Susan Caso is a mom of 3 and a therapist who works with teens and adults for many years. She lives in Boulder, Colorado and is also an author of a book called the The Parent-Teen Connection. She gave birth in Denver but had such an interesting experience where the nurses took her baby to the nursery anytime she fell asleep. She wanted that baby near her! Her biggest challenge was having her third child at the age of 43! That rocked her world. To have a child later in life, you have so many diffe...
Dec 02, 2024•35 min•Season 3Ep. 121
Cheryl Chiasson is a mom of 3 boys with quite the story. They took in a young man who had a TON of trauma and took him in. With her first two babies, she said she struggled with PPD and intrusive thoughts. She struggled and had no idea what she was struggling with because no one talked about it. Her biggest supporters were both men. First, her husband and second, her father in law (crazy that it was two men!!!). She had the support but didn’t ask for help and didn’t accept the help because she t...
Nov 25, 2024•40 min•Season 3Ep. 120
Kimberly Vines lives in North Carolina with her three littles (just moved there 2 weeks ago) and is excited to start their new adventure on the east coast. She and her husband lived in an RV for a few years to climb rocks and travel around Colorado. She loves trying new recipes and exploring the outdoors. She was 30 with her first baby and although they were living it up and rock climbing and being nomads, they decided it was time to get serious about starting a family. She was doing the best sh...
Nov 18, 2024•31 min•Season 3Ep. 119
Kristin Goodwin is an amazing badass! She was a pilot as a Brigadier General and served over 30 years in the Air Force. As a woman, graduating from the Air Force Academy and doing flight school at 21, she decided she needed to think ahead to the family she wanted to have. At the age of 25, she wasn't living her authentic life and came to terms with being gay and what that meant to be in the military under Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT). She put her dreams of having a family on hold for 13 years unt...
Nov 11, 2024•48 min•Season 3Ep. 118
In this episode of HRtbeat, the Highlands Ranch podcast, Jake Freedle welcomes back Nikki Brooker, founder of the nonprofit YANA, (You Are Not Alone), for an inspiring update on her organization’s work in providing vital support to new moms. YANA’s program, Strong Mamas, Thriving Babies, now operates in three hospitals, offering comprehensive, year-long support to mothers, including personal outreach, community gatherings and digital resources. Nikki shares the tremendous impact of their 96% acc...
Nov 06, 2024•36 min
Bracha Goetz is an author of 42 children's books that help children's souls to shine as well as a memoir called Nourish the Soul. She has 6 grown kids and 36 grandchildren with two more on the way. Bracha was 24 when she started having kids and he’s now 44 years old! She went to Harvard and medical school but went to Israel for the summer and didn’t come back to medical school. She met her husband and lived there for 10 years. She came back to America to take care of her parents. She has been in...
Nov 04, 2024•34 min•Season 3Ep. 117
As a mama of 4 and grandma of 8, Susan May has been in the “mothering business” for quite awhile. She was a substitute teacher for over 20 years and she is also a writer and has published many novels including harlequin novels and a nonfiction about her son and his heart transplant. Her author name is Susan Carlisle. Her oldest just turned 40 and they share a birthday! She has been married for 42 years after attending Auburn University. She had 4 (almost) under 4 and had a busy house but didn’t ...
Oct 28, 2024•33 min•Season 3Ep. 116
Meera Ishaya is an Ishaya monk and a mom! After becoming extremely depressed, leaving her the feeling that she didn’t want to be alive anymore, and that turned into a whole new world for her. She thinks that trying to prove that she was a good mom, the most depressed she became. Being a monk has opened up a whole new world. She has published numerous books but her first is about coming back to being who you are. Being authentically YOU is essential. Being a monk is about learning that we are all...
Oct 21, 2024•31 min•Season 3Ep. 115
Erin Barry is a divorced mom of three adult kiddos with a combined family and now a mom of 6 with a new baby granddaughter. She is a life coach working to help people find their real, authentic selves. She lives in Minnesota and is a soccer referee and enjoys doing that with her daughter. She was 27 when she had her first and has enjoyed watching them all become adults. Her biggest challenge as a mom has been mental health and chronic hives with one of her kiddos. Trying to manage those issues a...
Oct 14, 2024•33 min•Season 3Ep. 114
Juliana Mackin is a mom of three working in PR firms and managing technology groups but has decided to open her own businesses. Her mama journey started later in life because her husband is 5 years younger but the positives of being an older mom is that she has more financial stability to work in a career first. She feels like she knows more about herself as well and that has been a huge positive. The mom guilt never goes away but has learned to accept that. Her biggest challenge has been the st...
Oct 07, 2024•30 min•Season 3Ep. 113
Suzanne Jamieson lives in Santa Monica, California and is a mom of a 9 and 12 year old. She went to school to be a performer and after being a mom, decided that chasing the audition wasn’t in the cards. She couldn’t find a lullaby album for her baby so she created her own! Her new album is called Love Is and is available wherever you stream music. The idea behind this album was the silo-ing of our country and the division and hate. The album explores what love is, different kinds of love and how...
Sep 30, 2024•35 min•Season 3Ep. 112
Vanessa lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina as a single mom of a 9 year old. She was a therapist who decided to add spiritualism into that realm. Her website is thepsychgym.com. She is a believer of spiritual grounding in therapy and transformed her practice into intuitive counseling. She experienced unexplained fertility issues and had to learn how to NOT expect a typical mama journey. She unexpectedly got pregnant, which was an ectopic pregnancy which caused more grief but then one month lat...
Sep 23, 2024•35 min•Season 3Ep. 111
Kyle is a strong willed parenting coach. He works with families with strong willed kids because he was a parent of SIX of those kinds of kids. He was co-parenting with his wife of 30 years but she died unexpectedly in 2021 and then he was left to parent alone. For their 30th wedding anniversary, they took a trip and that was when they decided as a couple that they needed to do more. They needed to support parents who were struggling with their own strong willed kids. Strong willed kids can be de...
Sep 16, 2024•36 min•Season 3Ep. 110
She lives in northern Virginia as a poetry and creative writing coach, writer and teacher. She turned her cathartic activity (writing) into her purpose. She has a non-traditional motherhood journey. In 2019 her father was diagnosed with terminal cancer and knowing she was going to lose one of the most important people in her life, she realized that we may or may not have “all the time in the world.” During her acute grief and a global pandemic her relationship didn’t make it through and she real...
Sep 09, 2024•38 min•Season 3Ep. 109
Kimberly Grustas is the inventor and owner of a skin care line that focuses on all natural skin care for all females but mostly girls to ensure they have all natural skin care, especially through puberty. Her business is called Good For You Girls. She has been creating these products since 2008 to make sure things are made and are GOOD for the consumer. Her brand is very specific in their ingredients and purposes. She started in the fitness industry (male dominated) and was envious of men for be...
Sep 02, 2024•51 min•Season 3Ep. 108
Jessica has quite an amazing mama journey with the release of her new book called Breath Taking, A Memoir of Families, Dreams and Broken Genes. She left the corporate world to write her story and tell her family’s story. Her journey to motherhood was long and twisty and not at all what she thought it would be. After dating her husband for 10 years, they were finally married and thought they would be pregnant right away but five years later, they were still trying. After 25 procedures, and five y...
Aug 27, 2024•46 min•Season 3Ep. 107
As a single mama of 4 kids, 2 girls and 2 boys and is the reigning Ms. Colorado Americana. She also is a Geotechnical Engineer! She is also training to be in the WINTER OLYMPICS!!! She is a Skeleton athlete (head-first flying down the ice). She had to really train hard and the email to welcome her to the olympic team, WENT TO HER SPAM account!!!! Here is your lesson for the day…check your spam! As a mama of 4, she struggled with postpartum depression and frustration as well as trying to get your...
Aug 19, 2024•35 min•Season 3Ep. 106
Karen owns Organize It, a professional organizing and move management company. Her goal is to get new moms getting their nurseries in order. Her passion is helping mamas be more organized and ready for baby. She has 2 grown children, a husband and has lived in Colorado for almost 50 years. Her biggest challenge as a mama was the depression she struggled with. She had a wise friend who said, “have a plan with your husband so that if you are not able to communicate what’s going on, you make it obv...
Aug 12, 2024•39 min•Season 3Ep. 105
Becoming a mama in her 30s and quarantined during pregnancy was strange and difficult in so many ways. Baby number two came after the pandemic and she found out what a regular pregnancy was. She is a “famous” online personality called Law Mother with over 2 million followers! She educates people about protecting the things that are the most important to them. She had to get her husband onboard as he waffled on the idea but eventually they made it happen. With her first baby, she struggled with p...
Aug 05, 2024•37 min•Season 2Ep. 104
Pouneh is a Board of Director advisor for YANA and we are blessed to have her on our team. As a stepmom, she has lots of experience in mamahood but when she had her own boys, everything changed. Originally from New Jersey, she says, “You can take the girl out of Jersey but you can’t take Jersey out of the girl.” As a Board Certified OBGYN, Pouneh has worked for years being the person who helps bring babies into the world but her entire care of mamas has changed now that she is a mom. Being pregn...
Jul 29, 2024•33 min•Season 2Ep. 103
Lauren is an entrepreneur and teaches nutrition and health and wellness is her world. She loves helping people. She is a bonus mom of two older kiddos but always wanted to be a mama on her own. After IVF with Conceptions, she succeeded in her goal to be a mama and had her baby right after she turned 40. She is an older mom and had it “all together.” But boy did having a mama change everything. She really struggled with how to manage all the feelings she was having. How do you go from being a bos...
Jul 22, 2024•40 min•Season 2Ep. 102
Dawn has been a lifelong teacher and is taking on a new role as an Assistant Director of a school. She started her mama journey with a step child at the age of 3 (who is now 18) and now has a 6 year old. Being a stepmom has been quite a journey and being a new mom as a stepmom has been a journey she never thought she would be on. Undiagnosed for most of her life, her stepdaughter just was diagnosed with autism so that’s a new challenge. She struggled being a new mom because her own mom passed aw...
Jul 15, 2024•23 min•Season 2Ep. 101
Our 100th episode was an in-person party with two amazing mamas as well as our Strong Mamas, Thriving Babies Program Assistant Director! It was such a great way to celebrate our 100th episode! Jeanie has two small kiddos and lived in Florida at that time but moved a lot and she had a lot of challenges because she didn't have support. She is now in Colorado and building her own support system. Meagan is also a mama of two littles (her homies) living in Colorado. They both felt the massive change ...
Jul 08, 2024•46 min•Season 2Ep. 100
Kandra is a sleep expert who helps people with their sleeping journey with their children. At the age of 27, she started her mama journey after going through infertility for years. Shaping her journey as a wife and mother, infertility needs to be understood on another level. She had really hard pregnancies and was in and out of the hospitals and threw up every day all day long. Being on the other end of that journey feels really good because it was really difficult. “Being a mom is a growing jou...
Jul 01, 2024•31 min•Season 2Ep. 99
Dina was a corporate America person but now holds space for women who are going through transitions. Her one kiddo will be 19 soon and she believes her soul was matched with the two souls who left before she could be their mother on earth. Her wisdom councils and circles change lives and give moms the permission to honor their mama journey’s. Giving up some of the plan you have in mind in motherhood, both birth and motherhood is essential. Don’t grip so hard! The control isn’t always in your han...
Jun 24, 2024•39 min•Season 2Ep. 98
As a mama who had her first baby at the age of 35, she wasn’t sure she wanted kids. She was very driven in her career and wasn’t certain kids were in her future. But when she got married at the age of 34, 2 months into the marriage, they were pregnant! She is not a huge fan of kids, except her own! She joined some mom groups through a nonprofit that turned into a store and found her people. With her second baby, she was involved in her church and all the moms were amazing supports. In Canada you...
Jun 17, 2024•38 min•Season 2Ep. 97
Kelly has lived in Colorado since she was 8 and lives in Centennial. She works for a payroll company called PNIHCM and is passionate about her community. The job of being a mama and wife is a 24/7 job. She met her husband way back when she was 19 and got lots of stuff “out of the way” before she had her son. She had her son at the age of 35 and what an adjustment it was! Her pregnancy was a complete surprise because she was on birth control and didn’t expect to get pregnant! At 16 weeks pregnant...
Jun 10, 2024•38 min•Season 2Ep. 96
Brenna is a single mom of 2 and closing in on 40 and so excited about the possibilities of the “rock star decade!” She is a police dispatcher for the Colorado State Patrol and her hours are nuts! She also put her application in to be a State Trooper and is starting that process! She became a mama at the age of 22 and her kiddos have different dads. Not knowing what a healthy relationship looked like, she struggled to find true love. Having two kids on her own, her mom homeschooled her and her si...
Jun 03, 2024•45 min•Season 2Ep. 95
Michelle is a mom of 2 living in Arvada, Colorado and works with companies to help them with their expansion plans. She is a member of YANA’s Board of Directors and has been an amazing asset to our program. She started her parenting journey later in life and had her son at the age of 40. She was a corporate climber so starting at the age of 40 was a little rough. She had 2 small kiddos for the global pandemic! She made some changes to her career in that time and switched lanes in her work/life b...
May 27, 2024•26 min•Season 2Ep. 94
Susanna Peace Lovell is a mama and a life coach and advocate for families with kiddos with disabilities. She has a daughter with many extreme needs and it led her to this work. Her daughter is about to turn 18, living in LA and her and her ex-husband raise her collectively. She had ALL the motherhood answers before she became a mom (like a lot of us do) and then reality hit! Her daughter was diagnosed with a plethora of medical conditions and her mamahood journey was NOTHING like she was prepare...
May 20, 2024•33 min•Season 2Ep. 93
