One of my favorite ways to relax is to do a progressive muscle relaxation. To do a progressive muscle relaxation, you go through each body part, tense it, and then feel the difference as you relax it. So I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to teach kids how to do a progressive muscle relaxation. Here are my thoughts.
Welcome to Little Elf Family Services! I’m Lara Elfstrand. I am a parent coach, and I am here to help parents to feel connected, rested, and thriving. I have a master’s degree in early childhood special education (and a clear teaching credential), and I am endorsed as an infant family advanced transdisciplinary mental health practitioner.
I became a parent in 2007, and it changed me and my life completely. I realized just how much a person changes when they become a parent. It changed my values, my priorities, and my marriage! The things I learned cannot be summarized in one blog post or even in one blog. But here are just a few things that I would start with:
Nesting parties ask us to re-think the way that we celebrate new parents and challenge us to focus on what the expecting parents need. It’s really less of a party and more of an opportunity to provide the family help.
Unlike baby showers, “Nesting parties shift the focus from stuff to support to help families prepare their homes and hearts for life with a new baby,” explains Lara Elfstrand, the pediatric sleep practitioner of Little Elf Family Services.
Do you have a newborn baby at home? Sometimes it can be hard to know what to do with a newborn baby when they're actually awake. First off, that can be rare. (Find this video on Placer Birth Connection’s Instagram page).
Some of the first things we're focusing on with babies, of course is learning to eat and sleep.
This week I spoke with Dr. Hannah Flammang about C-section scars. We talked about self care and things that we can do to help with recovery and healing after a c-section.
Dr. Hannah is a local chiropractor. She is opening her practice in Rocklin, but she does a lot more than just chiropractic. She really likes to work with women’s health patients, specifically in the prenatal and postpartum periods.
An interview with Karen Rothstein of Sacramento Hypnobirthing
This video is available on Instagram here.
Fear
Sometimes moms will think they have fear, and what they really have is just a little bit of worry and a little bit of anxiety.
An interview with Shannon Smith of BellissiMamas
Tell me a little bit about BellissiMamas and about what’s so important about guided meditation.
Shannon:
At BellissiMamas, we are helping moms to be able to create their most beautiful motherhood--whatever that looks like. A lot of what we find in our day as a mother is a lot of chaos. Being able to just set aside five minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, whatever it is that we can set aside for ourselves. Maybe it's when the children are quietly playing or they are just dropped off at school and you've got five minutes in the car to yourself.
Recently I had the exciting opportunity to interview Juan Irby II. Juan is a postpartum doula for dads. Here’s an excerpt from our conversation together.
Juan, tell me a little bit about how you got started as a postpartum doula.
I am Juan Irby. I am a postpartum doula for dads and also for families. I'm located in the North Carolina area--the Charlotte/Concord area. I started my journey with my first son
Three of the top skills of a value driven professional—a person who excels in their workplace—are: they know how to de escalate drama; they know how to accept feedback as a gift, and they know the right way to engage in conflict (according to Donald Miller in his book Business Made Simple). And you know what? Those are skills that I teach in my coaching and in my Gottman Bringing Baby Home classes. They're also skills that make for a great parent and that help us to have a more peaceful, nurturing postpartum period.
Are you curious about what has happened to birth doulas since the pandemic? I recently interviewed Gemma Mrizo, a local Sacramento birth doula, about how she has been serving families virtually during these last months. Check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcfY2bvagQs
Find Gemma at http://www.capitalcitydoulas.com/gemma-mrizo
I have been interviewing parents and professionals about what it’s like to have a baby during the pandemic. Recently I interviewed Dr. Romy Havard (she/her) of Peregrine Physical Therapy. Dr. Havard provides the East Bay Area, CA with orthopedic, prenatal, postpartum, pelvic floor, and wellness services. She went to UC Berkeley for undergraduate and later attended the UCSF/SFSU Joint Graduate Program in Physical Therapy with MS and DPT degrees. She is also Board Certified in the Orthopedic Section (OCS).
I can’t believe it’s June already. May was largely focused on clarifying who I am, so that I can continue to clarify who I serve and what problem I solve. The clarity is coming in the form of a dimmer switch becoming clearer a little bit at a time.
At the very end of April, I attended the Bringing Baby Home educator training in Sacramento. It meant that I could not attend my business mentorship weekend. Here are a few things that have happened since then:
I received the paperwork to become a Gottman Bringing Baby Home Training Specialist! Woo hoo!
We have been talking about becoming a superhero to our kids and families. What does that mean exactly? Joseph Campbell describes the "hero's journey" as one in which the hero goes on an adventure, battles an enemy, and goes through a transformation in the process. So I want to be clear that I am not saying that we have to be the traditional "super mom" who does everything easily and looks perfect to all her friends. In fact, I mean the opposite! I mean that we are leaving our comfort zones to face unknown enemies, doubts, disbeliefs, and challenges and to see them as battles that bring transformation in our lives and make us stronger! For me, I continue to work on clarifying WHO I am, what I am good at, and how I can meet the needs of families around me.
As you learned last month, I have teamed up with Live Your Message (www.liveyourmessage.com) to create a Little Elf Family Services that brings out the inner superhero in each of us… starting with me and creating a ripple effect to the families that I serve. I have joined their year-long mentorship program, where I aim to spend this next year discovering more about who I am at my best self and getting to know my families better. My goal is to see how my best self can serve your deepest family needs to build a program that provides the highest value for and deep relationships with the families I serve. I am shifting my focus
Does it look like the smiles of our friends? A piece of art that we enjoy? A beautiful sunset? A colorful flower? Does it look like the light reflecting off of a rainbow of bubbles? Does it look like a thank you note from someone we care about? Sometimes it might look like the light at the end of the tunnel.
It's the end of January. What goals do you have for yourself for 2019? How are your resolutions coming along? Do you need to hit a re-set button?
For inspiration, check out this Thai Life Insurance commercial.
For ideas on how to build positive habits, check out The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and In Business by Charles Duhigg.
Resources:
©Lara Elfstrand, MA ECSE, IF-ATMHP, CPSI - Little Elf Family Services, P.O. Box 5098, Auburn, CA 95604
