Moms of the Night

Miscarriage is never an easy thing to talk about. Nonetheless, these tough conversations need to be had. In this episode, I chat with Arden Cartrette, a Birth + Bereavement Doula who specializes in grief associated with pregnancy loss. After her own infertility journey followed by recurrent pregnancy loss, she started a virtual support service for people who have experienced loss at any gestation and who are navigating life after loss.

Together, we reflect on our own experiences with loss and how that grief can affect almost every aspect of your life—your relationships, the trust you have for your own body, and the ideas you have about the future. We also discuss what it means to be a mom who has gone through or is going through loss, and how to support someone you love who is experiencing it as well.

Today's episode can be a hard one to listen to. If you are not in a place where this conversation will serve you, please feel free to tune out. We are here for you, mama, and we will be here to have these conversations when and if you are ready.

Get miscarriage support from Arden through @themiscarriagedoula Instagramand The Miscarriage Doula website.

Join our community of Moms of the Night on Instagram: @momsofthenightpodcast

Dear Mama Monologues are special clips we pull from each episode, filled with an encouraging message from our guest to you. They are released as a bonus mini-sode each week so you have a place you can quickly access words to get you through those tough motherhood moments.

Megan is a Wife, Mama, and Owner/ Designer of MPowHer Collective, a Minneapolis-based mom owned active and loungewear brand! After she became a mom in ‘21, she quickly found none of her go-to brands made her feel comfortable or confident anymore - that’s when she began designing apparel for bodies that have been through it all and can do it all. She has learned so much over the last three years navigating all the challenges and blessings of motherhood, business ownership and ultimately reparenting herself. She is incredibly excited to share a bit of her story with you!

Today's conversation is raw, vulnerable, and powerful, as my new friend Megan Perron shares the story of her childhood and the traumas that she endured. Megan is no longer in contact with her parents and is learning to navigate her motherhood journey by reflecting on how her past experiences impact her as a mother, while also learning how to break the generational cycles that so many mamas find themselves in. We also dive into how all relationships—whether they be with our families, partners, or friends—can change when you become a mother.

Megan is a mama, wife, cancer survivor, and business owner who, after becoming a mom in 2021, started designing apparel for bodies that have been through it all. MPowHer Collective is a Minneapolis-based, mom-owned active and loungewear brand that aims to create clothes that everyone can feel comfortable and confident in.

This episode is a powerful one, and I know that Megan's story will resonate with a lot of mamas who may be working through childhood traumas of their own. By discussing and reflecting on our pasts, we discuss how we can strive to be the best mamas we can be in the present moment and future.

Join our community of Moms of the Night on Instagram: @momsofthenightpodcast

Dear Mama Monologues are special clips we pull from each episode, filled with an encouraging message from our guest to you. They are released as a bonus mini-sode each week so you have a place you can quickly access words to get you through those tough motherhood moments.

Sam Hall is the creator of the Welcome Mama Journal and Day Planner, a matrescence educator, podcast host, student of motherhood studies, and mom to 2.5-year-old Teddy (and baby due in July). Sam had a difficult entry into motherhood that sparked her desire to inspire change. Sam’s mission is to create products and content that help moms take care of themselves, help moms be seen, and help moms enjoy, embrace, and capture the fleeting experience of motherhood.

Listen to her full episode on Episode 7 of Moms of the Night Podcast.

Dear Mama Monologues are special clips we pull from each episode, filled with an encouraging message from our guest to you. They are released as a bonus mini-sode each week so you have a place you can quickly access words to get you through those tough motherhood moments.

Leighton Keen is a mama currently parenting two 2 and under. She feels like she gets the best of both worlds to be a part time stay at home mom and a part time licensed marriage and family therapist. Her journey with recurrent pregnancy loss led her to specialize in reproductive and maternal mental health to support women walking through their own losses, infertility, challenges during pregnancy postpartum, birth trauma, or those becoming parents by way of adoption. Not a typical thing she shares publicly but relevant for today’s conversation, Leighton had a breast reduction prior to her pregnancies and it consequently had an effect on her feeding journeys with both of her daughters.

Listen to her full episode on Episode 6 of Moms of the Night Podcast.

In today's episode, my friend Samantha Hall and I break down the expectations of motherhood and discuss how they can make for an isolating and frustrating reality. We often see the "ideal mother" being described as selfless, which can strip us of any identity outside of motherhood and hold us back from showing up for our families in the best way we can.

Sam Hall is the creator of the Welcome Mama Journal and Day Planner, a matrescence educator, podcast host, and a student of motherhood studies. Her mission to create products and content that help moms take care of themselves, help moms be seen, and help moms enjoy, embrace, and capture the fleeting experience of motherhood grew from her own experience of struggling to "do it all" and still be present for her now two-and-a-half-year-old, Teddy.

By reflecting on our own experiences, we discuss the pressure to be selfless mamas, and how we can push back against expectations—whether they be society's or our own.

In today’s discussion with my close online friend, Leighton Keen, we both reflect on the ups and downs of our individual and unique feeding journeys. Leighton is a mama currently parenting two under two and is a part-time stay-at-home mom and part-time licensed marriage and family therapist. Her journey with recurrent pregnancy loss led her to specialize in reproductive and maternal mental health to support women walking through their own losses: infertility, challenges during pregnancy postpartum, birth trauma, or those becoming parents by way of adoption.

In a raw conversation, we dive into the many emotions of feeding your baby, whether by breast or bottle. Leighton shares that a decision she made at 23 consequently affected her feeding journeys with both of her daughters and reflects on the emotions—shame, guilt, grief—that have been a part of her journey to accept and embrace what is best for her babies and their health.

As I take the next step in the feeding journey of my own, we discuss the ways that we can acknowledge and appreciate the ways that we care for our kiddos, and reflect on how we can work through tough emotions that follow the tough decisions that come with feeding so that we can be the best mamas we can be.

Join our community of Moms of the Night on Instagram: @momsofthenightpodcast

Dear Mama Monologues are special clips we pull from each episode, filled with an encouraging message from our guest to you. They are released as a bonus mini-sode each week so you have a place you can quickly access words to get you through those tough motherhood moments.

Abby Ricciardi journey to becoming pregnant wasn’t what she had envisioned. She shares what it was like to go through infertility, what her postpartum journey looked like, and even gets vulnerable about the challenges of motherhood when you don’t have family nearby.

Listen to her full episodes on Episode 4 & 5 of Moms of the Night Podcast.

As promised, here is part two of my conversation with my cousin, Abby. If you haven’t listened to the first part of our conversation, be sure to go back and listen to last week’s episode before tuning into this one. This episode is jam packed with perspective shifting and life altering experiences that Abby has lived through. She chats with us about what it is like living in Israel while the country is at war.

Abby shares what her current reality is and how that has affected her as a mom. She shares insight on things like how rockets are considered “normal” in Israel, how bomb shelters are a “normal” part of playgrounds there, and how they even have a safe room in their house. Abby goes into details on the moment she received a video from a friend on October 7th of Hamas terrorists infiltrating Israel from the sea, which is only about an hour away from where they live.

After about a year and a half of living in Israel, Abby comes back to the United States, and shares what it has been like being back and if she ever became desensitized to things like rockets infiltrating the airspace in Israel. At the end of the day, the biggest thing that Abby takes away from living in a country at war is that we all want the same thins; for our children to be safe.

Follow the Moms of the Night Podcast on Instagram: @momsofthenightpodcast

This is a very special episode because it is with my cousin, Abby Ricciardi. Growing up our families were super close. Abby and I went to daycare together and basically grew up together. However, our motherhood journey's have looked very different. Before we sat down for this in-person interview, we realized that it had been over three and a half years since we had seen each other in person.

In today’s conversation you’ll hear us catch up on what life has been like for Abby over the past almost four years including her moving all over the place and eventually settling down where she is at now; Israel. Abby shares what it was like to find out two of her wildest dreams were coming true simultaneously; she was both pregnant and moving to the city of her dreams.

However, Abby’s journey to becoming pregnant wasn’t what she had envisioned. She shares what it was like to go through infertility, what her postpartum journey looked like, and even gets vulnerable about the challenges of motherhood when you don’t have family nearby.

And be sure to stay tuned for next week’s episode which will be part two of my conversation with Abby. We will dive more deeply into what her lifestyle currently looks like raising a toddler in a foreign country.

Follow the Moms of the Night Podcast on Instagram: @momsofthenightpodcast