Oh, Hi!

Move to New Zealand

My husband, Josh, and I decided to move to New Zealand in late 2019 after years of daydreaming of exploring the beautiful country. With my degree completed and prior to us having kids, it felt like a once-in-a-lifetime chance for us to go, so go we did! The plan was to live there for 5-6 years, and we found out we were expecting our first baby in February of 2020. You might recall what happened next…Covid.

My 1st Birth Experience

Our first son, Aspen, was born in October of 2020 in the height of Covid lockdowns. His birth set the stage for this business, I just didn’t know it yet! I planned a home birth with him because Covid lockdown regulations would not allow me to have my husband with me, which was a hard pass. 22 hours into labor, I had an emergency c-section due to Aspen’s heart rate dropping. We didn’t know what happened at the time, but we found out when Aspen was 4 days old that he had a condition called Sagittal Craniosynostosis (his midline suture was completely fused). The fusion required surgical correction, and the surgery he needed wasn’t readily available in NZ, so we needed to move back to the US in December of 2020 for him to have surgery.

My postpartum experience with Aspen was far from easy and full of challenges. I learned things the hard way, and I began creating a game plan for how to do things differently in the future.

My 2nd Birth Experience

In December of 2022, I had our second son, Luka. He was born at home, and my postpartum journey has been vastly different with a much faster overall recovery, and I fully believe that is the result of building a supportive team, putting in the work of properly nourishing myself during pregnancy, planning beyond birth, and making nutrition and hydration a top priority throughout the postpartum period. I want to equip you with the knowledge it’s taken me 2 pregnancies, 8 years of medical training, and over a decade of health and wellness research to learn!