Let's Be Real: Mama Journeys

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...

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...

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 br...

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...

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 diagnose...

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. Me...

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...

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 motherho...

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...

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 comple...

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...

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 glo...

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 diagn...

Dianna is a classical homeopath in Littleton who wrote a book about newborn death. She does a lot of grief work with mamas who have experienced a loss. After four pregnancies, she has one living child and her unique experience is what helps her share with other mamas.  There are over one million babies who die before their first birthday EVERY YEAR!  Grieving is something we don't talk about in th...

She and her husband are high school sweethearts and she was married at 20!  She wasn't sure she wanted kiddos but after 10 years of marriage, they decided they did!  She was in the hospitality industry during the pandemic but that wasn't ideal as a new mom. Hotels are open 365 days a year and 24 hours a day!  That wasn't working for her and her family so she decided it was time to realign her prio...

Kelli is a badass CEO of a Colorado nonprofit called BCC Evolution (now Make Mental Health Matter), a mental health and suicide awareness nonprofit.  They focus on the education aspect after her sister took her life.  Kelli was a teen mom at the age of 16 as a junior in high school.  She put her daughter up for adoption because she watched her sister go through it as a teen mom and didn't want tha...

Lindsey is a mom of 2 girls and the program director of the Backcountry Wilderness nonprofit for our Community Association. She is passionate about protecting our wildlife in Colorado. She was in a hurry to be a mom and had baby number one at the age of 26 right after her husband graduated from PT school. She is a Colorado native who returned in her adult years because she LOVED the mountains and...

Marta is a mom of 3 and a full time student pursuing her graduate degree in Social work.  As an intern for YANA, she has contributed a TON of knowledge to our organization and she is a huge asset to us!  They live the farm life and are encouraging her three kids to find happiness in whatever that is, even if it isn't higher education. Healthy relationships have healthy conversations and discussion...

She is a stay at home mom but was a theater actress and CEO of a Yoga studio for years. Her journey started at an advanced maternal age. Her home birth was magical and was exactly what she wanted it to be. She had 2 midwives, a doula, a birth photographer and her husband for her birth and LOVED it. She was radically supported and was only in labor for 5 hours as opposed to the 40 hours of the firs...

Lainne had a natural home birth with her son at the age of 36. She has had a lot of chaos in her mama journey and didn't know the father well and she does not have a relationship with him so being a single mom was quite the challenge. She was shocked at her numbness during pregnancy and because of her traumatic childhood, she was not as prepared to be a mom as she wishes she would be. She didn't r...

As a mama of one and a son who joined the military, that fear was encompassing because she had no idea how to handle that. When she was a new mom, she was on her own as a single mom. She had support from her parents when her son grew but lost both of her parents to cancer. She feels that she has grown closer to her mom since she passed because she learned about her moms past and her life trauma an...

Candace has been a working mom for many years and owns Holistically Well (insert tag here).  Even though she wasn't always 100% sure she wanted to be a mom.  She envisioned herself as the professional woman in New York City, living the dream of being a working woman who blew your socks off.  After five years of trying, she finally got pregnant and were now a military family. The military doesn't r...

As a lifelong educator, she has dedicated her life to the education of children. She started her mama journey just before turning 30. With grown kids, she remembers having very little support throughout having little ones. She moved to Colorado with no family there and struggled with the lack of help. Even though she was in education and taught while having kids, she didn't ever teach her own chil...

Samantha and I have a long history and it was such a joy to chat with her. She was a flower girl in our wedding way back in 1995! Samantha was 26 when she had number one and after having number one, number two was a whole different story and it was hard letting go of not having control over the unknown. The mom guilt for number one was really hard to navigate as well. Her biggest supporter was her...

Marissa is running for MAYOR of Lone Tree, Colorado and is kicking off her journey into the crazy world of politics! She is a mom of 2 girls and is passionate about leaning into her community. As a mom of one, her biggest challenge with having her second child was the unknown of how to handle things when your baby isn't meeting the same milestones as your first. Where do you turn? Who do you tell?...