Beyond the Newborn Haze: Marla Tellez's Motherhood Journey Continues

The Series for Education and Awareness in Medicine (SEAM) continues its intimate conversation with Marla Tellez as she navigates the realities of early motherhood with baby Sloan, now nearly six weeks old. This candid discussion explores the physical transformations, emotional challenges, and unexpected joys of postpartum life, offering valuable insights for new and expecting mothers about the importance of community, self-compassion, and trusting the journey.

Amy Cohen Epstein: I love this. Hi, Marla. I feel a little guilty that I'm making you do this, but I also wouldn't get to talk to you so much if I didn't make you do this.

Marla Tellez: I'm grateful you're making me do this because about four hours ago I was on the couch in fetal position crying because baby girl had probably one of our worst nights last night. I was this close to texting you and saying, "I'm so sorry. Can we move it to next week?" And I thought, you know what? Come on. I got to put on my big girl pants just like my baby girl does. I feel so much better that I'm here talking to you.

Amy: Well, I woke up with the worst period ever. So I was going to be like, I want to sit in my sweatpants and not take a shower and not do anything today. I mean, yours is worse, but yeah, kind of. But I do feel better that I showered and put makeup on. It always makes a difference. That's what my mom used to say, just shower, put some makeup on, and you'll feel better, which is so shallow, but honestly, it works.

Marla: I think it makes sense, right? You just wash everything off. You feel refreshed. Like I said, I'm just glad I pulled it together. And here I am. You might hear the crying baby in the background, though. She's still a little fussy today.

Amy: It's okay. The crazy part about this stage, nearly six weeks, right? It's like the minute you think you have it and the routine is down, boom. She's up all night. You said the night before she slept six and a half hours, and I'm sure a part of you was like, "Sweet, I'm going to sleep six and a half hours from now on." And then literally the next night she's up all night crying and you have no idea why. Was she tired? Overtired, overstimulated, gassy, needed to burp, needed to poop? I'm assuming you never figured it out.

Marla: I never figured it out. I checked all the channels. She had a changed diaper. She was fed, she was burped, you name it. And still it did not matter. But they are smart little creatures because she would fall asleep, no problem on my chest or in my arms. And then the minute that you think you have them... okay, they're in that deep REM state because you can see the facial expressions. Even her eyes were back in her head and I'm like, "Oh, she is in a deep sleep." So I put her down gently, do everything that I've learned to make them still calm, and then I tiptoe away and maybe 60 seconds go by, and then it's like, boom.

Amy: Totally. I gave you that book, my favorite sleep book, and it's the Bible. It's that moment where you have to teach them to learn to do that on their own, which is I think the hardest first lesson as a parent—allowing them to put themselves to sleep. So it's putting them down when they're drowsy after that first or second yawn... It's letting them get themselves to sleep before they're asleep and before they hit that moment so that they can figure that out themselves. And it is, I think, excruciating as a parent because first of all, the feeling of them falling asleep on you is like none other. It's so delicious. So as comforting as it is for them, it's so comforting for you.

Marla: It's very sweet. Yes.

Amy: You're removing that from yourself, which is heartbreaking. And then you're giving them this lesson, which is also this gift, this first lesson of how to soothe yourself. And then they learn how to use a pacifier or use their thumb or none of the above and find a way to get themselves to sleep. It's truly this first gift, which they'll translate into all these other things in life. But you have to live through the crying, which is really, really hard.

Marla: It's very hard. Especially they're small little... I know they're little teeny tiny beans. And to allow them to self-soothe is a painful experience. I am proud to say that since we last spoke, there have been some milestones where before she was really just basically on me sleeping. Of course, let's call spade a spade. They're tiny, and it made for much more quiet nights. So she was in the bed, then we tried her in the bassinet. That wasn't working. And then you sent the Bible book of sleep and... put them down to your point, when they're drowsy, not when they're asleep, drowsy. That was like tip number one that I was doing wrong, that we were doing wrong.

Amy: Well, when they're first a few weeks old, you can't do it. You have to wait a little bit. They have the ability to learn.

Marla: It was literally at four weeks in one day, we got her in the crib and it was a success. I had two overnight stints of breastfeeding, which is completely normal and fine, and was able to go back to bed. And it's funny you say that because that next day in the morning, I felt like I won the lottery. I'm like, "We did it. We did it. And this is smooth sailing from here on out." Of course not. Because there are the good nights and then the bad nights. And yes, a night ago she had her best, longest sleep, which was almost six and a half hours.

That didn't mean six and a half hours straight for me because I woke up around four hours and looked at the clock and thought, "Okay, any minute now I'm going to hear the first whimper and then the big cries," and that didn't happen. And then I tiptoed into her room to make sure she was still alive, literally alive. And I couldn't see her little chest moving up and down. I'm like, "Oh my gosh, should I wake up my husband? Should I wake up my husband? No, you're being crazy. You're being crazy." Got back into bed, couldn't sleep at all. And then she slept again for almost six and a half hours, and from four to six and a half hours, she finally let out some whimper. And I thought, "Yes, she's not deceased. She's still with us. Thank goodness." At the same time, thinking, "Just stay asleep. Just go a whole eight hours at this point, please." But six and a half hours was a great start. So we know that she can do it.

Amy: Yeah, she can do it. Totally. My middle son, Maverick, who... he defied every rule, and I really broke every rule, and he still is like this. He preferred to sleep in a really hot room on his stomach with his bottle, because I would pump and then feed him breast milk—his bottle he liked scalding hot. Everything that you are not supposed to do. So when he would... those first nights go for long periods of time, I would be like, "Oh my God, he definitely has... he's going to die because his room's like 90 degrees. He's on his stomach, and I've given him 140 degree bottle of breast milk," but he's 19 years old now and a thriving human. But it was so hard. I was petrified, and my husband would be like, "He's fine. That's how he likes to live." I'm like, "Oh my God."

Marla: What's so funny is that sounds like hot baby yoga. You could be onto something there, really. But number two, I don't know. I think times have changed because now you don't have to warm up your breast milk. I mean, it's all preference to whatever your baby wants. But I thought because I have pumped and then let John obviously feed, and I've done solely breast milk, so I feel like a milk machine through and through—

Amy: A full blown cow.

Marla: A total cow. I mean, literally. And that's the other thing that I think gets lost in all this that... I've expressed this to my husband, is that she just latches on and she can be in a rage, and then she latches on and all is well for her. And then I give her back to John, and then it's more playtime with him, and then go to mom for the milk, and that's it. Just be grumpy with mom and then happy with dad. I'm like, "What is this?" I feel so used.

Amy: Yeah, totally. Welcome to the rest of your life. Seriously. With that said, now, it's been a few more weeks. What are other surprises? Not in terms of... we'll get to the emotional and all of that, but what are the other surprises with your body, these bodily changes and fluctuations? What else? What has happened with your body almost six weeks postpartum that you weren't expecting or you were expecting, but are still different?

Marla: So I've been photographing myself once a week just to see the progress. And it actually happens on Wednesdays, and we're recording this on a Wednesday, so I did the photo this morning.

Amy: That's really brave.

Marla: Well, just for my sake, that's not going out to anyone. But it's one of those things that I was inspired by on social media... so I've seen women do that, and I thought I wanted to do that. Just it makes you accountable. And it's amazing though, just how I was five weeks ago versus today, and I've made significant progress without... your body just starts to just acclimate into what it was before. Obviously, I do my best to eat well and then get outside as much as possible with her.

I'm coming up on the six week mark where I will be clear and be able to do physically what I want. It's amazing, my incision, because I did get a C-section, how much that has healed on its own. That's been a surprise on how... I guess quickly that happens for me, because I've heard other stories that it's taken a lot longer. So I'm proud of my body for that. What's been a big surprise to me, and this is, I hate to even admit this and talk about it, but it's very true—body odor. BO and it's awful. And I shower every day and I wear deodorant. And I actually... the reason why I'm bringing this up is because I subscribe to a weekly newsletter from Babylist and Babylist every week comes out with postpartum... you're now five weeks...

Amy: Babylist too. I remember that.

Marla: And really helpful information where it validates things that are happening to you. And you wonder... I could call my pediatrician or OB every day, really with questions, but I don't want to bother him unless it's an emergency. But the baby list this week was five weeks postpartum BO. And I'm like, "Oh, good. I am normal."

Amy: That's a wonderful thing. You're not alone in that.

Marla: Yes. Your hormones have drastically changed—progesterone, estrogen levels declining. You're sweating at night, which I really, really am.

Amy: And you're still having crazy night sweats.

Marla: Yeah, exactly. And so that's why... when I say BO, I'm not sitting here right now and smelling, but it's just in the middle of the night or the next morning once the sun rises and I'm going, "Is that me? I need to get into the shower. Oh my gosh." But it says it doesn't last... this is all just kind of fluctuates and comes and goes. And it's one of those things that I didn't know about. So here I am.

Amy: We all have a body odor, right? It's like body odor means an odor of which our body emits. So what it means is right now your body odor has changed from your norm. So back to what my mantra—know your normal—so your body odor is outside of what your normal is for very good reason. Your hormones are in complete fluctuation, so they skyrocketed and changed. You were just at the height of your pregnancy and pushed a baby out of your body, and now they're figuring out how to normalize. But not really because you're producing an insane amount of milk like you are feeding another human.

And so your hormones are not close to normalizing. Actually, they are all over the place because your body is one, losing baby weight, but still holding onto all these fats and proteins that your body normally doesn't hold onto. So you're excreting the fluids that your body held onto during nine months of pregnancy, but yet still holding onto these proteins and fats that you would normally excrete, and you're getting rid of these odors of things that are in your body. It's like your body is so outside of its normal stasis. And so that's why... and most women go through a similar situation right around this six week time, which also shows you why she is going through sleep changes because of what you're giving her in her milk. Probably lines up with your body odor because of the proteins and fats that are going into her milk, which shows you that she is going to go through a crazy growth spurt right now. She's going to hit a growth spurt, do some sort of rollover, some sort of big milestone—

Marla: Yeah, she's already showing signs. I mean, she's a strong little girl. I mean, she's really strong tummy time. Her neck is so strong.

Amy: Hold her head up. So it all makes sense when you take a bird's eye view, but when you're like, "Why do I smell like this?"

Marla: It's really crazy. I run marathons as you know, and I don't smell after a marathon. Literally. I'm not that one who smells.

Amy: Right.

Marla: It's wild. So yes, it's really interesting.

Oh, the other surprising thing to me, and again, having never had a child and therefore never breastfed before, is sort of the... I was speaking to a lactation expert from St. John's, shout out to St. John's Medical Center where baby girl Sloan was born on your birthday March 23rd. I was starting to get the sort of shooting pains every once in a while in my breasts. And I chalked it up... because I was obviously noticing the correlation of that's like when my milk's coming in, and then I was concerned, was this an infection? Because I've seen... I forget what the name of the infection is that a lot of women get from clogged—

Amy: Mastitis.

Marla: And all of that. That's not the case for me. Thank goodness, knock on wood, I don't have an infection, but that's exactly what I was feeling. And so I didn't realize that... because it happened in the first couple of weeks of breastfeeding, and then suddenly I feel like my milk came in full force a little bit later because now it's just like, oh, my body is now... it knows every one and a half to three hours that the milk comes in. And that's what the lactation expert explained... is that it's just now regulating. And that shooting pain that I'm feeling is that, and it's not like, "Oh my gosh, unbearable pain." It's just really... it's like fireworks in your breasts... It'll wake you up. So that's also normal. So again, outside of know your normal, I've learned what that is, and I can rest easy now.

So there's a lot of validation that goes into whatever motherhood period at any stage. I can just foresee that at this point. It's always worth, I think repeating, and I've said this before and I keep saying this, that no matter how much advice I got prior and how much you think you're prepared, I really don't think that there is, unless you're superhuman... there's a mother out there who was, "Oh, I got this" for their first child. It's so overwhelming in every way, positive and negative. And I'm bringing up social media again just because it's so much a part of our lives these days, and there's a lot of good information out there. But even with all of that good information out there, you don't really... even if you see the less optimal sides of the first couple of weeks or months, it still cannot prepare you. And until you go through it yourself, it's unrelatable. I think that's the best way to describe it.

Amy: In some ways, the more stuff you have, the harder it is.

Marla: Oh, it's just overload.

Amy: It's overload. And I think the women who have babies in the middle of nowhere with nothing, it's probably way easier. They... you make do with nothing. And I think the more stuff we have... I remember Linus, my older son, was really gassy as a baby and loved this vibrating bassinet I had for him. And in the middle of the day, he would be so happy laying on his tummy in the bassinet and it would vibrate, and he would just fart all day, make him really happy. I remember we'd be like, "What would we do without this vibrating bassinet, letting him toot all day?" And I was like, "I don't know. What would I do if I lived somewhere where they didn't... I didn't have access to this thing." And I was like, "I know he'd be fine, and I'd be patting him all day or rubbing his tush." But you make... you make do. And so all this stuff, I think the bigger your diaper bag is with all this crap makes it hard. What did I forget? Every time you leave the house, it's tricky.

Marla: That reminds me... one of the milestones that I had personally too, was I went to lunch with a fellow new mom, and her baby happened to be born... Our connection is that her baby, baby girl was also born on March 23rd. So we were in a birthing class together prior, and then I was walking the halls after giving birth to Sloan. I'm walking the halls and all of a sudden I hear "Marla," and it was Jessica who I recognize from the birthing class. And lo and behold, she had a baby girl 10 hours after we did on March 23rd. So we've been in touch, which has been special. And for the first time, both of us, we went to lunch last Friday, and that was the first time that I have packed up Sloan on my own, put her in the car and drove to lunch. And I was so nervous to the point where... that's great. The night before I'm thinking, "Should I do this? Should I cancel?" And then Jessica texted to confirm. I thought, "Well, if she's doing it, then I'm doing it." And then John said, "Hey, you're both in the same boat."

Amy: Totally.

Marla: Every step of the way. I was nervous, but baby girl Sloan, she was great. We were able to have lunch. She slept the whole time, and I was so proud. I mean, that one and a half hours of just being out and having that connection with her, Jessica and her baby was really special because I think it really reiterated the importance, emphasized the importance of having that sisterhood, motherhood tribe around you because we commiserated the whole lunch because she has unexpected C-section as well. So it was, "How are you doing? What are you going through? How's your baby? What have you tried?" and all of that. It just felt so, so good. And so for mothers, new mothers expecting mothers potentially watching this, I think it's really important to hit home that point, that it's so good to have those around you in your circle who can relate and help. It makes an immense amount of difference.

Amy: It totally does. And knowing that... reminding yourself that you're confident and brave and all the incredible things you've done in your life, you can put your baby in the car. You can have that mirror turned that you can watch her and you can do it. 90% of the time she'll sleep the whole time. It's amazing. You have everything in that bag to get you through probably three days, but you can make it through lunch. She probably never got out of her car seat, right? You probably had enough diapers to last for four days, but you were fine. And to remind yourself that you could do this, it's really amazing because all of a sudden that bravery and confidence really gets tested when you are solely in charge of this other human being. It's really unbelievable, and it's the rest of your life, and it's really important to remind yourself of that. And like you said, to be in cahoots with someone else who's in the same boat so that you can look at each other.

Marla: No judgment. No judgment. Her baby was crying a little bit during lunch and Jessica was saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." It was like, "No, no, no. Come on. Sloan is asleep right now. But the next time we get together, she could be crying too. Who cares?"

Amy: Projectile vomiting, like whatever.

Marla: Right.

Amy: You'll never get on a plane again and be... you might be a little annoyed, but you'll never be annoyed at the baby crying on the plane again.

Marla: Because you know what that's like.

Amy: It could be yours. You'll just be like, "I get it. There's nothing you could do. How much stuff can you shove in that little baby's mouth? It is what it is." They paid for the seat too. What are you going to do? It just is. If you don't want to hear that, don't get on a plane with strangers—drive.

Marla: That was also another thing that we did in the last couple weeks was we did our first road trip because we're trying to get out of the house and not live... We want her to be exposed to as much of life early on as possible.

Amy: You got like cabin fever.

Marla: So we road tripped from here to the Bay Area, which is where... yes. You went to see your mom, right? Yep. And I was a wreck before. I mean, John takes all this in stride, but me, I'm going, "Should we go? Should we not?" And he is the brave one and inspires me. So thank goodness for my husband. But we got in the car, and of course she sleeps most of the time. I mean, it's fine. Yes, it's going to throw off the schedule, but she's whatever. I mean, it's a day.

Amy: She's itty-bitty at this point.

Marla: Yeah. Who cares. So I was so proud... I'm like, "Okay, we did that. Okay, good. We know we can take her in the car... we know I can take her on my own and go to lunch. We know that there is life outside of our home, and she will survive and we'll get through it together."

Amy: Yes, totally. I think someone gave me advice. They were like, "Enjoy the period where they can't move, because the hardest time to travel is when they're on the move, because then you can't strap them down." That's a period that's really hard—when they just start to crawl and then walk, and until they're then happy to watch a show, that's when it's hard to travel. But until when you're in this stage, you're pretty good. That's a good time to do stuff.

Marla: You can set her down and she's really not going to go very far.

Amy: This little girl can't move. She's strapped down. They're good to go. And in a car you can always pull over. That's not so difficult. So yeah, you just have to remind yourself, you've done really hard things in your life. You got this and you're like a walking restaurant, so you don't have to worry.

Marla: Walking restaurant. That's cute. Yes.

Amy: The hardest part is finding somewhere for you to go to the bathroom. I think that's the hardest part.

Do you feel like your body has recovered in the time that you thought it would, or do you feel like it's taking... to me, you've recovered really quickly and physically you look amazing. Do you feel like... is this taking longer in terms of... well, I think moving and getting around, not just how you look, you look so great, but I mean your insides and how you feel strength wise?

Marla: It's hard for me to totally answer that without establishing that I've never experienced this before, so I don't know what you're supposed to feel afterward. And again, I didn't expect a C-section, so I know recovery is different for a C-section versus vaginal. I don't even know how... I mean, I don't know what's worse or how the vaginal process would've been for me. When I first came home, two days after delivering her, my body looked unrecognizable, and I didn't expect that. Meaning I came home heavier from the hospital than when I went in. And that was confusing to me. It's like I just gave birth to a seven pound, five ounce baby girl, and now I weigh more.

Amy: Yeah, you had so much fluid retention.

Marla: How? How does that happen? So I didn't know that that was an option. And so that was my reality. Where I've come in five weeks is remarkable. So yes, I'm fascinated by the human body and then even the elasticity, I guess, of your skin. It's amazing how it just retracts. And I'm still jiggly in here more so obviously than before I gave birth. But I mean, that's all part of the process. So ultimately, I would say that I am fascinated how five weeks has really made such a difference when I'm out and about as a runner, I just want to go run miles and miles and miles and I'm not there. And obviously why should I be? That's silly at this point. The strength that I felt prior, I don't have right now, but that'll just come in due time. I mean, I have to remember that breastfeeding quite literally is an athletic sport. I mean, you're producing... when you produce the milk, you're burning calories. When you're giving her the milk, you're burning calories. And it's pretty amazing how that is. So my hunger level is really through the roof, and I didn't anticipate that.

Amy: And so thirsty, right? Aren't you so thirsty all the time?

Marla: So thirsty. I mean, I just... Well, I'm like slow down with my breast milk. That's so funny to me. When she's crying, crying, crying. I put her on, she latches on, and then she's like... you can hear... and then the milk starts to come around her lips. "You got to slow down, girl." And then it's like spewing out. "Slow down."

Amy: That's funny. I remember. Did they give you that jug from the hospital? That huge... It's funny. When I had babies, we didn't... they didn't have all these... a hydro flask. They didn't have these... whatever, all these different kinds of things back then. So they had this plastic jug...

Marla: No, they did. They did give me that.

Amy: That was the best thing. I kept that for months. I was like, "This is the best jug ever" to drink because I was so thirsty. There was no... I mean, now I love my Nalgene bottle. There was nothing like that. I didn't have anything like that. It was so great. It just had a water bottle that you threw out.

Marla: Yeah. They're still giving those out by the way.

Amy: They're great. And I'd be like mad. "Fill it up at two in the morning. I'm dying. I'm so parched."

Marla: Yeah, so parched, yet hot and the whole nine. It's amazing. And part of... I'm a very regimented person, so that's been a relief to sort of establish that nighttime bedtime schedule for her, because that was part of my psyche, my issue before. It's like, "This is so wild and sporadic and I don't know when she's going to eat and when does she go to sleep and how long?" And all of that. That's just so hard. And there's so many schedules out there that you can follow, and that's totally overwhelming. But now I've gotten to the point where it's like, "Okay, I need this much water next to me here and then in her room too." So in my room, and then in her room. And then make sure that I have pacifiers here and burp cloths here and have it all laid out. So it's nice and organized. That's been helpful too.

Amy: Definitely. And the cadence starts to come naturally... the daily cadence and nightly cadence. It does. The first six weeks are just wild, wild west. And then the cadence happens. It's wild. And it's crazy. It's like upside down life, and you're just living exhaustion. One feeding to the next one, poop to the next. But somehow there's a rhythm that builds and it starts to make sense. It changes a little. And then all of a sudden you're like, "Oh, wait, we actually have a nap time. She has three naps a day. This makes sense." And then it's two naps a day, and you can build your life around that. And it makes sense. There's a schedule that starts to happen, actually starting around six weeks. It starts a little, and then definitely at three months you're like, "Oh, we have a life here. We have a thing." And my guess is summertime you'll be like, "Oh, we have a daily-ish schedule that we can sort of work around," which is cool.

Marla: It's cool. But then also it's looking ahead to summertime and all of that. I'm going to go back to work and my schedule...

Amy: But that'll make it easier for you.

Marla: I don't know. I mean, it's a whole other thing that I'm stressed about because I have such an atypical schedule. I basically work till midnight.

Amy: I think predictability will make it easier.

Marla: It's just like the first day of school and you have a whole other schedule. I mean, I think what I'm saying is we are establishing a cadence now that will only get better, but then it's going to be disrupted again when mom goes back to work. And then we'll have to rediscover a cadence. And that'll be fine too. It's just get the bandaid ripped off and let's just figure this out. How is our life going to look?

Amy: One step at a time.

Marla: Yeah. One day at a time. One of the nurses who is a sweetheart at St. John's, she said, when you're sent home, you're so overwhelmed. At least I was. And I was crying. And she said, "Look, you have to think of your days in 15 minute increments right now. You're going to get in the car and you're going to drive home. So let's just focus on that. And then you're going to park the car and you're going to get her out of the car and you're going to put her in the house. That's another 15 minutes. And then figure out what you're doing in the next 15 minutes. And if you think ahead..."

Amy: Literally, your brain will blow off your body. Totally. I can't do it. I can't know what to do. Totally. So stressing out about when you go back to work now isn't worth it. Even though I know you're going to... And this weird thing about her schedule will be her schedule regardless of yours. So it'll have to be figuring out how they line up and how they work, and then figure that out. That's the crazy part about having another human in your life who...

Marla: A hundred percent. And also when you're saying that, it's like, and thinking about John, and a lot of this is going to fall on him.

Amy: Yeah. But you both signed up for it. That's a cool thing.

Marla: Yeah. Hey, we paid a lot of money for it too. IVF that was non-insured.

Amy: You really did. This girl came with a big price tag.

Marla: But she's worth it. She's worth every penny.

Amy: Totally. That's why after four hours of sleep, you're like, "Wait a second. I need to feel your breathing."

Marla: I know. Literally, I'm like, "Can I see her little chest?"

Amy: Oh, and the cool thing is every mom has done that. Every mom. Seriously, I can't tell you the dozens of times I've done that. A hundred percent. So the next time we talk, we'll be in a few weeks and I just can't wait to see what we talk about. My guess is it'll be what happens when...

Marla: I was going to bring in Sloan real quick, even though she...

Amy: That's what I was hoping. But before we go, I want to see her because I'm sure she needs to feed soon, so I don't want to keep you too long.

Marla: Look at her little outfit. I put her in a cute little sweatsuit with flowers. And John, you're amazing. Thank you, honey.

Amy: Thank you John. What are you most looking forward to in the next little stage of her? Oh my gosh. She's like a little doll.

Marla: So cute. Look at her little belly. Hi, baby. She's so cute. She's so sweet. What am I looking forward to? Sleep?

Amy: No, with her. In the next few, the next little mini stage, what do you think? You're going to get your six week checkup. What do you want to do with her? Do you want to put her in a jogging stroller and take her for a jog? What do you think?

Marla: Without a doubt, a hundred percent. I mean, boom. Thank you for answering the question. Yes. This little girl, she loves movement. Part of her thing is when she's fussy, she wants to move. And I think she was so used to... I ran on the day I was induced, so...

Amy: I know.

Marla: She's used to the little bouncy... Look at her. She's such a cutie. Oh, she's so strong. Hi, baby.

Amy: So cute. Hi, baby. Yeah, so definitely a little jog, a little run for mommy and baby girl. She's looking at the lights, and I love her little... the other day, I will say this, when I picked her up at what I think was a 1:00 AM feeding, and I had just changed her, and I sat her down and she was about to latch on. And her eyes, she was wide awake, and she made this noise I had not heard. And I immediately started crying because it sounded like a voice. She was attempting to speak. And I know it's too soon... but it melted me. I mean, it was just the things that happened. I'm going, "Oh my God, I love you so much."

Amy: I love that. All the firsts are so amazing, and they happen so quickly, and you just have to burn them into your brain. You can't even help. They just do. They get burned into your memory. It's just phenomenal. She's just gorgeous.

Marla: Oh, here we go.

Amy: Here we go. She's like "enough." All right. Go feed her.

Marla: Okay.

Amy: And we'll catch up soon, and I can't wait to hear about your first jog with her. It's going to be epic.

Marla: Oh yes. Okay. Well, thank you for having me... Love you. We'll talk soon.

Amy: Good afternoon. Okay. Bye-bye.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.