Jodie Sweetin’s Motherhood Necessity? Caffeine!
 Tina Kaawaloa/INF |
When it comes to surviving motherhood, Jodie Sweetin has one secret ingredient in the recipe to success: plenty of caffeine.
“I live on coffee,” Sweetin told PEOPLE Wednesday at the Los Angeles premiere of Take Me Home Tonight.
“With an almost 3-year-old who is a night owl and doesn’t like to go to bed until almost 11 p.m., and a 6½-month-old who likes to wake up at 6:30 a.m., coffee is a necessity!”
Fortunately for Sweetin, who welcomed daughter Beatrix Carlin with fiancé Morty Coyle last August, she’s found a helping hand in big sis Zoie Laurelmae.
“She’s the sweetest. She just loves being a part of helping and wanting to change diapers and wanting to play with [Beatrix] and give her kisses,” Sweetin says of Zoie, whose dad is ex-husband Cody Herpin.
“When she wakes up in the morning, she’s like, ‘Oh, I want to wake up Beatwix too, Mommy,’ and she gets her little step stool and brings it in and looks over the crib. It’s adorable.”
While accepting a new sibling can be difficult for some children, Sweetin insists her older daughter loves the new addition to the family.
“She’s been really, really good with it,” notes Sweetin. “She’s such a good big sister.”
And jealousy hasn’t been an issue at all, says the proud mom, who makes sure to spend quality time with just Zoie on trips to Disney Land and “special time with Mommy.”
“She doesn’t feel like she’s been pushed to the side — because she hasn’t,” says Sweetin. “It’s an addition to the family. It’s not a replacement.”
While the Full House alum admits “it feels like it was just yesterday” she delivered Beatrix, her baby has already had plenty of advancements. She’s already quite vocal, making what Sweetin describes as “crazy pterodactyl noises and squeaks and squawks.” The baby girl is also rolling over on both sides and can almost sit up.
“She’s becoming a little person now,” gushes Sweetin. “She smiles and laughs all the time. She’s the happiest, most content little baby.”
According to the actress, Zoie was the same way as an infant. “I’m really lucky I have really, really good kids,” she says. But now in the middle of her toddler years, Zoie is starting to test her mom’s authority.
“She has her little moments of like, ‘I don’t like you!’” says Sweetin. “But you just kind of go, ‘That’s okay!’ … Give me five minutes. You’ll want something, and you’ll be back.”
It’s no worry to Sweetin, who calls herself “a pretty relaxed mom” and enjoys a “mellow” approach to parenting, explaining: “No need to stress out and freak out over little things. Eh, they spill stuff. They do things. Whatever! It’s cool.”
As far as the actress is concerned, it’s all worth it. Concludes Sweetin, “I love being a mom.”
– Jessica Wedemeyer
