The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - The Truth About Surrogacy, Natural Home Birth, & Pregnancy Taboos Ft. Hope Smith

Episode Date: July 21, 2022

#480: On today's episode we are  joined by Hope Smith. Hope Dworaczyk Smith is an American entrepreneur, model, TV host and reality television personality. She is the founder and CEO of MUTHA, a skincare company, and was the host of Inside Fashion. Hope joines the show to discuss her natural birth journey, her experience with surrogacy, reality TV, & her time as a Playmate. We also discuss many taboos surounding pregnancy and surrogacy and answer all the questions listeners may have.  To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) Check Out Lauryn's NEW BOOK, Get The Fuck Out Of The Sun HERE This episode is brought to you by Homesick Candles. To Try Homesick candles and receive an exclusive offer click HERE This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential  The Hot Mess Ice Roller is here to help you contour, tighten, and de-puff your facial skin and It's paired alongside the Ice Queen Facial Oil which is packed with anti-oxidants that penetrates quickly to help hydrate, firm, and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, leaving skin soft and supple. To check them out visit www.shopskinnyconfidential.com now.  Produced by Dear Media 

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slash skinny. That's H-O-M-E-S-I-C-K.com slash skinny. Use code skinny. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the Skinny Confidential, him and her. Aha! You have to be able to make money without physically showing up.

You can't have to physically show up. You have to be able to do it from anywhere. And you have to have money working for you when you're sleeping. And you might constantly work. But to go to sleep at night and being able to have a beauty business or sell products while you're sleeping, that was probably the biggest thing. Hope Smith is on the Skinny Confidential Him and Her podcast today. Hope is actually the one who introduced us to Mary

Markle. You guys love that episode. It was all about natural birth. If you have not listened, everyone needs to hear that episode. Guys, girls, whatever, got to hear this episode. It's absolutely incredible. If you're even thinking about getting pregnant or giving birth, I learned so much. But Hope is the one who introduced us to Mary Markle. And she's absolutely incredible. She actually had a baby with Mary Markle. We'll get into it in this episode. We talk all the things. She's so open about building her business, modeling fashion, being a mom. She's the owner of Mother, which is so popular all over Instagram. And she also had a natural birth,

and she has experience with surrogacy, which is super interesting. And it's so cool how open she is because there's a lot of people out there, I think, that have done surrogacy and they haven't talked about it like Hope does. And I just think it's so cool. So like I said, she's the owner of Mother, which is a luxury skincare brand that celebrates women and their bodies at every stage of their lives. I used her serum. It's like a body serum when I was pregnant and I don't have a stretch mark. So I would definitely recommend that. I have other things, but that's for a different podcast,

but I don't have any stretch marks. I really think it's thanks to that serum and being really diligent with my oils. I was a psycho about that. Her book is called Your Body is Magic, Wellness Strategies for a Healthy Pregnancy and Birth. And this book, I actually dog-eared so much during my pregnancy because she talks about every single thing during the pregnancy, after the pregnancy, postpartum, just like a whole Bible of everything you need to know. I have massive respect for Hope and what she's built. She also has an incredible family. Go check out her Instagram. On that note, let's welcome Hope to the Skinny Confidential Him

and Her podcast. This is the Skinny Confidential Him and Her. I have wanted to have you on the podcast for so long. I think we started following each other on Instagram years ago, and I just found your content to always have value in it especially when it came to kids because I feel like you're balancing being an entrepreneur being a badass and being a mother of four it's insane I don't even believe it when you say that I'm like who is she talking about I mean that is crazy number one and we're gonna get into your story but, I do have to tell the audience this. The reason that Mary Markle, the natural birth specialist, was on the podcast was because

of you because I stalked your highlight that said, I think, fertility or pregnancy and found her and talked to her on the phone for five minutes. And I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You got to just come on the podcast. I'm like, we can't have this call. It was so much information. I was like, why don't you just come on the podcast and do my consultation there?

And that episode just really resonated. She's born to be on a mic, that woman. She doesn't stop talking, but in the best way. She drops so much that you don't want her to stop. Yeah. I was captivated. I was just, I actually couldn't believe it. She's great. And you know what? I learned more in my first consultation. I was never going to have a home birth. I was completely scared of birth. I started exploring it after reading all of these books. I had been with an OBGYN for 20 weeks. I sat in one consultation with Mary Michael

and that woman spent two, three hours with me. I left believing and knowing more about my body than my OBGYN taught me in 20 weeks. I felt like confident that I could do it. You know, that makes sense. And even even with your second pregnancy, you start to realize sometimes that your body knows what it's doing. Like I don't need every single test for every single thing, whereas the first one was maybe a little bit different. I want to go back to your childhood. You were born in Texas. I was.

But you haven't lived here the whole time. I left at 16. I couldn't wait to leave. I grew up in a town of 600 people. Oh, wow. 600. Our nearest airport was about three hours away. So I really grew up on a farm until I was in third grade when we moved to the big town of 10,000 people.

Where in Texas is this? Seadrift, Texas, and then Port Lavaca, Texas. What's the nearest major city? It's right between Houston and Corpus and Austin. You could kind of go either one. Okay. But did you stand out in this town of 600? Because you're very tall, you're very pretty. I mean, I know you were a model, maybe you still are a model, but you look like a model. So was that how it was when you were younger?

I think I was an awkward early model that you were made fun of and called grasshopper and things because you have really long arms and really long legs. And I didn't look like a model like I later looked living in New York City. That was a little bit different. I couldn't wait to leave because I looked around at everybody around me. I wasn't in Austin, Texas. I wasn't in Dallas. I was looking around at everybody around me saying, this is not what I want my life to be. I have to get out and do something. So you knew at a young age that you wanted more for yourself? I had to leave and see what else was out there. And what did your family do?

So my mom's a nurse. My dad's never really been in my life, but my mom is a nurse. And his mom has always been in my life and very influential. And she was a principal. You also won an award, which was Miss Texas Teen America.

So is that sort of the turning point that you realized that you could model act all the things it was you know I was never a pageant girl growing up in Texas it was something that I entered and I don't even really fully remember why or how it happened and I ended up winning after that I won a age an agency contract in Dallas Texas so it was with the sister agency agency to Will Amina and Will Amina at the time was like a very big agent in New York and so this is like 16 years ago or more old am I no this is more 20 before apprentice I I feel like I saw you at Playmate, Playboy, something. So in 2009, I posed and I was on the cover of April 2009 and then again in 2010 as Playmate of the Year. Okay.

First of all, how does that even happen? I don't know. I was in Dallas, Texas. We skipped over a lot. No, let's not skip over. Tell us the story between when this like sure how how this transpired to play so after winning Misty in Texas I won a contract with this agency in Dallas who immediately sent me to New York and I was signed with Wilhelmina

which was their sister agency through that I had made like my parents were like come home come home like you can't you know stay gone very long This is just like a one-time thing. You're going for a month. And that turned into like years. I ended up walking before I was 18 for Versace and Balenciaga, really big designers. So I was then making more per year than my parents made. I mean, more per show or, you know, than my parents made in a year. What is that like?

Because I've talked to a couple of different people on the podcast that have said that. And what does that feel like when you're that my parents made in a year so you know what is that like because I've talked to a couple different people on the podcast that have said that and what does that feel like when you're that young well I always knew money wasn't just abundant right so I knew I needed to make my own but I also knew that if I was able to make money I didn't have to go home so I'd show up for work and you know go to all the call casting calls and I wasn't like a big partier because I knew I had to make it work. And what about all the things in the modeling world at this time? I know especially at the time you modeled eating disorders, drugs, drinking, you just stayed out of it or what? All of it. I'd be right next to it. So I'd be at whatever the hottest spot was. They shouldn't

have been letting me into those hot spots because I was like not even 20. But of course, I'm in and you're at, you know, all of these different tables. And what I saw during that period was insane. Like what? You're next to the table or at your table. A huge, huge bags of like cocaine. Never touched it. Didn't care. I would stay out.

I would dance and party. I'd want to know like what was going on and to assess like every situation. But I'd never, I never had an interest in that. You're obviously already thin. So you didn't have to worry about all these things that all these moms. They told me I was so big. So I was told that I was very, very big. What?

Then, yeah. So what do you say at a young age? It's hard. I mean. You believe it. And you start dieting or you start watching what you're eating. And you're like, oh, I can't really eat that. You know, it's a mind. So when did the playboy playmate Hugh Hefner era start? I invested money

into a medical spa in Texas and I had like laser hair removal. Somehow I convinced a doctor to sign off as my medical director when I was 21 years old. Somehow he risked his license and believed in my medical spa. Four years after that, I sold it and I was in Dallas, Texas. I ran into Holly Madison at the W Hotel. Okay. Is this Holly Madison while she's on the show or is this before? While she had her show. I think it was the very beginning of her show maybe. Okay. And does she like poach you? Yeah, pretty much. How? To come by and she'd be somewhere tomorrow or that afternoon. I can't remember exactly pretty much. How? To come by and she'd be somewhere tomorrow or that afternoon.

I can't remember exactly. And she would want to meet me and she had a photographer here in town. And so I actually went by and met her. I think it was the same day. Were you familiar with who she was and what she was doing? I knew who she was

and I knew that it was like a little bit felt risky, but I still did it because I like to know what's out there and I like to explore and like see. And so I met with her and after that I was flown out to Los Angeles to do like a test shoot and I did it and then they invited me to shoot like an actual spread in the magazine in the cover and I first person I called was my grandmother in Texas because I was like okay and I entertained the idea to her like I wasn't gonna do it and like it was just flattering but I was like wanting to do it and she was like oh if I was your age I'd

go for it oh grandma's cool yeah and so I was like really you'd just you'd pose naked she's like yeah so I did it and you're on the cover the first time you do it yeah I had Seth Rogen blowing um a fan up my skirt and like this what the hell was he doing there he was also shooting a cover we shot it together that's kind of juxtaposition wait so you hear all these stories about how you have to date hugh hefner and be with you hefner and there was none of that no i was already hosting a show that was on e-entertainment at the time it was called inside fashion so i pitched the show for inside fashion where i would go backstage and interview designers makeup artists this is a long time ago and they took it and ran with it and it was like in canada and the u.s

maybe that's why i got a cover at that point too because it wasn't like i had already had a job you were known a little bit what about is there cattiness in the mansion with the playmates or is everyone friends? Because I feel like it either goes either way. You're either going to tell me you guys were great friends or there's cattiness. I don't think that I was in as deep to like have all the cattiness. You know, I wasn't there every day and they have like weekend nights where you can go like twice a week and like eat and watch movie night. And, you know, I would stop by like here and there because I lived in Los Angeles but I wasn't there on a nightly basis so I don't know you know it sounds like there were a couple girls that I

stayed close with okay yeah like it sounds like you stayed out of the I stayed out just enough that I never saw any of that behavior that you talk about, like the nights in the bedroom and all this stuff you read about. I never saw it, Merson. I've read every single book on, like down the rabbit hole, all the books she wrote. And then I read also Kendra's. And so like some of those nights were wild. I never, I haven't read the books either. So I probably should read the books. Oh my God. You got to read the books. They're juicy. I was definitely there when Holly and Kendra were there and Bridget. I feel like you don't have time should read the books. Oh my God, you gotta read the books. They're juicy. I was definitely there when Holly and Kendra were there and Bridget. I feel like you don't have time to read the books

because you have four kids and you're running an empire and you have a husband. But if you do have time, the books are pretty juicy. I feel like they'd make me sad because I saw like a certain side of Hef and I didn't see that other side.

So I feel like it'd make me a little sad. Like sad meaning like you saw a better side of him or a good side of him? Like I saw the best side of him probably. So the other, this would kind of darken that image. Yeah. Which is okay. I also think that there must be something that you let off that was a boundary of respect.

Probably. Like I can just tell by meeting you in person that you like don't put up with shit. And so maybe he felt that like you weren't the one to go for does that make sense yeah but how do you choose your victim right like i don't know i don't maybe there's something about you that was just like i'm not cocaine's next to me but i'm not doing it yeah drinking's there but i'm not gonna engage well i would drink i mean but yeah but you know what i mean like like blackout or go in the room and like have 12 sums with him. Right. Yeah. No. I mean, I would love to be a fly on the wall to see Hugh Hefner having a 12 sum. I'm not going to lie. So at what point do you get approached

for the celebrity apprentice? Is it like after Playboy? Okay. It was after Playboy. And what's your experience with that? I really showed up thinking I wasn't going to have to work. And I remember being shocked at how hard the work it was. Like you don't have anybody to go like to FedEx for you. You're physically going. So I thought like if you're signing on and it's like at the time, little John and I don't, you know, I had different people in my group. I was like, no way are they going to send them to FedEx because you're going to get like accosted, you know. But no, like you don't have helpers, like you're really doing the work. And so it was probably a lot harder than I thought it would. There were not 13 episodes.

I left on episode nine. I was the youngest and one of the last females to leave. Do you think that when you came on that they underestimated you or that they knew you were that, or I was so scared of the crazy people that were on it that I just stayed far away from that part of it. And so I just laughed. Who else was in your cast besides Lil Jon?

NeNe Leakes, Nikki Taylor, Lisa Rinna. Who was the craziest? What does it rhyme with? NeNe was funny. She wasn't crazy. I mean, you know, she was just funny. The craziest. Oh, there was that guy.

His name was Gary. Gary Busey? Yes. Oh, Christ. That was scary. Wait, is Gary Busey the one that has the chihuahuas? No, that's mickey rourke that's mickey rourke gary bucey gary bucey's right up there on the crazy list is he actually

that crazy no he was so crazy and my they give you all like sweets you all have your own like house apartment inside of trump soho not trump so i saw gary bucey throw a handful of spaghetti at a guy's face at dan tana's oh and i And I wasn't surprised because it was Gary Busey. I was like, oh. When he was fired, he left a Post-it on my door, and it said that he left the items, like some orange juice and some items for me in his refrigerator.

And I was like, that's not happening, Gary. I'm not borrowing your orange juice. Here's some roofy orange juice with a little bit of- No, Gary didn't do that. He's just a little out there. GHB croissants. He never knew what he would say or when he would scream across the room. It is absolutely so important if you're a business owner or you have a brand

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to get 50% off when you go to issue.com slash podcast and use promo code skinny. That's I S S U U.com slash podcast and use promo code skinny at checkout for your free account or 50% off your annual premium account. That's I S S U U.com slash podcast with promo code skinny. What are some moments that you look back on that are so crazy especially after when trump became president do you look back and you're like holy shit this is like when he became president that was crazy because i'm like wait you're not supposed to i'm not supposed to know the president you know was it was he nice let's talk like forget like him being president and everything was he nice in celebrity apprentice he was nice to me He was nice to me. He was nice to you. But he was very rude

to people around him. But he was very nice to me. Like his helpers he was rude to? Or other contestants. Yeah, and other contestants. Yeah. So basically,

he wanted to have sex with you. He might have. But no. He for sure did. Yeah. But then he probably felt the boundary that Hugh Hefner felt.

Yeah, because I never, yeah, was like preyed upon like that, you know? I mean, he's not that hot, like Hefner felt. Yeah, because I never was preyed upon like that. I mean, he's not that hot, let's be honest. What about his daughter? Was Hugh? No, no, no.

That's a lot of saggy balls in one conversation. You don't know that, Lauren. These guys might keep it tight. Hugh Hefner and Trump together? No, no, no, Michael. You don't know, Lauren. You never know. Michael, I can tell by the way someone keeps their hair, how their balls are. My wife has this whole thing where she thinks, like the other day she was trying to explain

blue balls to another person on the show, like as if she has experienced this. No, I was saying being pregnant is like blue balls. But I don't think you can compare either of them. And I would never assume that i would know what it's like to be like you're right about that yeah it's like you're you're you're blue you're blue balled and you're blue balled and you're blue balled and you're blue and then it's like month so uncomfortable yeah it's so uncomfortable and then you have to let it out well they're both uncomfortable It's like having blue balls.

Nine and a half months. I get the analogy. Yeah. We're at the point right now of this pregnancy, just like a side note, where he just doesn't understand how uncomfortable it is.

So any analogy helps. I just told him to just say yes, dear. Perfect. Well, sometimes she says don't say anything. So I just kind him to just say yes, dear. Perfect. Well, sometimes she says, don't say anything. And so I just kind of stand there with like a deer in headlights. I mean, what about when she's in labor? Like, are you allowed to talk? Can you?

It depends. Sometimes I was, sometimes I wasn't. I was in a corner at one point. Yeah. I put my husband in the corner too. He wasn't allowed to speak without being spoken to. He was able to move my affirmations. I had like this poster board and

he was able he had to follow me with it and just put it where i could see it and then like leave he sounds smart though yeah you know she had me she wanted me like behind the sheet and in the corner but i get like i was like i don't need you at my butthole when i'm pushing stuff out okay so celebrity apprentice would like was the whole experience wild? Looking back, is there anything that you remember that really stands out? I remember being glad I was fired finally because I lasted a lot longer than I thought I was supposed to last. There was nothing crazy that stood out. I was happy because I remember I got fired and I had to fly to London.

I had already committed to another job and I got fired the day I needed to leave. So it was kind of perfect. I did my exit interview and still made my plane ticket. And what if I wouldn't have been able to leave? I would have canceled on a job last minute. And it's just after Celebrity Apprentice airs, do you get recognized everywhere or was it like a different tier of fame? Maybe a little bit in Los Angeles and but not a lot. Not a lot. No, I don't think so. OK, so at what point do you meet your husband after this? I met my husband in 2009. Is this simultaneously starting your company or did you start your company after?

I started my company after my first child. Okay. Yeah. I met my husband in 2009 and then we were kind of pen pals and I was dating other people. What do you mean pen pals? So I was dating other people and I knew Robert would never be okay with like I wasn't ready to settle down and I knew he would never he was the type that would never be okay if I was like gonna go date somebody and then come back and then like date somebody or date two people at the same time like I knew when it was time to date Robert that I had to be with

just Robert like he wasn't gonna be like she can just like meander around Los Angeles and like hop on a flight and not tell you exactly where she's going you know like it was he's just more serious than that when we met we you know pen pals because he was in Switzerland I was in the U.S. he'd invite me to fly out he'd say can you meet me in Paris to you know go to some opera very fancy I'm in Los Angeles and I'm not thinking about the opera and it's like no way am I getting on a 13 hour flight to Paris with, I don't know you like that. And so there was all of these crazy invites that I just said no to. And finally he invited me to Austin, Texas to go to the first ever F1. And I said, okay. It was my first yes in like three years. I said, okay, my mom's very close to there. So if this gets weird, I'm just going to go see

my parents. And you had been out of Texas this whole time? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So it was kind of like went to visit family and him and dated pretty much from that moment on. He is a smart man. What is it like to date someone who is, I mean, you're extremely smart too. You guys met your match.

Like, is that wild when you're that young to be dating someone who is that smart he never stops like he never stops working never stops thinking he's always i would say he's probably never satisfied and never going to be satisfied he has to keep going called blissfully dissatisfied i know someone yeah i know someone like that yeah like you you know you you always think, right? They always say when you make your first million, that's the dream and you're going to be so happy. And then you make that million. You might be satisfied for a second, but there's not.

You're actually a little disappointed. Because you think it's going to be a lot better than it is. And then you have a new goal in mind. His work ethic is so, so impressive to me. And I think that I have learned to fill every single minute that I have because of him because I watched him do it like what and it's inspiring what's you guys's morning routine do you have like a whole thing well it depends but but where you are yeah it depends where we are what city if we're together in that city or not because like he could be

traveling he could be fundraising because right now he's raising a big fund. And then like I'm in Austin, he came into Austin last night, I flew in this morning. You know, it just depends. Before you launched your business, what was the best piece of advice he gave you and how have you applied it? You have to be able to make money without physically showing up. I would say like, you can't have to physically show up. You have to be able to do it from anywhere. And you have to have money working for you when you're sleeping or when you're you know and you might constantly work but to have it you know to go to sleep at night and being able to have a beauty

business or sell products while you're sleeping or somewhere that was probably the biggest thing you can't be constrained by time or location. Yeah. And you know what? When you're a model, you have to show up to get paid. And I don't know if it's his way of telling me, come to the bright side and don't model anymore or don't go and be an actress or what it was, but that was part of it.

What do you think is the best advice you've taught him? It could be about anything. I think I teach him everything. I think he adopts my ideas like sometimes i think like he he like laugh i i'm talking about something in the house and he's like laughing like kind of i can tell he's kind of like letting me go on but enjoying it a little too much and then i'll look at him and i'll tell him yeah you'll be talking about this in two days to somebody two days later he he'll be talking to somebody about the metaverse. Or very early on, I was like, yes, I'm going to have a house in the

metaverse and I'm going to be buying art in my house for the metaverse. And I go on and on and on about it, my outfits, my this and that. And he was looking at me like it's crazy. This is a while back. But you know what? He listened to my ideas and I heard him talk about it they always do that they always take our ideas and then they make it as their own and pre-package it and sometimes he tells me my idea that i told him three days ago was his own it's because we're listening i get that no but you're like not listening kind of you're like just you're passively listening and then you'll tell me the idea well i've said i think the most important decision you can make is the person you choose to spend your life with right because like you make the wrong decision there imagine you're listening to all the wrong things it's true right

that's major will smith i just finished his autobiography there's a little controversy around will smith why what did he do but What happened? But in his book, he says the two most important decisions that you make in life is your partner and your location. I thought that was a good one. It's true. Location's important as well. I think now that I'm talking to you, when I started following you is when you got married, which your wedding was the gnarliest wedding I think I've ever seen. My husband still has a lot to say about it. It was in Italy. It was in Ravello. Yeah. I think like you had like three different dress options, if I'm correct. And like it was so gnarly, but it was also so chic. How did you like manage the juxtaposition of that? I don't know. I,

you know, I worked with a great events person but i know exactly what i wanted you know it was bad i was vacationing you know on the mafie coast before the wedding the month before and it got really bad because they started writing about it like the italian you know paparazzi and things they started writing about what was happening and like my husband then is reading it in the mornings that we're in like two towns over. And he's like, shut the fuck up. Why are helicopters dropping off 50 loads of equipment and things on this cliff for our wedding? I'm like, honey, no, I don't think that's true. And then he makes a call and he's like, oh, it's true.

There keeps having all of these interactions. You know, I had like this huge production happen as a surprise for my husband. And I had these dancers. I should put together a show from like our first meeting to like all of the steps along, like our dating history up to our marriage, including our first son. And they're dancers and they turn their body into like tables or to like a car. And he kept seeing outside the window them building this box. And it was a surprise. I couldn't tell him what it was. And he says, the window them building this box and he kept and it was a surprise

so i couldn't tell him what it was and he he says well what is this box like why can't i know anything that's going on i'm like it's fine it's to put i had to think on the fly i said oh it's to put our our monogram up on and he goes well this is just stupid you're letting them build a box when you could just project it on like a flat you know so i have to hear it because we're like over there in real time and i'm like can you just let me surprise you just stop was he surprised yeah he loved it he cried it's like the best gift i mean you're writing you guys everyone go google it was it was the gnarliest wedding i've ever seen it was beautiful it was fun we had so many friends in town for the week it was fun i feel like i might

need to redo my wedding. No, it's done. It's too late for you. No, I might need to redo it. Go on vacation instead. After you guys get married, it sounds like you already had your first. We had our, yep. Now, is this when you talked to Mary Markle and you did a natural birth, or was your first hospital?

My first was the natural birth. Your first was the natural. First, I want to hear all about a natural birth from you especially with mary markle so i listened to mary michaels podcast here and i remember one comment you made you said but how what does it look like like my house is all white my house is all white too i have cashmere rugs in my bedroom like white white white nobody wears shoes in my house i'm a scary like in in any house i don't care like where you're at you're not putting shoes on like if i see you in them you're taking them off like i'm carrying them to the door we're having

a fight about it because i'm fine with them taking off but she's got to get somebody like a bench to sit on because we have all these i had to do that too for my husband he requested that same thing so i got i did get like a little bench and. I'm going to get a bench, but here's my problem. I stand like a flamingo in my cowboy boots. I'm like, he, he does take his shoes off,

but then he'll do little secret tricks. Like he'll try to walk with his cowboy boot from the laundry room to the door. And it's like five feet. It's only five feet, but like, well, I got to get to one and then I got to go back out. You know,

fecal matter. My husband does it all the time. I'm like, why, upstairs right now and you know it like infuriates me like nothing else i guess because i know that my babies crawl around on the floor and like they live on the floor your husband's braver than me i would never venture up the stairs but i would go across to the to the laundry once in a while i catch him no i made him crawl on his knees through the through the So, so with a natural birth, I'm not going to lie. I'm going to be dead honest. One of the things

that does give me anxiety is I like my house the way I like it and it feels like it would be like a crime scene and I'm not down for that. There's no, I mean,

I don't know. Maybe you are and I love if you beat me at this, but like I'm, I have a lot of ocd in my house and like i can't get on with my day unless things look a certain way like i have to have clean countertops like i can't move on yeah we have that we you guys have you can talk about that on a

whole nother podcast for hours i'm sure you two go on about that yeah so i like things to look a certain way and i was very freaked out about these rugs, which my husband loves more than I do. She promised me nothing would happen to them and that it would be like nothing. She would clean up all of it and you'd never even see it. And she's right. She said she brings in a tactical team. It's not just her. No, it's not just her.

One of my birds, I had three other people. And the other one, I had two other people. And she comes in with all of this equipment. But you're free and you're in your house and you're getting to like walk around you can eat which is like huge for me you can't be hungry and then run a marathon if you're like me you run puffy and bloated not only do I get bloated in my face and need my ice roller, I also get bloated in my stomach, especially postpartum. Things are puffy over here. I do everything I can already to fight inflammation. I even got this thing that does like leg compression. I wear compression socks. I sleep slightly with my head up. I ice roll. I do my pink balls facial massager. I get

facial massage and I also take bloat capsules. And the bloat capsules that I have been taking for the last three years are Array. Array is an insane company, you guys. They have these capsules, okay? You got to get these specific capsules. They're called the bloat capsule. Like I said, it's a hundred percent natural filler free organic. Hooray is an insane company. You guys, first of all, the bloat capsules, the ones you want to get, they're a hundred percent natural filler free and organic. And here's what I do. So if I have a heavy meal, especially at night, like a pasta or a pizza, anything that's like going to be heavy on my digestive system, I will take two of these. And in it is five herbs and a fruit-based digestive enzyme. It's completely laxative

free. So you're not like running to the bathroom. It just helps with bloat. And they have a code for you. You're going to go to array.com. That's A-R-R-A-E.com and use code skinny at checkout. You get 10% off of one-time purchases or you get 25 off the first month on subscription so head to their site and get the blow capsules trust me on this one why don't they let you eat in case they have to put you under or you in case you go into cesarean i'm in sneak yeah i'm sneaking yeah you should wait nobody can tell you not to eat just eat it here's another thing and i'm going to be honest like just a lot of different energy in your house though how do you know that the

people she brings in are the right vibe i think they're in the birthing space so they know what a birthing woman needs because they've all done it before and when you're in that they know not to ask you a question because anytime you have to answer a question no are you hope from celebrity apprentice can i get a selfie no that would be awful okay but you know what i have a trust issue too with like you're just going to show up to my house and i'm like i don't know why you're here or what you want from me and like can i trust you and i don't trust anybody like this is bad but i don't and i don't these people from the birthing community they really don't want to interrupt a birth they don't and they're just not those people they're not the people that want the selfie they

you know they probably don't even maintain an instagram page they've probably never taken a selfie themselves they probably wouldn't recognize a celebrity if they were dining next to one you know and they're i don't want to say they're like completely hidden but they have other interests did Mary Michael come in with like a flourishing energy like she was in her element like you didn't have to do anything you know I love Mary Michael and I went back to her for baby too but there were times in my appointments because she tells me everything so many times that I was like really annoyed with her.

And I would tell her like, I'm just feeling anxious because you're making me anxious and I'm feeling a little annoyed with this conversation because I already know what you're telling me. Like, I get it. I promise I get it. But when she showed up,

she was, she's always a professional and she's like, has so much knowledge. But when she showed up, it was like a pro. You got to see her in her element and she was like, has so much knowledge. But when she showed up, it was like a pro. You got to see her in her element. And she was like, she had everybody working and everybody has a job and people are in the kitchen and they're sterilizing. And like, those are just things that they would probably never use and never even used for my birth.

But they go and do sterile procedure just in case because you want everything. How bad does it hurt? Be honest. Well, I've never had a medicated birth so i can't tell you like i can't compare like i'm guessing nothing to something contractions and all of that for me were only huge when i got to transition time and that's almost time to push transition time that's when like right before you have to push yeah and so how like was it primal was it primal? You're screaming, like what's your husband doing? I wasn't screaming, but you're definitely like using every resource you have,

like breathing and things. I had back labor on my second. So my husband was putting like pressure on my lower back in the shower and water really helped me. So like the heat, I wanted the heat to touch my body because you have certain like nerve receptors in there. You know, you can get that to beat the pain. And so like that sensation will like go you can get that to beat the pain.

And so that sensation will go to the brain faster than the pain you're having. So water really, really helps, especially from a shower or hard pressure. But yeah, it hurts. But it's so forgotten and it's so short. You immediately or after birth are so awake and't, I've never had the epidural, but you're not drugged at all. The epidural I feel like is really different than what you're describing because I couldn't move to get in a shower. Oh no, I got up. No. You know, I cuddled with the baby for a long time, but then I was like, you know what? I really want to shower. The, you know, 10 minutes it took me to go shower or less because it's just like bed to shower. They had fixed the bed completely and it was now ready for like me to sleep shower or less because it's just like bed to shower they had fixed the bed completely and it was now ready for like me to sleep in that night completely clean I was in my

own clothes back in bed with baby and did you get postpartum anxiety or depression not that I know of I know that I had hormonal things happening like imbalances and things but I don't think I ever had any of like postpartum and i did what do you do if you rip do they just do they stitch you up there she told me that if i learned in our exams like what to do and how to relax the perineum just like she tells me that i won't rip so much to do she takes like gauze and puts it in castor oil and she has it heating and when it's time to push she takes that gauze and she's going to support between your vagina, like perineum right there, so that the pressure is applied evenly so you don't tear.

And so you didn't have an experience of like tearing a lot? I never tore in either birth. And then your second one, you did the exact same thing with Mary Michael. Exact same thing, Mary Michael. I also did, I was doing primrose, you know, to soften the cervix. I was actually inserting primrose in my last few weeks. I was doing vitamin E every night on that area so that it would be really soft, stretch more than, you know, without tearing. So there's all these, I had, you know, vitamin E and

primrose on my nightstand that I would just like you just massage your vagina hole yeah it's like I can't first of all like let me just break this down I can't shave my legs because I can't reach my legs and then like shaving the vagina you have to like get a mirror and like I mean it's like I can't even see what's going on so now I have to like do the evening primrose and the vitamin e and the shape it's just a lot it's a lot you can't see any of it either when do you like just because i'm gonna be i'm gonna ask a selfish question when do you think like it's time to like take a step back when you're pregnant and like like relax because i'm a go-go person like you and I feel like I don't know when it's time to like step back I think for you it was like three weeks ago but here we are I don't know how far

along you are really I'm 32 and a half weeks yeah I don't know I I think I have to go go go but then suddenly you're gonna get this urge which is like now or very soon in three weeks or something. And it's going to be like that nesting feeling and you're going to have like this burst of energy. That's what my sister-in-law said.

Yeah. So I think you're going to have a big burst of energy. I am the wrong person to ask. Okay. I. Because you worked, you worked until 40 weeks.

Yeah. And I also. I knew you were going to say that. It's so bad. You shouldn't though. Nobody should. They should stop. In your book, Your Body is Magic. I know I'm going to your body is magic people what did people say anything that's similar about that or

no yeah you should definitely rest and you know but you know what i think that when you keep going your body is like ready to give birth i mean you're moving the baby's getting into position your hips are moving they're widening all the stuff's happening and if you're very like if you're not moving around and not doing anything that that's a lot of times the baby will flip and all kinds it makes sense if you think about it from like an evolutionary standpoint i doubt that women of past ages were kind of just like waiting like they couldn't wait around right no so you're upright and you're moving and the laying on your back is when you like get in trouble and like baby starts flipping the other way what are some other things you were doing that was holistic during your pregnancy that

you think have just really helped? And obviously your book, like you're such an expert in this space, your product line, like what are some things that you used in your toolbox? I did follow Mary Michael's whole vitamins. And, you know, she told me, do you want a basic baby? Because I was like, oh, no, I'm good. She was like, she goes, you got you have to get on all these vitamins. And I would try dismissing her like, I was like, oh, no, I'm good. She was like, she goes, you have to get on all these vitamins. And I would try dismissing her like, Mary Michael, I've got this.

I'm good. I'm on this like really great one. She goes, oh, you're on one. Do you want a basic baby? And I was like, no, Mary Michael, I don't want a basic baby. She's a character. And then she gave me like smoothies and all of the stuff to do every day, which kept me distracted enough to.

Smoothies, vitamins, primrose, and vitamin E. Vitamin E, acupuncture. Taking vitamins as we're talking. Yeah. I'm going to have my organic mushrooms. She told me to eat a lot of... I just got those. This is such a good brand.

These are the best. Symbiotica. I know what my daughter likes. The D3 is good. So is the B12. I just ordered that one. Your husband should take the... Well, you should both, but your husband too. The D3. My daughter likes it. The D3 is good. So is the B12. I just ordered that one. Your husband should take the, well, you should both, but your husband too, the D3, the CoQ10 is really good for men.

Okay. He takes like a bunch of their vitamins and he got me onto them, these packets. Yeah. I started following the founder a few years ago. He's your vibe. I love it. Yeah. He is.

He's like very like, I feel like he would have almost maybe been a good person to interview for your next book. Oh, okay. Because he knows so much about vitamins. I sure love that. Yeah, that was like a little free ad spot for that. Yep, there's another one too. Symbiotica.

You're welcome, Chervene. I'm taking the sponsors here. After your second baby, was the birth similar to your first or was it different? It was different. I had back labor in my second and I don't know why. What is that? I don't know what that means. It's this crazy feeling where you have incredible pressure on your back. It's in your lower back and like your contractions are in the front but you feel the pain in the back and it really hurts. Like it just it's uncomfortable. It feels like you couldn't stretch it out. Like if you bent over and you started twisting and

stretching like you wouldn't be able to the pain wouldn't go away. I actually didn't realize I was in labor, but I was in labor that day, all day. I woke up with my back hurting. I went and I did the Legree studio here. I went and did a workout at one o'clock and my water broke at 6 PM. So five hours after I did this little Legree machine, I didn't know I was in labor, but my back was hurting since the morning. How many weeks were both of your babies? My first was 42 weeks. I know.

Horrible. That's as it was. My next was 39 weeks and four days. So it was so different. A little better. Yeah. So see, the first just like goes longer, but I think like your second will be earlier.

Zaza was hanging. I didn't think she was going to come out. I know. Zaza wanted to stay. Hendrix wanted to stay too. Yeah. They like want to stay up there. They wouldn't come out.

They only, you know what? You were doing the right things. You were giving your body exactly what it needed because your baby's only going to decide that it's, or your baby and your body are going to decide to, you know, have the baby and give birth when your placenta can no longer support all of its needs. So there's going to be a time when, you know, your first is very comfortable. You're doing all of the things. You're getting a lot more rest. So your placenta is so healthy. Like if you look at your placenta from your first birth, I don't know if you looked at yours. I looked at mine and like laid it out and unfolded it in

things. And then I looked at my second and my second one because I had so much less rest. I was working. I had my first baby to take care of. It was so much smaller. And he came earlier. Whoa, that is weird. Did you look at your placenta?

No, I would have looked at it. Totally. I would have rolled it out like a fruit fucking roll up in front of Michael. But I didn't know that I could do that. This one I'll be rolling out. I want to look at it. It's actually beautiful. It's like the tree of life.

I'm going to Instagram story it. Oh God. I mean, it's cool. I'm sure you ate your placenta, correct? I did. How did you eat it? In pill form, encapsulated. That's what I ate too.

I don't think that I could put it in a smoothie. They offered that to me and I just didn't think I could do it I could eat it like a steak at Ruth Chris No problem I'm not going to because the option is the pills But this is what I'll say If you told me the only way to ingest it

Was eating it like a steak I would 100% still eat it Does it get to be flavored with something? Yeah, throw a little McCormick's on there Maybe some Siete seasoning. Yeah. Like if you told me I couldn't have it and I had to eat it,

I'd probably go that route, but I'd really have to mask that taste. I don't even know what it tastes like, but I would imagine because the encapsulation isn't that nice. I imagine it's pretty gamey. I'll eat anything.

I will eat anything for feeling good and beauty. Like I just will. Well, thank God we can put it in the pill capsules because we thank God for technology. We don't need to do that. What are some other things that you did post your two births that you think really helped with the recovery?

Because this book that you've written, I feel like it's so much about being a woman and birth and after birth, pre-birth. Like, what are some things people can do that you think really helped i really tried you know how i talk about like don't stay horizontal and don't lay down a lot when you are pregnant you know like you want to be upright and moving you don't want to just stay in one position i know afterwards you want to lay down because you want your uterus to heal very high and you don't want like the hysterectomy and all of these other issues so you want it to heal really high so you want to be

on your back and you want to lay down and that's what I think Mary Michael said too like 80% of the time you want to be laying down after birth for weeks like a couple weeks I was up like nothing happened and it was a big mistake looking back i was running around i was out at restaurants like i was like it was fine well this time the plan is she's going to actually take a long maternity leave because the first time we she's never stopped we're just like baby it's exciting too because it's your first you have like this boost of adrenaline and you're so proud of this baby and you just like made this baby and you're like proud so you want to take it in the world and it's a whole new life because you get

to like go somewhere with a baby like you know you play grow up playing baby dolls and like you want to take your baby to like target or like wherever you're going right but like baby too felt more chill because i was like oh if i take you out i also have to take you out and you're walking and like you know then this one it's like some of the excitement about like taking them out right away wasn't as exciting for me personally. I am very serious about the vitamins that I give my daughter. I don't want to give her any of that Fred Flintstone shit. You know what I mean?

It's added so many dyes, so much crap in a vitamin when it's supposed to be healthy. So enter Haya. Okay. Zaza asked me for these. She actually says vitamins mama. These are legit. They have zero sugar and zero gummy junk. They taste great and they're perfect for a picky eater. Most vitamins, I looked into this, have five grams of sugar. I also feel like your kids have little teeth and to chew on all that sugar first thing in the morning is too much. So I'm obsessed with Haya because they're pediatrician approved, they're super powered, they're chewable, and they have all the things in them. There's a blend of 12 organic fruits and vegetables. I tried them.

They taste delicious. They also have minerals and vitamins, vitamin D, B12, C, zinc, folate, all the things in this vitamin. And they help with energy, brain function, mood. We love mood. We love things that help with mood for a toddler. Concentration, teeth, and bones, and more. They're non-GMO, vegan, dairy-free, allergen-free, gelatin-gmo vegan dairy free allergen free gelatin free nut free everything free that you can imagine okay they're designed for all ages and they taste good i told you i tried one i'm telling you we've worked out a special deal with haya for their best-selling children's vitamin the one that salsa takes you're gonna receive 50 off your first order to claim this deal you must go to haya health.com skinny this deal, you must go to hiahealth.com slash skinny. This deal

is not available on their regular website. Just go to h-i-y-a-h-e-a-l-t-h.com slash skinny, and you're going to get your kids the full body nourishment that they need to grow into healthy adults. Did you do any belly binding or waist trainers? And do you believe in that? I do believe in it and I think it works. Because I worked out my entire pregnancies, I didn't do it afterwards because I think I still had that muscle support just from like little things like planks on the knees and things. So I was able to like maintain some of that,

but I do believe it works. I keep hearing this pregnancy that I never heard the first pregnancy about how important it is to rebuild your pelvic floor. So important. Can you talk? We've had no one on the podcast to talk about this. Can you talk a little bit like how you'd go about this? So in the book, you'll see Brooke Cates.

She has a whole program for it and you can sign up online and you can, you know, read her and follow her. But if you don't have that muscle there it is stretched it is weak you know you have to start rebuilding from the ground up and she gives you steps because you can't just hop into it and do things that you were doing before and think that you rebuilt the muscle you have to really start very granular and start with like a certain part of it and she gives you like specific moves and then when you can do those up to a certain amount of time then you move on to this other exercise and so she's really good with that because if you have a doctor that tells you that like when you sneeze you if you pee a little like you did your pelvic floor was not rebuilt right you know i

didn't do pelvic floor exercises for my first but i did kegels is that the same thing it would be the same thing but she says that you can do them in a certain stuff so it like rebuilds them from like ground up i guess okay look at you on a thursday work day talking about kegels in the pelvic floor a little bit lost here at this kegels are so good but i feel like i need a reminder well i feel like i'm gonna go to the vagina whisper have you heard of him the little laser they put in and they like tighten everything no this isn't a laser this is like we gotta go we gotta be efficient like tie it up whatever this is like this is a guy in new jersey i saw him on daily mail and he sits at this desk and it's like this huge desk and behind him is like 300 vaginas

all different shapes and sizes that he has sculpted so is it like sculpted from the outside or the inside both he does both he can do whatever you want so if like let's say like you're like i want a titan here the tuck here i want to like a hole here like he can do it all and he like he's known as like the vagina whisperer and i just am putting it out there if he's listening like please come on come on the show yeah but but so my thing is like if if you do all the pelvic floor and you do the kegels do you think that it really makes that big of a difference i think it makes a huge difference okay it's a muscle okay so like muscles you can't like tone a muscle.

You can make it bigger, right? I guess that is toning it, but it can only get smaller or bigger. There's not like a middle, like you don't get to choose exactly. I don't know. Yeah. For your third baby, did you want a surrogate by choice? What was the circumstance? How was the freezing of the embryos process?

If someone's listening and they do want to do a surrogate tell us so the reason i started looking into a surrogate is i had an autoimmune that was wouldn't let me with a medication i was taking at the time it was it's actually an infusion you have to take like once a year you can't carry but your eggs are healthy since then that autoimmune is now in remission and i probably could carry because i haven't had the medicine in like two or three years. But at that time, I wouldn't have been able to carry. So I started looking at a few things.

I was interested in surrogacy and I never was completely freaked out by it. I was just interested and wanted to learn more. I called an agency and the agency I used was Conceive Abilities out of Chicago since then they've grown. You do lots of psychology tests, interviews. They want to know about your past birth experiences or like your thoughts and your preferences. And, you know, there were lots of interviews before they ever introduced you to somebody. And I was paired with a surrogate that I loved. And she was my first introduction, which is, I think, so rare to find. How many did you interview after her? Or did you just say this? None because I knew that was my person.

Okay. So this is so interesting to me because I feel like so many people are interested in this, but they're scared to say they're interested. Yeah. First of all, you take your egg and your husband's sperm, you make an embryo, and then she gets implanted with it.

Yes. Correct? Yeah. And are you there? Yeah. My husband wasn't, but I flew out. I felt like it was a very personal thing you know it's your baby going into somebody so I had to be there so

flew out I'm there with her in the room there's all of these things like she has to make her sure her bladder is really really full how uncomfortable like you're gonna have the implantation but with a full bladder I know so uncomfortable they turn her like a little bit upside down after they put it in before they put it in in, you see it up on a screen so you can see, oh, that's your embryo. It's pulled up with a microscope. And I just felt like it was a very personal thing. And like I needed to be there. I was holding her hand.

She got acupuncture during it because it's supposed to help with like results. So it was very, it was like, it's amazing to see your baby before it's your baby. I saw the embryo up here. Cool. I have kind of a random, maybe strange questions. so it was very it was like it's amazing to see your baby before it's your baby you know I saw the embryo up here cool yeah I have like

kind of a random maybe strange questions do you stress out when you're not carrying and it's being carried somewhere else are you worried like what's that person doing

I thought I was going to be the biggest control freak about that I thought that I was going to make her move into my house I think she's a little bit worse than me maybe I thought she was going to

have to like move into my house and eat what I eat and do all of this. And then I realized you have to let them be people, you know, which is a, it's a hard thing for me to do because I want you to eat the best food because you're growing my baby. Right. But I also chose who I chose because I believed that we shared a lot of values. So she was a doula. And for me, like I wanted a birthy person, somebody that loved birth. So she was a doula. And for me, I wanted a birthy person, somebody that loved birth. And she was it for me. So once I knew her, my worry about what are you going to eat in your downtime and are you going to drink and do all of this went away.

And what's the communication? Are you texting her every single day? Are you emailing? Are you calling? Not texting every day. I would go to appointments with her on FaceTime because she was out of state and was far. I went to a few of the big appointments, but no, it was just like text here and there. We talked a lot more. Our relationship organically grew. You have nine months to get to know each other. We talked every day at the end, but at the beginning, it was very rare and I would go to the appointments and it was more of a you know there was nothing that was like not organic happening because I couldn't not be authentic like I didn't love her right away you know I liked her she had my baby and there was like respect there but there wasn't like I love her but now I like love her like I send her flowers on Mother's Day on my kid's birthday you know I mean and what what was the your husband's relationship with her or if

was there any I would say I maintained the relationship really she did while she was pregnant come out and visit me and stayed at our ranch in Colorado and brought she has two kids and she brought her kids out they played with like my kids but my kids didn't know at the time that she was like caring for me you know nobody knew what point hope do you find out that the embryo splits i was home alone making pizza with hendrix and i get a text message she sent a picture one picture and then she goes yeah and then she goes there's two by text and i said no there's only one picture and i called her i said what do you mean there's two she goes there's two and she's like whispering and in shock you know that's just not what we planned we put in one and one embryo what do you mean there's two and i kind of lost it in the house and i was like screaming i was walking around the house and i was going what do you mean mean? Like screaming, there's two, there's two, like this is science. Like somebody, I, my immediate thought was

somebody messed up. I like thought like, like they actually, cause I had made more than one embryo. I thought they accidentally put in two and there was a miscommunication. Cause I just think people don't listen sometimes. And like there was a miscommunication and then I go, but no, the embryo was right. The embryo split. When an embryo splits, this is a dumb question, but I have to ask it. If it's a, let's say you implanted a girl, does it split into two girls or can it split into a, it can't split into a girl and a boy? No, two girls. So you have two boys already and you implanted a girl and then it splits into two girls. Yeah. The best part of the

story is like my son is here making pizza with me and he's hearing all of this and he's pretty bright, four, you know, maybe almost five. And he looks and he says, mommy, I made the babies because I asked for two. You said we're going to get one. And I said, I said, I put it in the universe and I said, mommy, I want two babies so I can have one and I said I said I put it in the universe and I said mommy I want two babies so I can have one and legend can have one and I just stared at him in that moment and I was just like okay I've been doing my job because you think you can speak things into the universe and it's gonna happen for you like he's four or five and he immediately took that and said no mom remember I told you we're gonna have two babies wow yeah he sounds like a crystal child what did i do i don't know he just like

believes it because i tell him like i make him rephrase things if it's said you know like i want him to like speak things into the universe smart what part in this journey did you find out it's two do you find out six months like how quick is it it was early it was oh how early it was really early it was really early. It was really early. Like 10 weeks, six weeks, not six weeks, probably closer to 10. So then when the surrogate has the baby and goes into labor. Babies. Babies.

Hospital birth? Hospital birth because of twins, yeah. Okay, so hospital birth. So do you and your husband go to the hospital? We do. And I'm in Austin. We don't expect the babies for about five weeks, but maybe like three weeks, three to five weeks.

We get the call that her water broke. So I'm like, we immediately go to the plane. We have it set up where we can leave kind of like any time. Luxury, I know. We couldn't get to the plane fast enough. I mean, I was so rude to my husband, so rude to my own mom that was there to help me get there. Everybody wanted to get there, but nobody could move fast enough because I was determined. I was like, I have to be there when

they're born. That meant so much to me to see that happen. I couldn't imagine. That's one thing I would have regretted having a surrogate if I wasn't able to be there for the birth. That just feels very personal to me. She was out of state. We somehow made it, went and she still was in labor for like another six hours. And so, you know, it was like awful to everybody around me trying to get there and telling my husband like, why are you driving so slow? And you're stopping at like orange lights and like, you know, like all the stuff we do. Right. And we made it. All right. When I was pregnant, I noticed that I would go to the gym and then go run errands and things weren't smelling great. And this is when I found PhD Feminine Health. They have this product that smells like fresh cucumbers that's holistic and all natural.

And it's like a deodorant for your vagina. Like I'm telling you, it's like a holistic solution for vagina odor while also keeping your vagina moisturized, which I'm very much about. You can throw this in your workout bag. You can put one in your car, put one in your clutch. What's great about it too is whenever I carry it around, it's super inconspicuous. So you're not like, here's my vagina spray. It's like very understated, if you know what I mean. They also have tons of different products on their site, and a lot of them support vaginal health. They have like boric acid suppositories for your vagina. They have all different kinds of things to help you maintain

healthy vagina flora. This is something that needs to be talked about, okay? We want our vaginas to be smelling like a crisp cucumber. At least I know I want mine smelling like a crisp cucumber. Anyway, go to their site. They have all different kinds of things. Like I said, it's a number one doctor-recommended brand. And if I know one thing, it's when you have feminine issues, you want a solution immediately. PhD believes that vaginal care is crucial to your overall wellbeing. Register now at phdfemininehealth.com slash win, and you will receive a free summer gift basket. This contains lifestyle products, a retail value of over a hundred plus a $500 Visa gift card. You are going to go to phdfemininehealth.com slash win.

Also get 20% off all products right now. Use code SKINNY at phdfemininehealth.com slash win. So when the baby comes out, babies, is it like you just get the babies and you like, what's the process to make it? Because it was hospital. OK, so one of the babies wouldn't turn. She ended up with a C-section, which I hate C-section.

I love like cesarean birth instead. So that was her first. So she was kind of groggy. They take the babies immediately over to weigh them and they start like cleaning them up. Very different than when you have your baby at home and it goes straight to your chest and you're just like in shock and like you know all of this oxytocin so I'm watching it all and I was like screaming while it was happening like like more like shrieking like crying loud and like I couldn't I didn't know like it was just like the craziest thing because I was getting to watch it and when you just push the baby out you're tired and like you're just like the craziest thing because I was getting to watch it and when you

just push the baby out you're tired and like you're just like glad it's over for a minute and then getting to watch your baby be born it's so special like I can't even describe like the noises that were coming out of me I'm like who was that you know and later a nurse came into the room and she's like, I've never taken part in a surrogate birth, but this is now my favorite birth I've ever attended because like she saw somebody that was so giving like my surrogate who like wanted to do this for somebody that couldn't do it. Always knew that she would do it for somebody like give somebody a baby that couldn't have

one. And like watching that happen, like between two women is like a beautiful thing. So how, what does the babies do after they're cleaned off? Do they go straight? They go to you. They go to you. And I had my own room that was right next to her room. Got it.

So she had her recovery room with her husband. And Robert and I had our room. And the twins came to our room. Yeah. And then my mom came in. And the only way to be there and to put them all in your chest is you actually get in the bed. I didn't have a hospital gown on. I was in clothes.

Like I was waiting on the birth. But I'm actually in bed because you can only hold them being in bed. So it looks like I'm like maybe could have given birth somehow, you know, because you have your babies and you're in this hospital bed. But it was, you know, kind of strange because I wasn't actually the one, but you still have a bed because you've got to be able to hold them both and do like the chest, you know, skin to skin.

How quickly can you take them home? If you're not the one... They were born at 35 weeks and I think we only stayed like two to three nights. Was there any weirdness from the surrogate afterwards? Because everyone was going to want

to know this question. With the fact that she carried the babies, is there like an entitlement to the babies or was it not like that at all it wasn't like that at all because she had her babies and her sons came afterwards to visit her and her sons were going to meet the babies like we talked about that ahead of time and you know this i didn't have you know breast milk and i didn't do all the hormones so that i would we talked about this too where would i like have her breastfeed them so that they could have all of the colostrum and all of the antibodies and things and I thought that I would be like against it so we never made

that decision but I actually ended up taking the babies into her and asking her if she would like to and she actually breastfed my babies to give them like the antibodies. And then she immediately started pumping for me after that. And she pumped and shipped me milk for nine months. Holy shit. She's a saint. Yeah. Oh my God. That is so nice.

I know. She shipped you milk for nine months? She shipped me milk for nine months. Oh my God. I kept paying her to do it for the milk, to do it for that long. And she had so much milk. She had twins in nine months. And now you guys are friends and it's a great relationship.

And you're just so happy you did it. So happy I did it. So thankful for her. I wouldn't have my girls if it wasn't for her. I might even have only one. Who knows? Any cons about it? Or do you just

wreck the way that I honestly really recommend it there's I don't have anything to say about it I mean it was beautiful I I really it's strange to be able to watch your baby be born but you're so present I didn't feel like I was missing anything like I it was such a gift to like watch it happen and not be the one like in the trauma in the middle of you know giving birth two questions is it weird not being pregnant and then all of a sudden having two babies handed to you and was it weird for your husband I don't know about him it's probably easier for him because he was never pregnant and like just always had it handed to him um but for me yeah for me i think i was more excited for that birth than when i had them myself because it took so much planning i had to plan them for two years and make embryos

and find a match and do all of this it was weird to have two but it wasn't weird to like leave with them like i felt like they were mine and now how old are they two and it like is it something that you even think about like do you even think about like the surrogacy or is it not even like I don't even remember is that crazy sometimes I remember that I didn't carry you and I'm like how did I not carry you like it I literally forget that I did not carry them. Because it's all you and your husband's DNA. There's nothing that the babies get from the surrogate, correct? No, she's the womb. Yeah, she carries them and that's it.

Births them, feeds them. That is a wild story. You know why I have so much respect for you? There are so many celebrities and influencers that have had surrogates. There are even some that I know that have worn fake stomachs. Oh, God. And people will not talk about it. And listen, to each its own.

If you don't want to talk about it, fine. But you do need some people talking about it because then it makes people who want to do this feel shameful when no one, when it's like this hush hush secret. Or what if, you know, you have fertility trouble and you spend a lot of time getting pregnant and you never can kind of get pregnant. And then the doctor says egg donation and nobody's ever told you that, you know, maybe your cousin is actually from an egg donor and it's all kept a secret, right? Like don't keep secrets. Normalizing behaviors, normalizing things helps us prevent a lot of shame. So many people by normalizing behavior after behavior, you can prevent a lot of shame. When you came out with this story and

shared it on Instagram and you're so open about it, could you believe how many people came? I bet you so many people on Instagram messaged you and have thanked you they did and they say that i inspired like them to finally have that surrogate conversation like they never wanted to have it with their spouse or their family or their egg like someone didn't want to have an egg donor and their husband was completely against an egg donor and then like learns later that their niece isn't from an egg donor. Their own sister had one, but it was never talked about in the family. I think that this is such a great conversation to have. I think it takes the energy out of either.

Talking about it is so important. Before you go, you started a line that is very popular. I have seen it everywhere. Tell us about that journey and why you decided to do this. And then you have to tell us what the must-have product is. And I'll tell you the one I like most too. Okay, good. Mother was created. I had stretch marks from puberty, 5'10 and like 12 years old. And I had just growing marks all over and I didn't want more. And I became pregnant with my first child and I had just growing marks all over and I didn't want more and I become pregnant with my first child and I decided I was going to spend any amount of money to try to not

have more it's all out of band and like being very vain I went to CVS I went to all the drug stores I even went to like Neiman Marcus group and I couldn't find something that had whatever their marketing ingredient was as their first or second ingredient on their ingredient list. So like if you tell me that it's rich in omegas or that you use a certain butter and it's written on the front of your packaging, I want it to be like number one, two or three on your ingredient label. Like don't make me something that's cheap and that you make a huge profit from. Like that didn't make me me very happy I ended up having to order such huge raw supplies of these ingredients because I started making it in my kitchen for myself

that I had so much excess that I started sending it to friends sending them they would be in Los Angeles I was sending it to Cassandra Gray and different celebrities and they'd ask for more and then they'd ask for it for their friends and everybody had success stories there were twin pregnancies and it just became this thing where people would ask for it from out of my own kitchen and I'd be out of town and they'd be thinking about ordering raw ingredients and making body butter for somebody else because I felt responsible that they'd end up with extra stretch marks if I didn't make this butter. My husband was addicted to it and I had decided to put it in a lab and our first product was our body butter then our body oil then we worked with a chemist from MIT

to create mother load core technology and then we made number one serum and up all night eye cream and since then we've just you know we're in the beauty business now it's a movement it's a yeah we're moving the body butter is absolutely amazing you guys you can't go wrong the body oil i would highly recommend checking out both of those you also wrote a book your body is magic tell us about that who needs this book if you're afraid of birth and you don't like the idea of birth or if you're freaked out about you know anything larger than a penis being in your vagina like this is the book for you because that was me like I was completely terrified

of birth and I couldn't imagine that happening and like being okay afterwards and so this book is really like this holistic journey that I went on from vitamins to exercises to tricks like, you know, from acupuncture to putting primrose oil. You've learned from the best too. I mean, the people that you've had access to are incredible. They are. Yeah. You've had them on the show, some of them. I mean, like she, I've never seen someone who knows their shit more than Mary Marks.

She's almost at 4,000 births. Yeah. That's a lot. Yeah. That's a lot. Yeah, that's a lot. Can we do a giveaway? Sure. Yeah. Okay.

So they'll follow your company on Instagram. Tell us the Instagram handle. At mother, M-U-T-H-A. Okay. And then can we give away like Hope's favorites? Yeah, sure. With your assigned copy of your book? Yeah, I love that.

Okay. You guys follow at mother on Instagram. And then tell us your favorite part of this episode with Hope on my latest Instagram. I loved that episode. I learned so much. I'm like taking notes in my brain about everything that you said. Thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you so much for having me, both of you. Where can everyone find you and follow you in your journey? At Hope Smith. Okay. And you guys look at her highlights because they're really, really informative. I went and stalked your pregnancy one, like I said, and I think it's your fertility one. I could probably help with the Pimrose.

Oh, yeah. Okay. I don't know. Just saying. I don't know about that right now. You'll probably start it in a couple weeks. Okay. Like, okay. All right. Stopping a couple weeks. Okay. Like, okay.

All right. Soft in the cervix. Thanks for coming on, Hope. Wish me luck. Good luck. I'm excited for you. I know you guys love that episode with Hope. If you want to win a copy of her book,

all you have to do is tell us your favorite part of this episode on my latest post at Lauren Bostic on Instagram and make sure you're following Hope. She's absolutely fab. All right, if you are like me, you like your candles to be natural, a soy wax blend would be nice. You want a premium cotton wick,

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