Megan

Candida?

2007-05-31T12:41:00.000-05:00

I believe that Candida is possibly the root cause of my acne and my intestinal problems. I havec taken many of the Candida questionairres and all of them have come back positive for Candida.

Here's my history:

Back in 1998, I went to see Dr. Levin (an internal medicine doctor who specializes in preventative medicine) and through a stool sample and history (I was on antiobiotics for 4 years for the acne!), he told me I had a yeast buildup. This can occur when you take antiobiotics and never replace the good bacteria that was wiped out from the antibiotics. So I went on Diflucan for a month and took Turkey Rhubarb (colon cleanser) and Oregano (which is another antifungal). I never changed my diet or took a probiotic. Then I went on the pill for about 9 months. Ever since coming off of the pill (pregnant within a few months), I have struggled with acne on and off.

I took dairy out last fall and my acne went away for about 6 weeks. Then I had a horrible break out for no explained reason. Then I got pregnant with Addie a few weeks after that and the acne continued until my 2nd trimester which is when the estrogen kicks in and the progesterone goes down. But right after I got pregnant with Addie, I started having horrible stomachaches and then the gas kicked in. I went back to the same doctor and we did a stool sample and he found very few good bacteria and a little bit of extra yeast. He diagnosed me with low stomach acid and told me to take some enzymes with hydrochloric acid in them and a good probiotic. This worked for me for awhile. Right before I went to see the doctor, I forgot to take my vitamins one day and I felt great that day. It's because all of my stomach acid was being used up by my vitamins. But after a few months, the gas returned.

Now that I'm no longer pregnant and not nursing, my acne has come back in full force (no more estrogen to slow down the acne). I have tried to reintroduce dairy a few times, but have mixed results. My digestion is fine, but some of the times, I break out after eating it and sometimes I don't. I also have an occastional rash/hives in the creases of my elbows.

I have recently read that Candida can cause low stomach acid and Blood Type A (me!) is prone to low stomach acid. So that could be where my hypochlorhydrea is coming from.

So, my plan is to stop eating "yeasty" things and eat no refined sugar and really limit the sweets anyway. And to try the Threelac product. So, we'll see where I go from here. I actually have some Diflucan, but I want to see if the Threelac will work without it.

Still waiting on it to arrive in the mail.

Addie's 6 Month Check Up

2007-05-27T07:35:00.000-05:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted. I apologize for that.

It's hard to believe that Addie will be 7 months old tomorrow! Time has flown by for sure. We finally got her in to see the doctor 2 weeks ago for her first well-baby check up. :) They asked for her records. I said she had none. :)

She weighted 15 lbs 6 oz and was 25" long. Our biggest kid. :) He really wanted me to give her the Dpt shot for the Pertussis, since Whooping Cough is going around our community. But there is mounting evidence that it is the Pertussis toxin that is triggering Autism in many children. See the NEDlife Blog. So we will do everything we can to strenghten her immune system so that if she is exposed to it, she won't get it. Or if she does get it, we'll just be able to fight it more successfully since she'll be so healthy. But I cannot take the risk of giving her that vaccine with Autism running in our family. It's just not worth it. The doctor was not thrilled with me and he really wanted me to think about it. Which I have done. I think the important thing with vaccines is to understand what you are getting vaccinated for and what happens if you actually get the virus. All of our parents survived measles and mumps. It might not have been fun, but they did fine. Tetanus is a scary one, obviously. But for both Emma and Tailyn, I have prescriptions for Tetanus only shots should they land in the emergency room with a cut.

So, it was a pain-free visit - no tears whatsoever, which was nice. Addie is still the happiest baby around who loves to bounce/swing in her jumper. She's really good at it! And yesterday I caught her rocking back and forth on hands and knees! Not ready for crawling yet!

We've introduced solids to her now. She's going to be gluten and dairy free for at least the first 2 years of her life. So, we've just stuck with rice cereal and fruits and veggies. I've got to go to Whole Foods to try to find the GF cheerios for her to try in the next month or so. She's gone through most of the veggies and most of the fruits now. Having to feed her definitely throws a wrench into everything. It just makes things more complicated. Thankfully, if she's not tired, she's a pretty happy baby and doesn't complain much.

I think that's about it for Addie!

Laryngitis!

2007-03-23T13:52:00.000-05:00

I've never had laryngitis before, but I certainly have it now! I started losing my voice almost a week ago, but in the last couple of days it's gotten really bad. I hardly ever get sick, but the cough started last Saturday, probably. The sore throat started on Wednesday (and a fever soon followed).

So I took myself to the doctor on Thursday morning to make sure it wasn't strep. I waited for almost an hour which was incredibly frustrating. And the doctor came in, barely giving me 5 minutes. My rapid strep test came back negative. They sent my labs off for the regular test. So the doctor wanted to put me on penicilin just "in case" I do have strep. I had to stop her and point out the fact that I have had allergic reactions to penicilin when I was younger and to sulpha drugs as well. And a couple of years ago I had a bad reaction to Eurythromycin. And I had to tell her that I was still nursing. All while I can't really even talk. Of course if she had just read the chart, she would have seen all that.

So she decided to just wait to see if I did indeed have strep. What a concept! I know all doctors aren't like this,but good grief - just prescribing antibiotics just "in case" I have strep? What an abuse!

It just reminded me what NEDlife has really been encouraging this spring - to be your own healthy living advocate. Most doctors aren't going to do it for you. They're too busy and have too many patients. You must know enough to protect yourself. If I hadn't been paying attention, I could have received a medication that could have harmed me or Addie.

So, I'm just sitting here trying not to talk and trying to rest. I'm reminded of Carol Brady from the Brady Bunch episode that she lost her voice. She got to just lay in bed and eat ice cream. Laying in bed just isn't an option for me, as a mom of 3 little kids. But I have been enjoying my soy ice cream.

Driving me crazy!

2007-03-19T08:03:00.000-05:00

My 2 yr old (3 months shy of 3) is driving me nutso! For the last several days, she has been so destructive and such a little trouble-maker! Every time I turn around, it seems, she has pulled something apart or gotten something out or dumped something on the floor. It's been mind-boggling to me! I talked with Ali yesterday and she said that Jackson has been especially difficult the last several days too.

Some of Tailyn's finer moments this wknd: she emptied out the hair band/barrette box into her bed (hundreds of bands and barrettes everywhere), she emptied Emma's water cup into her bed (had to strip her bed), she emptied their jewelry boxes into her bed, she took Addie's links apart at least 1o times (spreading the links all over the house), she ripped apart yet another book (happened to be a favorite of mine), she unsnapped Addie's cloth diapers (that I had spent a lot of time putting together), she dumped out my CDs, she took apart the scotch tape dispenser (taking the tape with her), she unrolled much of our painter's tape in her bed, she went into my desk drawer and took out a printer cartridge (turning all of her fingers black), she got into Emma's lipgloss and got it all over her face and hands and for the 100th time at least, she unrolled the toilet paper roll into a pile on the floor.

I put 2 and 2 together and realized that after several days of warm temperatures and sunshine, we got hit with a major cold blast on Thursday afternoon (including a March snowfall!). It's been cold for the last 4 days and we've been cooped up inside again. So, my theory is that because Tailyn and Jackson had been outside and not exposed to the usual inside chemicals, their bodies rebelled when they got cooped up again this wknd. I don't know why Tailyn turns destructive and into a horrible listener or why Jackson breaks the car windsheild with his foot (for no apparent reason). But I do know that their behaviors seemed to get worse when they were cooped up inside again.

So, even though it's not going to be super warm today, I'm going to get Tailyn outside for the fresh air and make sure that she gets a chance to blow off some steam! Even though she doesn't really hold the Autistic diagnosis anymore, it doesn't mean that she can't regress in her progress. It's a battle every day for her and we're definitely winning it, but it's only with a lot of effort. We can't slack off on her diet or anything. It's too dangerous for her!

I also learned a valuable parenting lesson this wknd. It's important that in the midst of some really bad behavior to find something to praise the child about. If you keep yelling at them or tearing their behavior down, you strip them of their confidence and then they have no motivation to be good. So, I need to be careful with my kids to make sure to praise them every chance I get. And I'm on the look out for some good things that I can give Tailyn for her to take apart and not get into trouble for!

Do your eyes light up when your child comes into the room? They notice if they don't and it kills their self-esteem. I need to remind myself of this every day!

New Obsession

2007-02-25T16:49:00.000-05:00

This actually does relate to healthy living and I'll tell you why later. :) My new obsession is selling things on eBay and Amazon.com. I can't stop! It's so fun! I'm constantly looking around the house trying to find things that I can sell!

I started last week when we were finally emptying all of our boxes in the storage area. Boxes that had been packed up for a year now! I found a ton of books that I no longer read - most of them being books about pregnancy and birth. So, I decided to list them on Amazon.com as used books. I figured that they probably wouldn't sell, but what the heck, it didn't cost anything to list them. Not an hour after I listed them, did the first one sell! And all of the sudden I had money to spend on Amazon.com! I could have had them deposit them in the checking account, but since I spend so much money on Amazon.com, I figured that my Amazon dollars would be spent! And within 2 days, I had all of my books sold - 6 of them! Then I found another book last night and listed it and within an hour, it had sold! I have over $56 in my Amazon.com account!

Then I went after my maternity clothes! That was much more of a pain because I had to take pictures of everything and then create listings on eBay. Then I waited 5 days watching the listings. 11 of my 28 didn't sell, but I still made $114! And that doesn't include shipping, which I was able to make a little money off of.

It's a little easier for me because I have all of the stuff that is needed for shipping and I've been shippping orders for 5 years now.

So, how does it relate to Healthy Living? Simple, now I have more money to spend on the foods that I want for my family! Healthy Living costs a little bit more money than junk food. So, if I have to spend the time to sell books and clothes that I don't need anymore, then it is well worth the effort, knowing that my family is healthier for it.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

2007-02-20T08:38:00.000-05:00

This is one of our favorite shows, still. No matter how long it's on, I still am amazed at their hearts and what they are able to do for families in need. I will shop at Sears as much as I can to support this amazing show and what they do.

Brian and I watched Sunday's show together and he was kind of afraid to watch it with me for fear of my yelling at the television. It was a show about a family with 6 children. 5 of them have some form of Autism, from severe Autism to PDD to Aspberger's. It was heartbreaking to watch this mom struggle to keep an eye on all of her children, ranging from 5 yrs old to 14, I believe. Despite the husband working 2 jobs to help pay their mortgage, the bank was about to foreclose on their home. Brian was heartbroken for them and their situation.

But I couldn't even get sad about their financial situation, because I was too heartbroken over their 5 children with Autism. It broke my heart to think that those children could have had a chance at a normal life, if only the doctors and parents had been informed about diet and nutritional supplements that can combat the progression of Autism. And it reminded me where Tailyn could be, had we not intervened when we did.

I don't know their situation and the treatments they have tried with their children, but I would venture to guess that they hadn't tried the Gluten-free/Casein-free diet. I started crying when I saw the mom serve up a huge plate of grilled cheese sandwiches. If only people knew what food can do to these kids - the danger that it is to them. Eating a grilled cheese sandwich is just about as bad as taking some kind of drugs for them.

And that's why we, at NEDlife, do what we do. We will tirelessly work to inform parents of the impact of food and how nutritional supplements can help children on the Autistic spectrum. If you know anyone that has been diagnosed with Autism or looks like they should be, please send them our way (www.nedlife.com). I don't want to see any more children sink deeper into this disorder when they don't have to. We are in the process of writing a handbook about Autism, which will outline symptoms to look out for and how to combat the progression (with much more). Please stay tuned for that.

We're Done!

2007-02-12T21:14:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it, but we're actually done with the remodeling of our house. After 5 months, the process is actually done. Our contractor left tonight for the last time. My 5 yr old almost started crying! It was so cute. He's been such a big part of our life, it'll be weird to not have him here. Even my dog who is scared of men, grew to love Fred (who is a towering 6'5 guy).

So, the only thing remaining is to finish painting all of the trim around the windows and then we are completely done. Seems hard to believe!

Now we can finally finish unpacking and organizing everything. No more excuses. :)

Baby Formula

2007-02-06T20:10:00.001-05:00

So, I've been researching some baby formula, just in case I need some. And I was absolutely appalled at the first ingredient in many of the formulas. Can you guess what it was? You'd think it'd be some kind of vitamin or healthy ingredient, at the very least a form of milk or soy. Nope. It is corn syrup solids! Why on earth would they use some kind of horrible artificial sweetener in an infant formula - their only source of nutrition? It's no wonder that our kids are addicted to sodas by age 5 or even younger. It's no wonder most of our country is overweight. I found this article by Dr. Sears called Corn Syrup in Formula.

I'm worried about giving Addie a milk-based formula because of all of our milk problems in our family (my oldest daughter seems to have a milk intolerance, my 2nd daughter has antibodies to milk and I have a hard time digesting it as well). I'm also slightly concerned with a soy-based formula too because soy mimics estrogen in the body and it is dangerous to play around with hormones.

So as I started looking at labels on the formulas, I obviously wanted to find one that didn't have any artifical sweetener in it. So I looked at the organic ones, but those were all milk-based. So, I began to look on the internet and finally found an organic soy formula. It's called Baby's Only. They have milk-based and soy-based formula. It has DHA and ARA added (which is really important). And believe it or not, it's actually very similar in price to Similac and other major brands. When I was at Wegman's today, it was actually cheaper than the cans of Similac and certainly cheaper than the other organic formulas. It uses Brown Rice Syrup as the sweetener, which is a wonderful sweetener.

Just wanted to share my findings. If you are currently using a formula that uses corn syrup as a sweetener, I strongly encourage you to think about changing your formula to one that uses a natural sweetener.

The cheapest I found was at the Doctor's Trust website.

For those that can't breastfeed, or just need a good supplement for breast milk, it appears that this is a wonderful brand with ingredients you can trust.

Mom's Day Out

2007-02-03T19:21:00.000-05:00

What a great day I had today. For my birthday, my husband promised me a day out, all by myself doing whatever I wanted. So, my best friend and I met up this morning and did some shopping. Then we went to Wegman's and shopped for less than an hour. Then we took the groceries out to the car and came back in for some lunch. We sat there for almost 3 hours talking and eating. It was wonderful. No kids, no interruptions, just friends talking about whatever we wanted.

We did a lot of business planning for NEDlife, which was wonderful and very productive. It was a wonderful day for me. Just hanging out with a friend, no kids, no timelines, no naps, etc. It was just so great!

So, we've decided that we must do that once a month. :) We'll see if that happens. But it's nice to dream about it.

Then my husband made a wonderful dinner for me, but of course, it was cold by the time I got to eat it because of a fussy baby, and 2 whiny kids. Welcome home Mom. :)

Nursing Woes

2007-02-02T14:56:00.000-05:00

Why do I have so many issues with nursing? My first daughter was super easy (although we struggled with soreness and a little oversupply). But we nursed successfully for 13 months.

Then my 2nd came along and she was very difficult in the beginning. So painful. Put it this way, there was blood when I pumped one time (I didn't pump again any time soon). I was so incredibly sore. And it took a long time for it to get better. I finally called the lactation consultant at 2 months and she gave me some great tips which really helped. At 4 months, I got mastitis and my supply dropped and I struggled with it from them on. And every couple of weeks, she would hurt me again. Plus, I could never get her to nurse for more than just a couple of minutes on each side, which was always disturbing for me. I finally gave up at 7 months and pumped for 2.5 months more. I put her on the Kirkland formula from Costco.

When my third one started having problems, I talked to the LC right away and got some great tips. We've been fairly successful for 3 months now. The biggest problem is that I have a super fast let-down and I drown my kids. It forces them to pull away and squirm all over the place, leaving me sore and frustrated. And it doesn't just last for the initial let down, Addie continues to squirm and pull on me (and pinch me with her fingers) throughout the feeding.

By last Sunday, I was fed up. I has little red marks all over me from her scratching and pinching me. So, on Monday, I switched to only pumping and did that for 4 days straight. It was a welcome relief from having to nurse her and I really enjoyed just giving her bottles and having the kids and dh help with her feeding so much.

But pumping enough milk is a huge pain as well. Ugh. Plus, I got sore from the pump. My life tends to be overly complicated at times. :) Today, I nursed her twice and gave her 3 bottles and did okay. Tomorrow, I'm going out with my best friend for several hours all by myself! So, she'll get lots of bottles tomorrow.

Part of me just really does not enjoy nursing and then I feel horribly guilty for not enjoying it. But she is so much happier with bottles, the flow doesn't drown her and she doesn't squirm as much. I just don't know if I can switch to pumping only, as it's a big pain to be able to pump enough for her. But I don't know how much longer I can keep nursing her. And I can't imagine switching to formula now, let alone finding one that meets my high standards without breaking the bank.

So much to think about...

Baby Bottles

2007-02-02T13:46:00.000-05:00

Recently, I started looking into plastics and how they are used in our foods. And I stumbled upon an article called "Smart Plastics Guide." In it they describe all of the different kinds of plastics and their uses. It's incredibly resourceful. I plan to take a good look at all of the plastics that we use for our food.

But I started with the bottles that we use for Addie. I've always been an Avent user. I have all of the bottle nippes (all of them!). And I have a ton of different bottles for them. Avent bottles are made out of Polycarbonate. Bisphenol A is found in Polycarbonate. Here is what the article says about it:

Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical that mimics the
action of the human hormone estrogen, can leach
from polycarbonate plastic.3 Human exposure to BPA
is widespread. A Centers for Disease Control study detected
BPA in the urine of 95 percent of adults sampled.4
Scientists have measured BPA in the blood of pregnant
women, in umbilical cord blood and in the placenta, all at
levels demonstrated in animals to alter development.5,6

Hormones stimulate certain cancers. Bisphenol A has
been found to stimulate prostate cancer cells7 and causes
breast tissue changes in mice that resemble early stages
of breast cancer in both mice and humans.8,9 One study
found an association between ovarian dysfunction and
higher levels of BPA in urine.10

So, I read on in the article and they said this:

Use alternatives to polycarbonate plastic baby bottles and “sippy” cups. Knowing what we do about BPA leaching and the real risks to children’s health, you might be surprised to learn that most plastic baby bottles and many “training” or “sippy” cup sare made of polycarbonate. Fortunately there are alternatives, including baby bottles made of glass, polyethylene or polypropylene. Those made of pliable, milky-colored plastic contain no polycarbonates. Usually baby bottles are not labeled, so if you have questions about the type of plastic used, call the company’s toll-free number listed on the package.

And to apply this to our lives:

More on baby bottles and “sippy” cups
Avoid: Polycarbonate product examples
Bottles: Avent; Dr. Brown’s; Evenfl o (clear); First Years; Gerber (clear); Playtex Vent Aire; Sassy; TupperCare
“Sippy” cups: Gerber Suzy’s Zoo & Sippy Snacker, Playtex First Sipster & Sparkling Sipster
Safer alternatives: Non- polycarbonate product examples
Bottles: Evenflo glass or pastel polyethylene plastic; Gerber polypropylene opaque plastic; Medela breastmilk polypropylene storage bottles and polyethylene milk storage bags; disposable bottle systems with polyethylene plastic inserts (e.g., Playtex Nurser, Playtex Drop-Ins)
“Sippy” cups made of polypropylene or polyethylene: Avent Magic Cup; Evenflo cups (inner lining); First Years Take & Toss; Gerber Color Change, Sport Fun Grip and Soft Starter; Playtex Sipster, Big Sipster & Quick Straw
Baby bottle nipples are usually made of silicone or latex
rubber. Silicone nipples are lighter in color and are safer, as latex
rubber nipples may leach carcinogenic nitrosamines.22

So, I've decided to stop using my Avent bottles and other clear plastic ones. And now I'm using the disposable drop-in liners. I'm using the Playtex bottles, and Avent disposable bottles. Apparently, Avent just came out with a new drop-in system called the Tempo and it uses the polyethylene liners. So, those are the bottles that I'll be using. If this was my first, I might consider switching to glass bottles, but I just can't afford the expense of replacing all of our bottles and nipples with a whole new system.

And thankfully, we've been using the First Years Take & Toss cups a lot recently, so those are safer ones as well.

If I had a ton of money, I would use Kleen Kanteen stainless steel cups with the Avent adapter. It allows you to use Avent sippy tops or Avent nipples with their cups - a very safe alternative.

I do have to say that Avent does have a disclaimer on their website which discusses Bisphenol-A and it's safety. So, it's up to you who to believe. Just letting you know what I've decided to do for my family.

Another Floor Update

2007-02-01T16:27:00.000-05:00

So, here I am, back at my parents' house, just 2 weeks after we spent 3 days here. We'll be here until Sunday morning. This is just getting comical! Seriously - what a joke.

At 10:30 am, a whole crew (4 guys) showed up at my house and told me that we had to leave, so they could get started on the floors. :) I had just a few minutes to take everything out of the fridge that we'd need and the cabinets, etc. Then I had to pack all of our clothes and everything we'd need for the next few days as quick as I could.

Of course right in the middle of packing, I get a call from Emma's school clinic telling me that she had a tummy ache and I needed to come get her. Lovely. So I had to go get her in the middle of all of that.

The floor crew told me that we need to give the floors 24 hours to dry between coats, so they won't be dry until Sunday morning. Funny that they other guy (the one that vanished) said they just need about 4 hours between coats. I have no idea what he was talking about.

So, I'm really hoping that this is it. That on Sunday, we'll be all done and can move all of our stuff out of the family room and might even be able to unpack our stuff into the sunroom! What a concept! :) Keep your fingers crossed!

A newborn neccesity

2007-01-31T13:51:00.000-05:00

This is called a Moby Wrap (www.mobywrap.com). It is a long piece of cotton fabric that you wrap around yourself to hold your baby. It's an alternative to a Baby Bjorn or Snugli and I think it works much better. I couldn't get over how happy Addie was in her Moby Wrap. She could fall into such a deep sleep in the wrap and I could get so much done. I gave the girls baths, cooked dinner, went on walks, etc.

It felt great on me. My shoulders didn't hurt, like they did with my sling and the Bjorn. THe Bjorn hurt both shoulders and the sling hurt one shoulder.

The other great thing with the Moby Wrap is that you can use it for many other holds. You can use it in a front carry, a side carry, a back carry, etc.

The only downfall is that it is kind of a pain to put it on. But way more easy to put on than the Bjorn when someone else has used it and adjusted it to their body size.

So, there's my newborn tip for you new moms!

The Floor Saga Continues

2007-01-31T09:27:00.000-05:00

So, it's Wednesday morning and my kitchen and sunroom furniture is all still in my family room. And there is still dog hair in the finish of my floor. Am I just being picky? Do other people have dog hair and dirt and craft glitter in the finish of their floor?

Four days in a row, I have packed up my kitchen for my 3 children and dh and myself in anticipation of not being able to use the kitchen. I'm getting quite tired of it!

On Monday, he finally showed up around noon and snaded down the floors and added another coat of finish. It was a frustrating day because we were here all day. I opened all of the windows and closed all of the bedroom doors so that we hopefully wouldn't smell the chemicals. Thankfully, there is a door to the basement, so we were able to be down there without the fumes.

By Monday night, though, I was able to tell that there was still dog hair, dirt, etc. in the finish. By this point, I had just given up. It seems that we'll never be able to move in to our sunroom. I'm not even thinking about unpacking my desk, etc. Now, I'm more concerned about getting all of the furniture out of the family room!

Tuesday around 11 am, the guy shows up again to survey his work and leaves with a promise to be back in the afternoon to apply yet another coat. He promised to get a different kind of finish.

Needless to say, he didn't show up. Never called, never showed up. So I had packed up our dinner and the kitchen for nothing.

This morning (Wednesday morning), I called the guy's cell phone and a recording said, "This subscriber has requested to no longer receive calls." What is that about??? I've never heard of that.

So, I called the floor company and the owner was so embarrassed. He stopped by around noon today and promised that a new crew would be here tomorrow morning to re-do the floors. So, the nightmare continues. We'll see how it goes tomorrow! Could we finally be done??

Worst Birthday Ever!

2007-01-29T13:27:00.000-05:00

So, my birthday was on Saturday. I turned 33. It looked like it was going to be a great day - sunny and the warmest day all week. Plus, it was a Saturday, which meant that my husband would be able to at least take the older girls out and give me some peace and quiet or something.

Rewind to Friday night, the floor guy showed up out of the blue at dinner time to take a look at the floors. He agreed that they didn't look great, that he should have used an oil-based finish, instead of the water-based finish (since that's what we have in the rest of the house). So he promised to be there at 8 am on Saturday morning to re-do the stain and the finish.

So, I didn't get to sleep in on my birthday, I had to wake up early to shower and pack up lunches, snacks, drinks, etc for the family since we were going to have to leave the house. Meanwhile, Brian is moving furniture around trying to get it out of the sunroom and kitchen. He chose not to wait for my help with the kitchen table and when he picked it up, the bottom half of the table (it's the kind with leaves), fell on his big toe (no shoes on) and literally broke the bone in half. He looked miserable and in so much pain. Somehow he managed to help move the rest of the furniture and we got out of the house.

We went to my parents's house (again) and set up shop in their basement and the kids had a great time. It wasn't too bad, just a pain. So, we called the floor guy around 6 pm and he said that the floor should be dry and he would be over in the morning to make sure everything looked okay.

We went through Wendy's drive thru for cheeseburgers for the kids (they took enzymes before eating them) and came home. The floors actually looked okay, much better than earlier in the day, but not exactly what we had hoped for. Once we got the kids in bed, I had some noodles (awesome birthday dinner).

Meanwhile, all day, Brian's toe is looking more and more disgusting - it is now dark purple and it's bleeding because somehow the table had broken the skin and while it didn't bleed initially, it did once the toe started swelling up. It was disgusting. So Brian took himself to the emergency room. Thank goodness we live in a small town and the ER is not too bad to go to. He was home within 2 hours with some good drugs and tape.

While he was gone, I took a closer look at the floor and suddenly started noticing that there was dog hair in the finish, there was dirt, etc. It was awful! I mean, how do you not clean the floor before putting the finish on? Seriously! We even asked the guy if he wanted us to sweep the floor and clean it and he said no. I was fuming at this point and beyond frustrated. So, I just went to bed.

On Sunday morning, 9 am came and went. So, we finally called him at 9:45 and Brian read him the riot act about the job he'd done. So, he said he would get there as soon as he could and fix it. So, we packed up AGAIN and left the house to go to my parents' and camp out for the day. We finally go a hold of him on the cell phone around 6 pm and he said that by the time he got to the house, our contractor was already working in the sunroom and so he couldn't do the floors. So, we left for no reason! Argh!!

Meanwhile, we were supposed to be celebrating my birthday at my parents' house and Brian was going to make the cake, etc. Well, the poor guy couldn't even stand for that long, so I had to make my own cake. :( It was just a comical day.

So, it's official, we decided to just make my birthday this Saturday, where hopefully I can get some time away from all 3 kids. :)

Floor Update

2007-01-24T11:37:00.000-05:00

The owner of the floor store came over yesterday and agreed with us that there is something wrong with the job that was done on our floors. So, he told us to give him a couple of days to speak with the installer and figure out what happened and we'll go from there. I'm sure we'll have to re-do them, which is a huge pain! But it needs to be done right!

3 Days in a Row!

2007-01-24T08:08:00.000-05:00

I've got 3 days in a row now of exercising. This week I've been doing Total Body Sculpt with Gilad (from FitTv). And boy are my legs and butt sore! He kicks my butt every workout! I love it because it's pretty short, but I always get a pretty good workout.

I'm waiting for my new yoga mat to arrive so that I can start doing some yoga. I've learned that attempting yoga on carpet just does not work - my feet slip everywhere. So, on a recommendation, I got this mat: http://www.gaiam.com/retail/product/95-1041_OLIV. It's non-toxic, which is a huge plus for me.

I really hope to be able to do yoga at least a couple of times a week. I find it very difficult now - downward dog is a killer for me. We'll see. Hopefully I'll get better. :)

I'm holding onto an extra 10 lbs right now, which I'm sure is from nursing. I wish I could lose it, but I know that I need at least an extra 5 lbs for the nursing. But I would like to lose some of my thighs. :) Hopefully the exercising will help at least tone me.

Snow Day!

2007-01-22T21:47:00.000-05:00

Wow! We had our first snow day today! Seems pretty crazy for Virginia. We hadn't seen snow all winter! And yesterday while shopping at the grocery store with my 5 yr old, the clerk announced over the loudspeaker that it was snowing! And we got about 2-3 inches, I guess. It also sleeted a bit, which gave it a shiny glaze.

My kids were so excited! And I was really excited for them to get out in the fresh air. We've been painting and had the floors refinished, so I'm sure the toxic levels are a bit too high in our house right now, so I know the fresh air was good.

It was so fun to see them outside throwing snow balls and building snow forts, etc. I couldn't believe how long my 5 yr old stayed outside today! She had a friend over and the 2 of them played in the snow for hours! It was great to watch and made me think about my childhood. I really hope that my kids are enjoying their childhoods like I did.

And of course, with snow, everyone wants hot chocolate. And since we are dairy and refined sugar free, Swiss Miss isn't an option. So, I found some great chocolate sauce (www.ahlaska.com) and just add it to their respective rice and soy milk and they love it! The company also makes an actual hot cocoa mix as well. So, there's my tip for the day! It's so easy to be dairy-free!

Our House

2007-01-22T10:59:00.000-05:00

At the end of September we moved into our house (a 1958 rambler) and we immediately began a renovation on the kitchen and the screened-in porch. I'm happy to say that the kitchen is done and the sunroom is almost done. The windows still need to have the trim put on them, but it's a functioning room at least and even has paint, etc.

But here's my complaint. The last thing remaining between us living in chaos and us being able to completely move in was having the wood floors refinished. When we remodeled the kitchen, we took down a wall and took out the lineoleum floors and put hardwood floors in. And we put hardwood floors in the sunroom as well. They were the unfinished kind that we just got at Home Depot. The weird thing was that there were already wood floors down in the other half of the kitchen, so we just needed to "weave" the new floors into the old. Having unfinished floors around was a pain for awhile, so we were so excited when it was finally time to get them "refinished." This consisted of us moving out of the house, so someone could sand, stain and put the finish on them.

This all took place last week. We went to my parents' house: 2 adults, 3 kids and a dog. Of course it took longer than it was supposed to, but we were prepared for that. What we weren't prepared for was hearing our contractor tell us that they did a really bad job on finishing the floors the day after we moved back in! He says that there isn't enough finish on the floors since you can still feel the grain. Plus, the new floors in half of the kitchen are so much lighter than the already existing floors. So, to us it is so obvious that they are newer/different wood floors. We are so disappointed and so frustrated!

We packed up 7 months ago and have not been able to unpack some of our stuff since then! I haven't had a desk/office and we haven't been able to unpack all of our kitchen stuff. Now, we wait for a different floor guy to come out and take a look at the floors to see what is going on. So, hopefully we'll get some answers early this week, so we know what is ahead for us. Are we going to have to move out again? Can they darken the stain on the part of the floor that is too light? When can I unpack my desk???

Stay tuned!

Big Update

2007-01-17T14:46:00.000-05:00

So, it's been awhile and I really want to get back into blogging. I'll do as much of an update as I can, without making it too long.

I'll start with Addie. She is doing great, almost 12 weeks old and sleeping through the night - up to 12 hours at times! So, I am a happy mommy now. I think she is probably about 12 lbs now, but she hasn't been weighed since she was 6 weeks old, so I can't be sure. She hasn't been to the doctor yet, partly because she isn't on our insurance yet and partly because she isn't getting vaccinated, so there isn't a real need to get her over there. She is a very happy baby and on a wonderful schedule/routine. She eats, then is up for a little over an hour and then is ready for a nap, which she takes in her crib. Her morning nap is usually 2 hours long and the other ones ranging from 1 to 2 hours. And she goes to bed around 9 pm. I really cannot complain about her at all. She is all smiles when she is well rested and fed and only is crabby when she is tired or lonely. :)

As for me, I'm very glad the first few newborn months are over. I know some moms love that time, but I'm not so good at it. I think it's because my personality really likes routine and to know what to expect and with a newborn, that is near impossible. :) I guess I'm not a super flexible person when it comes to routine. :) My recovery went very well. I was up and about pretty quickly. No stitches or anything, which was awesome. What was strange was being at home and being responsible for my temperature, bleeding, etc. and Addie's (as opposed to the nurses taking care of it). But, looking back, having a homebirth was just amazing. I loved it. Addie didn't leave our house for almost 2 weeks! I'm back to attempting to exercise again, although schedules make that hard at times. Plus, we've been trying to get the house finished with painting, etc. so I've been spending all my free time on that.

I'm still dairy-free and even tried a gluten-free diet for about 3 weeks to see if Addie responded to it. I was concerned because she was spitting up quite a bit and I was worried that she might have a little reflux or something. Celiac disease can be linked to reflux, so I wanted to try a GF diet to see if it made any difference. But it didn't and I'm sure her spitting up is because my let-down is much too powerful for her.

Going from 2 kids to 3 is very hard, despite what you might hear! Good grief! Maybe it's because Tailyn is only 2.5, but it has been very hard at times. Hopefully we're through the hard part since Addie is napping and sleeping so well. The girls still love their baby sister, but I know it's hard for them when I can't do stuff with them because I have to nurse Addie or something like that. This will pass, I know.

So, there's a quick update, I plan to try and get some good posts up here much, much more often!

Addie Jane

2006-11-07T13:16:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry or the delay in posting this here! But we've been quite busy with our beautiful little baby girl. :) Here's a post I made on a forum of mine the day she was born. :)

Finally! She made her appearance last night at 1:04 am on October 28th. My contractions finally got regular and more intense yesterday evening. Although even at 9:45, we told the midwife to go to bed and that we were going to do the same. Although, I never went. We called her back at 11:15 to tell her the contractions were every 4 min and getting more intense. She got here at 11:50 pm probably and checked me a little after midnight and I was 6 or 7 cm dilated with a bulging bag of waters. I was laboring in my room at this point, kneeling next to the bed and the contrax were every 2 min or so. My water finally broke around 12:50 am and the 2nd midwife got there a couple of minutes later. We woke Emma up and brought my mom in with her and they got to be there for the birth. :) The pushing was very intense and very strange since I was still kneeling. I didn't feel like getting up on the bed. So I had one knee down and one foot on the floor. Everyone was behind me so they all got the bird's eye view of her coming out face down like a good girl. :) It was incredibly intense and not something I need to ever do again. :) LOL

The great thing about homebirth is that it is so calm (once I stopped screaming:) and peaceful. They don't rush the baby off to weigh and measure right away. I got to hold her right away and then we somehow got me on the bed (with the cord still attached). Once it stopped pulsing, Emma cut the cord. She was so proud of herself. It was awesome. And then the baby nursed and eventually we got around to weighing her. She had already peed and pooped some as she was coming out, so the weight was pretty accurate. So she was 8 lbs and 21 inches long! Our biggest baby! And for only gaining 25 lbs, I'm shocked. :) And her name is Addely Jane (Addie for short).

The midwives gave her a 9 apgar, since her coloring was so good and she cried right away. She's a very strong girl and already pretty good at nursing. :) So, we're just hanging out and relaxing, as much as we can with Tailyn running around like crazy and Emma absolutely obsessed with her. It's so nice to be in my own bed, eating my own food and not having to worry about getting kids back and forth to the hospital. :) I'm loving this part. :)

Definitely in Labor

2006-10-27T17:02:00.000-05:00

We're definitely in labor here. But she's still taking her sweet time, like she has been. :) Contractions are 10-20 min apart and seem to slow down every time I get up and move around too much. TMI, but there's been lots of discharge, etc. So I know this is it, we just don't know when. :)

Still here...

2006-10-26T18:12:00.000-05:00

And still pregnant :) She must be very happy on the inside. My friend said there must be a plasma TV in there with excellent food service. :) I have been having lots of contractions today - seemingly "real" ones, as opposed to my constant braxton hicks contractions. So, possibly, we've got something going on. But this could go on for awhile. This was so much easier with my first when my water broke and I knew I was in labor. With Tailyn and this one, it hasn't been so easy to tell.

I'll keep you posted!

40.5 Week Appt

2006-10-24T09:36:00.000-05:00

Still here! My midwife came yesterday for my appointment and it went well. The baby's heartrate was between 130 and 140 bpm. My blood pressure was 100/68, no problems with my urine, which is great. I measured 39 cm. I am about 75% effaced (which is better than last week), but not really any more dilated. And I had her try to strip my membranes, but she said they were already pretty loose, so there wasn't much to do.

And the best news is that the baby is in the perfect position. Her back was on my left side, which is what you want. So either she just turned herself that way, or that blows my theory that she was in a bad position and why I haven't gone into labor yet.

So, we have no idea why she isn't here yet. And I actually feel better than I have in awhile! Who knows. My family is going crazy waiting for this birth, but I'm feeling pretty calm (at least today). :)

I'll keep you posted!

New favorite cereal

2006-10-20T14:16:00.000-05:00

We just discovered a new cereal that I love! It's Kashi Heart to Heart Oat Flakes and Wild Blueberry Clusters. So yummy! Just take a look at all of the vitamins, antioxidants and even protein in it!

I have always been a late night dessert person. It used to be ice cream, but once I gave up white sugar and then dairy, that wasn't an option any more. :) And when I'm pregnant, I always need something to eat before bed. And this is a great option. I put soy milk on it and it tastes very sweet and is very filling. :) And the sweeteners are the best kind: Evaporated Cane Juice and Brown Rice Syrup.

And the best part (in my opinion), is that I found it at Wal-mart (not even a Super Wal-mart) for only 2.82 a box! So great! I had no idea that Wal-mart had Kashi cereals. And they are so cheap, compared to the regular grocery store! Plus, I found my Pepperidge Farm 9 Grain bread (that is normally 3.29 a loaf) for only 2.69, I believe. I have never found it for cheaper than the 3.29. It was a very exciting day for me! :)

So, go out and try this new cereal and consider replacing your Special K or other "healthy" cereals with a Kashi brand! Even my 5 yr old daughter loves it! :)

Tailyn's Birth Story

2006-10-19T21:07:00.000-05:00

While we await for the 3rd little girl to arrive, I thought I'd post my 2nd birth story. :)

Tailyn Michelle’s Birth Story (July 1st, 2004)

About 4 am on Wednesday, June 30th, I began having contractions about every 8 minutes or so. They weren’t too bad, but definitely kept me up. I got up and had some cereal. When I went to the bathroom, I noticed some bloody show and got excited!  When Brian woke up, I told him what was going on and we decided that he would stay home with me, just in case. The contractions had slowed down and probably stopped, so I was able to go back to sleep for a couple of hours. I got up around 8 or so and wasn’t having contractions. But I called the midwife and she told me to come in for a NST and to get checked, just to make sure that the blood was cervical, etc. My mom came over and we all went over to the hospital together. They triaged me and hooked me up to the monitors. Within minutes, they could tell that the baby was doing great and that a NST was definitely not needed. But they kept me on the monitors. I was still only 2 cm dilated and maybe 60 % effaced (Monday, I was 2 cm and about 50%) so no real change. While on the monitors, they saw me have about 3 contractions about 8 minutes apart. So the midwife said that I would probably be back that night, but to go ahead and eat something and walk around, etc.

So, we headed to the outlet mall to eat lunch and walk. After a couple hours, it was obvious, that my labor was going no where – I was having a contraction here and there, but nothing regular. And the bleeding had pretty much stopped. So we headed home so Emma could nap and I could rest. When I got up to eat dinner, they picked up again and were about every 4-6 minutes for more than an hour. Still not horrible, but definitely requiring some concentration. So we called the midwife again. :) She said to come on in and get checked and see what was happening. We called my folks and they came over to watch Emma. We said that we would call them if it looked like my labor was going somewhere. We arrived at the hospital around 9 PM. We tried a different triage room and the nurse hooked me up. The contractions had slowed to every 8 or 9 minutes or so and I was maybe 3 cm and 60 % effaced. After some deliberation, we decided to head back home to rest. I sent my parents back to their house with Emma to spend the night. I was definitely frustrated, but if my labor was not progressing, I didn’t want to get stuck in the hospital. We got back home before 11 PM and I went to bed.

I slept until about 2 am when I was woken by a contraction. They started coming about every 10-20 min. It was hard to keep track of them though b/c I kept dozing off and couldn’t remember what time it was for the last contraction. But I had to get on my hands and knees for the contractions, lying down through them was too painful. Around 6 am, we got up and Brian made me some breakfast and the contractions started picking up again. And the bloody show was getting much heavier. At 7 am, I got in the shower and they started coming every 3 min. The shower felt so good and I asked if we could just have the baby at home. :) We called the midwife (Paula this time, as she was on call on Thursday) and told her what was going on. She asked if they were getting more intense and I couldn’t really tell. I just knew they were coming every 3 minutes or so, but they still weren’t as hard as with Emma. She said to come in and get checked and if I was still not progressing to head back home. In the back of my head, I knew it was time to go, but I was still skeptical. I did not want to get sent back home again!

The contractions in the car spaced out a bit to about every 5-6 minutes. Of course it was rush hour when we left (about 8:30 am), but we managed to avoid most of the traffic. (We left about 8 am on a Thursday morning during Emma’s labor.) The contractions were really hard in the car and I could tell that they were really working and bringing the baby down. It took everything within me to relax through them and not climb out of the car seat. I felt a lot of pressure in my bottom and I think that sitting down through them helped me focus to relax there. When they were at their peak, I would just think of Emma and that this was all worth it. We got to the hospital and headed into the 3rd triage room (there were 4 in all, and I did not want to have to try all of them). :) I got hooked up again and was asked a bunch of questions. The contractions were still a little bit spaced out, but definitely every 5 minutes. Paula came in and checked me and I was 6 cm and 100% effaced! Woo hoo! All 3 of us were so excited.

So we walked to my room and worked through some contractions as they asked me some more stupid questions. Sometimes I could completely talk through my contractions, but other ones; I had to totally concentrate. I was worried that they were going to space out again, but confident that it couldn’t be too much longer. Paula asked if I wanted to get in the tub and I jumped at that. It was a little after 10 am, when I got in the tub. It felt really good in there and again they spaced out a bit. So we were worried that I might need to get out of the tub to keep things going. It was just Brian, Paula and I and it was really nice. I was able to talk in between contractions and even joke a little bit. The contractions themselves took all of my concentration and I just focused on relaxing my bottom to bring that baby down. I then had a pretty hard contraction (required some vocalization – the other ones did not though) and Paula wanted me to make sure to tell her when I felt pressure and wanted to push. I hadn’t really felt anything like that though. The next contraction was super intense and I felt a pop all of the sudden. It was a very strange feeling. I told Paula that I think my water had just broken and she agreed. She grabbed the portable Doppler and listened to the baby while I had my next contraction. She sounded great. Paula said that at the end of that contraction we were going to get out of the tub since water births are not allowed :(. And right at the end of that contraction I started to push. I couldn’t help it. Paula pulled the emergency call cord and Brian and her helped get me out of the tub. She just kept telling me to blow through the pushing and not to push and to pant, but I couldn’t help it!

I walked over to the bed (no time for drying me off) and climbed into bed. Brian said that as soon as I lay down, he could see the bulge from the baby’s head. We had talked about lying on my side for the pushing, so that’s what I was trying to do. But I think I was so freaked out that it was time to push, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I totally held back on the pushing, b/c of my uncertainty. But at the same time, I couldn’t help but not push. It was the exact opposite as with Emma (since I never really had the urge to push). I couldn’t not push with this one. Fortunately, Brian held my leg up for me and they put a mirror up, which was so helpful, b/c I was really having a hard time believing that there was a baby coming right now. I was super loud and totally screaming that it hurt. They kept telling me to get my voice lower to help with the pushing. I was even able to reach down and touch her head, which was really cool (knowing that I was the first to touch my baby). Then all of the sudden, her head popped out and another push for her shoulders. And then I was able to reach down and pull her out onto my chest! And again, still totally in shock and having an out of body experience! I couldn’t believe that it was a baby on my chest and it was the baby that had been inside of me! I didn’t really keep track, but the pushing was pretty quick – probably about 10 minutes? And I believe only 3 contractions. She was a little blue, so they brought her over to give her some oxygen and I delivered the placenta, which was very easy to do and wow that was a huge relief after that came out. The placenta was pretty small – much smaller than with Emma (like only a third the size). I had about a 1st degree tear, not in the perineum though and required only a few stitches, but that is just no fun. That first half-hour or so was not very fun. Just getting stitched up and having people pushing on my belly. Tailyn Michelle weighed in at 7 lbs. 1 oz and 20.5” long (although Brian thinks that they were a little generous in their measurement). Her apgars were 8 and 9. She was born on July 1st at 10:58 am (3 or 4 days before her EDD – depending on whose date you were going by). Her birthday is 11 days before her big sister’s. She has light hair – mostly blond and not too much of it and very long fingers. She also has no butt and little tiny chicken legs. :)

40 Weeks Pregnant!

2006-10-19T13:14:00.000-05:00

Wow - here I am still pregnant! I never thought I'd make it this far. But this baby is making no signs of wanting to appear. So I thought I'd update my blog because I've been so busy!

We are officially in our new house! And we are loving it. We moved in on October 2nd and furiously unpacked as much as could. It took a week to get my washer and dryer. But once I did, I did laundry for at least 8 hours! I had so much to wash, it wasn't even funny. But I was so happy to use my new high-efficiency front loader with my Bio-kleen laundry powder. So great to know that I'm using so much less water and using a product that is so good for us and for the environment.

The kitchen is still under construction, but almost done. I can't wait! We were only able to unpack a fourth of the kitchen (only 5 plates, etc). So, I cannot wait to unpack the rest of it! But the contractor just has a little drywall work left to be done. So, we are really looking forward to that. And then he'll start on the back porch to close it in for our family room. Who knows how long that will take. But we're already resigned to living in construction for awhile.

So, back to the baby. I've got everything all ready for the birth. It's all stacked up in our bedroom. It takes a lot more planning for a homebirth, in some respects. I had a bunch of stuff that I had to get together that would normally be available at the hospital. But it was nice not having to pack the overnight bag and worrying about all that. I did have to get the baby's clothes together so we wouldn't be scrambling for those once she's born. It's very exciting. :)

And I'm starting to get stared at when I'm out. And people are not afriad to tell me that it looks like I have a basketball under my shirt or that I'm definitely having a girl since I'm carrying so low or it looks like you're due any minute. I love telling people that I'm due today. :)

Hopefully I'll be posting a birth announcement soon! My midwife keeps reminding me that every day is a day closer to the birth. She can't stay in there forever! :)

35 Weeks Pregnant!

2006-09-19T09:32:00.000-05:00

Wow - I'm overdue for an update and I apologize. With school starting and closing on the house, things have been pretty crazy around here. It's been a hard few weeks, emotionally and physically. And I've just felt too drained to blog, which is lame.

I can't believe I'm almost 36 weeks already. That means we have less than 4 weeks before the baby comes and sadly, it's going to be a hard and busy 4 weeks, with moving. We hope to move in next weekend (the 30th). And then the unpacking begins.

We've already painted the bedrooms and the floors are being refinished right now. The contractor is supposedly starting on the kitchen tomorrow and hopefully by next Friday, we'll be able to settle in. Then I can start washing baby clothes and diapers, etc. I haven't even had a chance to do that yet!

Emma's Birth Story

2006-08-26T11:38:00.001-05:00

(I love reading birth stories and awhile ago, I promised that I would post mine here - so here's the first!)

July 12, 2001

At 4:15am on Thursday (the due date!) I noticed some fluid beginning to come out as I lay in bed, I thought it was just the same discharge I had been experiencing, and then I noticed it was a little more than I was used to. I got up quickly and went to the bathroom and knew right away that my water had broken. I was shocked, excited, disappointed (as I didn't want my water to break first). I woke Brian up at 5 am and told him - he freaked for just a few minutes. We called the midwife and she said to shower, eat and come in when we were ready, but not to rush as I really wasn't having contractions yet. They started off slow and not very painful - I was expecting a long day ahead of us. At around 6ish they started coming more often - like every 5 minutes and they were hard. They were never more than 5 minutes apart and some were only 2-4 minutes. I was a little shocked! We called the doula and she got up and decided to come over around 7:45 am. My parents came and got the dog. :)
Around 8 am - the contractions were really hard. I never had a chance to just walk through them or ignore them. I found getting on my knees with my head and arms on the edge of the bed the best way for me to cope and relax through them. They were getting closer together - more like every 2 minutes. I decided it was time to go - I just didn't want to be in the car for hard labor. Both Brian and the doula asked me if I was sure I wanted to leave for the hospital, since I always had said that I wanted to labor at home for as long as I could. But, for some reason, I knew it was time to go!
The car ride was not very fun! The contractions were every 2 minutes and very painful. It was the only time that I even thought of an epidural – or actually realized why people wanted one! We got to the hospital and I had 2 contractions while trying to get to my room (and they didn't even make us stop to sign anything yet). I had to be hooked up to the monitors right away and the heartbeat was about 150. She wasn't responding to the contractions, so they made me stay in bed for awhile which was really hard. I hadn't eaten (as I was nauseous during the contractions). So they gave me some apple juice and ate a couple of bites of a fruit bar and immediately she started moving and they got their reading and let me get up. The midwife came and checked me around 9:30 am and I was already at 5 cm! We were all so shocked! It’s a good thing I listened to my gut and didn’t wait too long!
The contractions were really hurting and mainly in my back and my behind which was very strange for me. It took everything within me to relax through them - but dh and the doula were so wonderful. I made a whole lot of noise through them, but it helped to moan. The nurse assigned to us was amazing. She never bothered us, but just encouraged me, never made me do anything I didn't want, never offered me drugs (which I hadn't thought about since the car ride). I tried laboring in the shower, but the water wasn't warm enough. I labored on the bed sitting down, as that helped me focus on relaxing my behind. It was obvious Emma was descending pretty quickly. I also labored on my knees with my upper body resting on the birthing ball and on my knees on the bed with my upper body resting against the back of the bed. I soon felt the urge to push and it was spontaneous - but it was more like I just had to go to the bathroom. So we tried sitting on the toilet, but nothing was coming out. Almost every contraction I felt that urge. My doula kept asking me if I had a lot of pressure and when the nurse watched me through a contraction, she said, "let's have you checked". So she checked me and I was at 9 cm! That was like sometime around 11:30 or something. We were shocked. I labored a little more and then the midwife came in and checked me and I was at 10!
I couldn't believe it when they said it was time to push- I was really in shock and not prepared at all. I thought I would be laboring forever! So we got the squatting bar up and put a sheet around it and I pulled myself up with the ends of the sheet and began to push. They kept saying this was the good part and would feel better - but it hurt like crazy! I wasn't enjoying it so much! They set a mirror up and I sometimes was able to watch myself. It took some practice to get the pushing right and for me to have enough in me to push through the entire contraction. But then I could see the bulge coming, pushing on the perineum and I was just shocked! Finally we started seeing some hair (she has a lot!) and I kept pushing - of course, with every push out, she goes back in a little bit. So frustrating! She crowned and it hurt so bad! It really was the ring of fire and I was quite vocal about it! :) Of course the contraction ended and I had to wait for the next one before I could push the rest of her head out! Finally the head popped out, such relief, but then we had to get the shoulders. So I pushed for those and then she just slid out at 12:26 pm (just 8 hours after my water broke, 6 hours since the contractions started and about 4 hours since we got to the hospital). It was amazing! We just started balling and I couldn't believe that I had just had a baby. It was absolutely so amazing. Brian was supposed to announce the sex, but when they held her up and I looked down, I couldn't help but yell in shock, “It's a girl!” I was truly surprised! Her apgars were 9 and 9 and she was 7 lbs 10 oz and 18 inches long (we're short people!). :)
Just when you think it's over, you still have to get the placenta out and it hurt having people pushing on your stomach (that used to be big and hard and was now just floppy and deflated!). I had a 2nd degree tear and so had to be stitched up which wasn't fun.
I couldn't have been more pleased with my labor and birth and my experience. It was exactly what I wanted - no interventions, no one interfering or anything. We labored exactly as we wanted to and now have a perfect beautiful daughter to account for it. Just truly amazing.

My Day...

2006-08-22T17:58:00.000-05:00

No real health discoveries here or anything. Just had to vent about my day today and what a joke it was!

Today was our home inspection and I've really been looking forward to it - mainly because it was the first time I could get into the house since the contract was signed. So I could really look around since it was going to be "mine!" But, unfortunately, the home inspection became not so important.

My prenatal appt was rescheduled from yesterday until this morning at 9:30 am (just before I was supposed to be at the house). So, just as I pull up to the curb at her house, I hit the sewer part of the curb and gauged the tire! I could hear the air hissing out of it. Awesome! Fortunately, we have Honda Roadside Assistance (remind me to renew that when it runs out!) and I called them to come and change the tire for me, b/c there was no way I could do that right now. Of course, then it hit me, we can't find the wheel lock key. Stupid Honda thinks that the minivan tires are in pretty high demand by all those tire thieves out there. And you have to have the key to get it off. We have no idea where it is!

So anyway, I couldn't think about that because I needed to go in for my prenatal appointment which was not very fun since I had both kids and both were not letting me talk or pay any attention to what was going on. And my phone kept ringing with Honda calling me back telling me when they were going to be there.

So, after the appointment, I called my mom because I had a sinking feeling that I wasn't going to get my tire changed, but was going to get towed. :( Fortunately, she was only 10 min away and was waiting for my call anyway to go to the inspection with me. Sure enough, the tow truck guy confirmed what I was afraid of - we couldn't change the tire without taking it to the shop and manually removing it. Lovely.

He towed the car away and we headed to the house for the remainder of the inspection. (We had to send my dad there who happened to be working from home to pay the inspector just in case he left before I could get there.) But we made it there in time and got the details of the inspection (nothing that's a deal breaker, fortunately!).

Meanwhile, the tire place called to say that they didn't have my tire in stock! So, they put the spare on (which is only a donut). We ended up taking the car to Wal-mart to get the tire replaced. And 2 hours later - it was good as new! And it only cost me $230! $70 for the tow, $25 to remove the lock on the wheel and $130 for the new tire ($10 was for the tire warranty!). :)

It was a great day!!! Forutnately, my parents were awesome and they totally came to my rescue, since my husband has been out of town since Saturday and I've been on my own. No pressure for someone who is 32 weeks pregnant! :)

We finally found a house!

2006-08-19T12:24:00.000-05:00

We are so relieved and happy to be done with this whole buying and selling houses process. It's been 11 months now! I can hardly believe it. I'm so glad to not have to guess where we'll live and what school Emma will go to or who our neighbors will be... It's been exhausting on my pregnant and emotional body! :)

So, we found an old house, built in 1958, and in a great neighborhood. One of my friends from college actually lives directly across the street! Our realtor lives down the street and his sister lives down the street as well. There is also another family whom I have met in the past, who live within walking distance as well and they have a 5 yr old daughter starting kindergarten too! We are thrilled and feel so blessed.

We'll have a lot of work to do on the house (which we are hiring a contractor for). Hopefully he'll be able to start soon as we're going to wait to move in for a little bit. I'm going to have plenty of zeolite on hand to help with the fumes from any chemicals that they might be using. And we'll also be painting everything as well, but will be using a low-VOC paint that you can get from just about any store. That will help with the fumes from the paint, as well as using lots of zeolite in there too.

We settle on August 31st, so not too much longer to go! And hopefully we'll be moved in before the baby comes!

30 Weeks Pregnant!

2006-08-12T09:41:00.000-05:00

Sorry I've been out of the loop here. We've been swamped with trying to buy a house and that is just so mentally exhausting for me! All of the back and forth, having to picture yourself in every house, is it the right neighborhood, is it safe, is it a good investment... So hard! We meet with a contractor tomorrow to see if we can put an addition onto a house that we're interested in. Even then, that will only work if we can get the sellers to lower the price. Ugh.

So anyway, apparently, I'm pregnant too! :) Sometimes, it's easy to forget with all of the other stuff going on. Did I mention that my 5 yr old is supposed to start school in 2 weeks? But we can't register her until we get a contract.

I had my 30 week appt with the midwife this week and everything looks good. My bp was 100/60 or something like that. I gained 2 lbs for a total of about 18 lbs. And I measured about 29 cm. My iron is a little low, so I'm taking an iron supplement called Floridix which I can tell has already helped with my energy level. I was getting pretty tired during the day and evenings. I declined the blood glucose test (where you drink the sugary drink and they draw your blood) because I never drink or eat that much sugar at one time and I think my body would go absolutely crazy! So, we did a random blood sugar test and that was normal as well.

Brian mentioned tonight that we only have 10 more Sundays until the baby is due! Yikes! We have absolutely no baby clothes, diapers or gear with us in our temporary housing. So, we're going to have to move in and get everything out of storage before this baby comes! :) No pressure!

I guess that's about it for now. I promise not to be so absent from my blog! :)

Vaccine Update

2006-07-30T13:36:00.000-05:00

We got Emma's blood work back. We had them test her titers (immunity) for the MMR, Tetanus and Diptheria. Emma has been vaccinated up to date until she was 2 yrs old. At all her other check ups, there wasn't an offer for other ones (although, I'm sure, most 4 yr olds get shots at their appts). So, before she goes to kindergarten this year, I knew she was supposed to get a MMR booster, an IPV booster and a DTaP booster. I didn't want to go into it blindly.

So, on to the test results... She came back with immunity to Measles, Mumps and Ruebella. She also came back immune to Diptheria. The Tetanus one came back indeterminate. So, she wasn't in the category of "unprotected," but she also wasn't in the "protected" category. I think I was relieved to see that she is already immune to those and in my opinion, does not need the boosters. But then I was sad to think that she walks around with that gross stuff in her. I can't win. :) And I can't be pleased. :)

So, now I can take the test results to her new pediatrician and refuse the shots, with a little more to back me up. I'll have to sign a religious exemption paper for her school, but that's fine with me. As for the tetanus, I'm pretty sure it's hard to get just the tetanus shot, so I think I'll wait on that. Of course, if she gets hurt, we can always do the shot then. And for the IPV, I think I'd like to wait on that as well. She's had all of the initial shots and I'm sure she has immunity towards it as well. Maybe in the future, we can get that tested too. But for now, no shots for Emma. :)

Now, let's hope the pediatrician is willing to work with us and doesn't think we are total freaks. :) I wouldn't be surprised if they do, but it'd be nice to have one that is on our side in our town.

Personal Care Products

2006-07-25T22:56:00.000-05:00

People often ask me what products I use or what products are safe. So, I thought I'd blog about that today. I'll start with the first thing I use in the morning and the last thing I use at night.

When I shower, I use Usana's Sense line for my hair and face (http://nedlifeshop.usana.com). I use their shampoo/conditioner and their 3-step face wash, which is the wash, the toner and the lotion. These are fabulous products - seriously. And I have tried a lot of different things. The lotion has a sunscreen in it (the good kind) and it never feels greasy to me (and I have very oily skin). The body wash we are currently using is Jason's Naturals, which is great stuff as well (and safe for my gluten-free husband). And to shave, I use Kiss My Face shaving cream, which is awesome stuff! Seriously! I was a faithful lady's Gillette fan for a long time. But got so tired of the smell and the fact that it was blue or purple! Why did it need to be a color?

When I'm out of the shower, I continue with the Sense line for the toner and the lotion. And then I use Bare Minerals makeup, which is my favorite makeup. I cannot believe how easily it goes on and how long it stays on and how well it covers up. Seriously. I have lots of red blotches and blemishes and this stuff really works. Not to mention that it actually has the right kind of sunscreen in it, which protects my face. With both the Sense lotion and the makeup, I don't even need to put the greasy sunscreen on when I'm out in the sun at the pool Seriously. And I do not get sun on my face. I cannot get over it.

For my hair, I use Finesse mousse. I'd much rather find a more natural mousse, but have been unsuccessful. They have lots of gels out there, but that's too heavy for my hair. And after doing research on Skin Deep's website, I found that the Finesse brand was one of the safer ones. If you haven't ever used this tool, I highly recommend it. You can search for some of your products by name, for others, you might have to type in the ingredients. But it will tell you what the most dangerous chemicals are and how the product rates overall. Very helpful! You're never going to find a product that is perfect (or you might be paying a ton of money), but you really want to try to find one that is as safe as possible.

For deodorant, I found a natural roll-on aluminum-free deodorant at Target, for like $2.99 or something. Very cheap and works very well!

Don't forget to do the same thing for your kids' products! Especially that baby wash. That stuff is actually some of the most toxic - most of them contain a formaldehyde releaser. :( So be sure to check all of their products. (My kids use nothing but California Baby and we love all of their products.)

Oh, and I do brush my teeth. :) I use the Sense toothpaste, which is flouride-free and contains no artificial ingredients or harmful ingredients (especially those gross colors). There are lots of great brands of healthy toothpastes. You can check out the Kiss My Face brand, I've used that as well.

Okay - so that's it for personal care products, that I can think of off the top of my head. I'll also do cleaning products soon and my favorite foods! :)

Digestion

2006-07-21T15:12:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to give an update on how my stomach has been feeling after seeing the doctor a month ago. It's feeling great! Seriously! I can't get over my new lease on life. :) I can eat so many more things now and I think I've gone 2 weeks now straight without any problems or pains or gas.

I switched from the Digestin to the straight HCL just before we moved and boy has it made a difference. I usually take one with lunch and dinner and my afternoon snack. If I'm going to be eating something I don't usually eat, then I'll take 2 to help digest things. And I've been able to take my vitamins again, which is huge and very important. :) I usually take one set at lunch and one set at dinner (totalling 4). I'll work back up to all 6 again in a little bit.

I'm just so happy about it and relieved that I can't get over it! For so many months, I was in such pain or was so frustrated about it and it's just so great to have it behind me now. I'm glad that I was diagnosed by a doctor and that he said it was safe for me to take the HCL while being pregnant. And my new midwife supports it as well, while my old midwives didn't really. So, for any of you with stomach problems, look into taking the HCL supplement (Hydrochloric acid). Feel free to ask me any questions.

Baby Positioning

2006-07-19T07:57:00.000-05:00

Did you know there is an entire website and company dedicated to helping moms position their babies in the womb for optimal delivery? And they aren't just talking about babies that are breech or transverse. "When the baby's back is on the left and the baby's chin is tucked, the birth process is the smoothest and most straightforward." (www.spinningbabies.com). They think the very top of the head should be the part that crowns and will allow for the smoothest delivery.

They believe that many women have trouble with stalled or slow labors or are labeled "failure to progress" because the baby is simply in the wrong position. And that has become an increasing problem these days as c-section rates and deliveries by vacuum or forceps rise. Unfortunately, many doctors will tell women that their baby is simply too big or that their is something wrong with their pelvis - that it's too small. I don't believe this to be true. I believe that women's bodies are created for birth and that you are not going to create a baby that is too big for your body to birth. If that was the case, then how do women vaginally birth 12 lb babies?? Of course, there are exceptions, such as injuries, etc. But for most women, your body is more than capable.

Then why do we hear of so many of these "failure to progress" stories? One of the probelms (and there are others) is that the baby is not positioned correctly before labor even starts and then the mother is in a poor position in labor and the pushing stage which prevents the baby from turning correctly, making for a very hard labor and a very hard pushing stage.

Spinning babies recommends many things while you are pregnant to help baby into the correct position. THey blame many of the reclining chairs with these incorrectly positioned babies. The babies head and back are the heaviest parts of the baby. So, if you are in a constant reclined state, the baby's back will automatically turn to the back (so it's spine is resting on your spine). This causes the baby to become posterior and causes that dreaded back labor.

They recommend sitting with your knees lower than your hips and allowing your belly to go below your hips as well. So, sitting backwards in a kitchen chair is an excellent way to accomplish this. Or sitting on an exercise ball is wonderful as well (and very comfy). While you're sitting on it, make sure you do some hoola-hooping big circles. :)

So, if you are pregnant, avoid that recliner and those overstuffed comfy chairs and choose a chair that allows you to sit up straight and even lean forward. In fact, the best place is probably on the floor, sitting cross-legged. The website mentions many other options (emotional, chiropractic and even spiritual) to help the baby into the correct position.

How does this to relate to a Healthy Pregnancy? Well, I'm a big believer in natural birth (if you haven't already surmised) and believe that there can be long-lasting and short-term effects on both mother and baby for births that are medicated or surgical. So, I'm sure there is not one doctor or person who would disagree that the best way for a baby to come out is head-first, vaginally. And why not do everything in your power to make sure that happens?

Who would've thought pregnancy could be so complex?

Update on Vaccines

2006-07-17T13:29:00.000-05:00

A quick update. We decided to go ahead and get Emma's blood taken for the Titer test to be done. I have been dreading it for several months now and was even going to just avoid it altogether just so I wouldn't have to put her through the trauma. But, I decided to go ahead and suck it up and go for it.

So, off we went this morning to LabCorp with a very unhappy 5 year old. Yikes. She was so scared about it! I tried to keep her mind off of it, by watching a movie on the way there and keeping her busy before we even left. And I had Grandma promise an Ariel toy to her for going through with it. :)

Thankfully, we were in and out in about 20 minutes, probably. I couldn't believe it. Emma was definitely scared (more like terrified) and crying through it. But the lab tech was so quick about it and did such a good job that Emma barely noticed, probably because she was crying too hard. Seriously, it was no big deal - it was one little vial of blood and she was in and out in 30 seconds, probably.

What a relief! Seriously! So, hopefully we'll get the results by the end of the week and find out what her titers looks like so we can make an informed decision about her vaccines. I doubt I want to vaccinate her further, but at least we'll be more informed.

For those of you interested in reading more about vaccines and their risks, Dr. Megson recommended a book called What Your Doctor May Not Tell You about Children's Vaccinations. It's a bit out of date now, but man is it informative. There are other ones I noticed on Amazon.com, that might be worth looking into. I'm not opposed to vaccinating for most people, I'm just opposed to the way they are doing it to our kids. Ask the questions, do the research. You will not regret the time you spend learning more about them and what is right for your child. Seriously. It could mean life or death...

Vaccines

2006-07-14T22:22:00.000-05:00

Ugh. I'm at such a point of frustration with vaccines and my girls... I'm really struggling with what to do. Emma just turned 5 and is heading off to kindergarten in the fall (although we don't know where since we haven't moved yet). And she's due for another round of vaccines (most likely MMR and possibly DTaP)... But here's the dilemna. Tailyn had a nasty reaction to her 12 month vaccines - super high fever and very lethargic for days after and within a month had totally changed from a sweet kid to a nightmare). So, I'm REALLY nervous about giving Emma and this baby any more vaccines. Tailyn hasn't been vaccinated any further since those 12 month shots and Emma hasn't had any since she turned 2, I think.

So, when we went to see Tailyn's DAN doctor (Dr. Megson) this spring, we spoke at length about vaccines. Her opinion is that for kids 6 month and older, the only important ones are Polio and Tetanus. All the other ones are treatable with either antibiotics or just riding them out... And I definitely agree with the Polio one, my mom had Polio when she was 5. Thankfully, she recovered from it, but she's adamant about her grandkids being vaccinated from it. I don't blame her.

So, Dr. Megson suggested that we have Emma's blood drawn and get an ANA Titer test to see if she already has the antibodies to MMR and Tetanus. If she does, then she doesn't need any more vaccines for those (at least for now). If she doesn't, then she isn't immune to them. So, then the question would be whether or not we feel comfortable vaccinating her again, after Tailyn's reaction. Unfortunately, I just read an article by Dr. Megson (http://www.westonaprice.org/moderndiseases/autism.html) where she had several patients that regressed into autism after receiving the MMR at 4 yrs old! So, it is possible. I don't really think it would happen to Emma, but who wants to risk it?

So, if we do decide to vaccinate her, I'd want the vaccines split up and given one at a time, several weeks apart. But I think the only reason we'd vaccinate her is just to avoid any problems at school. I believe Dr. Megson will write a note for her file saying that she needs to be exempt from the vaccine requirement. So, should we just skip the blood test and forget the vaccine, or should we get the blood test and then decide what to do about the vaccine... Ugh, it's so hard! Poor Emma is terrified of getting any blood work. So, that's not easy either!

The other pressing dilemna will need to be decided upon this fall after the baby is born. Under 6 months of age, the Pertusis virus (or Whooping Cough) is apparently very serious for babies and not really treatable. Over 6 months of age, it is treatable with antibiotics and is not very serious. But it is a virus that is in our community (or state) and could be picked up by the baby. The problem with the vaccine is that it is very toxic for kids and very hard on them. So, it's really hard for me to want to vaccinate the baby (especially since we think Tailyn had the biggest problem with it). But, if we don't vaccinate the baby from it, then she is at risk during the winter months and that is scary. Dr. Megson suggested that we just don't take her out for the first 6 months! What?!? How is that possible, being the 3rd child? Yikes. So, that is our other dilemna.

Emma's is the most pressing for sure as that needs to be decided upon soon. It would also be helpful if we had a pediatrician! :) Stay tuned, hopefully, we'll have some more decisions made soon...

Homebirth!!

2006-07-14T07:39:00.000-05:00

Yes, you read that right! We are going to have a homebirth! Just before we moved, I found a homebirth midwife that actually legally practices in Virginia and lives near me! Unbelievable! And she accepts our insurance! It's my dream come true, for sure. And I'm sure, for many of you, you can't imagine anything worse or scary. But for me, ever since I became pregnant the first time, I have always been intrigued with homebirth, but the option was never open to me because the one place I could find didn't accept our insurance and it was pretty far away for all of my prenatals. So, my first 2 girls have been born in the hospital with midwives. When I found out I was pregnant again, I declared that I wanted a homebirth. I figured that this is my last baby (most likely) and this was my only shot. But again, I was presented with the same problem, I couldn't find a homebirth midwife!

So, literally days before we moved, I received an e-mail from some Virginia midwife assocation that sent me a list of midwives that I had requested months ago. And I saw one that actually lived near me! So, I called her, thinking that there was no way she would be available or something. But it turned out she was available and accepted our insurance and seemed really nice!

So, after we got settled in here, I gave her a call to set up a consultation for us to meet her and discuss switching my prenatal care to her. She (Peggy) came HERE last night. How great is that? So, she got to meet the whole family, including the dog. :) Brian and I both really liked her and felt very at ease with her. We were shocked to hear that she has 8 children! I guess she really likes birth! LOL

I was actually supposed to have an appointment yesterday at my other midwives for a prenatal, but I had cancelled it in the hopes of switching to Peggy. So, we decided to go ahead and do a prenatal right here! It was so cool! She gave me a cup to pee in and then we measured me and listened to the baby's heartbeat, right here in my living room, with my dog licking my face. :) It was very cool!

So, I have my next appointmenton the 25th and I'm already on 2 week appointments! Where did the time go? I'll go to her house (which is right near my mom's) for the rest of my prenatals, because for some reason, my insurance requires that.

I think my favorite part was how excited Emma got at meeting the midwife and seeing her "tools" and helping her hold the tools while we took my blood pressure, etc. She really liked her (followed her to the door when she left). It was so cute. We told Peggy that Emma really wanted to cut the umbilical cord when the baby was born and Peggy said she would write that down so we wouldn't forget.

For me, homebirth makes complete sense. I tend to have very quick labors and have never had any medication or IVs during labor or after, so it seems silly to go all the way to a hospital. Plus, both times, I ended up leaving the next day because I hate being in there. So, it just makes sense to be in the comfort of my own home so I don't have to endure that dreaded car ride when I'm in labor and don't have to wonder if I'm going to get sent home.

We probably aren't going to rent a birthing tub as it's a kind of expensive for us and since I tend to go so quickly, it doesn't seem all that necessary. I don't have any specific dreams toward having a water birth, so I'm probably just fine having the baby in bed or wherever the heck I feel like it! I'm so excited, I can't even describe it. :)

So, there's our exciting news. Maybe in the next few days, I'll post the girls birth stories for you all to read. I love reading birth stories. :)

Luna Bars

2006-07-13T08:50:00.000-05:00

Just a quick blog on my favorite snack. :) I discovered Luna Bars last fall and after trying many of them, settled on the Peanut Butter Cookie flavor. Being pregnant, I always need to have a snack in the diaper bag or my purse and need something that can be quick and easy. I never remember to feed myself, with worrying about 2 kids. And that just isn't acceptable when you're 26 weeks pregnant! So, I buy Luna Bars in the big box from the grocery store (if they have them), Target or Drugstore.com and always have a box in the pantry.

They are made by Clif Bars, a company that NEDlife thoroughly endorses. They use all natural sweeteners and have lots of vitamins and minerals in them. But Luna Bars are made for women and have more of the nutrients that we need. And what I love most about them is that they have lots of Soy protein in them. And for us "low-estrogen" women, I need all of the Soy I can get, since soy mimics estrogen in our bodies. And especially being pregnant, I need lots of estrogen to help protect this little baby and make sure that she is developing properly.

My word of caution: if you are a woman who is more estrogen-dominant, than you don't want to have to much soy, so these might not be the snack for you - certainly not on a daily basis. How do you know if you are estrogen-dominant? Usually you got your period earlier, you have a nice curvy body and clear skin. And if you are taking birth control pills, you have all of the estrogen that you need, so you really should avoid soy as much as you can. You already get plenty of it in your make-ups, lotions and foods without realizing it.

But for those of you who are lower-estrogen (you got your period a bit later, you breakout around your period, you have a heavy, crampy period, and tend to not have as many curves, or you've had several girls!), Luna Bars are a wonderful protein snack - perfect for us moms who are always "on-the-go!" :)

A Successful Healthy Birthday Party for a 5 Year Old!

2006-07-11T06:59:00.000-05:00

My oldest had her 5th birthday party on Saturday and it was a huge success and it was very healthy and dairy-free! She had a Little Mermaid-themed party, minus the huge sugary cake and candy favors. :) We had about 6 little girls here (one that is gluten-free/casein-free) and all of their parents and every ate to their heart's content.
For appetizers we had yummy salsa and corn chips that were all gobbled up. For lunch we had hamburgers and hot dogs (Hebrew National) with whole wheat buns, B&M baked beans and potato salad from Costco. All dairy-free and gluten-free (minus the buns). :)
And for cake, we made a yellow cake from http://www.cherrybrookkitchen.com/ and a chocolate cake from Goodbaker purchased from NEDlife. We actually put them both in a 13x9 pan (using tin foil to divide them while we poured them in). Then I frosted it with Goodbaker frosting. So yummy! We did use store-bought green and pink frosting to write Happy Birthday on it. But I didn't give the little girls any of the pink frosting, since Red Dye #40 can be so harmful to little girls. The girls ate the cake up without complaints. :) And I have to admit it was very yummy! And the girls had a choice between chocolate or vanilla cake! :)

And for the adults and the gluten-free folks, I made an Angel Food cake from Gluten-Free Pantry topped with strawberries. :) That cake does have refined sugar in it, but it's a crowd-pleaser when you have GF folks and folks who aren't GF and a great alternative. It's what we used for my 2 year old's b'day cake as well. :)

And of course we had to have a Little Mermaid pinata. But I refused to fill it with "gross candy" (that's what my 5 yr old calls it!). :) So, we bought lots of little sticker sheets, glow in the dark bugs, little rings, tracing things, etc. And the girls loved it. They didn't care that candy wasn't falling out - it's all about just getting the loot! :) I was pleasantly surprised to see what a success it was and I was afraid that the birthday girl would miss the big sugary cake we had last year and all of the candy in the pinata. But, when I asked her, she loved the cake and the goodies in the pinata.

It just goes to show that kids are flexible and just want guidance. I think parents cave in way too easily and assume their kids won't change their diets or won't cooperate on new things or things being taken away. They will and they do! Include them in your decisions and explain why you are changing things. They want to know and you'd be suprised how willing they are!

We moved!

2006-07-05T14:41:00.000-05:00

No real health revelations here or anything. But, our family finally sold our house and have moved to temporary housing, while we look for a house to buy. We're staying at my parents' lake house. We moved in on Sunday afternoon and are finally feeling settled. Fortunately, they had all of the furniture here already, as well as dishes, etc. So, we only had to move clothes, toys, NEDlife stuff, etc. But it sure seemed like a lot still!

And it feels so good to just be here and already enjoying our family time together. It seems that I already have a ton of free time on my hands, for some reason. It might be the lack of cleaning that I have to do (having had our house on the market since October). Or maybe because every time I'm at the lake house, I'm on vacation and it's just a mindset. But I actually read a book and took a nap yesterday. :) Very nice for a pregnant woman! :) Especially after the week that we had. Geez, I know I overdid it quite a bit. But, what can you do, when you are moving and have to move things around. I already made my poor husband stay up all night almost for several days in a row. It was so brutal on him.

But, here is my wonderful news of the week. I went to Ukrop's this week with my girls for grocery shopping. I've only been there a couple of times and I know it's a southern grocery store. But I also knew that they had a wonderful healthy foods section. And I was shocked to find lots of new snacks for my GF/CF 2 year old! I was practically jumping up and down. We found Envirokids Animal Cookies and Perky O's cheerios-type cereal. She has been loving life this week. And it makes me sooo happy to see her enjoying snacks just like her big sister. So, you can have a really normal diet even if you are GF/CF (gluten-free/casein-free). :)

Finally, some answers!

2006-06-17T15:10:00.000-05:00

I finally had my appointment with Dr. Levin (a doctor who specializes in preventative medicine - or has lots of answers to random medical issues). When I was 24, I went to him struggling with adult acne and he totally fixed the problem. So, when I started getting horrible gas and stomach cramping and inability to digest foods properly, I finally made the appointment with him (after I spent months trying to fix it myself).

Ali and I diagnosed me with low stomach acid since I seemed to fit so many of the symptoms (the big one being the problems I had with my vitamins). But in the meantime, I had done a stool analysis and went over those results with him. And those results confirmed what we thought. It showed that I did not have enough beneficial flora (despite using probiotics) and had an imbalance of bacteria in my intestines. It also showed that I had a moderate level of vegetable fibers in the test which indicates: "a reduction of gastric HCL secretion or insufficient output of pancreatic enzymes".

And after listening to my symptoms and the time line when they started, it definitely indicated that I have low levels of HCL (hydrochloric acid) - which is your stomach acid. And that stuff is very important - if you don't have enough, you can't digest your food properly and if you aren't digesting your food properly, then you aren't getting sufficient nutrients. And that can lead to minor things like dry skin all the way to Crohn's and worse. So this is a pretty serious issue and this doctor said it was an epidemic in our country. I would have to agree!

So, he gave me 2 supplements (both are safe during pregnancy). One is Digestin and the other is Digesta-Guard, which is a probiotic. I've been using both since Wednesday and it seems that the Digestin is really helping. I'm not ready to commit 100% to it, since my symptoms often seem to come and go and are very hard to pinpoint. But I know this is the right answer, it's just a matter of the Digestin having enough of the HCL in it. It's kind of a pain because I have to take it with each meal, but boy does it beat the stomach pains and gas. If this works, then I have a new lease on life! :)

I'm ready to be able to eat like a normal person again, not having to worry so much about what I eat. It's hard enough to make sure that I'm not eating refined foods and sugars, but to have to worry about even more than that (in addition to my family's dietary issues) is hard! Plus being pregnant adds so much more to it. I'm hungry all the time and I hate having to eat (that's not normal)!

Let's hope I've found the answers to my problems!

Lemon Juice

2006-06-14T11:29:00.000-05:00

Okay, this doesn't really have much to do with pregnancy at all. But, I just had to share my new discovery with my youngest daughter, Tailyn. She was diagnosed with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder early this year. Thankfully, I already knew about it and had made the necessary dietary changes and supplement changes. And now she is almost 2 and is totally thriving developmentally. It's amazing.

But... We have always struggled with poop! She goes back and forth between normal bowel movements and explosive blow outs. I know those are not normal, even though a pediatrician has told us they are and it isn't acceptable to me. So, after learning about my low stomach acid, I figured Tailyn has it too. So, I switched her juice to homemade lemonade (with a little cane sugar added in) and the very next day, her poop was completely normal. And for the last 2 weeks, we have had totally great bowel movements. Lemon juice has been known to be a digestive aid - not the stuff you get in a bottle, but fresh lemon juice. It's a pain to have to squeeze all those lemons, but it's worth it!

She still struggles with soy, I think, in addition to gluten and casein, but we have had total success with the lemon juice. :)

21 Weeks!

2006-06-08T07:00:00.001-05:00

Wow, I'm so sorry that I haven't been blogging! No real excuses, except for life and 2 kids and spring and summer activities.

The big news is that we found out last Thursday that we're having our 3rd little girl! We are so thrilled and our oldest daughter is ecstatic! Very fun. I never imagined myself with 3 girls and I'm sure Brian never did either, but now, we can't picture ourselves any other way. I have loved watching Emma and Tailyn play together, so adding one more to that will be so fun to watch. And Emma is already planning bunk beds in her room for her and Tailyn.

My pregnancy has been very easy for the most part. But this is the honeymoon stage, they say. :) I don't feel too big and am enjoying feeling the baby kick lots. She seems to be the most active in the evenings and in the early morning - hopefully she won't stay on that schedule after she's born!

My one complaint has been with my digestive system. And as I blogged about earlier, it has caused me a lot of suffering and annoyance. But, after many months, I think we may have a lead on what the problem is. One day Ali started talking about her low stomach acid after she went through a week of having digestive problems. And then we started talking about it in reference to my problems. Maybe this was the answer for me? That I didn't have enough stomach acid to digest my foods properly, which could lead to bacterial build-up in my intestines and cause other problems.

At at this point, I was taking enzymes for every meal (except breakfast) and they weren't helping any more. So, I decided to take a break from them. That morning I also forgot to take my vitamins with breakfast like I usually do. I had the best food day! Nothing bothered me and I even pushed myself. I had a ton of potato chips, which usually cause me all kinds of pain and discomfort and I had no problems! It sounds so silly, but it was such a great day! To suddenly be able to eat what I wanted when I wanted it withouth worrying.

My theory is that because I was taking my vitamins in the morning (and taking all 6 of them), I used up all of my stomach acid right at the beginning of the day and the rest of the day, I didn't have enough acid to digest foods properly. So, I stopped taking my vitamins in the mean time. I've noticed an improvement, but I'm still having problems.

I think the answer lies in taking HCL Betaine, which is a stomach acid supplement. But, of course, it says you shouldn't take it when you're pregnant, unless it's been approved my your doctor! So, I'v been very hesitant. I'm going to take the info to my midwife on Monday to ask if I can take it. And on Wednesday, I see a Natural MD to go over my stool analysis and hopefully get some more answers then.

There are alternatives to the supplement. But I can only drink so much Apple Cider Vinegar. :( That actually does seem to help quite a big, but it's hard to take it when you're on the go. So, hopefully I will be able to take the supplement. This has been so hard being pregnant, since I have to eat and eat well. I would rather just not eat, but that isn't an option.

So, there you have it. I promise to blog some more. So keep tuning in! :)

13 Weeks Pregnant!

2006-04-14T19:53:00.000-05:00

Wow. I can't believe I'm almost out of the first trimester. And the baby is the size of a jumbo shrimp. :) My 4 yr old always wants to know what size the baby is, so we go by foods. Last week it was a lime and this week it's a jumbo shrimp. :) But somehow at night-time, I look like it's a lot bigger! It's ridiculous. This always happens to me at this stage. After dinner (even though I don't eat a lot), my tummy gets so big, I look like I'm 5 months pregnant, at least! It's pretty funny.

Here's one thing I noticed this week - the estrogen has finally kicked in. And it's pretty cool that I'm aware of that. I wouldn't have known that a few months ago. How did I know it now?

I discovered a few months ago, that I am low estrogen. I used to be in a balanced hormone state, before I had kids (with maybe a touch more testosterone). But after I had Emma, I noticed a change. My breasts no longer got sore when I got my period and my periods were even heavier than before. Then when I got pregnant with Tailyn, my breasts barely got sore that first trimester (when they were extremely sore with Emma that first trimester).

And while I've always had a healthy sex drive, it got even "healthier" after my kids. :) I have never understood why women always complain that they just don't even want to have sex. That's never been an issue for me. And it often caused a lot of miscommunication between Brian and I and a lot of hurt feelings.

So, after I had Tailyn and I realized that I had lost a lot of my estrogen, I started taking a soy supplement. I immediately noticed a change in my period. It got lighter and the cramps were almost gone. I only needed one dose of advil, as opposed to around the clock advil basically. And I noticed a change in my sex drive as well. It just brought it back to a normal level.
And Brian and I's relationship improved.

So, when I got pregnant again, I stopped taking the soy supplement (USANA's Phytoestrin) because it has some root extracts that aren't safe for pregnancy. But I continued to eat my cereal with soy milk and drank some soy protein shakes, etc. I wanted to try to help my body boost it's estrogen level. Estrogen is very important when you are pregnant. It's what protects the baby during it's development.

During my first trimester, I noticed that my breasts didn't get sore at all and they stayed completely the same size, indicating that I had even less estrogen than I did with Tailyn. And my face was a mess with acne (which I often struggle with anyway). And my sex drive (while it was on hold during my several weeks of morning sickness), returned to it's normal state. In both of my other pregnancies, I did not want to have sex until at least 10 weeks or even after (I can't remember). I also really struggled with gaining weight. I know that's a strange thing to struggle with. But, I know it's important to put weight on in when you're pregnant.

So, in the last couple of weeks, I finally was able to put some weight on and all of the sudden, I noticed that my breasts were bigger and actually got a little sore! And my face was actually clearing up a little bit. All indications of a surge of estrogen.

I have no idea why, really, but just am proud that I am able to see changes in my body and know why they are taking place. For the first time in my life, I am listening to my body and understanding it. It's empowering and I really encourage anyone reading, to start learning more about our bodies and how they work.

11 Weeks Pregnant

2006-04-05T11:45:00.000-05:00

I guess I better get a post in before I hit 12 weeks (tomorrow)! :) It's been a busy week. We just put a contract on a new house (new construction) this last weekend. Of course, there is a chance it won't be finished until October (our due date). Lovely! But my life is never uncomplicated, so of course, why should this be any different?

So, our house is on the market, which is so hard! Especially with a 21 month old and a 41/2 year old. And a dog that sheds like crazy (black hair!). I left him alone last week and came home to a spilled box of Fudge Brownie Mix that was all over our light tan carpet in the basement. Ugh! So, I had to spend an hour trying to get it clean. Thankfully, we had Bi-O-Kleen products to use. I was knee deep in the Bac-Out and felt perfectly safe being pregnant and using a cleaning product. It just made me so thankful to have safe cleaning products already in my home that I could use around me and my little kids running around trying to help. :) And it smells so good!

I've also spent time trying to figure out my digestive issues. I'm apparently pretty complicated. I can't seem to find too much of a pattern with foods that bother me and those that don't. It's been very hard to find foods that I can eat and that don't give me an upset stomach or too much gas. I believe I must have a yeast build-up in my intestines. And because of that, I have to be careful about eating too much sugar or high-glycemic foods. And when I say sugar, I'm not referring to refined sugar, but even cane sugar. But some of my foods do have a small amount of refined sugar in them. So, I'm taking a probiotic on a daily basis and also taking garlic, which acts as an anti-fungal and can help get rid of yeast. I'm also doing Zyme Prime Digestive Enzymes to help me digest any extra sugars or high-glycemic foods that I do eat before they reach the intestines and cause problems. So, hopefully, I can get his under control.

I seem to be a mystery though. We can't figure out why all of the sudden corn is bothering me. And corn is in so many things! Canola oil, corn starch, corn flour, etc. It's crazy. I never used to have a problem with popcorn or corn chips, until recently. So, I'm trying to figure out why I am now. It could be because the corn chips that I do eat are made with highly refined peanut oil, which is hydrogenated and chemically altered. And maybe why the popcorn was bothering me was because it was cooked in canola oil (which is also refined and chemically altered). See, it's hard to figure out! The great news is that I can use enzymes very successfully and still eat normally when I need to. Being pregnant, I have to eat, and of course, sometimes I really want popcorn. :) And sometimes, corn chips is the only thing that is available to me.

So, I know this is kind of a random post. But, you can see what I'm dealing with. And hopefully before too long, we can figure this out and heal my gut, so I can enjoy a normal life again. And maybe we can get my adult acne cleared up too, which we're still trying to figure out if it's connected to my gut. Almost everything is connected to the gut, so I'm not ruling it out. But, my acne also started getting worse right around when I got pregnant, which is when you have a surge in progesterone for the first trimester. So, we'll see if it gets better soon (your progesterone decreases after the first trimester).

Thanks for bearing with me!

10 Weeks Pregnant!

2006-03-25T21:36:00.000-05:00

The biggest thing on my mind today is that I've just passed the 10 week, 2 day mark. I'm sure it seems insignificant to everyone else. But to me, it marks the end of my very first pregnancy 5 and a half years ago. It too was a Saturday and we told a whole bunch of people that day. The miscarriage didn't happen until the next day, but this day was the beginning of it. So, passing this day is a big milestone and it was for each of my 2 subsequent and healthy pregnancies. It doesn't really get much easier. I think getting through Emma's pregnancy was the hardest, obviously, because it was so soon after the miscarriage and I wondered if I could even have a baby, as crazy as that sounds now! Tailyn's was easier, but it was still hard. This one has been hard as well and it shows me that I really do care about this baby (which was honestly questionable at first and it sounds awful to even say that!).

So, miscarriage is not something you can predict or really prevent. So, all I can do is try to be as healthy as possible. I'm taking my USANA Essentials and my BiOmega (fish oil) everyday. I drink my Mangosteen juice everyday. I'm getting better at exercising again (I was 4x a week before I got pregnant). And I'm obviously avoiding all the bad stuff that I'm not supposed to have. And now that I'm eating healthier, I'm avoiding trans fats, sugar, refined flours, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup. And that has to be huge for not only me, but also for the baby.

So, today, I'm just having a quiet celebration. I'm excited to be passing this milestone (hoping that the pregnancy remains healthy) and patting myself on the back for being so healthy for me and for the baby. If you ever plan to have kids or have more kids, please get healthy right now. Change your diet. Start taking the right supplements now. Your baby and your kids will thank you when you are healthy for their kids.

9 Weeks Pregnant

2006-03-16T12:19:00.000-05:00

First of all, the exciting news! We heard the heartbeat on Tuesday - before 9 weeks even! That's how healthy this baby is! LOL So, we told our 4 and 3/4 year old, Emma and she has not stopped talking about it. It is so funny! She's gotten us totally excited about the baby (hearing the heartbeat helped me a lot too) and now I'm ready for the adventure ahead!

So I promised to talk about why I'm feeling so great now. First I have to give you some background. I had absolutely NO idea I was pregnant until I was past 5 weeks pregnant. I am usually completely on top of those things. Both girls were very planned and I knew and got a positive pregnancy test before I was even 4 weeks pregnant. And we were in Disney World, so I wasn't really paying attention to things. I should have been tipped off when I fell asleep at 10 pm in an Irish Pub with a very loud (and good) Irish band playing only 10 feet away from me. I fell ASLEEP! I am a night owl. I couldn't believe I did that! So clueless! I also almost threw up after going on a "build your own" roller coaster at Disney Qwest. I love roller coasters and never get sick. So, this was totally out of character for me.

Anyway, we got home on Thursday night and when I woke up on Friday, I realized that I still hadn't started my period. But it didn't occur to me that there might be a reason. My cycles had been pretty all over the place last year and I figured that for some reason I was having a long luteal phase (the time after ovulation before your period). And as I walked to the bathroom, I couldn't figure out why I was having a long luteal phase. Seriously, I asked myself that. Then it hit me. So after taking 4 tests, we pretty much figured that we were indeed expecting our third child.

And then it all hit me. The next day I got a little flu bug so I felt awful for the next 36 hours. And then the next day I got a cold that lasted for 2+ weeks. So fun! Anyway, after the flu went away, I got morning sickness all day. It was no fun. I wanted no food. I was praying that I could get a feeding tube inserted so I could avoid eating. Nothing sounded good to me and I just didn't want to eat. I did not think I could make it through the first trimester.

Okay, let me interrupt for a minute. Since August, I've been taking USANA Essentials which have been great and fortunately, I kept taking them and they are as good as a prenatal since they have 800 mg of Folic Acid. (Most vitamins only have 400 mg and you need 800 mg when you are pregnant). In December, I started drinking Xango (Mangosteen juice). But when we went to Disney World, we didn't take it with us, so I was without it for about a week. I immediately started taking it when I got home. I take 4 oz a day, but had a lot of trouble that first week with the flu, the nausea and the cold.

But I'd heard that Xango helped with morning sickness, so I was determined to get it down. I knew I couldn't do it on an empty stomach, b/c I tried that and didn't feel well. And sure enough within 2 weeks, the morning sickness was gone! And I couldn't believe the energy I had. Don't get me wrong, if I don't get enough sleep, then I'm tired. But if I get enough rest, I really have enough energy all day - no naps and I stay up until 11 pm usually. And for the nausea to go away this early was shocking to me! With my 2nd daughter it stayed with me until at least 12 weeks. But to have it be gone before 8 weeks, was crazy. The only thing I'd done differently than my last 2 pregnancies was the vitamins, diet and Xango. I'm convinced that if I'd had the Xango all along, I would have avoided the morning sickness altogether. But since I was off of it for more than a week, it took a couple of weeks for it to work again. And we ran out the other day and I didn't have it for a couple of days and I got nauseas again for the first time in more than 2 weeks.

So that's why I'm feeling so much better these days. You better believe that I don't forget my Xango! :)

8 Weeks Pregnant

2006-03-12T22:13:00.000-05:00

Here I am. 8 weeks pregnant. And still in shock! We were not planning this pregnancy, in fact, I'd just finally convinced my husband that we were done having kids. :) But God had another plan for our family and I'm not going to lie, it's taken some time to get used to it. But I'm slowly coming around. I look at other expectant moms and I look forward to that round belly, to feeling the baby kick. I'm trying to block out being woken up in the middle of the night by my 2nd daughter kicking me. :)

Okay, so how does this relate to healthy living? I began my healthy living journey (thanks to my best friend, Ali) in August of 2005, so just about 5 months before I got pregnant. I was tired of my kids having horrible poop (diarreah) and eczema, among others. So I asked Ali what to do. Mind you, I had asked many times before and never really followed through with any of her suggestions. She was also still learning new things as well, but by last year, she really knew her stuff and I was finally ready to not only listen, but implement - for my kids - not for me, really.

I was unwilling to give up my Peppermint Patties, ice cream every night (literally), and whatever other sugar that I wanted. Ali teases me because I used to eat Special K (trying to be healthy), but I would put a good 2 heaping teaspoons of white sugar on it. Seriously, who was I kidding? I've been hooked on sugar cereals since high school, probably. Ranging from Lucky Charms, Frosted Cheerios, Frosted Flakes, Cocoa Krispies, Ohs, among others. So I started my day off with sugar. :) Then I'd often have a Breyer's yogurt (have you seen how much sugar was in there??) and for dessert start on the Peppermint Patties. That was when I was nursing Tailyn (my 2nd). When I was nursing Emma - it was the yogurt and then Vanilla Wafers. And every night, I'd have my Breyer's Light French Vanilla ice cream. :) Every night. When I was pregnant with Emma, it was with Magic Shell on top. I finally gave that up about 2 years after she was born. That was hard to give up.

Okay, so now you see where I was coming from. I was a sugar queen. But I didn't go out and buy candy bars or stuff like that and I had Special K for b'fast. I wasn't overweight either, believe it or not. I just liked my sugar. So, when Ali sat down with my family and explained what sugar really was - that it wasn't food that your body could digest and that our body basically viewed it as a toxin, I knew I had to get it out of my kids' diet. I knew it was fueling Tailyn's diaper rash and Emma's eczema and not helping their bowel movements. And they didn't eat candy all the time. I'm talking about the white flours (we ate a whole wheat bread), the white rice (we usually ate brown, anyway) and the white sugar (in particular: High Fructose Corn Syurp and Corn Syrup) and the white potatoes. I couldn't believe that our wheat bread actually had High Fructose Corn Syrup! So, I went to the store and bought all new food. Seriously. I was disgusted and didn't want that crap in my house anymore. **Please note, that I am a very black and white person, there are few grey areas in my life and I'm also an extremist. When I decide to do something, I don't usually start slowly, I jump in with 2 feet and go whole hog.***

So, as I took it out of my kids' diets, I slowly started taking it out of mine. After all, I was a sugar addict. So I still had a few Peppermint Patties and a few nights of ice cream. But since I'd gotten rid of everything else, I really wasn't eating any more refined stuff for the most part. It took probably less than a week for me to just stop eating it all together. Maybe I snuck a few leftover cookies or something, but I pretty much quit cold turkey. No more Special K, b/c that had corn syrup and white rice. No more Peppermint Patties, obviously. No more Breyer's ice cream.

At the same time, we added in our USANA vitamins. I was tired of trying to find a cheap vitamin that supposedly was a good one. Do you know how stressful that is? You don't know who to trust. You don't know if you're really getting what it says you are. And we couldn't really afford vitamins. It was driving me crazy. So, I asked Ali, and she said she gives USANA to her family. I knew that if she used it, it must be good. After all, she wouldn't give Jackson anything less than the best and Paul too. So we switched.

It took about a month or 2 for me to notice a difference. But slowly, I noticed that I wasn't getting tired in the afternoons anymore. I didn't need a quick power nap. I was going all day long like the energizer bunny. It was great. And I knew it was because of the elimination of the refined foods and the new vitamins. It was great.

So, I am so thankful that I'd already made those adjustments to my diet and lifestyle before I got pregnant again. This is going to be the healthiest kid on the block. And I know how hard it would be if I tried to do this while being pregnant, because I know my sweet tooth and I know my cravings and I'd never be able to live without ice cream, etc. But because I already went through withdrawal and all that stuff, I didn't have to go through it while being pregnant, which would be so hard!

That's all for now. Next I'll share how I felt my first few weeks being pregnant and why I feel amazing now!