Welcome to Katie's Crib, a production of Shonda Land Audio in partnership with I Heart Radio. Does your daughter have a New Zealand esque accent? On some Woods? She goes like she says horse for horse, you know, she says horse and stuff like that in some Woods. But then
she has this little like Californian accent. She's like, she's like, yeah, bro, big surf bro like yeah yeah, And she says funny things like we were going home and we've turned up a particular street and she goes, now we're on Fairfax. Nothing can stop us. That's the hello, everybody, and welcome
back to Katie's Crib. Today's guest is a dear friend of mine, an awesome mom, and when she won the Critics Choice Award for Yellow Jackets this year, she did a special shout out to her nanny and something went off in my head and finally clicked, and I was like,
how came. Melanielynsky has not been on Katie's Crib yet, so I reached out and it's an awesome episode where we talked about raising a toddler, work life, balance, body image, self identity, and her daughter's New Zealand accent when saying some words. If you don't know Melanie Lynsky, please go run and watch Yellow Jackets right now. She's amazing on it. But let me tell you a little bit about her. She's a New Zealand actress. She was cast opposite Drew
Barrymore in Ever After, a Cinderella Story. She had parts in Coyote, Ugly, Sweet Home, Alabama, Clean Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers. In recent years, she has emerged as one of the industry's most celebrated actors, gaining recognition for her performances in Don't Look Up, The Perks of Being a
Wallflower and Sam Mendez is Away We Go. On television, Melanie has worked her scene steal magic in such shows like CBS is Two and a Half Men, the HBO dramay Togetherness, which I absolutely loved, and of course, Showtime's Yellow Jackets, one of my favorite shows of last season. Melanie collected Critics Choice Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal of Shawna on Yellow Jackets, and she just recently received Emmy nomination for her performance.
I'm freaking out and so excited for her. I love her she deserves all the things. Welcome to Katie's Crib, Melanie. Hi, I'm so happy to see you. I'm so happy to
see you. I know, I'm so grateful to have this this time with you because I think, when I think is so funny, I feel like you don't even know how much you are helping moms, Like I've I sent your Critics Choice speech to like every mother I know, and also like all the press you've done, and I just don't even think you understand the effect of amazing nous you're having on people who are moms in the industry. So sweet, Thanks, Listen. Did you know you always wanted
to be a mom on some level? I think, but in the oldest of five and I had a lot of responsibility growing up, so it was never something where I was like, oh, I can't wait, like a I sort of I wanted to live my life and and do stuff. But then once I knew, I really knew, knew. Yeah, do you think part of that was meeting For me, it was meeting Adam. Like I felt like I knew I needed to have a partner that was going to be super involved in order for me to do it.
And then Once I met Adam, I was like, oh, yeah, we're doing this. Was that similar for you us? I mean I was married before Jason to somebody wonderful who I adore, and we were ambivalent about kids. We would talk about it, but we both were pretty ambitious, and I don't know, it just never was like at the top of the list of priorities. And then we broke up. Jason,
when I meet him, was it was a bit wild. Um. I told, you're listening, this is we're talking about Jason Ritter, who in his own right as literally I went to n y U with Jason. I honestly think the two of you are the most talented actors and most wonderful people coming together. When it became clear that you guys were your people for each other, I was like, all as well, so sweet, I feel the same. I love
him so so so much. You know, when we met each other, we had both been in long relationships and it wasn't like an immediate like this is the thing and it's all working out and flowers and rainbows like. It was very like stopping starting craziness. And I think there was a time, you know, I have this elderly dog that I shared with Jimmy, my ex husband, and she was really really sick at a certain point. And Jason,
it was a couple of years into our relationship. He would get up in the night to take her to pay five six times because she was so old and she didn't know. She thought she had to pee all the time. She would go wander around the yard and come back in. And this dog was I have her tattooed on my body. She's like my baby. But it would drive me nuts. I would be so tired, like,
oh my god. And I just realized at a certain point, Oh, this man's patient is infinite, and he's so loving and he's so attentive to this elderly dog and he can get up six times in the night and go right back to sleep. And I was like, this is like dad material, Like I just yeah this. Yeah. He was starting to settle down and be a little bit less crazy, and it was very good with this old dog. And I was like, Okay, I think this could I think
we could work. Yeah, because I felt the same. I needed a partner, like I knew I needed like a partner. Did you? So you've come out on the record, You've said that you actually had a miscarriage. I had one as well, and it's never talked about. Would you mind taking us back to that time, how you felt, um and what that experience was like for you. Well, I had a miscarrite after I was pregnant with my daughter.
My daughter was like eighteen months old. Um, we and I got pregnant again and I was breastfeeding her, and I was so excited, like, you know, it took. I got pregnant with my daughter was in the first month of us trying, and then I got pregnant with this next one within the first month of us trying, and I was just like, oh my gosh, We're so lucky, you know. I was in my forties and everything looked great, and I had an ultrasound and there was a little
heartbeat and my levels were great. I had horrible morning sickness. Everyone was like, that's a great sign. And then I was going to do a CVS test to make sure everything was okay, and the CVS people said, okay, before you come, and can you just go back to your doctor and get like an actual gestational You haven't got like a proper record, so just have one more ultrasound. So we know exactly went to book your cvs for
because it happens around twelve weeks. And I went back to my doctor and there just wasn't a heartbeat anymore. It was a it was a big surprise, um, and I had like thrown up that morning. I still felt horrible. It was interesting to discover how people just don't know how to talk about it. And that was when I was like, Okay, I think I'm going to talk about that. I think I'm going to be public about it, because people just are not equipped to help each other through it.
There were women in my life who had been through it before and they were incredibly helpful, um some of them. And then some people just it reminded them too much of their own experience, and some people were kind of like, that's not a big deal. You already have one, you know, like this kind of thing, and so I just was like, I think the more it's sort of like out in
the open, the better, you know. I completely agree, and I'm so I mean, it was it was one of the many reasons I was I was hoping you could on Katie's cribin talk about it, because I do think a lot of people aren't open about miscarriage. One in four pregnancies do result in miscarriage, and it is still even in today's day and age, shrouded in shame and like just get over it, get on with it. Why is it a big deal? Um? Also, there's a lot of talk, well, how far along were you was it?
You know, here's a lot of like mine is worse than yours, or you know, I was so fucking rocked by it. I couldn't believe it. I was almost putting that sort of shame on myself, like get over it. Like I had a d n C on a Saturday and on Monday, I was on set and like I e though, was sobbing out of nowhere for three months?
How did you feel mentally emotionally after the experience. I felt crazy And I had a similar thing where I was like, I don't think I'm supposed to be feeling this much, because you know, I when I found out I was I've been pregnant for ten and a half weeks, I guess, you know. And they thought that maybe the heart beat had stopped like a week before or something
like that. So people lose pregnancies a lot later than that, and I did the same thing where I was like, Okay, get on with it, but physically my body was just like no, you know, it felt like a very big deal. I first of all, I gained a lot of weight when I was pregnant, I think because I was breastfeeding and the hormones, and I think my body was just like, what's going on. You're still breastfeeding and now we're growing another And I didn't change the way I was eating
or anything like that. Every day I was saying that Jason, like, oh my god, I look at my body. What's happening. Like just every day it was just sort of like growing and growing and all he can see is boobs. So no one here, one's complaining here. Yeah, He's like great, and I'm like but and so that was like an
interesting thing. Like after I lost the pregnancy, I felt like I had this sort of physical reminder on my body of what I was growing because everyone was like, oh, your brisk feet, the white's going to drop off to Oh my god. I have truly never heard more of a line of bullshit in my entire life. It actually was true for me. I did not have that I'm still breastfeeding and I want to talk to you about this.
I'm still breastfeeding my daughter. She's twenty months. I'm dying to hear about how you weaned because I I've never had this experience before. So wait, hold on back to you. So your breastfeeding, you get pregnant easily again, You've got pregnant easily the first time. The pregnancy did you end up having if you don't mind, did you have a d n C or was it I did? Yeah, I did have to have a DNC and then I bled
every day like a heavy period for three months. Come on, and I remember calling like my doctor and they, you know, he was away, so there was someone like, you know, filling in for him. And she was like the blood plots bigger than a fist and I was like no, but like like the size of a pot, like my palm, and she was like that's okay. And I just was
like what. I didn't have any frame of reference for what was normal, And at a certain point, like three months into that, every single day I was like, this isn't normal. I'm so tired. I could barely do anything. I was grieving and not knowing what was okay, Like how much I was allowed to grieve. My body felt foreign to me, like I should have still been carrying this thing. It just it was horrible. The whole experience
was horrible emotionally. You know, there were days where I was like, I don't want to get out of bed today. But you know, when you have a little person to take care of, you have to. Yeah, Wow, after three months of bleeding, did you call a doctor and be like is this ever going to stop? Did it stop? Like? How did that resolve? I had to have another operation. I went and had a sailing ultrasound, which I would not wish upon my worst enemy. I've never even heard
of that. What the fund is that I've never even heard of that. They have to look at your uterus and see exactly what's happening inside, but they fill it with sailing first. So this is a lot of information and I hope it's okay, but but yes, yes, yes, so they insert some fucking medieval torture device that pumps sailing. Okay, great, great, great,
And the doctor was absolutely lovely. Um, but you know, I had to fill my uterus with ceilne and the moment they put like something in to fill it, all this blood fell out like old blood that had just been collected in my uterus. I heard like a splash. People jumped back like I was carrying all this extra like blood around. I was like, no, wonder, I'm bleeding
every day and I'm so tired. So I had another operation to take everything else out Melanie, and then I don't know, I have not been able to get pregnant again since then. And we tried to do IVF and that didn't really you know, it goes so well and then it's just more hormones and just it's it's rough, and it's so hard on your body. I mean, the fertility journey is so it's so hard on your body.
When there is no miscarriage, no IVF, no hormone injections, no saline bags, and then to have all of that is just I mean, it's you feel like a crazy person, like you just really do. Yeah, you feel like a crazy person, you know. And then we tried to do three rounds of i V. If that didn't really work out. That was when I stopped breastfeeding. By the way, we decided, okay, so to try to avoid having another miscarriage, maybe we'll try to make some embryos an implant and um, I
couldn't get enough eggs. But the night before I started my MIDS for I v IF, I was like, Ohen, breastfeeding is okay? Right? Like my daughter was twenty two months? And what they say? They were like, no, fuck, they said, no, what did you do? Of course it's not you have to stop. I had to stop, like ko tuki, this child who was like what did you can? You can? You can? You tell me? Okay? So for twenty two months? Did you breastfeed on demand? I know that you take
her to work? Did you pomp? What did the breastfeed while working? Look like I did pump. But she would never want a bottle. So most of the time she was in my trailer and I just would go go there every time I had a break. You know, she wasn't on a very strict schedule. At a certain point, she's eating food, She's fine. She just wants to come. Yes, yes, yes, have have baby. But you know I was feeding all night. I know she's so cute baby, but I was feeding
all night. We would like lie in bed together and she just could like have baby whenever she wanted. I was very tired, fucking entire neupert star of a mother. I don't even understand. So how did you fabulary? What vocabulary did you use? When okay, they want to do you're doing IVF? They say, oh, guess what, like all these hormones that you're about to shoot into your body? You can no longer breastfeed. You just did your last feed. How did you explain to her that baby was no more?
Came home and I said, listen, we have to have a conversation about baby. I said for two weeks. We kind of have baby for two weeks, because that was how long they told me. They said, you can go back to it if you still have milk. I was like, oh my god. Um so she just she was like two weeks, like Greg crabbing onto my first two weeks and I just said like, I'm so sorry. And then we had a lot of time to give it a nine and lots of cuddles, and then the next day
I just had to say, okay, I'm so sorry. It was really but then after two weeks she just didn't go back to it. And did you miss it or did you feel like in a way My son at his one year birthday Adam and I were doing Waitress the musical and I got MERSA, which is a deadly staff infection, and the dermatologist called me and said, oh, you just had your last breastfeed. You have to go on so many different kinds of antibiotics that we cannot figure like there's no time to figure out which ones
are breastfeeding safe. Like year note, Oh my god, And I was sobbing. But I remember in the back of my head being a little bit relieved in that the choice was made for me. And now I'm in this situation where my daughter's twenty months. I'm feeling like I'm kind of at the end of my rope and she would probably breastfeed till she's five, and I just don't
know what to do. And I and I've sort of been saying like I've gotten it down to like two ft a day, and she's pulling at my shirt and she's screaming at my chest and she wants the comfort. And I feel like a fucking horrible mother, and I say to her, no, it's not available right now where you can have it at night before we go to
bed um. But I'm going away on a trip to New York, and I'm thinking about maybe coming back and being like it's gone, but I'm terrified and I don't know what I'm doing and I don't know why I'm making this choice, and it feels wrong but right, and I don't know. I just wish a doctor was telling me like you're done, or she was saying I'm not interested anymore, like, yeah, I understand. Did you feel like it got you out of it or were you bummed?
And like, I really wanted to take this through much longer. I wanted her to choose, But realistically, I think she's probably similar to your daughter and that I don't know if that day would ever have come. Like she's still cuddles with me, and like very much loves baby, you know, she's three and a half now, talks about baby all
the time. One time I told her if I was to have another baby, I would like breastfeeding that baby, and she was like, oh, she's very excited to hear that the baby might come back coming back, and she's like, and then I can have baby. And I was like, well, yeah, it's so hard to know, like what the boundaries are, you know, but it's your body. You have to do what feels right for you in twenty two months. It's
a really long time. It's a really long time. I did feel relieved in a way that it was just like we're done that chapters over and she was fine, Yeah, how is the embryo retrieval experience? And I v F for you was it was it? I can't So that's the hormone injections, and then you get put out and they retrieve eggs and then it becomes this huge I've gone through it with so many friends and it all depends on like the number, like I only got this,
I only got that, and it's like, so was stressful. Yeah, well I froze my eggs when I was when I was thirty seven, and I had a great experience. I did it. I did two rounds and I got like thirteen sort of perfect, great healthy eggs. But then when we were like, well let's just you know, use those, something happened. They don't know if it was when they were frozen or when they were defrusted, but ten of
them just were ruined, like couldn't be used. So that was a real Mamma, that was real, mamma, Are you kidding me? That my doctor was cried. When she told me she cried. She said she's never seen it happen before in her entire career. She felt horrible. She said, nobody can explain what happened, just that they're you know, so the three that survived fertilized, but two of them like it didn't look so good, and one of them
looked okay. So she said, let's try to do some more rounds just so you can hopefully get more embryos and have have enough, you know, have just a bit of chance. But I just couldn't. I didn't even end up doing a retrieval that time because there weren't enough eggs to even father with a retrieval. And then I had to go and do don't look up. I had to go, and then I just started working. I looked into doing eggs and some of that, and how you would even manage the time that is needed to do
the injections. Go to the doctors every single day, make sure that you're there on the date. Like with my schedules, nothing like yours. And I can't even imagine doing that. I wanted to talk to you about two now that I have a daughter. You mentioned I love this in a recent interview with Skim that it's hard to be a size ten next to a size zero. And I
get it because I'm also a ten. And I want to know, having been through your having your daughter and having a miscarriage after and then all of your fertility journey which reeks havoc on your body, can you talk to me about body image for you now? And how do you talk about that ship with your daughter around. I try to not criticize myself. You know, Jason and I are so close. He hears my every innermost thought.
He just knows me better than anybody. So there are days when I feel horrible and I'll say it, but I really try to not ever let her hear me say that. And there's no such thing as like bad food or naughty things to eat or anything like that in the house. Like I want her to see me eating a lot of different stuff. I want her to
eat a lot of different stuff. I try to talk about like how food makes you feel like you can't have a whole lot of sugar because you'll feel crazy and you're gonna get really you know, run around and then you get really tired. Um. So she has like one little sugary thing's one gummy worm a day. Love it. I know we're a jellybe He's like, I'm taking my five jelly beans because I'm gonna be five exactly. But
I never wanted to be like restrictive calories. What how you know the impact it has on your body or anything like that. And honestly, like when I went to work on yellow Jackets after my miscarriage and gaining the weight from my miscarriage and then doing three rounds of IVY if it didn't work out, I did not feel wonderful. I was you know, we shot the pilot the year before,
and I was a lot center. Then I was breastfeeding my daughter, and I like I was smaller after I had Carhi than I was when I got pregnant with her. And so I was like, oh God, now I got to come back and do the show. And I'm I just had all these things, and the creators of the show, We're just like, we don't care, we love you, we think you're perfect. And they kept writing all these like six scenes for me. They keep writing things where I'm supposed to be naked it and I was just sort
of like okay, and it honestly forced me. I thought about it, and I was like, how would I feel if I turned the television on and someone who looked like me, I was just living in her body, being sexual, being sexy, putting clothes on, and not like, you know, thinking about it. I wasn't talking about dieting, Like You're being given this opportunity by these writers to just be a woman in her body and be comfortable and show that to other women. And I just was like, I'm
going to try to run with it. I'm going to try to just be as comfortable as I can be. And they were sensitive with me about like what I wanted to show, what I didn't want to show, and they were amazing. They were amazing. I can say sitting there, hey, you're the sexiest in the world. I think you're so beautiful. You're so beautiful it's insane. I've also always been called you know, before even Scandal, they would send me in for our own auditions that were like a zoftig girl,
extra extra curvy. My first agent, you know, told me you're too fat, you'll never work in TV and made me join weight Watchers when I was twenty four. Oh yeah, I mean and by the way, I was the small like, I'm like, what big then, jeez, I would that's like I was a child. But anyway, what you just said in what you set out to do is what you did. Because I was so affected, and so many people I know who watched that show were so affected by just how fucking gorgeous you are and playing this part and
seeing a person on television. I still think that seeing a person on TV who is not a size zero is a fucking awesome thing. To see all the accolades and attention that you so deserve for all of your all the time, and on yellow jackets right now. I just I'm so I'm like sitting there on my couch and if you could hear me, I'm like screaming from the rafters about you being celebrated. I really do feel
that way. Thank you. When you dress up and go to events, does your daughter say anything, Oh, she loves it, she loves it so much. Yeah. First of all, you know, everybody has like the fake here, the here extensions, and and she calls it my snap here and she's like, oh, Mama, you're going to have snap here tonight. I'm like, oh yeah, And I've all the snap here, all the step here, and she loves like she comes and chicks the progress of the eyeshadow. She tells everyone they're doing a great job.
She's like, great job, Steve, like, oh my god. She's so funny. She loves to like look at all the dress options. That's it's been very fun having her, because that is a part of it that I greatly dislike, partly because I feel resentful. I had a conversation with one of the young actors on my show and she was saying, like, you know, getting dressed for events and
all the stuff I'm talking about. She had worn all these fabulous, gorgeous things, and I said, did you know I have to buy everything that I wear because if you're bigger than a two, yeah, yeah, you got to buy it with it, and nobody's giving your money to buy it. But you're going to be on a fashion blog being judged next to someone who could borrow something
from prad to I'm resentful. It's like such a big part of our job and we had judged on it and people care, and you know, I'm just having a different experience to literally every other member of my cast because I'm the only one whose body looks like this, and she couldn't believe it. She was like, what do you mean? And I said, there's no sample. I used to be a size four. I used to be a four, and even then there was a challenge. Yeah, even when you were a or it was like slim pickens, very
very much like I was. They would be like, whoa if a sample fit, you know, and it's just like, you know, You're like, this is yes, yes, yes, yes there are there are, but it's not. It does take the fun out of it that it's like, oh, every time you or I go to something, I I paid a shipload of money to be there to do publicity for your show, wearing your clothes, what you know, whatever it is it is. Does your daughter say anything about your babies being out in certain looks? Sometimes she does.
Sometimes she goes, oh baby, and yeah. Jason's response is basically the same, baby like, that's what they approve of seeing the babies. Um, babies are a big hit in this house. Oh god, well you've got fucking gorgeous ones. Thank you? So do you? Thank you? Does your daughter have a New Zealand esque accent on some words? She does? Like she says horse for horse, you know, she says horse and stuff like that in some words. But then
she has this little like Californian accent. She's like she's like, yeah, bro, big surf bro, like yeah yeah, and she says funny things like we turned up the street. That was like, we were going home and we've like turned up a particular street and she goes, now we're on Fairfax. Nothing can stop us. It's like, what, it's not even like our street or you know, it's just like, first of all, that she you the fear fact was so strange to me. I was like, how do you know like fear facts?
Nothing can stop us. She's saying all these crazy things. It's very cute. What does your support system look like? You so famously again me cut to me, everyone screaming from the rafters. I think you didn't even know it was going to be such a big freaking deal. But you thank your nanny at Critics Choice Awards. I lost my ship. You didn't think the shout out would blow up the way it did. Talk to me about that moment. First,
I was very surprised. Like later on in the night, people were like, it's so great, that you think you're nanny like, and I was like, oh, thanks to me, she's everything. She you know, she's only with us in Canada because she's Canadian, but she was with me for the whole shoot of Yellow Jackets, just day in and day out, working so hard, absolute angel person um. And I just because I thought, well, of course I'm going to thank her. If I didn't have her, I wouldn't
be able to work. I'd be at work in a panic, because I've been in that situation before. I've had to like hire a babysitter and in the back of your mind, you know, you're just like, oh my god, is everything okay? Is everything okay? Even though they were right in my trailer. Um. So the gratitude I have for her is she's the coolest person. I love her so much. And I didn't get a past one to the Critics Choice Awards. I wasn't allowed to bring anybody because our cast is so big.
So it was kind of wonderful because Jason for some reason just started recording when he was watching, and then he has this cute video of him being like, and you can hear Seally going she wants one, and Seally comes running in with Car here, and they're all in there and they're all what and he's just like panning around and Car he goes, Mama looks very red, which is true because I was like all flushed and like, oh my god. It was so amazing. It was so amazing.
So your support system when you got home from the hospital with her, did you have help? What did that look like? And how has your support system? What does it look like now? My friend, I had her in Atlanta because Jason was working in Atlanta, so I had to have an emergency c section. There were three nights after she was born where he had to do night shoots. So I did have a night nurse for those three nights because he wasn't there to bring her from the crib to me. So I had a lovely lady, a
friend of mine, I knew someone in Atlanta. Your first three nights that you brought your baby home, Jason had to shoot your well, the two of you, they didn't. He I went into labor at two am and he went to work at eight. I'm so disgusted, shocked, angered, and also the fact that the entire production didn't just say, by let us know when you're all okay and healthy and safe. We will figure it out. It's a fucking
I mean. I had moved to Atlanta so so I could have the baby there, so he didn't have to leave to move back to Los Angeles like you know. And there was a wonderful experience, by the way, like, if I ever god willing fortunate enough to have another baby, I'll just move back to Atlanta, whether we're working there or not. I love my doctor. So your water broke on its own? Was your labor? Did you tell me about your birth experience? I went into labor on my
jud date. Um, and he still had to go into work, and I I just didn't know how crazy it would get. So I said, okay, I guess I'll just text you and an to go to the hospital. I didn't know there would be points where I could pick up my phone, like it got so intense at a certain point. And were you by yourself? I was by myself? My god, Melanie, you by myself? At home? I was like, oh, I'm going to make pancakes. It was my big plan. I couldn't do anything. So he finally was able to come
home and get me to the hospital. Um, and everything was great. Everything was like going very smoothly. Everyone was like, I can't believe this baby's going to come on her due date. Oh my god. Crazy. And then she turned around when she was coming down the birth canal, she turned so she got stuck. Basically, I pushed for six hours. Did you have an epidural? I did it a student? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did too. I understand not I cannot know. I had an abiderl late, like late, I had been in
labor for a long time. And then I just I felt like I was blind, like I couldn't see. I was wandering around the hotel room and I remember but my doula going, you're so close, and I just pushed her. I just like pushed past her. I just was like I couldn't really I could see a shape and I could hear her saying that, but I just was like, I need this, You're I'm in so much pain. I mean, she was almost ten pounds and she was turned backwards in the birth canal, and like the pain was insane.
And once I had the aduro, it was great, Like I felt like I could relax a little bit, like the tension came out of my body, and I could push a lot more effectively, honestly. And then I was like, why are we shamed for this too? Oh my god, shamed for medication and childbirth, Like, what is going on with all of it? It's I'm I'm over the patriarchy. Yeah, it's really I can't do it. It's really fucked up. You're shamed to have to be medicated. You're shamed to
not be medicated. You're a shamed to breastfeed too short, You're sham to breastfeed too long. You're shaping. It's like, yeah, every fucking corner we turned. When so you had an emergency c SEC. Yeah, because her heart rate started dropping at a certain point and the doctor just said you gotta you know this has to happen. And I said, of course, And did you feel terrified? What will tell me what you were feeling at that moment? I just felt I trusted him so much. His name was Dr
Brian Jewel in Atlanta, Georgia. He's absolutely amazing. I trusted him so much. My duelter was with me. I'd love her so much. To Megan Gateboard as her name if anyone's looking for an amazing duel in Atlanta um and they just both were like, yeah, it's time, and I said okay. And so I was lying there with Jason waiting to be taken in, and this elderly woman who had never seen before came into the room and grabbed my hands and said, you must do what you have
to have this section. Do it for your baby. Your baby has to live. And I had already said yes. Like Jason was like, was this the ghost of even like who wasn't want an old nurse? I never saw her again. I never saw her before. I never saw her. Also, when are you when are you playing that part? Like that? My god, I don't know forty years from before out what's out? All right, okay, we're wrapping up really quickly. Tell me what it's like. How is it feeling raising
a toddler right now? It's very, very fun. I'm very grateful to have a wonderful partner who's so good at playing, because there's so much playing and it doesn't come naturally to me. I wasn't like a very I was a kid who would like sit around reading books. But Jason is so good, he's so like imaginative and yeah, for all of you listening, I'm pretty sure. Like I remember Jason and Ny you like classical theater department, Like he
was like the clowns in all the Shakespeare plays. He can do such fucking physical comedy, you can sucking pratt fall and you have sense said roll and play. I mean, he's one of the most talented people I've ever met. But um, I can only imagine him playing with your daughter. You were promoting Hulu's latest tie true crime miniseries, Candy, with your co star Jessica Beal. Jessica at one point asked you, what's been the toughest of many tough days
to shoot Candy? But I want to know what's been one of the toughest, many tough days to be a parent? Oh my gosh. There was a period of time when Jason was shooting something in Vancouver and I was shooting in Toronto, and she was a newborn, and I was doing Mrs. America, the first job that I did after having her, and I just didn't I didn't have a seat up. It was before I kneit Sally. I didn't have a many I was just hiring babysitters. And some of those days were really, really tough and there was
one day where I got gnar of IRUs. I wasn't working, he was in Vancouver. I was breastfeeding. I think she was ten months old at that time, and I didn't have anybody like a babysitter. Came in for like a couple of hours and had to go, and I just Melanie, I am losing my am I gonna do? Oh? Yeah, I've had that And it was the most sick I've ever felt in my entire fucking life. You're literally throwing
up on top of your diarrhea. It's a nightmare. And your breastfeeding a ten month old, your husband is three thousand miles away, and you don't have a full time nanny. I cannot, I cannot. It was crazy. I was grateful it was breastfeeding because I think it gave her the antimmunity. She didn't get sick. But um, that was that was a real world Yeah that's that. That takes a nice, nice, nice Okay, prize, Will you answer this question? Parenthood is
all in compassing, enriching, beautiful, exhausting. I don't know, it's so many different things. It's all encompassing, which we've never had that answer before. And It's fucking great and very fucking true. It's just become like my the first thing I think she's She's she's my whole world, you know, in a way that really I was like, oh wow, this is incredible, Melanie. I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful
you taking the time. I think your story and your journey is so important for our listeners and for all moms out there, people trying to get pregnant, people who are currently pregnant, people with children, people who are working moms, people who are you check all the boxes for me, Melanie Lindy, You check all the boxes is how I feel. And I think you are so cocking incredible and yellow Jackets, I love you. I think you're so amazing, and I um all my love to Jason. You're the most wonderful.
Thank you for doing this. It means so much. Thanks for having me. Thank you so much for having me give my love to Adam. Thank you guys so much for listening to today's episode. I want to hear from you. Let's chat questions, comments, concerns. Let me know. You can always find me at Katie's Crib at Shonda land dot com. Katie's Crib is a production of Shonda land Audio in
partnership with I heart Radio. For more podcasts from Shanda land Audio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.