Navigating Baby Loss

Send Jen a Text Message
She did everything right. Her body still couldn't keep her baby inside. Sound familiar?
In this episode I'm sitting down with Jodi Klaristenfeld, founder of Flourish and a preemie and NICU parent coach. Jodi's daughter Jenna was born at 28 weeks after preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome nearly took both of their lives. Jodi met her daughter three days after the birth, and Jenna spent 77 days in the NICU before coming home.
Jodi's baby lived. And she still grieves the birth she dreamed of, the first days she didn't get, the moment she was too scared to hold her own daughter. If you've ever thought "but at least she got to bring her baby home," this conversation might surprise you. The guilt, the self-blame, the way we rationalize our own symptoms, the birthday that is also an anniversary of trauma... so much of it is the same road.
In this conversation, you'll hear:
Why Jodi kept telling herself the bloody nose, the swelling, the orange urine were "just pregnancy," and what that has to do with how we're raised not to bother anyone
The moment her OB told her mom, "If I don't take the baby now, I'm going to lose them both"
What it was like to not want to walk through the NICU doors, and why there was nothing wrong with her for feeling that way
The guilt she still feels, seven years later, about being too scared to hold her daughter that first day
How her husband pushed her to see her baby and to pump when she wasn't ready, and why she's grateful now (I had the same experience with mine)
Why "your body is rejecting the pregnancy" is such a heavy thing to be told, and the truth about what did and didn't cause it
What people don't understand about a baby's birthday after a traumatic birth
How to answer "but look at her, she's fine now" when you are not fine inside
Why you can be grateful and sad at the same time, and why one never cancels out the other
The choice Jodi eventually made, and why it took months to make it
Find Jodi here- https://www.FLRRiSH.com, https://www.instagram.com/flrrish
Read the full blog post here: 
The 3-Day Experience for Moms After Baby Loss is a live workshop for moms who are grieving their baby. Over three days together, we look at how you're really doing, what this loss has touched in your life, and what to actually do when the guilt spiral starts. You'll get the live sessions, the recordings to keep, and a workbook to go with it. $27. Find it at navigatingbabyloss.com/workshop.
Download my FREE "Guilt and Grief Release Journal" at navigatingbabyloss.com/journal

WHERE TO FIND AND FOLLOW ME!
Website-  https://www.navigatingbabyloss.com
Tik Tok-https://www.tiktok.com/@navigatingbabyloss
Instagram-https://www.instagram.com/navigatingbabyloss/
You Tube-https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz-2MCEY5PRiF6p6VB_2lxA

Send Jen a Text Message
What happens to the grief you never let yourself feel? What does it cost you, years down the road, to just "keep going" like everyone told you to?
I'm back after a little break I didn't really plan on. My dad passed away a few weeks ago, and in cleaning out his house with my sister, I've been uncovering something I never fully understood as a kid. My parents lost their first baby during birth, decades before I lost my twins. And the life they built afterward, the fear, the resentment, the debt, the silence, all of it traces back to a grief they were never allowed to put down.
This episode is my dad's story. But if you've ever been told to move on, to be strong, to put this behind you, it's your story too. Because I've now lived this from both sides. As the child of parents who never healed, and as a grieving mom who made a different choice. I want you to hear what I saw, and why it matters so much for where you are right now.
What you'll learn:
Why grief doesn't go away when you ignore it — it just waits, and comes back through other losses
The quiet ways unhealed grief can shape an entire life: the debt, the strained marriage, the fear of the world
What my parents' silence around their lost baby taught me about what happens when you "just keep going"
Why my mom could never tell me it would be okay — and what that revealed
The secret my dad carried to his deathbed about the day they brought their baby home
What it actually means to choose differently: to let go of guilt and resentment without letting go of your baby
Why grief showing up again years later doesn't mean you're back at square one
How honoring your baby now can change the story your family lives for generations
[Read the full blog post here: LINK]
Download my FREE "Guilt and Grief Release Journal" at navigatingbabyloss.com/journal

WHERE TO FIND AND FOLLOW ME!
Website-  https://www.navigatingbabyloss.com
Tik Tok-https://www.tiktok.com/@navigatingbabyloss
Instagram-https://www.instagram.com/navigatingbabyloss/
You Tube-https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz-2MCEY5PRiF6p6VB_2lxA

Send Jen a Text Message
You laughed for the first time in what feels like forever… and then the panic hit. Who am I to laugh when my baby died?
If that's you, you're not alone, and you're definitely not the first mom to feel it. In this episode, Jennifer gets honest about the guilt that floods in right after a laugh, a smile, a single good moment. She remembers it from her own life: laughing at something her husband said, and then freezing in shame, certain that joy somehow meant she was forgetting her twin daughters.
Here's what she wants you to know- the laugh was never the problem. It's the story your brain tells you afterward. This episode is about gently loosening the grip of that guilt, and learning that you can carry your baby with you into joy instead of leaving them behind in your pain.
What you'll learn:
Why that wave of panic shows up the second you catch yourself laughing, and why it isn't a sign that something's wrong with you
The quiet belief that grief is the proof of how much you loved your baby (and why it keeps you stuck)
How "guilt becomes your job" when there's no baby to care for, and what to do with that
Why being miserable forever was never actually honoring your babies' memory
The difference between leaving your baby behind and bringing your baby's love with you
A simple sentence you can say out loud the next time the guilt tries to flood in
How Jennifer uses neuro-linguistic programming to talk back to the cruel thoughts instead of just believing them
Why laughing at 7pm on a Wednesday is actually a really good sign
The permission you've probably been waiting for someone to give you
Read the full blog post here
Want to go deeper on releasing the guilt spiral? Jennifer walks you through her three steps inside my 3-Day Experience for Moms After Baby Loss: navigatingbabyloss.com/workshop
Download my FREE "Guilt and Grief Release Journal" at navigatingbabyloss.com/journal

WHERE TO FIND AND FOLLOW ME!
Website-  https://www.navigatingbabyloss.com
Tik Tok-https://www.tiktok.com/@navigatingbabyloss
Instagram-https://www.instagram.com/navigatingbabyloss/
You Tube-https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz-2MCEY5PRiF6p6VB_2lxA

Send Jen a Text Message
You weren't being too sensitive. They were being thoughtless. Those are not the same thing.
You know the comment. The one your sister said at brunch. The one your best friend sent over text. "You can always try again." "At least you know you can get pregnant." "Maybe by this time next year you'll have your baby." When it comes from a stranger, you can write it off. But when it comes from someone your own age, someone who knew your baby, someone who was supposed to be in your corner, that's a different kind of wound.
In this episode, I'm talking about why those comments hit the way they do, and why it has nothing to do with you needing thicker skin. We'll get into the second sentence hiding underneath the words, the freeze response that keeps you from saying anything in the moment, and why your baby was never a rough draft or a practice round. I'm also sharing what someone said to me after I lost my girls, and how it quietly changed the way I let people in.
What you'll learn:
Why a comment from your sister or best friend cuts so much deeper than one from a stranger at Target
The unspoken second sentence underneath "next year you'll have your baby"  and why you're not imagining it
Why your body freezes when someone says the wrong thing, and why that's survival, not weakness
How to stop carrying shame about the things you didn't say in the moment
Why your baby is not a stepping stone, a placeholder, or a first draft — and never will be
How to hold two true things at once: they meant well, and it still hurt
Three things you can actually do this week when someone wounds you this way
Why you don't owe anyone a graceful response or an explanation
How to make peace with the fact that some people will never fully understand, and why that's okay
Read the full blog post here: 
Download my FREE "Guilt and Grief Release Journal" at navigatingbabyloss.com/journal

WHERE TO FIND AND FOLLOW ME!
Website-  https://www.navigatingbabyloss.com
Tik Tok-https://www.tiktok.com/@navigatingbabyloss
Instagram-https://www.instagram.com/navigatingbabyloss/
You Tube-https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz-2MCEY5PRiF6p6VB_2lxA

Send Jen a Text Message
What if the most exhausted you've ever been isn't from the loss itself — but from mothering your living children while grieving the baby you didn't get to bring home?
If you've come home from the hospital to a house full of little ones who still need you — needing breakfast, needing rides to school, needing your lap — you already know this kind of tired. The kind sleep doesn't fix. The kind that makes you feel like a zombie reading bedtime stories with your mouth while your brain is somewhere else entirely.
In this episode, I'm taking you back to my kitchen — to my five-year-old in his Batman pajamas asking me a question I couldn't even hear. To the moment I realized I had nothing left. And to everything I want you to know if that's where you are right now.
What you'll learn:
Why the exhaustion of grieving while parenting is its own specific, lonely kind of tired — and why no one warns you about it
The "two jobs" you're doing every single day (and the second one is the one that's really eating you alive)
Why snapping at your kids doesn't make you a bad mom — and what it actually means about how much you love them
What your living children will really remember from this season (it's not what your guilt is telling you)
How to drop the bar for what counts as "being a good mom" right now — all the way to the floor
A simple practice for when the guilt starts spiraling after a hard moment with your kids
Why the baby you lost is already part of the way you mother every other child you have
The truth about whether you're "ruining" your kids by being sad (spoiler: you're not)
If guilt is the heaviest thing you're carrying right now, my free workshop Practical Ways to Release Guilt and Navigate Grief After Baby Loss was built for exactly this. You can register at navigatingbabyloss.com/workshop.
Read the full blog post here: https://navigatingbabyloss.com/post/parenting-after-stillbirth-exhaustion-guilt
Download my FREE "Guilt and Grief Release Journal" at navigatingbabyloss.com/journal

WHERE TO FIND AND FOLLOW ME!
Website-  https://www.navigatingbabyloss.com
Tik Tok-https://www.tiktok.com/@navigatingbabyloss
Instagram-https://www.instagram.com/navigatingbabyloss/
You Tube-https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz-2MCEY5PRiF6p6VB_2lxA