Hey, it's Avery. Welcome to Cheers.

I am so excited for today's episode. This is for anyone that plans to have kids that might be expecting a baby soon or for any mama's going through postpartum trenches because I know how hard it can be.

As a previous pediatric ICU cross-trained neonatal ICU nurse, I feel like I have learned so much not just about babies, but also educating myself on postpartum.

And also what baby supplies and mama supplies will actually be used and are not a waste of money.

I feel like social media has almost ruined motherhood a little bit with the high expectations

of what you should be doing, what you should be buying. And it's just not realistic and it can make mothers

feel really down about themselves. And when I had my kids, we were in a completely different

phase of life. We were on a very normal family income as myself being a nurse and David being a

police officer. And I remember opening up my phone and looking

online at what other moms were doing what they were buying and it wasn't realistic for me. I got a 12-week

maternity leave. I had to go back to work and work 12, 13, sometimes 14-hour shifts. I couldn't afford a nanny.

So David and I would work opposite days. I saw everyone buying

those beautiful Nuna strollers and car seats and the snoo bassinet. Those were not things that I could

afford as a new mom. It made me feel less than. It made me feel like I wasn't doing a good enough

job as a mom. I had an immense amount of

guilt. But as time went on, I realized what was necessary. And that was a happy, healthy mom,

a happy, healthy baby. You don't need a lot to survive motherhood. And all that matters is that

you're able to take care of yourself and your baby. So I hope

this episode will help anyone that's going through that, anyone that might go through that in the

future. And I just want to have a very honest conversation about postpartum, hormones,

newborn life.

And I also wrote down some of my favorite items that I think are incredible for babies

...