Nesting Days Blog

1. Body Temperature: Newborns need help regulating their own temperature (since they aren't in that cozy womb anymore!), and mom or daddy's skin is the perfect heater for their tiny bodies.
2. Brain Development:Baby brains need oxygen, sleep, and a stable heart rate to grow to their best potential. Skin-to-skin contact beats out the incubator in effectively stabilizing their core physiological processes.
3. Weight Gain: Being cold is no fun, right? Chilly baby

After life-saving surgeries, including a double mastectomy, I was cancer-free and underwent reconstructive surgery. Looking back on how the diagnosis and procedures have affected me, I started a family and became a mom. That had really shaped my parenting. I feel that as a result, I live in the moment every single day and appreciate all the things that I've been blessed with – primarily being blessed with my two sweet girls.

Two blue jays built a nest in my lemon tree early in the spring, and I had patiently kept my distance as they diligently tended their young over the past months. As it turned officially summer this weekend, I decided it was time to get the ladder out and take a closer look at their handicraft.

I’m a trained postpartum doula. Because many people don’t know what a postpartum doula is or does, I usually begin by explaining what I don’t do. I am not medically trained. I do not make diagnosis, give medical advise, or administer medicine.

What I do do is Nurture, Educate, Support and Transition (N.E.S.T.) the new mother and her infant on their journey from womb to world.