Episode 267: A Journey through IVF with Dulce Candy

The journey to mamáhood is not the same for everyone. This week we speak to beauty icon Dulce Candy Ruiz about her journey with IVF. After struggling to conceive for years and trying other natural fertility methods, she finally felt comfortable with the idea of IVF and decided to tackle the treatments with the support of her family. Dulce talks about the importance of having a strong mentality throughout the IVF process, explaining the decision to her Latinx family and how she feels like a first time mom all over again. We love Dulce’s real, transparent take on her experience, and we hope that her story gives other struggling mamas hope for their future too.

More about Dulce Candy: Dulce Candy Ruiz is a beauty icon who has been sharing her experiences and insights since 2008 through high-quality self-produced content across videos, photos, and blogs. Her focus ranges across self-love, beauty, petite fashion, and family. She immigrated to Southern California from Mexico as a young girl. At 18 she joined the armed forces to serve in the US Army in Iraq. Dulce is a globally recognized published author & beauty expert who has collaborated with hundreds of lifestyle brands, all while prioritizing her role as a mother, wife, daughter, and big sister to her millions of viewers from around the world.

Dulce’s Top Baby Picks

Solly Baby Wraps

Sleep Sacks like these highly recommended from Babylist

What Dulce is absolutely loving right now

Last great movie she watched - Soul on Disney+

The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz

Sigma F80 Flat Kabuki Brush - great for blending products and using for all over your face

Check out Dulce’s IVF Journey on her YouTube channel

Pick or Tip of the Week

Paulina’s tip is to get your things ready for the next day the night before! It makes morning before school/work much easier. Her pick this week are these gel socks for her feet! She has always struggled with dry skin and dry feet. She tries to use them for a few hours or overnight, and her feet are soooo soft!! This will make a big difference in the summer time when it’s huarache season.

Bricia has two picks this week! First, her husband is obsessed with personal hygiene and his teeth. He found Coco Floss - coconut oil floss that’s cruelty free and vegan. Her second pick are aging eye drops from Similasan. Bricia suffers from dry eyes and its hard for her to find good eye drops that don’t irritate her eyes even more. She uses them multiple times a day and it never stings!

Links

Follow Dulce Candy on Instagram and subscribe to her Youtube channel.

Babies documentary

Kiinde bottles - Bricia’s favorite!

Dulce’s favorite morning shakes - Boobie Body and Shakeology

Paulina bases her morning routine off of Rachel Hollis’ morning routine. It’s really made a difference for her in the past year!

Paulina is also on the hunt for a new daily moisturizer. Dulce’s favorite for everyday is Pacifica Vegan Collagen SPF30 Every Day Lotion. Bricia’s favorite cream is Honest Beauty CCC Cream.

Episode 253: Learning to Feel Your Best, Nourish Your Body, and Thrive Postpartum with Lorena Garcia, CEO of Majka

Hola Octubre! Fall is here and the year is winding down. Even though we’ve spent most of the year indoors, it feels like it has flown by.

Lately we have been talking a lot about the fourth trimester and how important it is for moms to prepare not just for pregnancy, but for after baby’s arrival. This week’s guest completely agrees. We interview Lorena Garcia, co-founder and CEO of Majka, a brand dedicated to helping support moms thrive postpartum with resources and lactation bites, boosters, oats, and more and we’re big fans.

The three of us are sharing stories about our Mexican moms and entrepreneurial tips we’ve learned throughout the years, but we also talk about Lorena’s personal experience of her fourth trimester and her inspiration behind creating Majka. She shares why it’s okay to ask questions during pregnancy and ask for help & support after baby, and how we must learn to prioritize ourselves because we are not just moms; we are still our own people who need to heal. 

More about Lorena: Lorena Garcia is Mexican entrepreneur and currently the co-Founder and CEO of Majka, a brand dedicated to help support moms to thrive postpartum. Lorena has founded and managed multiple successful businesses and is a digital marketing and branding expert.

Lorena’s Favorite Majka Recipe

Lorena’s youngest son was born earlier this year, so she is incorporating Majka into her daily routine to help nourish herself and baby! She shared her favorite smoothie recipe below to try with the lactation booster. You can find more recipes for drinks with lactation boosters and lactation bites on Majka’s blog.

Orange Ginger Carrot Smoothie - with Booster

• 1 cup coconut milk

• 1 orange, peeled (I sometimes just use orange juice)

• 1 cup frozen riced cauliflower

• 1 medium carrot

• ½ inch fresh ginger

• 1 tablespoon chia seeds

• 2 tablespoons hemp seeds

• 1 scoop Majka Lactation Booster

Blend everything together and enjoy!

Nutrition: 408 kcal, 21g fat, 45g carbs, 13g, 27g sugar, 12g protein, 137% vitamin C

Super Mamas listeners can get a discount on Majka products! Use code SUPERMAMAS for 10% off your order at lovemajka.com/discount/supermamas.

Pick or Tip of the Week

Bricia keeps getting swindled by Instagram ads. 😂 She loves biker shorts and found these by Blanqui which are designed specifically for postpartum. It’s like a faja and shorts all in one.

Paulina’s pick is a face paint kit from Amazon that she bought for Zixta. It’s tough to keep her occupied while Sabina and Krista are doing their school work, but Paulina paints Z’s face in the morning and tells her to transform into whatever animal she’s painted, and it works! She plays pretend all day.

Her other tip is the game called Spot It and Spot It Jr., available in both english and spanish. Paulina sets it up for the girls while she’s making lunch or doing something for work, and it keeps them entertained together.

LINKS

Follow Majka on Instagram @lovemajka and shop for products on lovemajka.com

Follow Lorena on Instagram @callmelore

Episode 245: Keeping it Real with the Super Mamas: Bricia & Augustina's Birth Story

You have all been asking for Bricia’s birth story and we finally recorded it for you! We even had a special guest - Augustina herself. Since we’re still recording our episodes via Zoom, you’ll occasionally catch Augustina crying or Paulina swooning over her during this episode - muñequita hermosa!

Like most births, things didn’t exactly go as Bricia planned. Luckily she was prepared with research, help from her midwife, and really made sure to advocate for herself during every doctor appointment to make sure she & baby would have the best options possible. It’s amazing that Bricia really spoke her truth.

We also talk about the baby’s breastfeeding & bottle feeding routine, how Bricia is nourishing her body postpartum, and what a change it has been between her first pregnancy & birth with Eddie to this second experience with Augustina. Both mom & baby are doing well and we are so overwhelmed with joy and gratitude for all the well wishes you all have share with us. Bricia can’t wait to come back in a few weeks to record more brand new episodes!

Pick And Tip of the Week

Bricia has SO many picks this week! First, be sure to read her recent blog post about her essential postpartum items. She also still highly recommends (#notsponsored but she wishes she was 🤣) the book The First Forty Days: The Essential Art of Nourishing the New Mother. Check out a few more pick and tips she has to share below:

• After sharing her Boob Shells on Instagram Stories last week, many of you replied for Bricia to try the Haakaa breast pump, which she also loves!

• These really pretty pacifiers from BiBs - Augustina took to them right away and loves them!

• The Kiinde Twist Milk Storage bags - you pump directly into the bag, the nipple screws right on the bag, and they’re recyclable.

• Swaddles from Lou Lou and Company which are so soft and stretchy! Since Augustina is still preemie size and doesn’t have many onesies in this size, she basically swaddled in these blankets all day.

• Every Mother app - workouts to help resolve diastasis recti. They quick, easy exercises that Bricia can complete everyday. For more informations about diastasis recti, you can also listen to our recent episode with pelvic floor therapist Sara Reardon, the Healthy Vagina Whisperer.

• TIP - Talk to the lactation consultant the the hospital and if they can lend you a medical grade pump before your discharged. It’s so great! You can also check with your insurance to see what pump they can lend out to you too.

Since Paulina has three birth stories of her own, she also shared a few tips for moms who are about to give birth:

• Tip #1 - Vocalize what you need. When Bricia told the doctors she wasn’t comfortable with certain choices and wanted to try other options first, she stayed in control. If you stay vocal, you can voice your concerns and be an advocate for yourself. Do not be afraid to speak out.

• Tip #2 - Prepare yourself. Do research for all the possibilities so when doctors and nurses starts throwing fancy terms at you, then you kind of understand and know. And remember you are allowed to ask for resources!

Links

SpinningBabies.com is a great resource for expecting parents. There are videos, articles and images to assist during pregnancy, labor, birth and more.

Episode 244: Clean Beauty for the New Mom and Beyond with Gabriela Babila creator of @MatanaOrganics

You know we are big fans of beauty products and self care. We find that incorporating our beauty and skincare routines into our days is one of the easiest ways to get self care as busy moms, and this week’s super mama guest understand that.

This week we interview Gabriela Babila, creator of clean beauty brand Matana Organics Skincare. She started her business when she realized she couldn’t find clean, safe beauty skin care products during her pregnancy and began making them at home. The line is nature-inspired skin care for pregnancy, postpartum and all mothers who seek clean, safe, and organic products and best of all it’s organic, plant based, and cruelty free.  Gabriela talks to us about how she became fascinated with the beauty & power of plants, and using nature to create her skincare line. Her passion & positivity for her family, her business, and motherhood really shine in this episode and she is dropping all the gems (or matanas, as you’ll learn) that we needed to hear. 

More about Gabriela Babila: Founder, wife, girl mom, LA Native and clean beauty enthusiast, Gabriela Babila is the heartbeat and face behind the brand, Matana Organics. With a background in psychology and expecting her first child, Gabriela knew how important it was to nurture the body AND mind during this transition. Struggling to find safe and effective skincare products to help manage all of the physical changes pregnancy would induce, she thought about her own mom, an immigrant + single mother, and how she would approach her concerns. Her mother didn't have much, what she used for skincare she made, teaching Gabriela the power of natural remedies. So she decide to make it. And now she is sharing it with all mothers. 

Matanas from this week’s episode

Matanas = gift in Hebrew

“I love being a mom but there’s more to my identity.” - Gabriela Babila

“The desire to become an entrepreneur, to do something that i was passionate about; I couldn’t hide that from myself.” - Gabriela Babila

“The fear is not enough of a reason to not go for it.” - Gabriela Babila

“I cant worry about what can go wrong because what if it doesn’t go wrong? What if it goes right? And I’ve wasted precious time and precious brain power thinking negatively.” - Bricia Lopez

LINKS

Follow @MatanaOrganics on Instagram and like their page on Facebook.

Learn more about Gabriela and to shop Matana Organics, go to matanaorganics.com.

Episode 192: Rockabye Baby's Executive Producer, Lisa Roth

This week we interview Lisa Roth, executive producer of the highly successful franchise, Rockabye Baby. Since its debut in 2006, Lisa has helped launch close to 80 studio albums packed with Lullaby versions of songs by artists from The Beatles and Jay-Z to Rihanna and Adele. She’s on the show today to share what inspired this idea, how she got it started, all the ups and downs of her journey and Rockabye Baby’s newest and exciting release of Rockabye Baby Lullaby Renditions of Juanes! A thirteen-song collection spanning nearly two decades of hits, Lullaby Renditions of Juanes takes ‘una hora de dormir normal’ to the next level, and is Rockabye Baby's first-ever release in the Latin music world.

For a sneak peak before it’s official release on May 3rd, Listen to La Camisa Negra HERE

Our Conversation with Lisa Roth

Tell us a little bit about yourself

How did you get into creating lullabies for kids?

What have been some of the ups and downs throughout your 14 year journey of Rockabye baby

Do you have any tips for mom’s who wish to follow through with their great ideas? What was the atmosphere like that allowed you to speak your mind?

What are the nuts and bolts of creating a lullaby out of a popular song?

What is your favorite part of the process?

How do you and your team choose what music to release? Did you have mom/parent-focus groups for the music and if so are there any parenting-related insights you can share with us?

What has been your most favorite project so far?

What and when will you be releasing this week?

Where can we hear it?

Follow Rockabye Baby! on Instagram as @RockabyeBabyMusic Facebook, Twitter as @RockabyeBaby and visit their website for more information, rockabyebabymusic.com. You can find them on all streaming services, iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, Youtube and Amazon.

Pick or Tip of the Week

Lisa shared tons of great picks this week, from her favorite hair mousse from EVO to Transcendental meditation. Also, if you’re getting into the meditation space, she recommends using the Calm App.

Bricia chimed in on the guided mediation train and recommended Audible’s Guided Meditations , “Sleep Better” by Aaptiv and “Morning Meditations for Daily Magic by Movewith.

Paulina has been going through a lot of hair challenges. She recently discovered the power of Castor Oil and purchased it to promote her eyelash and brow growth. She also bought empty mascara tubes for easy application and to share (because the bottle is HUGE)!

EPISODE 153: Couples and Relationship Advice

This week on the podcast, we are focusing on maternal mental health & how to strengthen our marriages with licensed clinical social worker, Denise Vite. 

Denise has been working in mental health for 12 years and is committed to providing mental health therapy that is compassionate, empowering and culturally responsive. She provides therapy and workshops to children, teens and postpartum moms in her part time job at a Kaiser Permanente psychiatry clinic. 

After going through her own personal struggles as a new mama, Denise realized how critical it is for mamas to have more support and how much more needs to be done to break the stigma around maternal mental health. It inspired her to specialize in the treatment of prenatal and postpartum depression and start her private practice, Compassionate Wellness Counseling, in 2017.  Denise supports couples through their transition to parenthood utilizing a research-based workshop called Bringing Baby Home. She also facilitates pregnancy and motherhood circles at Unfold Yoga in Brea, Ca. 

We talk ...

• The research-based workshop called Bringing Baby Home that guides couples through their transition to parenthood

• How to get our partners more involved in child rearing (because sometimes we moms feel like we need to do everything)

• Dealing with postpartum depression/anxiety

• The principles to making a marriage work (see graphic below 👇🏽) 

• Avoiding divorce by acknowledging the 4 major indicators (see graphic below 👇🏽) 

To inquire more about Bringing Baby Home workshop dates, receive a free phone consultation, or to discuss bringing this workshop to your organization, please contact Denise by email & visit her website for more details.

www.compassionatewellnessoc.com

Contact: 949-216-0897

Email: compassionatewellnessoc@gmail.com

IG: @compassionatewellnessoc

FB: @compassionatewellnessoc

Pick of Tip of the Week

Denise recommends practicing the relationships tips we discussed with the Gottman Card Decks app. 

Paulina & Bricia's date night tip: switch out the typical dinner & a movie night with:

• An activity where you can actually talk with your partner (you can't actually talk during a movie)

• Opt for a wellness day. Infrared saunas with your husband, anyone? 

Links & graphics