him. Another April favorite has really just been making plans with friends and family for when they're gonna meet Andy. It's it sounds so simple, but living far away from my best friends and my closest family members, and then having a huge life milestone, like having a child, is so odd because I sort of feel like I'm in my own bubble and I there's part of me that loves being in this bubble. And then I'm brought out of it when my family is like, hey, when when are we coming? What are we doing? So I've made plans for my brothers to come. Some of my cousins want to come. My dad is coming in a few weeks. I'm so excited. It's like insane. I'm like, I have a baby and my dad hasn't met her yet, you know? It's crazy. It's just where our life is right now, and it's like, you know, everyone's doing the best that they can. And I I'm so appreciative of family even coming. But we all get that way of planning our summer travel. Like, I think in April, it's one of the things we all look forward to. I do think we're gonna try to do a little bit of more traveling this summer, but we'll see. We'll see. So far, we're only done doing these little day trips and they seem to work out just fine, but who knows what it'd be like to do a real trip. I say this like I want to do it, but at the same time, I'm like, oh my God, I would need so much help in terms of getting on a plane. How do I do that? How do I get on a plane with a newborn? I need I would need all the tips and tricks for how to get a newborn on a plane. Before I did that, I would need so much advice. Okay. Another thing I've been loving. Is this brand Parallel? They sent me protein, and I wouldn't have ever tried it just because I haven't been on a quest to try new protein. This is not sponsored at all, but I actually love it. I will be buying it going forward. Um, it's a plant-based protein, and I really like it because it has a little bit of creatine in it. It's made for moms in mind, whether you're trying to get pregnant, pregnant, or postpartum, it has all of the essential nutrients. They make prenatals, like they do a little bit of everything with moms in mind. And this protein, I'm so happy I had it in my cabinet because I um I recently discovered that Andy has a bit of a dairy intolerance. I mean, trust me, I tried just about everything. And lo and behold, when I eliminated dairy, this the sort of gas pain that she's been dealing with finally went away. So I've now completely removed dairy from my diet, and thankfully it's turned her into less cranky pants during the day, which is such a game changer. Anyways, but this protein powder, it's like a plant-based protein powder. I haven't used a plant-based one in a really long time. And I've always liked them. I just, you know, Peter has whey, and so I just would always use what he has because it's just so much easier. But that being said, now that I have this in my rotation, I'm so obsessed with creating these like plant-based protein meals. So I have the vanilla one, it's so good. Um, and I have been looking forward to my overnight oats truly every morning. I may I make them at night now because it's just easier. Like first thing in the morning, I'm freaking ravishing. I'm so hungry. The first thing I need to do is eat. So having that oatmeal already made is just so clutch. And the vanilla parallel protein has just been such a good thing to add into my rotation, just to know that I have all the nutrients and the protein I need. Plus, oatmeal is good for lactations. So I've just been trying to eat it a little bit every day. But now that I know this brand and now that I feel like they align so much with what I need right now, I I now find myself looking for ways to make other things like energy balls or little muffins or lactation cookies, like all these different things that I want to sprinkle a little in there. So anyways, I feel like there's not a ton of brands I can call out right now and be like, this is something I love, but that one is certainly one that stood out to me. So just if you are a mom or a soon-to-be mom or a postpartum, whatever your journey is, definitely look into Parallel. They've been up and coming and I really like their stuff. Again, this is totally not sponsored. This is just my opinion. But yeah, talk about a bummer with the no dairy thing. I mean, hello. I live in like the cheese curd capital of the world. It's hard to avoid the cheese, but I'm willing to do it. I will truly do anything if it means less crying and less upset belly for baby. Okay, so those were some of my little April favorites lately. I know it was nothing huge, nothing monumental, but honestly, that was like sort of the point. I this month has just felt like a lot of slow, small moments of me just, you know, starting to feel normal again. And I'm just really grateful for that alone. So yes, you're like, Hannah, your favorite thing was going outside. Yes, it was, okay? These are the things that keep me moving and keep me alive right now. Obviously, my baby girl, by the way, she just has started smiling at me. It's like she's she can barely see me, right? But every now and then she has this little smile when I'm talking to her. She's staring into my eyes. Oh my gosh, you guys, I freaking melt. I'm like, okay, you can have whatever you want forever. Yeah, April has definitely been a month of just finding these little routines again, and even just talking about some of my favorite things makes me feel a little bit more like myself. Thank you guys so much for being here with me this week and for listening to this and tuning in week after week. I really appreciate it. I've like talked to some of you guys about listening to the podcast, and I've it's truly my favorite thing of the world if you come up to me and tell me you listen, I'm like, you'll make my entire month, my week, my day, all of it. I'm so, so, so grateful for that. So thank you guys so much for just being here and being a part of this and tuning in. I hope everyone has a great week ahead, and I'll talk to you guys soon. Bye for now.