The Mama Making Podcast

Dr. Angie Recendez | Bright Futures Pediatric & Prenatal Chiropractic

• Jessica Lamb, Dr. Angie Recendez • Season 3 • Episode 87

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In this episode of The Mama Making Podcast...

Jessica is joined by Dr. Angie Recendez, a Webster-certified chiropractor specializing in pediatric and pregnancy care, to discuss the transformative impact of chiropractic care throughout the lifespan. Dr. Angie highlights the importance of prenatal chiropractic care for nervous system regulation and preparing for a desired birth. She also shares her unique, child-centered approach to pediatric chiropractic, including heartwarming stories of children with autism and sensory challenges experiencing positive outcomes.

Tune in for an inspiring conversation about the connection between chiropractic care, motherhood, and building supportive communities. Listeners are encouraged to connect with Dr. Angie for guidance and resources.

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Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (00:00)
Hello everyone and welcome to the mama making podcast. If you're new here, I'm your host, Jessica. If you're not new, welcome back. Today. I'm very excited to have Dr. Angie here with us. Dr. Angie is a Webster certified chiropractor who specializes in pediatric and pregnancy care. She's the founder and owner of bright futures chiropractic as well as the new bright futures play space. Dr. Angie. Welcome. Thanks for joining me.

angierecendez@gmail.com (00:27)
thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here. And yes, like she mentioned, I'm a mom of three, a wife, owner of bright futures and bright futures play place. And yeah, I'm excited to be here. I'm I feel like I have a lot of things on my plate. And I, I feel like I thrive in it. So I'm excited to share all the things on how I do it. How I can help other moms or inspire other moms to be the best mom version they can be.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (00:46)
Yeah, I can definitely attest to you thriving. for those who don't know, Dr. Angie was my chiropractor during pregnancy. So I, sorry. You cut out a ton just then.

angierecendez@gmail.com (00:58)
Hmm. What do I do?

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (01:00)
see.

I'll see if it caught it on the back end, but let me check your mic here.

angierecendez@gmail.com (01:06)
Okay.

Should I take off the headphones?

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (01:20)
No, they should be fine. Okay, you should be okay. Do you want to repeat what you said or just keep moving?

angierecendez@gmail.com (01:29)
I can repeat it just in case. The way I see you is yours goes a little blurry or it was stopping when you were doing it. I don't know if it...

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (01:38)
Okay, it might go in and out a little blurry. It is uploading as we're doing it. So it'll sometimes get a little blurry, but it'll, it'll be fine on the back end.

angierecendez@gmail.com (01:49)
Okay, so I'll do it again. Yes, thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited. I am a wife, a mama three, the owner of Bright Futures Chiropractic and Bright Futures Play Plays. So I'm so excited to share all the things and how I juggle them all and hopefully inspire another mama out there and how to do the things.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (01:50)
Okay.

Yeah. So I know Dr. Angie because she was my chiropractor during my pregnancy with my son. I, you guys were like a miracle for me when I first, got pregnant. I want to say I was only like 10 or 12 weeks when I started feeling some, pelvic dysfunction. and it was just, like not what I expected. I thought I would be like,

Cross fitting and working out through my entire pregnancy and it just like hurt to walk. So, I wound up finding you guys on, I think it was just a Google search or maybe even Instagram. And, yeah, you guys were like a life changer for me.

angierecendez@gmail.com (02:57)
I love that. And I love hearing that because that's really what I want to be for other people. I feel like too many times we think pregnancy has to be hard and difficult and challenging or or that that is the normal and it doesn't you know, like I want people to enjoy their bodies, their changing bodies during that time. But not only that, from a chiropractic standpoint, like how can I empower you in other ways? How can I prepare you for

the questions to ask that people to have on your team. I would say it's not the norm to seek out the team, but I wish it was the norm. And it's like, how can I help support you? And maybe you didn't know what a doula is or was or what they do in the role they provide or who is a pelvic floor therapist or who are these other people that put on your team to help increase the chances of you having that desired birth that you want. And everyone's desired birth is the way they want.

But ultimately just being a resource for all the individuals that come to our practice, that want to be a part of our practice and here to serve them in that way. So that melts my heart. Thank you.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (04:05)
Yeah. And I think like you said, everyone expects pregnancy to be hard outside of the pelvic dysfunction that I had. I, or pelvic symphysis dysfunction. I had a very easy pregnancy. And I know a lot of people don't like to talk about that because it makes them uncomfortable, but I, I feel like we expect pregnancy to be hard and, some pregnancies are going to be harder than others, but I think,

Like you said, we kind of just grin and bear it and move on. Whereas I think that there are a lot more resources out there to help us be more comfortable. Like you said, I think if you're reaching out for chiropractic and pregnancy, it's a great opportunity to start learning more about like, okay, what can I do that is more in line with me and making me feel comfortable? So maybe that is.

asking more questions of your regular providers or choosing a different provider or whatever it might be. Like you said, everyone's birth is different and their preferences are different and priorities. But I think it's a really, I think you have created a very unique space in which people are like, I'm coming for this thing. And then they see all these families and they see these chiropractic kids when they're in there and I got a lot of education.

on how my body was moving and what was happening during my pregnancy that I don't know I would have gotten otherwise. And I worked with the midwife team. I attempted a home birth. Like I did all the things and I was still learning a ton every time I would come in.

angierecendez@gmail.com (05:34)
And I think the other thing to point out too is kind of transitioning into that is like, sometimes we do all the things, right? And how do we still...

Enjoy and love the experience we had. I also was going for home birth with my first Ended up in the hospital at 32 weeks with preeclampsia and having to get induced and having a baby in the NICU and It probably took me about a good year to finally, you know He'll accept it. And now I realize that you know, I trust that God or the universe whoever, you know, we believe in is Put me in that situation to be able to connect with the families that I connect with

with because not only do we see a lot of pregnant moms but we also see a lot of what we call perfect storm cases which is you know autism, ADHD, sensory developmental delays and I would say 90 % of those case histories there's a lot of birth trauma and just you know stressing in that important critical time of our lives and I can connect with those moms to a level of you know that

somebody else who has an experience that has. And, you know, I cry in that visit, you know, I remember my birth and, you know, I'm here with them, I'm crying with them and crying with them on the happy tears on the other end of the care, which is exciting. So, you know, I yeah, there's a lot to be said about that. And I always say, you know, the birth that we're supposed to have is the birth that we're going to have. Well, we should still do the things to put the people in place to increase the chances of having that.

I needed to have that birth at that time for that first pregnancy of mine.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (07:16)
Yeah. Yeah. And I think, I think they're, I think anybody can treat people in chiropractic, but I think, I mean, obviously certified people, but, but I think it takes a unique person to be able to connect with families who struggled in pregnancy or struggled in their, early postpartum or now have a child that has some challenges. I think it's, it's, it takes a unique person to be able to connect in, in do.

angierecendez@gmail.com (07:26)
Yeah.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (07:46)
education through it and while also providing like very safe and comfortable space. Cause I imagine a lot of parents are like, we've tried everything or this is the first thing we're trying. And I imagine it's kind of scary.

angierecendez@gmail.com (08:01)
Yeah, I would say for many years it was, we've tried everything and I'm just gonna give this a try because I heard somebody else try it and they had really good results. Where I think we're in a time where things are changing, people are asking questions or looking for something different in their healthcare and the health of their children, where now they're taking more of that preventative approach instead of waiting for something to show up. They're like, we wanna live this wellness lifestyle.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (08:05)
Mm -hmm.

angierecendez@gmail.com (08:27)
And what are the things that we need to do to provide that? You know, we're eating great, we're supplementing, we're out of nature, and we're doing these things. And how can I help support from a chiropractic standpoint and getting our nervous system into that good adaptive functioning place so that, you know, it does what it needs to do when we come in contact with bacteria or viruses or all these things, which I think is so exciting. And I love to hear because while I love helping individuals who are

You know, there's a problem presenting itself. I also love helping people and empowering them to take more of those steps to be more on that wellness path.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (09:05)
Yeah, absolutely. So a family that's coming to you, whether they're pregnant, having a baby or in just starting a family or have several kids, what does it look like? What would I mean? I think a lot of people know what chiropractic is, but what makes it different to come to a pediatric chiropractor?

angierecendez@gmail.com (09:24)
Yep. So coming to a pediatric chiropractor, I'll speak for myself specifically. The spine of a child and an adult spine are two different spines. You know, they have different neurology, different biomechanics, they develop differently. Bones ossify at different rates and at different times. And so a adult adjustment is way different than a baby adjustment or a toddler adjustment or, you know, a perfect storm sensory kiddo. And so,

One, we meet each kiddo where they're at. And then two, we really want to understand their neurology and body and nervous system. So we do scans in our office to give us a window into their nervous system. Sometimes kiddos can't tell us like, I'm not sleeping through the night because my nervous system's really tapped out and I'm stuck in fight or flight. But those scans allow us to give these kiddos a voice to say like, hey, my nervous system is doing this and this is what it needs. So it really helps support their nervous system regulate better.

and tapping into that. And then, so I would say the education and the training and the years of experience that we have, as well as our eagerness to continue to learn, you know? And so like, there's so many more information and research that's coming out and being up to date with that.

Chiropractic in general as a whole is a new profession, but pediatric chiropractic in general is like a very small section of that section. And so being up to date on everything that's happening, what's new, meeting with other chiropractors on a weekly, biweekly basis to say, hey, what's working in your offices? What's not working? What's a better care plan or recommendation for these cases? So that...

we can get the results that the parents want and expect as much as we want and expect them as well.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (11:10)
Yeah. So in doing assessment for, obviously you can't necessarily give information about cases, but in assessing someone who, a family that comes and say their child is diagnosed autism, how would that change their treatment plan and what it looks like when they come to bright futures? I guess what I'm asking is,

how you've uniquely set up your space to serve all kids.

angierecendez@gmail.com (11:43)
Yeah, so I would say we meet every parent where they're every kiddo where they're at and every family where they're at, you know, some of our sensory kiddos are highly autistic cases, they don't want to be touched. And there's lots of sensory things and sound things. And so if it means we need to lower down that volume, if it means we need to schedule them during the time that's quieter, if it means that, you know, we need to change the tools or the the way we're adjusting this kiddo.

we will do that and we need to do that. We don't want to over stimulate their nervous system. We have a small window of trust that they will give us and we're here to honor it and support it so that they continue to open up that window and allow us to get them adjusted. The most common question I do get for our artistic parents is, my kiddo's really hyper. I don't think you're gonna get him on the table. I don't think you're gonna be able to get the adjustment. I just did a consult with a family from Germany.

And he was like, I don't know, we just want to do stem cells. Like I don't think, he was like, I'm sweating just thinking about that happening again. And I was like, hey, I've adjusted kiddos in the parents' arms. I've adjusted kiddos on the chair. You know, I will do what I need to do and I'm gonna meet them where they're at. Sometimes I've adjusted a kiddo in the car. You know, if that's the place that's their comfort, I'm gonna meet them there until they're ready to come in. I don't want to force an adjustment on a stress nervous system.

because that's also not going to give us what we want and he's not going to trust me next time either. So I would say from that perspective, you know, that's probably the biggest thing. The second one is our office. We have really cool calming colors. We have a giraffe table in this office, an elephant table in our Chicago office.

In our Arlington Heights office now we have a play space and so sometimes it's like well, let's take them to the play space It's a little bit. It's nature based. So it gives it gives us a little bit more extra Zen and calm To be able to allow them to just open up and be like, hey, this place is really fun. I want to come back

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (13:44)
Yeah, absolutely. One of the things I loved coming in and getting adjustments when I was pregnant was seeing all these kids of like varying, symptoms, I guess I would say, and just kind of watching you and your team, like adjust them while they're playing or adjust them while mom is holding them. it's just very, I feel like so often it's like, whatever, just get them on the chair and we'll do it. But I feel like, I mean, even with me when I was pregnant and like enormous, I had to start getting adjusted in the chair.

And so I think, like you said, meeting people where they're at and these families who are like struggling and looking for help, I think meeting them with like the calm of like, we're going to figure it out. We'll do it how we can. I think it has to be essential for these families.

angierecendez@gmail.com (14:15)
Yeah.

Yeah, and I think, you know, so many times at the beginning, I mean, parents have been to other offices and, you know, the dad was asking me if, you know, do we need to anesthetize, anesthesia, use anesthesia again? I was like, no, no, no. I was like, but that's like the norm, you know, that's what he's expecting because he knows his kiddo, you know, it's hard for him to lay down and.

So I was telling him, I was like, the most sensitive area of some of these cases is the neck because it's the most amount of proprioceptive input to the brain. I was like, that's why haircuts are a challenge. That's why brushing teeth is a challenge. And I was like, their way of communicating and like when we're under care, their way of communicating to us that what we're doing feels good is when they grab their hands and touch her neck, you know, when they open up and make eye contact with us like, like I love those times like.

I go home excited and energized, you know, when this happens and it happens. I feel like it happens so often that I almost, you know, I take it for granted, but I don't realize that these parents have been struggling for such a long time with these things that when these wins start to happen, like it's teary eyed, you know? And so I would say my exciting, like I would call autism case that we had recently, I think it was just like two or three weeks ago, mom was telling us that,

her son is nonverbal and, and again, I take it for granted that my kid says, I love you mommy. And that she heard that for the first time from her five year old, you know, like, I didn't even know what to say, but I was like excited and you know, yeah, you know, we, I've heard that like it's happened often in our office enough for me to be like,

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (16:04)
Aww.

Yeah, I would be hysterical.

angierecendez@gmail.com (16:17)
I, you know, it doesn't happen with every case, but happened so often that I, in my mind, I almost like expect it, you know, it's a thing that's going to happen. But for this mom to hear it for the first time, like that's amazing. You know, and I love that I crave that. Yeah. I want that for all my cases.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (16:29)
Yeah. And life changing, life changing for these families. Yeah. Yeah. so do you want to talk a little bit about what chiropractic can do through the lifespan, given that you're working with tiny little baby newborns all the way through, like parents, full families. Do you want to talk a little bit about what that looks like? on your end.

angierecendez@gmail.com (16:54)
Yeah, so I would say the reason I have focused and tailored my practice more to prenatal and pediatrics is because I realized I didn't get my first chiropractic adjustment until I was 18 years old. And at that time I needed my inhaler often. I played soccer and I always had to carry it with me. I had chronic colds and coughs so I'd miss about three weeks of school, two weeks of school every couple months and I thought that was normal.

It wasn't until I got my first chiropractic adjustment at age 18 that I realized that I had gone six months, like the longest I'd ever gone without getting sick. And I realized that, you know, if my mom knew about it when I was younger, she would have looked into it. She would have chosen it for me because it would have made such a huge difference in my immune system and my health and my body's ability to regulate. And so the reason I have tailored my practice is because I...

meet more of those my moms who are looking and struggling and for answers and have only been told to do this antibiotic, that medication and that sort of thing. I feel like now fast forwarding to an adult, it led to me having autoimmune issues, fertility issues, having to do IVF to get pregnant with my first. And it's not an uncommon story, you know? And so how do we fix, not that I want to fix the cycle.

That's a big, hairy audacious goal. So I kind of do want to fix the cycle, but you know, how do we make a dent in our health care to change that from happening over and over? And it really happens in in prenatal. Like, you know, I always pose the question of like we spend a whole year planning our wedding sometimes, you know, like. Do we necessarily do that for our own health before getting pregnant, you know, getting into that mindset, reducing our stress or supplementing, you know, exercising chiropractic care and how do we start to change that?

cycle and it really happens pre -pregnancy. But if we do start with care and pregnancy, how do we get your mom's nervous system better regulated instead of being stuck in fight or flight the way our society is? We're very go, go, go society. And so we're already programmed to be in the state of fight or flight, to be producing cortisol, cortisol that travels in our bloodstream, that's shared with baby. Where now baby's neurology is being developed in that state of fight or flight.

And then we get to delivery day, you know, like how can we increase those chances of you having that right birth? Well, that starts for me in getting your nervous system regulated pre that so that when you go into your home birth, your hospital birth, which is a little bit more of a sympathetic experience because it's new, it's different. You have surges happening or contractions happening there can be a feeling or sensation we haven't had before.

how can we have a more grounded starting point to helping you have that desired birth? But then, now we're in the postpartum realm, we're in that fourth trimester. So if we have a stressed out nervous system, in a situation in our life where we're waking up every couple hours to feed a human, feed ourselves, healing all the hormones that are changing, how can we enjoy that fourth trimester more if we can help our nervous system and our body be in a better place?

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (20:09)
and I'll see you guys tomorrow.

angierecendez@gmail.com (20:11)
because we've been working on it for a couple of months, you know? And then, you know, past that, now we're a new mom, we're a new parent, maybe it's a colicky baby, maybe birth was rough. And even if it wasn't rough, birth is rough, you know? You have the uterus squeezing you. Yes, you have the uterus squeezing you from your body, you have the head coming out of a birth canal, like, then you're coming out to new lights, you have to like breathe on your own. It's like a lot, you know? And so it's like, hey, that baby just went through a stressful life situation.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (20:22)
Yeah, birth is tough for anyone. Yeah.

angierecendez@gmail.com (20:40)
how can we help support their nervous system to be better regulated in case that birth was rougher than we thought it was? And so typically we see really fast births or really medicated births have a lot of stress. And so regardless of the birth, we don't want to guess that it was right. We want to measure it. We want to objectively measure it and see what their nervous systems are doing. And so helping support these kiddos through these different developments. Teenagers right now, we're seeing a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress. Technology is a big, huge stressor right now.

And then in adults, you know, I would say the biggest things with adults or I say sometimes I say, you know, stressed out parents or stressed out adults is, you know, there's a pain that we have normalized and then we say, you know, it's a part of the aging process and it was just must be normal or like headaches. Yeah, I've been dealing with those my whole life since I was a teenager. I'm like, what? Like you've never lived a day without a headache and that's wild to me. If you're hearing this and you have headaches, please give us or someone a call.

or reach out to us and we'll find someone in your area. Like, I don't know, like, you know, I don't sleep well. I wake up a lot throughout the night. What? No, like, you don't, it doesn't have to be normal. It doesn't have to be okay. So those are kind of the different things that we're looking to help support. It shows up from a symptomatology standpoint differently for a new baby. It shows up at colicky, fussy, constipation, sleep issues. Now they're a little bit older. Maybe it's showing up as torticollis.

It's showing up as ear infections, constipation as they get a little older. Maybe it's not as those sensory diagnosable things. As they get a little bit older, it's showing up as anxiety and then the things for us as adults that we have normalized.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (22:15)
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's such an important thing about normalizing symptoms that we're feeling. obviously you could do it for pregnancy very easily. Like this is the problem. It's normal, but I think going through, like you said, headaches are not a normal thing to have all the time or like constant allergies are, are not normal. So I think, I love the attitude that you have about kind of taking what people perceive as normal and being like, wait a second, that's not normal, but fixable.

I think one brings awareness to like, that we do normalize things. And maybe that's just how we cope, but that there's a way to address it and change it. So I kind of love that you are able to do that from like the very beginning all the way through adulthood.

angierecendez@gmail.com (22:45)
Yep.

Yeah, and I would say, going back to my thought, I forgot mommy brain, that's what I was talking about. It was, yeah, if we can help support when you're younger and we can have healthy kids, that is gonna result in healthy adults. And I want something different for the next generation than I had, and that's what I'm passionate about in supporting in our community.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (23:11)
No, that's okay.

Yeah, I love that. And I, so I saw you when I was in pregnancy and it was kind of like a blessing in disguise to me because I was like, this really sucks to have this constant pain. But had I not had it, I wouldn't have started chiropractic at 10 weeks or however, whatever week I was at. So I think I, I grasped like a hyper body awareness and it really helped me get through my pregnancy to be like,

whatever aches and pains are happening or like the weird stretching feeling or like my pelvis feels weird. I think I just had more body awareness through my pregnancy because I was doing chiropractic. I think I was able to like feel more and understand a little bit more. And then going into labor and delivery, I was still able to be like, okay, this serves a purpose. Like my...

dysfunction didn't go away. It just, I felt better and was able to kind of channel that, discomfort into, okay, I mean, my body's growing a baby, it's moving. It's, and I always got affirmed every time I came for a visit that like your body's doing what it needs to do. So I think not only did it help in that very, I mean, the grand scheme of things, the small period of time, but totally helped me through, planning my birth and,

even in postpartum, we had a crazy birth. But I felt like my son was in the NICU for a while and I felt confident, like that's a crazy scenario to be in, but I felt confident that I had regulated my system through my pregnancy that allowed me to do the yoga and do the small walks and kind of be more relaxed in my pregnancy, that that had to have some kind of effect on my son while he was in the NICU away from us with all the lights and sounds and all of that.

But I think chiropractic is very much like, and you're very much proving this, it's the lifespan. It's not just like, my neck hurts. I need to get adjusted. I think you're definitely meeting that need of start to do chiropractic in the beginning so that it is a lifespan of wellness.

angierecendez@gmail.com (25:47)
Yeah, and I always say, you know, like chiropractic is really, really good at helping with the particular issue, but the best use of chiropractic care is utilizing it as a wellness tool. You know, no different, you know, just like working out. We're not like, I'm gonna work out for a month and then I'm good for the year. You know, it's a lifestyle choice we make and the best use of chiropractic care is utilizing that as your wellness tool.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (25:58)
Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely. So do you want to talk a little bit more about like being a mom entrepreneur? Very different than your typical. And then kind of what that has looked like for you from beginning to now. And then we can get a little bit more into the play space and how that all came about.

angierecendez@gmail.com (26:21)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So I would say I'll go back back. So I was starting my practice in Arlington Heights when I was pregnant with my first going through IVF, all the things. And that's definitely your contributor, you know. And so, you know, I was more stressed out, you know, where I'm being real, stressed out, opening up practice, you know, not sleeping. Thankfully, I didn't have a toddler running around, so it made it possible. But.

I don't think I realized how taxing it was. And I feel like it was a huge contributor into the monocortisol that was being present and the birth that I had. And so it was the situation that we had. And so I always tell moms, while sometimes I try to tell myself like, you know, we could have done better. No, you know, it was the situation that we had in hand and we dealt with it the best we can. And we were doing the things. And so,

So that was my mommy of one. So I learned through that that I, after giving birth and you know, I really like working. I really like being in the office. I like having my away time. And I think one thing that I do want to share that I tend to share more often than not in the office is that everyone around me was really sad that when they had to go back to work, like 80 % of moms are really like really sad that they have to go back to work.

And I was like really excited to be back in the office right away. And I didn't understand it at the time. And I was like, my gosh, do I have postpartum depression? Like, why don't I want to be with my child? Like everyone else wants to go back to work. And so the more I talked about this feeling to other moms, the more that other moms were like, no, I was really excited too. And that every mom is different in the way they feel about returning to whatever it is that they're returning to. And,

I have now learned that I am the best version of me if I'm away. My hardest days are Sundays because I'm home all day. If I'm being honest, I don't know how to be a mom for an entire waking day. But if I'm away and it just has to be like two hours, and my husband knows this now, he'll be like, why don't you go to the office and get some work done? I just need two hours of away time to read a book, anything that allows me to be me and feel my cup.

And I have come to the realization that that's called self -care that I didn't know back then. And it's that I need to fuel my cup so I can fuel their cup. And so for me, I have been really good about protecting that because I know that my family is happier, my husband's happier, my kids are happier when I protect my time for self -care. And it's looked differently through the different seasons. I would say now for me, like I come to the office and I get things done or I read my book or.

And I live really close to the office, so it makes it easy to be able to do that. And so, and my parenting has also changed, you know, through what I've learned with my first, I was like, helicopter mom, don't fall, don't do this. Let's research that, research that. We're now baby number three. I'm like, I think you're going to be fine. Everyone else is fine. I think you'll be good. Just don't put anything in your mouth. And so the other tool that I use to be able to manage all the moving pieces,

One is a digital calendar, but two, I've compartmentalized my mind to only have, and I don't have to describe it, but like a door for each thing in my life that I have going on. And I will not open two doors at the same time or more than two doors because it will feel overwhelming and like really heavy.

So if I'm like at the office, I'm only in my mind. I'm only thinking about things at my office. And sometimes that door tries to open up because I'm a natural multitasker. I'm like, no, you need a close. We're not thinking about you right now. We're only thinking about this. And so I feel like somewhere along the line, someone taught me or learned this way of being and it's allowed me to do multiple things in my life at the same time.

And then along with having a team and support, you know, we have the team at the office that helps run the office. We have a student who's going to Palmer who helps kind of like my admin to say, hey, we need this, we need that. I have this meeting. Can you help me out with that? Because I want my time with my kids. I know that they're little for such a short amount of time. And I don't, if there's something that I don't necessarily need to do myself, I want to offload it to somebody else where.

they're getting paid for it, so they're excited and I get my time back and I'm excited. And I know that there'll be a time where my kids are older and they're gonna be wanting to do their own things and then I'll have a lot of time. So I'm in that early ages, my oldest is five, my youngest is one and my middle is three and that I value this time so much right now. So that's kind of how I've navigated that.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (31:34)
Yeah, I think, although I have not figured out how to do it yet, I think compartmentalizing is like key compartmentalizing and, outsourcing, like you were saying, kind of offloading the tasks that are like, okay, this does, do I need to be the person owning this or can I pass it on? I think is, and whether it's like business wise or like mom wise or household wise, like, go ahead.

angierecendez@gmail.com (32:01)
Yeah, the first, that wasn't to say the first time I offloaded something was cleaning the house. And I felt so guilty about it because I was like, no, I should be able to clean my own house and fold my own laundry. And then I realized that, I was like, no, that took me three hours. I want those three hours with my kiddo because otherwise I'm at the office or I'm doing this or I'm doing that, or I'm being called to do this. And it's like, I value those three times with.

my child more than, you know, I value the time of me actually folding, you know? And they'll become a child when they're a little bit older and they'll help me fold and they'll help me sort and then we can do it together.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (32:34)
Right, right. And that money. Yes. Yep. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And I think if you're able to do it, it might be a hard jump to make finance wise. But if you can acquit one, if you could do it, obviously. But two, like if you can equate your like, what's my billable hour as a mom? I think that's turning it back business wise. I think if you're able to like quantify it.

for yourself and see how much time you're taking away versus how much time it would give you to do things like that. You know, it would take me hours to clean my whole house. But if my cleaning lady comes once a month, it's two hours maybe that I would have spent weeks doing and days long process because I'm trying to wrangle a toddler and clean the toilets. Like it's I think being able to quantify your time and say.

I'm putting this money aside to be able to have this time back. I think once you can figure it out, if you're able to, I feel like that's huge.

angierecendez@gmail.com (33:41)
And even if it means like, hey, this season, we're not gonna go out to eat as often because I really want this, or I won't get a Starbucks latte every couple of times a week because I really want this and I value this. And so, you know, we've had to make some shifts now with our growing family and it's like, hey, you know, let's cut this out, but because we really value this, like having a clean home, I didn't realize how much it are not clean home, it stresses out my husband like so much, like.

where I was like, why are you so irritable? And we come to the root cause of just like a clean house. He really enjoys a clean house. And I was like, so you see the value. I see the value from a time perspective. I was like, so we really value this service. What do we need to do to get that, you know?

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (34:27)
Yeah. And I, yeah, I think it's key. I think, even like the smallest things is your kids get older. Like for me, my son is 19 months and we're working on independence. It's exceptionally helpful for me to just have a little snack tray there for him of things that are fine for him to eat, get himself, open up himself, like tiny things like that, where you're like, okay, where can I get some like me time back or some autonomy back? I think what's,

very important, but also challenging from what I'm hearing of myself and then of other moms figuring out what your me time is and what you want to do at that time is hard. And I think we need it to recharge. And I think, I mean, like I said, I still have had a hard time figuring it out. And I'm very much the opposite. Or if like I could quit my job tomorrow and just be home with my son all day, I would. But I think.

Even if you're a stay at home mom or you're an entrepreneur mom, figuring out what you can do on your own, no kids, no responsibilities and really be able to turn off or open up that other door and close the other one. I'm still working on it, but I feel like it has to be a game changer.

angierecendez@gmail.com (35:46)
I would say it took me some time to figure it out, but when I did, I just was attracted to the version of me that I wanted to see. And I was like, I'm committed to that, like that vision of me. And so sometimes I would like see other moms in my practice and be like, wow, you're so positive and cheery. Why am I like struggling to like be that version of the mom that I wanna be?

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (35:57)
Hmm.

angierecendez@gmail.com (36:14)
And I realized that I was not filling my cup. And I was like, I don't want that. My kids are little for such a short amount of time. So I had to really figure out the vision. Who do I want to be in this mommy space and the mommy world? Who do I not want to be? Childhood trauma, things that I've brought with me from past and growing up. And.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (36:18)
Hmm.

angierecendez@gmail.com (36:42)
what I'm taking with me and not. And so being attracted to that vision has allowed me to come closer, committed to the things that like, what do I need to protect in my time? And, you know, have I had to recruit grandparents, you know, we're thankful we have both sets of grandparents in the area where we're like, we selfishly say, Hey, are you available for these two to three hours on this day so that Ernester can go work out and I can do this.

I've had to sometimes recruit friends or like really good friends to be like, hey, do you want to have a play date? I will take your child and we can have a play date here and you go be a mom because I'm, we have these mom struggle conversations, you know, and we're, and then other days it's like, hey, you take my kiddos, you have a play date in the backyard. I'm just going to go do me for an hour, you know? And it's like finding that community, that tribe, those individuals in your personal life that...

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (37:22)
Mm -hmm.

angierecendez@gmail.com (37:37)
allow for those things to happen. And I would say if I didn't have this vision of who I needed, the things that I needed in order for me to be what I want to be in the version of me that I wanna be, I would say I wouldn't have been as committed to make mom friends. It's hard to make mom friends. So it's like, yeah, so it's like, I'm committed to that vision. So who do I need to be and what do I need to do to be that?

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (37:51)
Yes, it is. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, as hard as it is to, I mean, I'm only almost two years out from, from having my baby, but I feel like so many moms struggle with figuring out like, okay, who am I now? And what version of me am I? And do I like it? Or what do I want it to be? I think that that's a whole other podcast for sure. But I think once you do figure that out, figuring out like what puzzle pieces need to fit to make you that version.

angierecendez@gmail.com (38:19)
I'm going to go ahead and close the video.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (38:28)
so that you can be successful, your family can be happy, like everything kind of goes as it should. I think that's huge. And I think figuring that out is a challenge, but doable.

angierecendez@gmail.com (38:44)
Yes, for sure. And I think it's okay to be in that phase, acknowledging that season of life that we're in, allowing it to be, because it's also, you're learning from that season. You're learning what you like and you're learning what you don't like and honoring it, not hating it, not hating yourself for it, just acknowledging it as a season, which is all it is.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (38:56)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah. So you put all these pieces together. You have a thriving business. The last time I saw you for chiropractic, I was postpartum and you guys were renovating your space, but it got an exciting opportunity. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?

angierecendez@gmail.com (39:28)
Yes, we had literally just renovated like, just all paint. I think we moved a wall, we made the space bigger. And then we heard about this place, coworking play space that the owners were going to move. And I had already had my eye like, I'm totally the risk taker in my relationship. I'm like, let's jump on this. Let's jump on that.

And I already had my vision that I wanted to be in my own office, in my own space, because I can do what I want with it when I want with it. So when this space went on the market, I was like, my gosh, it's perfect. What is the next best thing to own? Like, I'm already a pediatric chiropractor. Like the next best thing to own would be a pediatric play space. It just like plays so well together. I was like, this is amazing. This is genius. Like and.

you know, we had sold a property and we needed to either reinvest it or pay taxes. And so I was like, we couldn't have planned it better. Like if this isn't God telling me that this is the next move for me, I don't know what other sign, more clear sign there could be. And so we jumped on that. And so we've been here since October, so almost a year now. And we, we had just resigned our lease in the other space. And

Even then, it could have held me up and I could have been like, no, it's not the right time, but it just, it felt too perfect. Or I was like, I'll figure that out and get a sublease, which I did an amazing doula music therapist and lactation consultant are in that space now. It's so awesome. And we're in this new space here. So we have the play space that's available. So we have it available. We have it available for a play space time. We have it available for birthday parties.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (41:04)
amazing.

angierecendez@gmail.com (41:18)
It's very nature -based, so there's lots of natural plants and the gates open up. You have fresh air for all of our summer birthdays. If there's moms that want to gather together, parents who are like, we haven't seen each other in a long time. Where can we hang and they can play in this closed space? It's available for that as well. And so my husband helps me manage that a little bit more than I manage it. But we've also gone through our learning experiences with it too. We're...

We're like spending a lot of time and energy into it. And then I realized that I was like, whoa, like I'm taking away from my family time and kind of find, we're still finding that groove and how it serves us. In the fall, we're gonna be renting it out to therapists in the area to do classes and like sessions for more of our neurodiverse community to have a nice safe place -based side.

where a speech therapist will be there, which is exciting. I love that the space is being utilized and it just helps support our community in different areas. So that's how it's kinda coming about.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (42:23)
Yeah. Yeah. It's completely full circle too. And I, cause I think, it's a place space that kind of meets your needs is great. But if you're a family that has kids with autism or some kind of diagnosis, having a space where you're like comfortable to bring your kid, you know, you're not going to be judged. it's a place they're familiar with because they get chiropractic. It's very full circle and definitely furthering, meeting that need for those families.

angierecendez@gmail.com (42:52)
Yeah, I'm so excited. And if you are a neurodiverse family, you probably aren't going to play spaces. You're not going to out as much because you know, you know. And so I really love that this space allows for them to be free, for the parent to just be on their phone for a little bit while their kiddo enjoys a more quieter, relaxed Zen space. So yeah, I'm here for it.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (43:17)
I love it. Yeah, we're gonna have to come by one of these days to check it out. So what else do you have going on? Anything exciting that you want people to check out outside of the play space?

angierecendez@gmail.com (43:21)
Yeah.

I'm thinking you can cut this portion. I was like, what do I have going on?

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (43:35)
Yeah. Any classes or anything that you have? If not, no worries.

angierecendez@gmail.com (43:41)
mm -mm. We haven't wrote...

Not that I can think of at least right now.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (43:48)
Okay, no worries. So tell me where can people find you and connect with you, either socials, email, whatever you want to share.

angierecendez@gmail.com (43:57)
Yeah, so you guys can connect with us at on Instagram. The hashtag or handle is at discover bright futures and you can find us there for a car project side for a place based side. You can connect with us at bright futures play and we are here in Arlington Heights. Our address is at 914 South Arthur.

And then Arlington Heights, if you are in the Chicago area, we do have a chiropractic office in Chicago in the Pilsen neighborhood. So please reach out to us. My email is my first name, last name at gmail .com. That's Angie, A -N -G -I -E, Ries Sanda's R -E -C -E -N -D -E -Z at gmail .com. So DM us, email us. I'd love to connect with you if you have any questions. If you're not, if you're a listener and you're not in our area and you're looking for someone to help support you.

please reach out to me. I would love to find someone who is educated to help support you with the things that you're looking for in your area as well.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (44:59)
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on. I know this has been a long time coming for me for sure, but, I appreciate you being on and kind of sharing what you do and motherhood and all of, all of the great things. I'm so excited for you guys for, for this new chapter and, thank you for being on my podcast.

angierecendez@gmail.com (45:18)
Aw, thank you for having me. This is so great. Thank you.

Jessica | The Mama Making Podcast (45:21)
Of course. All right, let me stop recording.