Hard not to be mesmerized by Djuna—super chill, super tall & something of what pregnant dreams are made of. We originally met in NYC but I knew on my next trip to LA, we had to play dress-up—so we did just that. 

Upon arriving at her super sculpture of a hillside home that’s been fully customized by her and her artist husband Nikolai Haas (which includes a built-in steam room and outdoor marble tub) this was sure to be an eventful day! Celebrity model turned stylist, Djuna was raised between Santa Cruz, Holland and Bali before landing in NYC and ultimately LA. We hung for the day chatting about lymphatic drainage massages—she swears by it!—the clean beauty swaps she made, why she’s going to miss being pregnant (hormones are like drugs!) and how pilates affected her bump. @djunabel 

Photographer: @alainmitchell

Not ready! At all. Perhaps I’m a bit manic as well yet at the same time surprisingly chill. Perhaps I should be nesting…

I don’t know and think that’s part of the problem. I don’t really know what it means to nest. Stay home and be bored? I’m going to be home for months. Needless to say, I’m not doing a good job of it.

Days away from giving birth

I switched everything over to organic and all natural when I found out I was pregnant—which was kind of late in the game. The hardest part for me was letting go of my Korean products and Biologic PS150, (I love these chemical laden products). Therefore I found January Labs makes a resurfacing face lotion which I’ve been using a lot and I’ve tried to seek out alpha hydroxides & things that can exfoliate naturally.

As for wellness, I’ve been seeing a chiropractor the entire time plus I’ve been getting lymphatic drainage treatments as well. The drainage sessions are less for detoxing and more for circulating fresh oxygen around my body. I‘m not typically a person that swells much but it’s sort of inevitable with pregnancy, so it’s been really nice to get things moving—total god send for me.

I got really into Lagree Pilates and was in the best shape of my life right before I got pregnant—I was like ‘Really, now—my body is rocking?!?’ I continued with pilates until recently but omitted the ab work and then about a month ago my midwife asked me to stop all together because he was still breach and wasn’t turning. She thought my lower abs might be too tight for him to be able to turn and move his head. It seemed unlikely to me, but I stopped anyhow and he actually turned. Since then I’ve continued doing yoga but really miss pilates.

Not a ton of cravings and rather more of an excuse to eat things that I already love. Like croissants, they’re delicious. And pickles, I’ve always loved them. Pregnant or not, in real life, I’ve always been a big sweet/sour fan and like weird food combinations. For example, I’ll have a pickle and then a cookie and then want more pickles. Early on I was wanting fat in everything and was into bone broth, eggs and MCT oil. Then about a month ago I completely stopped wanting anything high in fat! He must have gotten to a good weight and my body was like, ‘OK stop. You’re all good now!’

I’m trying to be the best teammate to this little guy as possible, because I feel like if we could just be a good team then it’ll probably make the whole birth a lot easier and our relationship as a whole. I figure, let’s set that up now. We have to work together to make it happen—start the compromise way early, ya know?

The plan is to have the baby at home. My midwife is on-call these days and my mom came from Holland—we’re all just waiting. We have this beautiful marble bath outside and in theory it sounds perfect to have him out there, but only in theory because I’ll probably just want to hide in my room. I don’t want to be screaming from my mountaintop.

The midwife brings an assistant and a second midwife plus my mom was a doula & nurse—she hasn’t done this in 27 years, but she’s bringin’ it back!

The mucus plug situation! Now that I know its going to happen, every time I pee I’m staring down into the toilet hoping not to find it.

We went to a few but ultimately felt that we didn’t really need them considering what I already knew plus what I’d learned from the midwife. However through this experience, I’m really surprised at how little we’re taught in Sex-Ed about the birth process and the natural things that happen to your body during pregnancy—feels like sex then baby without understanding anything about actually being pregnant until it’s happening.

I’m actually worried that I’m going to miss the whole thing—there are so many wonderful things. For example, the hormonal stuff—I feel like I’ve been on drugs for 9 months! It’s rad. I didn’t think that I was going to like being pregnant but in fact I really love it.

The only two things that I’ve avoided are onions and garlic, because I haven’t been able to digest them. I’ve still been eating sushi.—I’m just cautious about where I eat it from. I’m actually more nervous to eat unwashed vegetables because things like salmonella seem scarier to me.

Maybe a stiff drink? While I’ve had baby sips if a friend orders a drink, the first tequila or first martini that I can actually have will be exciting.

I was a model first and moved to NY when I was 17. I was making very little money doing a lot of editorials as I wasn’t your typical pretty girl, I was more of a weird girl—which at the time those weren’t the girls getting the money jobs like campaigns. Therefore, other stylists that I worked with onset started hiring me to help with them with odd jobs like picking up clothes from showrooms, etc. & I’d jump to do anything as a $100 was a lot of money for my 17 year old self. I wasn’t sure if styling was my passion, but I was excited that there was a job that you get to play dress up all day. In the meantime, I opened up a vintage shop called Fox and Fawn, which was super fulfilling & fun and then moved to LA and began styling again.

Not to overthink it too much. Own it. I don’t really understand the concept of maternity clothes, because there’s probably a lot that you still fit into. I’ve mostly been trying to think about things that I can wear afterwards, that’ll also be nursing friendly. HATCH is great for that.

For pregnancy advice, there’s no formal. Everyone has their own journey. Don’t surrender to what the book tells you you’re going to feel.