Mid-Week Mom Chat: Gratitude.

life because it blesses you. It allows you to see everything in your life as a blessing, and I really try to live that way. But I will say, ever since having Sunny, I have been filled with so much gratitude for her and for her life and for the blessing that she is. But I have let myself get completely overwhelmed by the exhaustion of it all because it is so tiring. And the one thing in life that really knocks me to my booty is lack of sleep. And I know everyone's probably that way, but I don't

get like hungry. I mean, I don't know what the other things are that people get when they're just like worn out. But I just get so tired, and I've always been someone who gets so tired. Um, I'm pumping right now too, because if you hear that constant little hume, it's my pump. I'm sorry, it's almost finished, but I literally had no time to pump in. I have to get her. I have to get this pump her milk pumped while she's sleeping. And I did a recorded a

podcast during her first nap. This nap, I'm uploading and editing the podcast, and I just didn't have ton to pop, and I was like, shoot, am I going to be able to record this podcast while pumping? Is that gonna be annoying for people to listen to it? Can they even hear it? I'm not sure? But then I thought, I am doing this podcast on gratitude, and so I want to start off by saying, I am so grateful that I get to pump milk for my child so

she can live. She is living off of the milk that my body makes, and that is what is making her grow, that it was making her healthy, and that is what it's giving her strength, that is keeping her alive. So what a blessing that I am able to provide that for her. And yes, I it's a full time job to pump. I pump and breastfeed. I'll talk about how I do both, um because everyone a lot of people have asked me about do I breastfeed, do I pump? What's my schedule? How much does she eat? All that.

I'm actually gonna do a whole mom chat mom chat on breastfeeding and pumping, but I'll briefly touch on it today. Um But I'm just like, it is a full time job to pump into breastfeed. Literally, she wakes up at seven and feeds six ounces. She eats six ounces every time. Um, So she eats at seven, tin, one, four, and seven, and so that's five times a day and then I pump again. So and I'm pumping all throughout the day

and then at night and I breastfeed her each time. Also, I'll start with breastfeeding or in with breastfeeding, depending on just the session, Like depending on if I just pumped or not, we'll determine if I start her into the

breastfeeding anyway, I'll talk about that another mom chap. But so I am constantly feeding my child or pumping milk to feed my child and it can't get exhausting, Like you have to pump in the car, you pump in the middle of the night, like at three am, my boobs, wait me up and a pump THEMP And then I'm pumping right now during this podcast because I don't have any other time to pump, and like sometimes and it can wear me down, and I'm like, oh god, I'm

just so tired of pumping, Like my nipples are like when am I ever gonna stop pumping? But then I'm like, whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. Oh your boat's caroline. Stop complaining. You get to feed your child with this perfect, nutritious milk that is all she needs. So I started singing a song, I'm just so grateful that I get to feed my child with my milk. Just so grateful I get to feed my

child with my milk. It means a terrible song. I just made it up, But anyway, I've been singing that today and I am so grateful that I get to feed my child with my milk. And yes, it is a full time job to pump, but you know what, I love it. This is what I wanted. I wanted to have a child. I wanted to breastfeed. I didn't know how intense it was gonna be. But you know what, everything is intense, it's worthwhile. If it's not intense, it's not worth it. So yeah, I'm glad it's intense. What

an awesome privilege I have to feed my child. So

that is how I am refocusing. Like when my boobs wipe me up at three in the morning and I'm freaking tired, and I'm tired from the night before and the night before, the night before in the past twelve weeks before that, I'm like, you know what, it's okay, because this is a season of life and I do not want to miss this season of life of pure joy and gratitude and beauty of just this young child that needs me completely and I'm able to provide nutrients

for her because I'm tired. Really, I can sleep when I'm freaking dead. I have been tired so many times in my life, and do I remember being tired? No, I remember the experience, Like when I did the Amazing Race raced around the world, I was tired the whole time because we never got to sleep. But do I remember being tired? Absolutely not. I remember the incredible opportunities I got to see, the countries I got to experience, the people I got to meet, all of the things

I got to do. It was amazing. It was mind blowing. Do I remember being tired? Heck no, not even in the slightest When I was in the country music band Stealing Angels and we're traveling around the country and went to Iraq on a U s O tour, do I remember being tired. We'd have to wake up like four am to get on airplanes, and like you're you don't even you travel traveling in the bus and you don't leave until like three in the morning, and your sleep

schedule is all over the place. You're sleeping in at random hotels. You're not getting any sleep. Do I remember being tired? Absolutely not. Do you know what, I remember the incredible experiences in time that I had in that band. So I'm in another season where I am very tired. But am I going to remember being tired? Sure, maybe it's like a one liner, Oh my god, that was so tiring, But oh how amazing was it? I don't want to focus on being tired. Because that's not a

big deal. That's why we have coffee. So I'm not I'm really working on having gratitude, even though there's a lot that goes on with having a newborn. So anyway, I was telling you, I'm getting sidetracked. Of course when I do this podcasts, but myself, I get sidetracked. But someone wrote me on my Instagram and said, I really encourage you to reframe the way you think and use gratitude for everything. And that's the way I like to live. But as I was saying before, it can you can

easily forget to have gratitude when you were exhausted. So the other day I got to go to yoga Michael's home. And that's another thing. I don't really work out near as much as I used to because I just don't have time, Like I have to do everything in between her naps, which she is awake for an hour and a half eating and I'm playing with her. Then she's asleep for an hour and a half and she does that five times. She has five awake times and five nap times during the day, and those her those nap

times are precious times. Like that's what I'm doing laundry. That's what I'm doing a podcast interview. I have people come over to my house and I literally time it so they get here the second she goes down, and my podcast are an hour and they are leaving when she's waking up. So it's risky business because I'm just assuming that she's going to sleep her whole nap and not wake up. So far, I've done six times knock on wood and she's slept through the whole time and

it's been perfect. But I'm literally scheduling everything during her naptimes and then I edit my videos during her nap times. I upload my podcast, I am doing brand deals during her nap times. I mean that is literally I am us utilizing every second of the day. So I have not gotten around exercising as much as I wanted to, just because I don't have time. And if I do have time, I'm so freaking tired. I want to take a bath, because it's like, oh, sometimes you forget to

take a bath. I literally will go to sleep, I will wear stretch pants and a sweatshirt. I'll wake up in it, I will wear it all day. I'll sleep in it in the bed. Because our house is freezing. Because we have an old house. We have to keep it at sixty eight degrees because you can't have a hot baby room because the bedrooms get hotter at night.

And so our house is like sixty eight degrees and it's winter outside, but she's all bundled up in her room stays like seventy and so I'm sleeping in sweat shirts and sweatpants and I go to sleep in them, wake up the next day and just start in that outfit, and I don't change. I don't brush my hair, don't brush my teeth sometimes because you're just up right at the crack of dawn with the baby. Anyway, it's just

around the clock. All your moms and new moms know this especially, But really, can I sit there and then say, oh my gosh, this is all the stuff I have to do. I have to wake up early with her, and I have to feed her, and I have to then put her down, and then I have to pump, and then I have to clean all my pump parts and the bottle parts, and I have to change her diaper, and I have to do all these things that like just are NonStop with the baby. But what if I said,

I get to do all these things. I get to wake up with my precious newborn and see her smiling face, which I love so much. I get to change her poopy and peepy diapers, which honestly is adorable. That means she's having a healthy bowel system and healthy body. It functions, it's all working. Like that's such a blessing. I get to feed her my breast milk that it is perfect nutrients for her, and then I get to pump and make her bottle so she can have a full belly.

And yes, I I'm tired, but like I get to have this privilege of raising a human, Like what a blessing. And if I can just catch myself and be like Caroline, stopped thinking that you're tired, and stop thinking that you have all these things to do and that you're body is exhausted and that your NonStop moving. Stop thinking that that way. Instead, think oh, what a blessing. This is

so amazing. And then I went to yoga and I so this girl had wrote me that on on my Instagram, and I was thinking about that, and then I went to yoga and I was like, I really want to continue thinking about gratitude and I was like, I haven't thought about my body in a long time. Maybe, I mean, I have periodically been very grateful for what my body has done for me, but I haven't stopped and given

my body praise. And so I was sitting there on yoga and it was so hard because I have maybe gone to like three or four yoga classes in a year, and like two of them being since Sunny has been born. But so I still can do everything, but my body is just not up to par as it was when I was going to yoga three or four times a week when I didn't have a kid and I could

get to classes. Um, so it was harder. And I was wearing a sports brawl and a and stretched pants and I felt good in my body, but it's not the same, Like my stomach does not look the same. And when I was younger, I got a belly button ring. And I actually have a belly button ring back in my stomach now, not because I'm having a midlife crisis, but because where I had a belly button ring, I have like this saggy skin flap. It's really gross, and

I had got it. I just got a tiny little hoop to like lift the skin flap up because it is this just like saggy old skin flap. And I have a stretch mark on right above my belly button, on top of the belly button ring, and it's just like kind of gross, and like my stomach it goes, it goes. It's like a cavern. It's all around my

belly button. And I, of course in yoga, I'm looking in a mirror in a sports world and all i can see is this, and I'm sitting there thinking like, oh God, that did not used to look like that. And it's one of those things that you know is never gonna go back to how it was before, just because it's not going to It's like it's the skin has not permanently been stretched to this way. And it's right in the middle of my stomach. So it's like

if you ever want or our halts top. Luckily, I like toward jeans over my belly button and everything over my belly button that's like bikinis and stuff like you're gonna see it. And I'm just like, ah, like this is gonna be this way forever. And I'm thirty six years old and I'm like, gosh, that's a long time to now have a kind of jacked at belly button. But I thought to myself, why am I upset? Why

am I focusing on that? So then I started started going to going through my whole body and having gratitude for every single part of my body, starting with my feet, because my feet are always are oftentimes sore and just tired, and I don't give them any love. I'm sorry, this is gross. Haven't got a pedicure and forever like my heels are cracking to the point where they hurt like I. They are hurting because I have not loved on my

feet and so long. So I got my I have this awesome lady lady who comes over to my house. I just recently found her and she'll do my nails during another one of those Sunny's naps. And she gave me. Her name is Nashville Nail Coo. Her name is Lisa. You'll find her on Instagram at Nashville Nashville Nail co if you need your fingers or nails done at your house. It's amazing and she's fast. So she gave me a

scrub scrubber thing to scrubb on my heels. So I've been taking a bath when I can, and just scrubbing my heels and trying to give them look because they never get a titchen in their hurt. And so I started in yoga. I went through my feet and I was like feet, and I started rubbing on my feet and like just thanking my feet for carrying me around. So grateful, I was like, thank you for all that

you do. You carry my entire body I am. I'm such a busy body these days, and I have so many places to move and walk and go to, and goodness, gracious, what a blessing that you carry me around. You never complain, you always hate me where I need to go. You move on a notice minute a dumb but I'm not trying to say, and a seconds notice, you get moving for me, and you make life happen for me. You get me places. And I never stopped to say thank you for all that you do for me, So fete,

thank you so much. And I just rubbed my feet and my toes and I just was so aware of what they do for me. And then stand with my legs and my thighs and it's like, thank you for carrying my body around, for giving me movement, for being there for me, for supporting me, for standing strong for me, for being active for me. Like you were there for me, and you're always there for me. And I don't ever

have to ask you to be there for me. I completely assume and take advantage of the fact that you are going to be there for me, and I I am. I don't ever even stop to thank you, but I'm just like, thank you for all that you do. And then I got to my stomach and I was like, stomach, thank you for what you do. God. There's so many organs in here that are working on stop for me. Uh you might, Yes, I'm sitting here hating on my

tiny little skin flap on my belly button. But like this uterus grew sunny, like you carried this child for me. I didn't even have to do anything. You just carried this child for me, and you grew her and you made her strong and you did it all on your own. And yes, maybe we're a little more stretched out than we were before. But oh my god, what a marvelous

act of God you are. What an incredible, what an incredible blessing you gave me stomach and uterus and organs and you ran perfectly and everything it's just moving on its own and I'm not having to ask you to do anything, and you're not broken down, and I'm not sick, and you're functioning properly, and even take it to like my I'm sorry this, I'm just being honest because a lot of times we don't like talking abou stuff that we feel like is gross or whatever, but like this

isn't gross, like even like my bowels and my vagina and all that, like all the things that it does for me, Like I am just so indebted and grateful that you are there for me and you are functioning and you you all these parts of my body are working for me non stop and I am so thankful. And my breast like you're providing milk for my child and you are. I mean, it's unbelievable what these boobs can do because honestly, they feel the milk come in, like when Sunny is hungry. It's like when it's time

for her to eat, the milk drops down. It just knows when to come. It is unbelievable what my body does, providing life for myself and for an entire human. This is what this body is doing for me. My arms the way they are they grab things, whole things, can hold my baby, can drive a car, can make food. Let's get real, though Michael cooks all the food, but can eat food, can hold you, can type on a computer,

can record a podcast. Can you can do anything? Like my hands on my arms, like wow, how amazing that they are just my grabbers, Like they allow me to like connect with the world and hold things like amazing. My head my hair, like this hair, it just grows and it's wavy and I don't have to do anything with it, like thank you for that, Like I don't have to wake up and do my hair. Thank you for just growing on my head and being the way

you are, Like you just show up for me. My face, my mouth, You allow me to speak and talk and my teeth like you allow me to eat. My eyes, you allow me to see my nose. You love me to smell my brain. You're just working. You give me creativity, You give me thoughts. Thank you, thank you, Thank you body for all that you do. And instead of me sitting around criticizing you, because I can pick apart what's wrong,

why I'm hired, what doesn't look good? What hurts. No, let me thank you for what you're doing for me, and for what you're doing for Sonny and what you've done for you've created Sonny. Thank you, thank you, thank you. So I when I stop, and I have gratitude for my body for all the things my body does for me when I stopped, and I have gratitude for Yes, I have incredibly busy days. But aren't these the days that I prayed for? Makes me emotional? Yes, these are

the days I prayed for. I prayed for these days. I prayed to have this child. I prayed to be able to feed her with my body and to be able to breastfeed, and to be able to nurse her and to be able to pump. And I prayed to be able to have a podcast that was doing well that I took up time that people wanted to be on that. Yes, I have to do a lot of work around it, but I prayed for this podcast to be able to impact people and to have a message and to touch women especially. Aren't these the days that

I prayed for? This body? I pray to be able to move and I mean, I don't even know if I prayed. I think I took it for granted that my body can move and be active and do all these things for me. So it's like, aren't these days I prayed for? With everything going on in my life and with Michael and he's so busy and he is traveling and they have a new single coming out and a new record deal and he's busy, and it's like, but isn't that what he prayed for? Isn't that what

we prayed for? So why am I not sitting here in total gratitude for being busy with the things I prayed for? And some of us aren't even feeling like we have the things we prayed for in our lives. Like we're feeling like, I know some of you listening to like you work a job that you hate. Some of you have written me and said, gosh, your mom Guilt podcast hit me so much because I have to drop my kid off at date here and it is

like breaking my heart and I feel so guilty. Some of you are single moms and you are doing this on your own. Some of you don't have children yet you've been praying to of a child and it's not happening. Some of you are in a relationship that's not great. That's not good at all. Some of you feel abandoned by your families or your parents, or you've had to be on your own. So it's like, gosh, it feels like there is so many mountains that you have to climb.

But I know there's something in your life that you're grateful for. I know it because all of us have something in our life to be grateful for. Whether it's just that we woke up and we can breathe, because goodness gracious to be alive. Is that not a blessing? After having Sunny, I realize the miracle of making it to earth, the miracle of making it to this life. It is one in a trillion that we're here. It

is a miracle that we're here. So the fact that we are here, no matter what our circumstances are, no matter how shitty your life seems to be, like your circumstances, you are meant to be here. You are not an accident it. You have a purpose, and your purpose will come through whatever you're dealing with right now. If you're dealing with some struggle, if you're dealing with something that is knocking you down, that is breaking your spirit, that is making you feel like you cannot go on. Find

something you're grateful for. Whether it's just that you're breathing air, whether it is that you had a meal today, whether it is that you have one friend that you can call who will listen to you, whatever it is, whether you have a job that is paying the bills, even if it's not a job that you love, if you have a job that is paying the bills, whatever you

can find to be grateful for. Start there. And I'm telling this to myself too, because it is so easy to forget to have gratitude when we're caught up in our day and our whirlwind of things we have to get done, and all the things that are heavy on our heart. It is so hard to remember to have gratitude. But I am telling you, if we can stop and find something to be grateful for and then find a way to help someone else, If you can find a way to help someone else, it is like someone said this,

I forgot he said it. Helping someone else is really the most selfish thing you can do, because when you help others, it makes you feel so good. It makes you feel so amazing to help someone else. So if you can find something to be grateful for about your own life and then help someone else. I'm telling you that is how you start the change. That is how you start the new momentum. That is how you start the new you. That is how you start a new beginning.

And you have to consciously decide to focus on it every day. And that is what I'm telling myself because I try to focus on gratitude every day. But like I said before, I have let myself get exhausted being a new mom, doing a full time podcast, getting all my interviews done, I'm still hosting for a TV show, Nashville Insider, getting all that done, trying to be a great wife, trying to do all the laundry, trying to

take care of the baby. Like I can tell you one million reasons why I'm exhausted and why I'm tired and why I'm grumpy. But do you know what screw that? I that I'm not going to be that way because i have so many blessings in my life and I'm not going to sit around and talk about complain about all the things that are making me tired because these are things I prayed for, These are things that are blessing me. Yes, some of them are hard. But really,

when I'm doing laundry, is it really that hard? I'm getting to wash sheets, wash clothes that I get to wear every day, that provide warmth and comfort and style and protection for me. Like, what a blessing? Yes, I have to wash them, but you gotta take care of them, Mike I said before, anything worthwhile takes time, takes energy, isn't easy to do. It's so who cares that I have to do? Some things feel tedious? What a blessing

that I get to do them? What a blessing? I get to have a dishwasher too, wash these plates that we get to eat on. How amazing is that? Because you know what, some people don't have a dishwasher, Some people don't have plates, some people don't have food to eat. So what am I doing complaining? Because I have to do dishes and do laundry for my things that keep me warm and keep me fed. How blessed am I?

I get to pump my breast every day for my child to provide her food, so I can see her smiling, happy face, I can see her gaining weight, I can see her thriving. How blessed am I? How blessed am I? How grateful am I have a husband who, yes, he travels, and sometimes I'm by myself, doing life by myself, raising stunning a couple of days a week or sometimes when he's gone by myself. But he loves her and he shows up for her, and he shows up for me,

and he's chasing his dream. How blessed am I? So instead of sitting around complaining about me being tired and having all these things to do, I want to complain. I want to say how blessed I am and stop complaining, reframe and what else am I to do? Sit around and watch TV? Like? I want to have these things to do because that means I'm alive. That means I'm living. That means life is happening. That means I'm moving forward. That means I'm in it. That means I'm in the

big middle of life. So thank you God for letting me be in the middle of life. And we're all in the big middle of life. Even if you feel like you're drowning, you're in it. You were in this life, you're doing it, you're surviving. You are here. So since you are here, we might as well figure out how to enjoy it. No matter what is happening to us, there has to be something that you can be grateful for. There has to be something that you can be grateful for.

So find it, And even if it's the tiniest thing and you you're having the hardest time figuring out what it is, find something. Like I said, even if it's just that you woke up in your breathing air, you are here. You were meant to be here. We are all meant to be here. There's a reason we are here.

There's a bigger purpose for why we are here, and we have to just find it and embrace it and reframe ourselves into thinking of all the positive things that are happening in our lives instead of all the negative things that are happening your life. So I love you guys, thank you so much for being on this journey with me. And I feel so blessed that you listen and that you care, and that we can all be in this

community together. And let's reframe our thoughts into gratitude instead of thinking that works au sed and tired and overwhelmed and that life is hard because it is hard, but you know what, it's also awesome. And on that note, Sonny just woke up, and I am grateful that I get to go grab her out of her crip and feed her right now. So I love you, guys, and I'm grateful for you.