With twins on the way, the multi-hyphenated co-founder of fave infrared sauna therapy, HigherDOSE, is ironically chill considering she’s in the business of heat and about to become the mom of two!

From her new Williamsburg location, (promising all things wellness) to her fave coffee shop, Lauren talks about the power of acupuncture, tissue salts, and her belly belt —  basically the only way she can walk these days. Plus, the shock of learning she’s having twins while overcoming the guilt of wanting a baby and a business.

I’m feeling great now that I have this new belly belt and can walk again.

I spent an entire year simply saying out loud that I wanted to have a baby or that I was even ready to have a baby before we tried to have one. I had a weird denial around it because of my business and being an entrepreneur. HigherDOSE was my first baby and at the time, we were only about three years into the business. Being so career-focused, I had guilt and worry about how I was going to go into investor meetings pregnant. Finally, I came around to feeling it was time and began the process of detoxing my body, doing energy work, and healing before getting pregnant!

Logistics aside, overall we feel blessed and very excited! However, at first, I cried! I couldn’t believe I was having one baby let alone two! My mom and sister had always said I was going to be the one to have the twins, (my mom is also twin, so it runs in our family), but I never thought it would actually happen. Once I recovered from the initial shock, my main focus has been trying to figure out how I will manage with two. 

Initially, I’m  going to need a lot of help. Fortunately, my mom is coming for the first month, and my husband is taking three months off work as his as his company offers paternity leave. Overall, I feel very well supported.

Also, delivery with twins is different than with a single baby. They treat me as high risk, which means I will be delivering in a hospital. For me to give birth naturally, I have to be 100 percent healthy. Right now both babies are head down, doing well and not in stress — apparently often with twins that’s not the case.

I’m nervous I won’t have the natural birth I want. And, that I won’t be able to do delayed cord clamping or immediate skin to skin contact because they’ll be premature or in stress.

Meeting the two of them for the first time. I always wanted to have kids, but it’s wild to think that I’m so close to meeting the loves of my life.

During my first trimester, I only wanted greasy, unhealthy food, which made me feel guilty because I had this vision of being a super healthy pregnant person but the sickness was just too much. Sadly the only thing that would “somewhat” help was deep-fried, greasy food. I couldn’t even look at anything green or healthy.

Once I got through the challenges of the first trimester, I tried to avoid bad quality meat, cheese, and processed food. Plus, I made an effort to eat fish eggs, wild sockeye salmon, tons of fruit, veggies, and a little pasta.

Dr. Rhona Patrick: Salmon Roe from Vital Choice and wild Alaskan sockeye.

Homeopath Maria Adam of Bio Vitality and tissue salts.

Acupuncture (pre-pregnancy and during): Jamie Friedman, JMF acupuncture. @acupuncturechick

Pre Pregnancy: I worked with a Gene Specialist and Naturopath to uncover our genetic make-up. We took samples of mine and compared them to my husband’s followed by further testing based on our gene results. Plus, we did a “heavy metals” test, hormone panel, glyphosate test, full nutritional panel, and organic acids test.

Mama Natural is a great book.

Lastly, Magnesium! Transdermal Magnesium Body Lotion has helped me sleep at night, especially this past month of pregnancy. In addition, I’ve just started going into the float tank during  my last month of pregnancy; the Epsom salts are incredible for muscle relaxation, plus it helps me go to the bathroom regularly and sleep.

Watermelon all day every single day and sausage! I can’t get enough of both!

Omg, I’m awful with music! Some song about surrendering.

Pre-babies I had a routine of SLT, barre class, hikes, and lifting weights! All of which I continued with six months into the pregnancy. However, during my seventh month, I had to slow it down to barre class and hiking. Now that I’m eight months, I can hardly walk without being in pain, so I’ve dropped the workouts all together for meditation and sleep. Twins are challenging to carry, especially being my first, as my abs feel as though they’re ripping apart.

Honestly, the hardest part has been bending over to put my shoes on. Whether I can get my shoes on or off quickly has become the deciding factor for what I wear these days. Women don’t think about the shoe thing beforehand, but not being able to bend over and put shoes on is a big deal! 

I love what I do, so being pregnant hasn’t stopped me. If anything, it’s made me more focused. I feel like being a mom is going to make me a superhero.

Yes, as natural as possible unless the babies are in stress. Along with that, I feel very passionate about skin to skin, delayed cord clamping, and breastfeeding.

I’m taking three full months off so I can focus 100 percent on my babies and getting them/us into a routine. After which, I will go back to work. Right now the plan is to work three days a week in the city (we live upstate NY) full of meetings and the rest of the time work from home.

I have a fantastic homeopath who has me on all of these remedies for shock, lack of sleep, building my immune system, staying calm, and relaxed flow with breastfeeding. I also have my mom with me for the first month (total blessing) and I plan to go easy on myself, and lay in bed skin to skin with my babies!