Simplified Speech #208 – Kassy’s a mom! AI transcript and summary - episode of podcast Culips Everyday English Podcast

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Episode: Simplified Speech #208 – Kassy’s a mom!

Author: Culips English Podcast
Duration: 00:26:15

Episode Shownotes

In this episode of Simplified Speech, Andrew talks with new-mom, Kassy! She recently gave birth to a healthy baby boy, and she tells us all about her pregnancy, childbirth, and the early days of caring for a newborn. Listen to hear about her daily routine, the unexpected challenges she faced,

and the cultural differences that shape her new life as a parent. What you will learn: Cultural Insights: Discover how birth and parenting practices differ in Korea, especially in terms of hospital policies and traditions like the "100th day" celebration. Parenting Vocabulary: Learn helpful English terms related to pregnancy, childbirth, and baby care. Family Life Challenges: Understand the common struggles of new parents, including diapering, breastfeeding, and adjusting to a new routine. Personal Stories: Hear Kassy's unique experiences and lessons from her journey into motherhood. How this episode will improve your English: Vocabulary Expansion: Learn useful expressions and terms related to parenting, family life, and cultural traditions. Listening Skills: Improve your ability to follow natural conversations and personal stories between native speakers. Cultural Understanding: Gain insight into family dynamics and cultural differences, enhancing your ability to understand real-life situations. Practical Expressions: Pick up everyday phrases that can help you discuss family life and personal experiences in English. The Best Way to Learn with This Episode: Culips members get an interactive transcript, helpful study guide, and ad-free audio for this episode. Take your English to the next level by becoming a Culips member. Become a Culips member now: Click here. Members can access the ad-free version here: Click here. Join our Discord community to connect with other learners and get more English practice. Click here to join.

Full Transcript

00:00:00 Speaker_00
Hello there, everyone. My name's Andrew.

00:00:03 Speaker_01
And I'm Cassie.

00:00:06 Speaker_00
And this is the Q-lips English podcast. You're listening to Simplified Speech. This is the Q-Lip series that features clear, natural, and easy-to-understand English conversations about everyday life.

00:00:25 Speaker_00
It's perfect for intermediate learners who want to improve their listening skills, build their confidence in English, and learn brand new expressions.

00:00:34 Speaker_00
Well, today's episode is a special one, guys, because Cassie, my longtime co-host, is back on Simplified Speech. It's been about three months since we last talked to her, and a lot has changed during that time.

00:00:49 Speaker_00
She recently became a new mom, and we'll be talking all about her experiences from pregnancy and childbirth to adjusting to a new life with a newborn baby.

00:01:01 Speaker_00
We'll get to our conversation in just a moment, but before we do, let me tell you about the awesome benefits you get as a Qlibs member.

00:01:10 Speaker_00
If you're ready to take a huge step with your English learning and you want to hit the next level, then I highly recommend signing up and becoming a Qlibs member. For an affordable price, you'll get all you need to improve your English with QLips.

00:01:26 Speaker_00
Things like our helpful study guides, the full interactive transcripts for each episode, quizzes, questions for speaking and writing practice, plus so much more.

00:01:38 Speaker_00
And with these resources, you'll be able to deepen your understanding of each episode, learn the key vocabulary, and just get the most out of spending time with QLips. On top of that, there's our special member-only series, The Fluency Files.

00:01:53 Speaker_00
And plus, each week, we have small group conversation classes for our members.

00:01:59 Speaker_00
So not only will you be able to improve your listening skills and your vocabulary, but you'll also be able to improve your speaking fluency as well by joining us for the weekly conversation classes.

00:02:11 Speaker_00
And in these classes, you'll be able to practice speaking with other members, discuss interesting topics, and you can ask questions and get feedback from our teachers as well.

00:02:23 Speaker_00
I'm one of the teachers and we also have two other great teachers as well, Alina in Indiana. So you just get a lot of great resources when you are a QLIPS member. If you're not ready to become a member quite yet, well, that's okay.

00:02:37 Speaker_00
We'd still love for you to join our free Discord community. We have thousands of people who participate on our Discord server from around the world. It's where QLIPS fans connect and gather and practice their English with each other.

00:02:52 Speaker_00
Come on over, introduce yourself. You'll be able to make some new friends. Or if you have a question, you can ask a question. You can share your thoughts and opinions about Qloops episodes as well.

00:03:02 Speaker_00
And after each episode, we always have a great conversation about the episode on our Discord. So come on, check it out, and we'll keep the fun going over on the Discord. The link to join is in the description for this episode.

00:03:19 Speaker_00
Well, I think that's it for the announcements. Let's welcome Cassie to the show and we'll get this party started. Here we go. Enjoy. Cassie, welcome back to Simplified Speech. How's it going?

00:03:34 Speaker_01
Hey, Andrew. It's going really well and I'm excited to be back.

00:03:39 Speaker_00
Cassie, it's been about three months, four months, something like that. How long has it been since we talked to you last time?

00:03:46 Speaker_01
Yeah, it's been a little over three months.

00:03:49 Speaker_00
little over three months okay well that was actually a faster maternity leave than i was expecting i thought oh maybe cassie will be taking some time off for six months or nine months but only three months you're already back and joining us so i'm so happy about that and i think our listeners will be as well

00:04:07 Speaker_00
But here, Cassidy, what I thought we could talk about today is just all of the big changes that have happened in your life since we last talked to you.

00:04:15 Speaker_00
Because as I just said, that expression, maternity leave, that's what you take when you just have a baby. And yeah, about three and a half months ago, you had a baby, right? So.

00:04:28 Speaker_00
Congratulations on that, by the way, from me and from all of our listeners as well. But let's get into it, Cassie. We want to know all of the details.

00:04:36 Speaker_00
I think last time when you made the announcement here on Hulubs, if we could go back to then, you were telling us about having a diabetes scare and that you had to change your diet.

00:04:50 Speaker_00
So I'm wondering how did that play out in the later stages of your pregnancy? Did that get more intense or did it calm down a little bit?

00:04:58 Speaker_01
It was pretty much the same until the end. I was really strict with my sugars and carbohydrates. It kind of sucked. But my baby was born super healthy and he was not a giant baby. He was actually pretty small.

00:05:15 Speaker_01
He was like 2.8 kilograms or something, which is below average.

00:05:21 Speaker_00
Wow, okay, so pretty tiny. Do you think maybe that was because of the restricted eating? Like if you were just eating lots of, I don't know, high carb foods and fatty foods all the time, maybe he would have plumped up a little bit.

00:05:35 Speaker_01
Yeah, it might have been that. I don't know if it's genetics, too. My mom said that both me and my sister were also quite small when we were born, so there could have been lots of factors. But I was so excited to eat sugar and rice and bread again.

00:05:55 Speaker_00
Did you have any pregnancy cravings? I know that some women get these cravings when they're pregnant. I believe my mom told me that she craved pickles when she was pregnant with me. Did you have anything like that?

00:06:08 Speaker_00
Some food that you just really wanted to eat during that time?

00:06:11 Speaker_01
Not too many. At the beginning of my pregnancy, I really craved blueberries. So I think my baby was half blueberry for a while.

00:06:22 Speaker_00
Half blueberry. So you kind of dropped a hint about the baby. You said he, so it's a boy.

00:06:28 Speaker_01
It is a boy.

00:06:31 Speaker_00
We'll save his privacy. We won't share his name and everything, all of the details online. But why don't we talk about, you said he was small. You said like three kilograms?

00:06:42 Speaker_01
About 2.8. Yeah.

00:06:43 Speaker_00
Yeah. So, wow, that's actually quite small. I imagine maybe from your perspective, that was a good thing. Like probably easier to deliver a small baby.

00:06:53 Speaker_00
Not like I know anything about it at all, but just from, just from guessing a small baby might be easier to deliver than one of those big boys.

00:07:03 Speaker_01
That's what my doctor said. However, I had to have a c-section because he was flipped the entire time. His head was up and his feet were down. So it didn't really matter in my case. It all went really well.

00:07:17 Speaker_01
I was a little nervous because my husband couldn't be in the room with me and I didn't have any family members there. You know, it went really well. I was asleep for the whole thing. I woke up and he was there.

00:07:31 Speaker_00
All right. Now, I'm interested about that. You said your husband couldn't be in the room with you. I know in a North American context, it's actually pretty common for the dad to be there, to get in the room.

00:07:44 Speaker_00
And we can see this in many movies and TV shows too, right? Often like the dad is trying to coach the mom and the mom's like, shut up. or the dad is more stressed out than the mom. Sometimes they faint or pass out.

00:08:00 Speaker_00
So it's kind of common in a North American context for the dad to be in the delivery room. But is this the same in Korea? I'm not actually sure. I have a feeling like maybe it's cultural and that dads aren't in the delivery room in Korea.

00:08:16 Speaker_00
Is that the case?

00:08:18 Speaker_01
Yeah, I think it really depends on where you are and when it was.

00:08:23 Speaker_01
So, for example, if you give birth in Seoul, where there's a lot more foreigners and it's a lot more, I guess, modern, they do have places where your husband can be there and you can do what they call skin to skin after the baby's born where they put him on you right away and you can try breastfeeding or something.

00:08:43 Speaker_01
However, because of COVID, even though it's been a while since COVID, they still have a lot of those policies. So a lot of times husbands aren't allowed in the room. I don't know if that was traditionally how it was or because of COVID.

00:08:59 Speaker_01
Also, the hardest part for us was because of COVID, my husband couldn't touch our baby for the entire time we were in the hospital. And this is different than North America.

00:09:13 Speaker_01
In Korea, if you have a C-section, you're typically in the hospital for seven days, while in the US, maybe three, four maximum. So it was a long time for us to be there.

00:09:27 Speaker_01
And my husband could only stare at his son through a glass window a few times a day.

00:09:35 Speaker_00
Wow, that must have been difficult.

00:09:37 Speaker_01
Yes, it was hard for me too. I couldn't go see him whenever I wanted. I could only be with him when I was breastfeeding him.

00:09:46 Speaker_00
Yeah, that must be tough. And I know in North America, it's not even rare for a couple to check into the hospital in the morning, maybe have the baby in the afternoon or evening, and then go home the same day. I've heard of that before.

00:10:03 Speaker_00
So in Korea, I know it's very different. and that sometimes you do stay in the hospital for several days. Did you go to one of these special birthing centers that they have in Korea? Maybe you could tell our listeners about them.

00:10:17 Speaker_00
I can't remember the name of them. Are they called Joriwon is that what they're called or am I? Yes. Yeah. Okay.

00:10:24 Speaker_01
They're called Joriwon. Yeah We were going to go to Joriwon. My husband was allowed to come with me we had it booked and a Joriwon for listeners who don't know is an aftercare birthing center where moms go to relax and kind of get some training and a

00:10:46 Speaker_01
jumpstart into motherhood with help.

00:10:49 Speaker_01
So usually the nurses will take the babies at night so that you can get plenty of rest, but then during the day you can spend time with your baby and go to classes to learn how to give them massages or baths, change their diapers, all that kind of stuff.

00:11:10 Speaker_00
On-the-job training.

00:11:12 Speaker_01
Exactly. And then there's massages for the mom and saunas and all sorts of nice stuff.

00:11:19 Speaker_01
And we were, we were going to go, but like I told you, uh, because I had a C-section, we were in the hospital for seven days in which, you know, we couldn't interact with our son as much as we wanted to.

00:11:33 Speaker_01
So we made a last minute decision to, to leave early and just go home. So I did not experience the Jory One.

00:11:41 Speaker_00
Great. Okay. So you had the baby, everything was okay. You were hospitalized for a little bit longer than I'm sure you guys wanted, but after a week you got home. And so what were those first few weeks like?

00:11:55 Speaker_00
I'm sure it was a total huge adjustment getting used to everything.

00:11:59 Speaker_01
Yeah. I think the hardest part is just, they're so tiny and you're afraid that anything you do, you're going to break them.

00:12:06 Speaker_00
I can imagine. Yeah.

00:12:10 Speaker_01
Yeah, it was a lot of walking on eggshells, you know, carrying him so daintily and making sure he was breathing in his sleep. Even now, four months later, pretty much what we do every day is just stare at him. It's just so fun.

00:12:27 Speaker_01
You can just stare at him for hours.

00:12:31 Speaker_00
And my wife has a question that she wanted me to ask you. She wants to know if the baby looks more Caucasian or more Korean? Or is it like a perfect mix?

00:12:41 Speaker_00
I always find this really interesting because probably Cassie, you and I both, we have a lot of friends who are mixed couples, right? One Westerner partner and one Korean partner.

00:12:52 Speaker_00
it's really really different every couple if they have a baby some of them look very korean and some of them look very western so my wife was wondering about this

00:13:02 Speaker_01
You know, I think he must be pretty mixed because everybody on my husband's side, so family members and friends, say that he looks just like me. But everybody on my side, family and friends, say he looks just like my husband.

00:13:20 Speaker_01
So I feel like it must be so mixed that I can't really tell. I can see my dad in him a little bit, which, you know, is my features, but in a male form. So I guess that makes sense. But he definitely has my husband's brown eyes and darker hair.

00:13:41 Speaker_00
Was he born with a lot of hair?

00:13:43 Speaker_01
He was born with more hair than he has now. He lost it all.

00:13:46 Speaker_00
Oh, really?

00:13:47 Speaker_01
Yeah. I learned that's typical for newborns. I had no idea.

00:13:51 Speaker_00
He's going bald early. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. So a real 50 50 split. That's cool. Now, what about getting into like a new routine? I've heard that newborn babies sleep a lot. Is that true? Is he sleeping a lot?

00:14:11 Speaker_01
Yeah, he was. He slept so much. We were like, yeah, we got the baby jackpot. He sleeps all the time. And he still has good days, but recently he's been waking up a lot in the night, which has been a little stressful for us.

00:14:31 Speaker_01
Um, we are very lucky though, that we live with my parents-in-law. So, you know, sometimes if we're feeling really tired and they're home from work, they're just like, give us the baby, go take a nap.

00:14:45 Speaker_01
And that's really great for, for both of us to, you know, catch up on some Z's that we miss during the night.

00:14:53 Speaker_00
Nice. Has there been anything unexpected that came out of left field and you were like, wow, I didn't think this would be a part of parenting, but it is.

00:15:03 Speaker_01
Nothing I was super surprised by. This I knew was going to happen, but it was still a little bit of a shock. I grew up in a very girl-centered family. I have all sisters, and my mom is very girly, girly.

00:15:21 Speaker_01
But I have a son, and I knew that when I changed his diaper that, you know, he might shoot at me. And just the first few times he did it was just hysterical. His little torpedo, pshew, of pee coming to attack.

00:15:44 Speaker_00
A pee attack.

00:15:46 Speaker_01
Yeah, I never got any on my face or anything, but it was hilarious. He doesn't really do it anymore though, so it must be only a newborn thing.

00:15:56 Speaker_00
A joke that only a mother could love, getting peed on by their son, yes.

00:16:01 Speaker_01
Oh, to segue into that, I read some messages on the Discord, and I just want to say thank you to all of our listeners that congratulated me for my son. And I know that a lot of you were curious about my cloth diapering journey.

00:16:20 Speaker_01
And yeah, I want to tell you that it has been a success. Nice. We have had to, you know, tweak the routine a bit and we've moved to disposable diapers at night, hoping that maybe he'll sleep more if he's drier feeling.

00:16:37 Speaker_01
But during the day, we use cloth diapers exclusively and it's really not bad. At first, we only had a small amount of newborn size diapers, so we were doing laundry literally every single day.

00:16:53 Speaker_01
And now we can do it maybe every three or four days, which has really taken the pressure off. Honestly, it wasn't so bad in the newborn phase because everything is so new and chaotic. You don't really notice one extra step in your routine.

00:17:09 Speaker_01
But now that we're more relaxed, I guess, in our schedule, it's nice not having to do laundry so much.

00:17:17 Speaker_00
And how about you and your husband in terms of divvying up the labor? Like who does what? Do you have clearly defined roles that you each take care of?

00:17:27 Speaker_00
Or like maybe one of you wakes up in the night to take care of the baby if he cries, or is it just sort of like you're freestyling it as you go, making it up as you go?

00:17:39 Speaker_01
We were kind of freestyling it, but I feel like we've gotten into our own little routines. I've been working really hard to try to breastfeed him. That's a struggle, Andrew. I won't go into it here.

00:17:52 Speaker_01
But for all the mom listeners who have done it, I clap for you. It is not easy. So that's been one of my biggest jobs.

00:18:04 Speaker_01
I have to wake up for that in the middle of the night and everything that goes into that but my husband is so supportive in terms of like washing dishes or preparing foods or washing the cloth diapers a lot of the time. So sweet.

00:18:25 Speaker_01
And we both take turns taking care of our son. We love playing with him. I think the biggest struggle we both have is neither of us are morning people, but our son likes to wake up usually between 6 and 7 a.m.

00:18:41 Speaker_01
And every morning we're like rock-paper-scissoring who's gonna wake up and have to go out into the living room and play with him that early.

00:18:50 Speaker_00
So how do you play with him? Because I imagine just several months old, he's obviously not walking or not crawling. Does he make any vocalizations? Or is he just sort of following you with his eyes and laughing?

00:19:04 Speaker_00
Or what kind of games are you playing together?

00:19:08 Speaker_01
Yeah, he's still a bit of a potato, so he doesn't have a lot of movement yet.

00:19:15 Speaker_01
He's starting to be able to grab things now, so we have rattles for him to shake around, and he has a cute little mobile with a mirror that he can hit with his hand and stare at, which is pretty cute. I've started playing patty cake with him.

00:19:31 Speaker_01
He can't clap, of course, but I'll clap and then I'll do the patty cake and he giggles a lot when we get to the like, roll it, pat it.

00:19:41 Speaker_00
Nice.

00:19:42 Speaker_01
What else? He loves walks. We've started using our baby carrier. So I love feeling like a kangaroo. He's right there in front of me and he can stare out at the trees and the people passing by. It's pretty fun.

00:19:58 Speaker_00
I wanted to ask you about the significance of the first 100 days in Korean culture. You messaged me not too long ago and you just said, Oh, our son's 100th day birthday just passed.

00:20:11 Speaker_00
And I thought that's a funny expression, because a birthday is one year. But 100 days is not a year. But I guess that's... Did I write that?

00:20:20 Speaker_01
I didn't even realize.

00:20:22 Speaker_00
I know it's a significant thing, but I would love for you to give me some more details about that. What is the significance of those first 100 days?

00:20:32 Speaker_01
Well, in Korea, you know, not that long ago, a few decades ago, Korea was very poor and they didn't have a lot of food or resources. So a lot of babies didn't make it to 100 days. The infant mortality rate was quite high.

00:20:50 Speaker_01
So families in the past would have a big celebration when their baby made it past 100 days because they felt like that was a sign that they'd probably keep living.

00:21:02 Speaker_00
Right, like the most vulnerable period had passed.

00:21:06 Speaker_01
Exactly. So I think in the past they would have parties or have family and friends get together with presents and food.

00:21:16 Speaker_01
We didn't do anything too big for our son's hundred days, but we still invited his aunt and uncle and we had cake and it was really nice.

00:21:26 Speaker_00
Awesome. It's a big milestone. And I'd be curious about our listeners too, in different cultures around the world, if there's anything similar. Cassie, I have to ask you one more question here before we wrap up.

00:21:39 Speaker_00
And that's just about the language you're using with your baby, because, you know, I'm a language geek and I think our listeners are as well. So obviously your child's going to be bilingual, I think.

00:21:51 Speaker_00
That's probably a given, but how are you speaking to your baby? Are you speaking to him in English and your husband speaking to him in Korean? Or are you both using English at home? What are you trying to do?

00:22:05 Speaker_00
Because he's like right where we are right now. He's learning English just like all of our listeners are at the moment. So what's your strategy there?

00:22:14 Speaker_01
I think it'll be different when we move into our own place next year but as I said we're currently with my in-laws who do not speak English so I speak English to my son but he's almost completely surrounded by Korean most of the time, which is okay.

00:22:34 Speaker_01
I'm guessing that he will probably start going to an American international school quite early, maybe three or four years old. And from there he'll be learning exclusively in English.

00:22:47 Speaker_01
So, you know, if he's using Korean more the first few years of his life, I don't think it's a big deal.

00:22:54 Speaker_00
It'll be depressing when he passes our skill level, Cassie, in just a few years. Exactly. We've been struggling learning the language for years and years and years, and he'll get better than us in just three or four years, probably.

00:23:08 Speaker_01
Maybe I'll improve. My aunt in Sweden, when her kids started going to school and doing their schoolwork in Swedish, her level escalated because she had to help them with their homework. So maybe that'll be me.

00:23:21 Speaker_00
Yeah, I think so. And also just like, daily verbs and daily activities that sometimes you don't use as much as an adult but are really, really needed for fluent speaking, I think you use with kids all the time.

00:23:33 Speaker_00
You know, like, pick this up, bring this over here, spin around, bend down, all of these things that, like, we don't just use when we're at the coffee shop talking to our friends, but then when you're in, like, a daily life situation and you actually need it, all of this language is super, super important.

00:23:50 Speaker_01
It's true. One of my favorite hobbies these days to do with my husband is we'll like test each other on our new baby lingo that we've learned. I'll be like, what's this in English? And he'll go, what's this in Korean? It's a pretty fun game to play.

00:24:04 Speaker_01
Our favorite word is binky. I don't know what they call it in Canada. You know, a pacifier, the thing that babies suck on. Do you call it pacifier, binky?

00:24:15 Speaker_00
We call it a pacifier.

00:24:17 Speaker_01
Yeah, the slang term in America is binky. I heard in Australia, it's dummy. And yeah, in Korea, it's chokchoki.

00:24:28 Speaker_00
Interesting. Okay. So you're improving your language skills alongside your son at the same time.

00:24:35 Speaker_01
Yes.

00:24:38 Speaker_00
All right, well, Cassie, thanks for the update and congratulations once again. I'm so excited to hear that everything's going well for you and your young family and we'll continue to get you back onto Q-lips to give us some stories.

00:24:51 Speaker_00
I'm sure you're going to have so many funny stories and adventures to let us in on as your son gets bigger.

00:24:58 Speaker_01
Yes, I can't wait.

00:25:11 Speaker_00
That brings us to the end of today's episode. I hope you enjoyed this special conversation catching up with Cassie and hearing about her experiences as a new mom. And great job, by the way, on completing this English study session with us.

00:25:27 Speaker_00
Before we go, I want to remind you that if you enjoyed this episode and you want to take your English to the next level, then sign up and become a Qloops member to unlock our learning materials for all of the episodes in our library.

00:25:42 Speaker_00
That's over 900 episodes, plus you'll be able to get our member only series, the fluency files, add free audio and join our weekly speaking classes as well.

00:25:54 Speaker_00
To sign up, just visit our website, qlips.com or follow the link in the show notes for this episode. Okay. So that is it for me for now, but take care everyone. Happy English learning as always. And I'll talk to you in the next episode. Goodbye.