Crossroads

I'm sort of at a crossroads with this blog. The name of the blog is brightbirth and I began this particular blog when I became pregnant with Miley. Do I continue the blog or let it rest with my entire pregnancy and postpartum notes "blogged." My other blog, daringlydomestic.blogspot.com is probably where I'm at now. UNLESS I ever get pregnant again???? I'm thinking this is what I might do. I may switch to daringlydomestic and leave this blog up for expectant mothers to browse. The only problem with that, is once you have the child, what then?? Lots of moms get to the 'after the child' is born part and THEN the REAL assistance is needed. Everything from earaches to childraising, one million and one child rearing questions arise in the first year. Miley is five months old now, 19 lbs. and just began solids today.

I gave her mashed avocado. She liked it. I was so surprised. It's just rather bland and un-garlicky all by itself, but she savored the blandness and although she gagged a little bit, enjoyed it for at least 10 minutes. I thought of banana, but decided to go with almost flavorless food for the first two months. I also have given her fish broth and chicken broth and both of these she REALLY liked.

Hmm. I guess I'll stay here til she's a year old. Let's continue on with her "firsts" and on her first birthday, I'll conclude the blog. How's that?

Colloidal Silver, Colds, and More bacteria Discussion

This is called the "sinucleanse" kids mister for the nose. For infants to 12 years old. I got mine at Walgreens, but drugstore.com is sure to have it. LOVE IT for spraying up the nose, fill with saline (it comes with that), or colloidal silver. This is the first answer for killing bacteria in the nose (with kids), that has been SO SO easy. Even Miley doesn't seem to mind.

Whee! Doesn't that sound like a fun title to this blog? When Mark and I have "heated words", bacteria comes into our house and then I have to get some kind of bacteria killing plan to make it leave.

First, let me clarify. We rarely get sick at our house, but if Mark and I have "words", I can mark it on the calendar and unless we get nice really quick, it will be less than 24 hours before we are hit with illness. Pretty much, I have been batting off illness with a stick for the last four weeks. The worste part was when I was waking up every 45 minutes to a different crying child. It was everything from cough, sore throats, runny nose, and some fever in the mix to eye infection and ear infections. Yuk. And after three weeks of it being passed from one to another, even the baby got it. Double yuk. I took two of them to the doctor and he just threw some antibiotics on them and tried to make them wear masks in the waiting room. (I told the secretary I would pay her 100$ cash if she could make them wear a mask).

Anyhoo. Gross and horrible. THAT's what I think of all of that. Mark and I finally made up and it's on the outs, but during the whole thing I came to a couple of conclusions. One, I don't want to spend one more dime on herbs or vitamins for illness. My VERY favorite herbal concoction is "scout out". Scout Out is an old Indian recipe of herbs that you just feel great after taking. It can be found at trilightherbs.com and boy, do I like that stuff. BUT, the great big bottle of it is $90 and we have gone through a couple of bottles a winter before. Anyway, I'm done spending money on homeopaths, herbs, sprays, snuffers, tinctures, and I'm not kidding! Once we hit 5 kids, everything seems amazingly expensive. Every decision. Every move, the fifth one has added weight to even the smallest decisions and I don't know how to explain it other than, she's tipped the scale. So, even in the herbal department, I'm done. But, I feel like I need to give them SOMETHING to kill germs while we are getting "through it" and believing for healing, and in praying this time, I got something good.

Now, I must preface my "good find' with one thing. Not every thing I do is good for everybody. If this is for you, GREAT, and if not, bag it. Alright, the find was this. Colloidal silver. I've gotten it before at the health store and pretty much thought it was a useless treatment that tasted like water. I used it in the kids' eyes to kill bacteria and it seemed to work o.k., but have never given it much thought until now. The doctor questioned how I got Megan's eyes to clear so fast and I mentioned colloidal silver (which he had never heard of), and when I mentioned it to my new assistant, Elizabeth, she said her Mother-in-law made the stuff and everyone in the family drank it when they started to feel badly and then "it" (the ikkys) would go away. Even food poisoning. Well, I'm ALL FOR anything you can brew at home. I'm making my own soap, for pete's sake, so the idea of brewing up a bacteria killing substance that the whole family could drink was absolutely up my alley. I had to stay home that night with 3 sick kids while Mark took the other two to church, so I was able to research silver generators for about three hours.

Needless to say, I'm the proud owner of a silver generator (www.silvergen.com $219), and am cooking up some silver right now. If anyone would like my herbs and homeopaths, feel free to email me as I won't be using them anymore. I'll probably write a part two on the subject, but I have seen great results in my health as well as everyone else's and have been using the stuff for about three days now. The top three "selling points" for me on the silver generator were these: silver water kills 650 strains of bacteria upon contact with no harmful side effects, once you have your generator, you just need distilled water and it will turn the distilled water into the "silver water" within a couple of hours of turning it on, and finally it has VERY LITTLE FLAVOR, which I am finding is pretty important with all of the little kids and trying to get them to take something. I drink a glass upon waking and give all the kids about an ounce before breakfast. THEN, if someone's coughing, they breathe it in the nebulizer, if someone's sneezing, they get the silver water in the sinucleanse, if they have crusty eyes, I dropper it into their eyes, ....you get the drift. Praise God. I have been so blessed. We have been in Branson 2 months and the dogs have gotten a few ticks and it will kill lyme's disease (safe for pets)....basically, a cure all that tastes like water.

Hope this helps someone, it sure helped me.

First Aid Kit

First Aid Kit includes: Christopher's Lobelia, GSE drops, Gal Pal Hot water bottle, Comfrey salve, Arnica gel, and Sting Recover

I was brainstorming baby gifts and thought a first aid kit would be a cute gift. It would have to come with plenty of suggestions, so I'm blogging the suggestions. If I were on a deserted island (which I kind of am, up here in branson), these are the essential ingredients I would put in the first aid kit.

The first item is Lobelia. Well, before I describe the items, let me say I have and enjoy other supplements, this is just the cheapest and most effective items in my arsenal.

LOBELIA is an herb. It's also known as puke weed since you can vomit if you overdose. You'll have to google and read about it for hours like I did, but the PRIMARY use of this herb is for a "wet cough". I have never had an infant get sick until Miley. Even with the others in the babies' face before, mine just are completely resistant to any kind of cold or flu symptoms even if the whole family has something, but THIS time, very very tiny Miley got some wheezy soundy chesty fluidy thing at just a couple of weeks old. I had everyone taking the Lobelia and gave it to her as well. The best way to administer yuukkyy drops to a baby is to do it while they are nursing. I gave her 2 drops per nursing session. I just got the dropper with 2 drops in it, and slid it into her mouth next to my breast as she was nursing. this was wonderful. She almost did not notice it when I did it like this. I guess it's like taking pills and swallowing water really fast afterward. For the other kids, they get 4 or 5 drops every 30 minutes or so. If they are getting too much, they will hurl. Just stick to the low dosage plan...I've had one child that gets a strange "bronchial" type "attack" when her immune system is low. We have a breathing machine or a "nebulizer" and she does that, but I have done that and I HATE how the medicine that you breathe is. It tastes like heavy metal. So for me, finding the Lobelia was huge. It dries her chest up in a matter of 24 hours or less and has no side effects. The reason I ran into this whole "wet chest" thing is because my kids were all coughing and so I gave them cough suppressant to sleep. One of them developed pneumonia because she wasn't coughing and fluid went into her chest. It was horrid. God protected her from death, I'm sure of it. Needless to say, I WILL NOT do cough suppressant ever again.

GSE or grapefruit seed extract is my next fabulous cheapy find. You can make eardrops out of it with some olive oil and do lots of other things with this. My favorite is to keep this and a small cup next to the sink. The kids make their own "gargle" by putting 10 drops of GSE and warm water in the cup. It kills all the bacteria in the back of the throat. If they start to cough or complain of a sore throat....time to gargle. I wish doctors would make their antibiotic fluid bags with this stuff instead of drugs. It kills all the bad bacteria but leaves the good. I like to make a huge drink of water and put 2 or 3 drops in there every day. It seems to keep overall health up-good for candida and other items. Thousands of uses, really and SUPER cheap option.

The Gal Pal is just a fun item to have on hand that I have used SO MUCH since I bought mine. It's a tiny hot water bottle/ ice bag. It's $15 and you can get it at www.gal-pal.com. I really really like these. I like the tiny size of them. Tonight I am battling an ear infection in one of the kids, so I'm putting olive oil/garlic drops in the ear and then she is holding the gal pal with hot water on the other ear and it seems to help. It's nice and tiny and useful in in travel. Makes a GREAT ice pack fast. Just fill with ice. It has a nice wide opening. These are GREAT gifts! They come in fifty different fabrics or so. Shipping can take forever, so order before you actually need this product.

Comfrey salve or any kind of olive oil based salve with echinacea, comfrey, calendula and a couple of other skin healing herbs is SO NICE to have on hand. Everything from diaper rash to cuts to rashy poo poo bottoms...this will help heal skin issues in double the time they would heal on their own. I grab this whenever I see it. Farmers markets, whole foods, little country nutrition shops...usually will have a pot of salve for $5.

Arnica gel is GREAT for bruises. I also like the arnica homeopathic tabs for bruises and trauma. Just rub the gel on and bruises disappear in half the time they take to heal. A side note on bruising. If your child likes to eat ice, or bruises pretty easily, they are low on iron. You can find a yummy supplement called tri-iron at www.trilightherbs.com. They have AWESOME herbs in glycerin bases with great descriptions on their site.

Last item in my first aid kit is Sting Recover. This is $13 per bottle and will last you the lifetime of your children. Have this on hand before you need it. I have used it for 50 fire ant bites on one child and for 2 wasp stings on another and it worked WONDERS. It is a dry clay/dirt, and you add water to make it into a clay. Rub clay on the skin and leave for 20 minutes. Wash off with hot water. What this does is it pulls the poison or toxin to the skin surface out of the bite. It is effective for scorpion stings, ant bites, wasp stings, bee stings, spider bites, any type of sting or bite, this works on. Get this miracle stuff at www.solarrecover.com. I like it because it has a long shelf life, travels nicely, just add water, is a nice amount, and it works VERY WELL. On the fifty fire ant bites with Michael...the normal pus at the surface of an ant bite the next day was NOT THERE. It literally pulled the poison out of the bite and there was just a scab on 90 percent of the bites and no itching on his part. Very nice! So, if you are one of my friends and get pregnant in the next few days, this will probably be my next gift to you, this little first aid kit. Oh, and check out the solar spray at that last website (www.solarrecover.com)...it is FABULOUS for sunburns, literally turns the burn into a dewy tan. Last summer, we went to the beach and I bought this solar recover at a little vitamin shop in destin florida. We used the whole bottle in a couple of weeks. Love this stuff!!

Party Time

Boston is decorating his "volcano" cookie. It was a little girl's "shift dress", but definitely looks like a volcano from his perspective

Today we celebrated Mackenzie's birthday. It was a fun fun party. Only four children came, but when joined with our four, any amount becomes big quickly! We had a baking party and I think it may have been the best party yet.

Mackenzie got face paint for her birthday on Thursday and she has been practicing on everyone's face (or whatever body part had no clothing), so she painted faces. She was supposed to paint cupcakes, but the two girls I inspected looked like they had cat faces. Not sure what that has to do with baking, but it was fun. We made chef's hats (just take two pieces of legal paper, tape them together longways, have kids color them, then fold them like an accordian, unfold them, fold up the bottom of the paper and write chef kid on the front, wrap it around kids head, and BOOM, instant chef. Oh yeah, staple or tape it to fit correctly). Those were cute.

My gracious mother in law made 100 sugar cookies pre-party and so I just had to provide colored sugar and icing for the cookies. There is an amish place close by here that sells colored sugars in every pretty color for $1.50 a "tub". The icing is powdered sugar and water. So, I set up that "station" with kids chairs and icing in little cups with plastic knives and then the colored sugars.

Another "baking station" was the pizza making table. Last night, I whipped up some pizza dough, made small balls out of it, and refrigerated it. This morning, I got the dough out first thing and let it rise. In the meantime, I put toppings in tiny little ramekins from the restaurant supply store (23 cents each). I did onions, bell pepper, olives, artichokes, pepperoni, and then cheese and sauce. I covered our kitchen table with a plastic tablecloth and put flour in a salt shaker type deal. Every child got a child's sized rolling pin (www.growingcooks.com) and rolled out their own dough, put the sauce (ragu) on top, cheese, and any toppings. I had made 24 balls of dough so the parents got to make their own pizzas as well. This was really a LOT of fun and the dough turned out just right. Oh yeah, after the kids rolled their dough into a circle (or whatever), they put this on a piece of parchment paper and I wrote their name on the paper (with a pencil). THEN, they topped the pizza. This worked beautifully. I have a double oven with 3 racks in each oven, so we just popped 3 pizzas in and set one timer, then 3 more and set another. The pizza turned out SO SO well and everyone was fed by the end of the party. The dough can be frozen or refrigerated for three days, so we will make more pizza on monday for lunch leftovers. The kids took home their rolling pins as a party favor.

Finally, I had a "feel and touch" station with different cups of ingredients that go into pizza. The kids were to close their eyes and feel the items (garlic, onion, flour, oil, rosemary...), but we just ran out of time. Megan did the feel and touch and I wish I had video taped it....so funny!

I got the pizza dough recipe from this site: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001199.html

The article is called "The Best Pizza Dough Ever Recipe"

All in all, a very inexpensive and fun party. Would love to do this again any time.

Happy Birthday Mackenzie! Number 7

November 12, 2009

Dear Mackenzie:

Happy Birthday! Seven years old is such a BIG girl age! I am enjoying you as you grow. You are girly and pretty and crafty. You like animals and people and playing games and you do some nice little practical jokes as well. You take good care of Malachi and Zoe and Peaches and make sure they get lots of “pets” during the day. You like to shop. You know how to make lots of money by doing your jobs. You can do almost any craft. You are an artist and VERY good at drawing, painting, coloring as well as playing the piano. I will teach you backgammon and some other new games now that you are seven.

Also, now that you are seven, God will start to show you more and more about Himself. This will be the year you start to develop really really good habits that will go with you for the rest of your life. The main habit when you are seven is to read your Bible every day. You may not like doing this at first, but it will be the habit that is more important than any other habit you develop. “what is a habit?” you ask. Well, here is the dictionary definition for habit: Function: noun

1 : a costume characteristic of an occupation, rank, or function

2 : a usual manner of behavior or thinking

3 : a way of behaving that has become fixed by being repeated often --

4 : characteristic way of growing or occurring

I put the ones in purple that apply to you. As you develop the habit of reading your Bible out loud every day (one chapter a day), you will get to know God for yourself. Up until now, I have read the Bible to you, or stories to you, and we have memorized scripture. All of those things are VERY good, but the very purpose of learning to read itself is that you may develop the habit of reading the Bible for yourself. Now that you are seven, you are responsible to read it aloud to yourself. When you read it aloud to yourself, your brain in your head and your spirit in your belly both hear it. The Bible is not just a book. It is God’s letter to you. The words in the Bible are alive and living things. It is different than any other book in the world. When you read it, it will change you. When you love it, it will speak to you. When you open it and take time for it, God will visit you. Every answer in the world is in the Bible. Everything you ever wanted to know, you can find in there. When you open it, ask the Holy Spirit to show you something special. Expect to find out something new about Jesus. Don’t just read it to get the prize at the end of the week, but read it with expectancy. Read it like you are expecting to get a “present” or a “treat” out of what you are reading. God has “treats” in His Word, but you have to EXPECT them, or you will miss out on HIS treats. I started this when I was seven. I started reading my Bible every day and God has shown me Himself through His Word. When you have the habit of reading your Bible every day, you are building your life on the “rock”, not the “sand”.

Mackenzie, build your life on the rock. I am your mom. I can only show you the right way and guide you in your life, but you are seven now and you have to start doing things with more purpose and choosing the right way yourself. If you choose the right way, God has LOTS AND LOTS of good surprises for you. So SO Good. But you have to take more responsibility this year than you did when you were six. God loves you. He has a plan for you. He knows who you are going to marry and what you will do and He has a road for you that is WONDERFUL. But, He gives you the choice. You choose to walk on His road and you choose to do it every day. The best way to understand HIS road, is to understand God. The best way to understand God is to read your Bible AND to pay special attention at church AND special attention to anyone who talks about God.

The other gift you have in your pocket is the Holy Spirit. Once you can pray in tongues, this is a special gift from the Lord. PRactice praying in tongues every day. I like to practice when I am taking a shower. You are old enough to take your own showers now and it is a good time to pray in the spirit. Try to pray in the spirit the whole shower long and you will find that praying in the spirit is like having your “battery” charged. You have a spiritual battery, just like your new scooter has a battery. When you pray in tongues, you don’t understand what you are saying, but it is charging your battery. There is a lot more about praying in tongues and things you can do with that gift, but for this year, just practice charging your battery every day for at least five minutes a day. Or, when you take a shower.

This is the year of GOOD habits. It is nice to run, and play, and explore the woods, and to ride horses, and to play games. Those things are wonderful. But, it is time for you to build your life on the “Rock”. And EVERY day, before you do THOSE things, you need to practice your good habits.

I am so happy to be your mom. You are a wonderful gift God has given to me. Can you tell that I like teaching you? It is one of my favorite things to do. Now that you are a BIG BIG girl, I will get to teach you even more and we will get to play some really cool games (like Backgammon and cribbage). But my favorite thing of all is to watch you grow in God and get to know Him. May you grow more this year that the last.

Remember in The Silver Chair, when Aslan tells Jill to REMEMBER the SIGNS and say them over and over? This letter is like Aslan’s signs to you. Don’t just read it and forget it. Remember the signs, or, the HABITS for this year. Keep them in your mind and practice them. I will put a little reminder in your bathroom, but I want you to do this on your own as well. Each day, after you read your Bible chapter, I want you to bring me your Bible popsicle stick and after seven days or seven popsicle sticks, you get to pick a prize from the goody bag. And they are GOOD prizes! You could earn 52 prizes by your next birthday, but you have to do your habit, to get the prizes. The best prize of all is that you will know Jesus better by November 12, 2010 than you did this year. But I want to help you get on your way to a lifetime of good habits, so that will be our little “game” for the year.

I love you very much. Daddy loves you very much. No matter what, we will always love you and always be here for you, but no matter how much we love you, God loves you 1000 times more than we do. He saw you before WE saw you. He saw you when He made Adam and Eve. He saw that we were going to be your mommy and daddy. He saw that you were going to have brown eyes and love animals. He put that inside of you. He saw you inside of my tummy and gave you lots of hair and perfect eyebrows. And now, He wants to talk to you. Open your heart and He will show Himself to you. Don’t fill your whole day with just yourself, if you do that, you will never truly be happy. It’s only when you make room for Him that your life will come alive. And as you walk hand in hand with Him, He will show you secrets. SEcrets about Him, secrets about you, secrets about life. He will show you how to draw people and how to play the piano better than most mommies and daddies can. Because with God, you can do everything BETTER.

I love you!

mommy

Housekeeping

Miley's getting BIG!!

O.K. So we have moved to Branson, Missouri. It may be temporary, it may be forever, we just are following what God wants us to do for now. Mark is looking at the possibilities of expanding the aviation business here. We still have our house in San Antonio and Mark's parents are living there while renovating THEIR house.

I have not blogged in awhile.

I'm back.

First of all. I ovulated once and had just the dinkiest period ever, so I thought I may be pregnant. Ha ha. Very funny. I ran to Walmart and peed on a stick as fast as I physically could get there. Not pregnant. BUT, it did make me research people who had gotten pregnant on the iud and it does happen. One in one hundred times. I may double up with another form of birth control??? Or should I be the test tube child for this form of birth control and see how many years I can go without getting pregnant with just an i.u.d. in. It's a little vicarious, but thinking the latter would be a fun plan. I DO NOT want to get pregnant, but I'm not opposed to six children. It's a nice round number. And after that ...ABSOLUTELY NO MORE! (i Think)

Enough about that. What have I been doing for the last month? Well, the truth is, I've been cleaning my new home. I lost Gloria and a few others in the quick move (Natalie, my fabulous assistant is still with me-hold on girl), and otherwise, we don't have much help and are taking our time finding help. I am SO BLESSED to have been following flylady for the past few years. She has helped me with tips and talks and books and flylady dusters and now I am putting all of her tips and talks into practice and it seems to be working pretty well. What helps is a tidy husband. If you are messy and/or your husband is messy, I think that makes things harder. I guess having 5 kids that aren't perfect at pickup thrown into the mix makes for an interesting housecleaning chart as well. And, while we're at it, let's throw the 3 dogs into the whole mess and lastly, chalk up that 2 acres surrounding this house with bugs and mud and worms and you've got a picture of my easy housekeeping job. Let's just say-I wear my ipod while I'm cleaning.

But seriously, whether you work or stay at home, look up www.flylady.net. That woman will give you the tips and tools you need to stay on top of your home. You need a timer for sure. And I like to keep cleaners in every bathroom. I found a great deal. The dollar tree is close to us here (everything's a dollar), and I found some great toilet cleaners and window cleaners for $1 each. I could pretty much stock every bathroom and sink in the house for around $10. I put a rag or two and a cleaner under each sink or over each toilet. When I leave that bathroom, I swish and swipe really fast and that seems to keep the bathrooms happy. I do the Master sinks and toilet in the morning and then other various toilets and sinks as I use them. This is just one of the many "tips" that flylady gives and it has helped me tons during this process.

More later!!!

Dear Michael, A Birthday Letter

September 12th, 2009

Dear Michael:

You turned 2 years old, today. You LOVED singing “Happy Birthday” to yourself and clapped along with the rest of us. You are my bright firecracker, blessed child that enjoys singing and clapping. Ever since you could clap, you have clapped. You clap at the end of every song on the c.d. and if you ever hear anyone else in the room clapping, you clap along with them.

You are totally a truck and car guy. For your birthday, you got a big ‘ol wagon and remote controlled fire truck from Cici and you have been running around playing with these. Your favorite gift was the “lil coupe”. It’s a little red car with a yellow roof that you can either move with your feet, or sister can push. Of course, sister Megan enjoys pushing you all over the place in your new car. It has cup holders in the back of it, and today, I caught you with your little snack cup of cashews. You had them in the back of the car in the cup holder and you were grabbing a little snack “to go” as you sat in your new coupe.

You still call Mackenzie, “Megan”. You call all the dogs “peachy”. You call Max, “mahhk”. You have lots of cute phrases you use a lot. If you really want something, you always add “please” on the end....which makes me wants to give it to you. You always like to say: “come on, mom! come on, Dad!”, ALRIIIGHT! Let’s go!! Come on! What’s the matter? What’s happening? Here we go! Yay!! I’ll think of some more as soon as I finish this letter. It’s super cute.

You are a big guy. Your shoe size is almost as big as Max’s. Right now, you wear a 9.5. So far, your feet are the biggest the fastest (out of all the kids). You eat the most and eat just about anything put in front of you. You like all kinds of food, but if you get some bread....it’s hard to get you eating something else. You REALLY like bread. If you like something, you announce it. MMMmm, good!, you’ll say. And you have been the most complimentary of my cooking, thus far.

I love you. You have been a little piece of sunshine in my life. You surprised me by being a boy. You surprised me with your blonde hair. And you keep surprising me every day with your fun, challenging, exciting, personality. You were the clingiest and huggiest the longest. I was shocked when you stopped breastfeeding. You loved being close to mom and really enjoyed breastfeeding. I thought you would want to nurse forever....but all good things come to an end. And now, you are a big boy. You are two years old. And I am the most blessed mom in the whole world, for you are my son, and you give me great pleasure and joy.

love, Mommy

The IUD Test Drive, Part 2

All day after having the IUD put in, I had mild cramping and some spotting. Last night, cramping seemed more severe...I was having second thoughts. When I woke up, there was nothing today. No cramps and no spotting. I HAD heard horror stories about the IUD and when I asked Lois about it, she said the old version IUD was really bad. So, I guess the newer ones are not related to the old. So far so good.

Birth Control-My New IUD-and other Various Forms of Birth Control

There just HAS to be a blog on birth control. Otherwise, it would not be a good blog, right?In the last few months of my pregnancy, I could not stop thinking about the I.U.D. (intrauterine device), and many times, when something keeps coming to me, I check it out. It could be a God "Breeze". I was thinking we needed a form of birth control that was more permanent than what I used last time, and the IUD kept coming up in my thoughts. I researched them, I found a couple of people who have them inserted and have had great experiences, I had the baby, I called, made an appointment, I went today and I had it put in. So easy. God helps make my life so simple...I love it!

About mid-pregnancy, I started thinking about the IUD (intra-uterine device), and began researching it. There are two different ones. ParaGard has a copper wire wound around it. It lasts for twelve years. Mirena releases progestin and lasts for five years. The Mirena IUD is hormonal and the ParaGard IUD simply sits in your uterus and the copper kills sperm, so when the sperm hits the copper wire, it dies. No hormones....fairly natural. I am opposed to anything foreign in my body, but this seems more natural than my diaphragm, fingers, and spermicide every night...right? The following is my story on the insertion of the IUD:

Miley ate twice last night, so I took a chance on her not needing to eat for awhile. I drove to Lone Star ObGyn (midwives who practice in the hospital), and parked. It took me a good 15 minutes to fill out all the forms. One hour after my initial appointment time, I got to go weigh (oh, fun), and then got my blood pressure taken. I finally got my own room and waited a little longer for the midwife. (I LOVE Lois Stauffer...favorite chick on staff, there). Lois comes in, chats for a minute, shows me a photo of the uterus with the IUD inserted, talks about side effects-possible heavier cycle, and then give me a cloth wrap. It takes me all of two seconds to don the wrap, I wait 5 or 10 MORE minutes. She comes in, I get on the table, and two minutes later, she's done. Honestly, it was nothing of a procedure. I would say it felt the same as a pap. Basically, she stuck what looked like a soda straw to the back of the uterus, then took a little something else and pushed the IUD down the straw. It popped out and into my uterus in no time flat and that was that!

Lois' tips: first of all, the IUD has a string that hangs out of the cervix. This is the string they pull to get it out when you want it taken out. She said she likes to leave a little length so as not to "lose" it. She said if it's too short, it can get pushed up into the cervix and get a little lost. Apparently, your uterus is either straight, tilts forward, or tilts back. Women with extremely "tilted" uterus' (?) or extra heavy periods, are not great candidates for this birth control. Everyone else, it sounds like, can do it. The OPTIMAL time to have it inserted is around 8 weeks after the birth. She prefers for you to be breastfeeding, have just had a baby, and not to have a cycle for a month or two while your uterus gets "used" to it being in there. One can have it inserted at any time, but the easiest best way is post-partum. My insurance paid for it in full, I just had a co-pay. So, for forty bucks, I have a twelve year "pass" for free sex without babies. (should I write that out loud?)

I cannot promise you the same experience. Your doctor may be mister big hands and it hurts horribly or something, but for me, this was one of the easiest, smoothest transitions of my life. I'm not big on getting parts "tied". God forbid something would happen to me, or my husband, but we do things in life so that we may be prepared. We have our wills ready and we have our tubes free from snips.....just in case.

Lois said that a lady comes in every year for her pap and that woman has had hers in for six years without one issue. She said the lady's doctor cut the strings too short, so she does a sonogram every year to make sure it's still there.

It sounds as if once your uterus gets "used" to it being in there. There's not an issue. I went on a jog tonight and wondered if jogging might push it out. I know they can expel themselves, but don't know how common this is? If mine falls out, you will be the first to know. This is my third birth control trial. The first was the diaphragm...great place to start, by the way, and I liked that, but DH thought he could feel it. Then I went to the cervical cap. A nice neat little "hat" for your cervix made in England. LOVED this one. So easy and comfortable, I would forget about it was the only bad thing. One must use spermicide with both of these and I found that American spermicide irritated me. So, I found a yahoo group that uses caps and diaphragms and I joined the group. That group gave me a link to a natural spermicide (called FemProtect) made of vitamin C that you could order from Europe. It's $25 per tube and is fabulous. If you are frequently using your cap or diaphragm, this stuff is worth the cost. It's totally non-irritating. The email to order FemProtect is as follows: enquiries@naturalgynae.com

Simply email Elke Sedlmeier and she will hook you up. You pay with paypal. I really really like the midwives at the Baptist Hospital for this. They are very well informed on all of the birth control methods and seem to be pro's at doing what they do in this area. I hope this blog helps someone. I will blog again if I have any problems with this method or issues along the way. Birth Control is a big subject with lots of ways to go. Hormones and tube ties are just not for me....any other suggestions, shoot 'em my way.

"Back into Shape" part 2-my MIRACLE Diet

Miley on one of her first walks...

O.K. Part one was a little pep talk on not getting down on yourself or hitting it too hard too fast. This is a little pep talk on how to lose the weight and lose it fast. I gave myself lots of time on the first three kids. On the fourth baby, I thought it was our last, so I was HOT to get into shape and quick. I think I waited at least 3 months, and then I blasted into working out and actively "dieting". Surprisingly, my milk supply went UP, not down. Number four was my strongest nurser, to the point of drawing blood (did not know that was POSSIBLE, but it is), so keeping milk up was a big deal with him. It may have been 6 months before I did this (it all gets a bit hazy), but anyway, when I started the exercise and diet plan, Mark and I had a competition and whoever lost the highest percentage of weight for the week got a massage from the other person. We lost on average 1-3 lbs. a week.

the DIET: was an easy one. And diet is really 80 percent of weight loss, so you can exercise til the dogs come home, but if you don't change your diet, it may take a while. The diet that we did was recommended to us by a trainer and it worked AWESOME! We ate protein only NO CARBS (rice, brown rice, potatoes, sweets, fruit....) unless we had just worked out, and then we could have carbs for about thirty minutes after the workout. No sugar, though. Just a sandwich or rice with dinner...that kind of thing. When I would get hungry I would eat sliced turkey with a slice of cheese, boiled eggs with yummy garlic salt, sardines with mustard, (lost you there, didn't I?), scrambled eggs with hot sauce, protein shake with kefir, jay robb protein powder, stevia, raw eggs, and ice (crushed into a smoothie-NO FRUIT), cheese dipped in hot sauce without chips, hummus by the spoonful, lots of beans, meat on the grill, hamburger wrapped in lettuce....you get my drift. Once a week was cheat day. We ate anything and everything we wanted. Usually, I would bake something special on this day. This quickly turned into "cheat weekend" where we would start cheating Friday night and end Sunday night. Monday morning, we would weigh and then start all over again. Every week, we lost weight. Some weeks it was as much as three or four pounds. Some weeks, only one pound. But we lost every week and quickly got down to our goal weight.

Exercise: for everyone is going to be different. I personally don't like to spend a LONG time exercising. 20 minutes is my favorite amount of time. I would rather work out 20 minutes twice a day, then do an hour long workout. I just won't work out an hour at a time. But I really push it for the 20 or 30 minutes that I'm working out. Personally, I like to swim (lost most of the crowd on that one, too). I like to jog, too, love taking the kids along, but noticed the best weight loss results on the weeks that I swam. A nice walk with the baby while kids are napping is my way of enjoying life. I like to wear an ipod and jog a block, walk a block, until my body can jog the whole way. My VERY VERY best stomach shaper is Swiss Ball Abs, by Adam Ford. It's an ab workout on dvd, three different workouts, that gets SUPER results in the minimum amount of time. I won't work out for an hour if possible and just hate sit-ups. The ball is so much more fun.

So, that's it. That's my super diet in a box and it works really really well. I like to weigh once a week and record it...it keeps me accountable. If I can't walk or run or swim, then I do my ab video. I rarely do two things in one day unless it just works out that way. And, as I said in the first blog, the baby is 7 weeks old and I average one to two workouts a week right now. Sleep is paramount, so if I don't sleep, then exercise is not an option for the day.

One last note on milk production. I really up my protein intake and water intake when I exercise. I think that's why my milk production goes up, not down. If I have a rough day and my milk DOES go down, I take fenugreek in capsule form or as an herbal tincture under the tongue. Goat's Rue increases milk as well. Wishgardenherbs.com has a milk "enrichment" herbal mixture as well as straight Goat's Rue. These are nice to have on hand and to take occasionally.

enjoy!

Getting Back into "Shape"

This is a tiny iphone pic of Miley. Looks like we're in the car. Those iphone camera's are really impressive-eh? I got a question on getting back into shape post pregnancy, and so, this is my reply. Basically, you are surviving after a baby is born. You have good days and so-so days and not so good days. Depending on the number of child it is and how good you feel, exercise is mom's treat when she's had plenty of sleep. I usually give myself 9 months to even think about exercising. I like to do it sooner, because I like exercise. I like to sweat, I need the endorphins, but if my eyes look like a drunken sailor from lack of sleep....then exercise goes to the bottom of the list no matter how much I would like to do it. The other way to look at it is this: the faster you get into shape, the higher the potential for the next pregnancy....if you get my drift.

I've probably exercised once a week and the baby is 7 weeks old. But the last time I went for a jog, I got mastitis when I got home and it was probably related to a bunch of things, but certainly, exercising may have contributed. Miley sleeps awesome. She sleeps 6-7 hours at a time at night and only wakes up once for a feeding. BUT, I have four others waiting for me in the morning, plus a husband who's a night owl. And, I have an overly responsible personality when it comes to the family, so, I have to watch burning the candle at both ends. Miley will start sleeping through the whole night in about 5 weeks or so, and that will help tremendously....at which point I will give my new view on exercise. For now, I'm enjoying being a size 10 and wearing lots of elastic waistband clothes and giving myself pep talks. After all, you DO have the rest of your life to get in shape, the baby, however, will only be a baby for a few more days.

Mastitis, the Mom's Speeding Ticket from hell

Weelll, I got the 'ol mastitis yesterday and it is NOT FUN. Basically, mastitis is speeding ticket. You are going too fast, pushing too hard, not trusting and resting....and boom...here comes mastitis. I was taking all of my potions and lotions but continued on making dinner and taking care of kids and sure enough, here comes the fever, headache, spinning room and I had to jump in bed.

So I put on my sweats, wool socks, and turned on the heating pad and started praying for forgiveness. I know when I'm pushing it and really, you can push it physically, but if mentally you are stressing over too much, I think that's when mastitis can set in. If you nip in the bud immediately, you won't get the full blown deal, but if you stay up and stay going...very quickly the fever and the symptoms will set in that send you straight to bed.

I think the whole thing that brought it on was this curtain I'm making for the nursery. Usually, I don't decorate the nursery til after the birth. The baby sleeps in my room anyway for 3 months or so, so I will find out the sex after the birth, and then set things in motion. This time, I am completely converting the nursery from boy to girl, and I'm really into it. Usually, I just throw up a few unisex items from pottery barn and I'm happy with that. This time, I bought at least 15 yards of fabric for various items and sewing my way there. Plus, had the room painted a gorgeous blue....anyway, so I have been working for hours on this curtain-it's only one curtain for one window, but I think I picked the hardest curtain in the book and it really has stressed me out. I had to repent for how stressed out I got over the thing. Tonight, I'm going to work on it again, but setting my timer so I don't work til midnight...maybe it will get finished, but I'm ok if it doesn't. The following is what I do for mastitis:

Mastitis Recipe for Success:

IMMEDIATELY get in bed with the baby and have the baby nurse on the affected side

IMMEDIATELY start drinking tons of water and taking vitamin C, vitamin B, rutin, and zinc (if you have it)

A nice tincture is the "mastitis" tincture from wishgarden herbs (Whole Foods carries wishgarden herbs now....call first to make sure it's in stock)

HOT HOT shower and massage or HOT heating pad on that breast help break up the clogged ducts

Email me with any other tips you know of....this is all I could think of for now

Homeschool and Getting Ready-6 weeks mark

...this is a closet organizer with clothes rack in the middle from Sam's (one year ago) to the left is a shoe organizer....I put a roll of butcher paper on the clothes rack as well as a teacher's pocket organizer...to the right are art supplies
our butterfly classroom.....

This is the cute rack I found to hang the backpacks-Container Store

Miley will be six weeks old tomorrow. Hurrah! I love the six weeks point since mine truly start sleeping through the night, my hormones get more level, and I start feeling more normal at this point.

Today, it came to my mind that having another child is very much like juggling. When one learns to juggle, one ball seems easy pretty quickly, but every ball one adds, takes a little practice and adjusting to get it going smoothly.

My plan is to start homeschooling next week on Monday. I went to one day of a teacher's seminar for "Spell to Write and Read", by Wanda Sanseri. This is my favorite language arts program, and I would highly recommend it to anyone breathing who is first teaching their child to write, read, and spell, or has a child with spelling "issues". Rhonda Bedee was my teacher this year and she spoke on "collections" and we practiced "collecting" words that fit different spelling rules. Every time she talked about "collections", we waved a butterfly net around and it was actually quite fun.

After the class, I was so inspired by the "collections" idea, that I decided to make it the theme of the year for our classroom. I found butterflies at the Learning Store for $5 a pack of 36 and stuck them on the walls and ceiling and hung up some butterfly nets to further the effect. I am very blessed to have a playhouse in the backyard. It's about ten foot by ten foot and has now become the official schoolhouse for us. I love the concept because we physically walk out of the house and to the schoolhouse to "do school". It has taken me about two years to get comfortable with homeschooling and with how I was going to do it...after seeing the results from this past year, and having grown in confidence on the subjects at hand, I can say I now really enjoy it.

I will say, homeschooling for me was foreign for the first year and a half or so. It just took awhile to get used to the idea, plus my child did not like that I was her teacher, plus, I did not want to BE her teacher, plus, my husband was not totally on board, plus plus plus. I knew I wanted the reading program that I was raised on (private Christian school in the seventies), and could not find a private school locally that employed the program....well, there is ONE school that teaches the Spalding method and it's $13,000 for kindergarten, plus it is an all boys' school.

Last year, I found another school that used Spell to Write and Read, but it's a good forty minute drive from our house, plus, Mackenzie turns five after September 1st, (a strict rule this particular school keeps), plus, I was sort of ready to homeschool by this point.

And this year, I'm ready to BURST out of my cocoon and teach! I am secretly counting down the days til school and in my spare time, brushing up on the subjects at hand. Spell to Write and Read is our language arts' program (www.bhibooks.net), Tapestry of Grace (www.tapestryofgrace.com) is our history/geography program, Right Start Math (www.alabacus.com) is our math program. Art is taught by Art Starz (www.artstarz.com) at an after school program locally. Piano...Rozalia Ravitsky-she teaches out of her home, Cornerstone Church, and the local Jewish Community Center. She teaches piano by color, a unique program in which very young children can learn the piano....first by color, then by number, and finally the notes and theory. Mackenzie started this program at three years old and is quite good now. Megan, I started at four, but just now is flourishing at five....should have started her later.

I started school with piano only. This seemed to REALLY prepare both girls for reading and math. Plus, I didn't have to teach it. (can you tell how much I resisted this process?????) God has his ways.

Year two, we JUST did English and Math. Then, Natalie, my student helper offered to teach the History and Geography portion in the afternoon while the other three kids were sleeping. So, Mackenzie and Natalie are together from 1PM to 2PM working on Tapestry of Grace. This is when I get a nap or exercise and it works nicely for everyone involved. While I am on the subject of "helpers" and making this blog as long as possible, I will throw in the "helper" speech I give everyone. Helpers do not have to be at your house from 8AM to 5PM. I have found all of my current helpers by going to www.utsa.edu/careerservices If you have a college that is close to your home, and you need help for one hour a day, there is a student who wants to work one hour a day. Hire them for $6 or $8 an hour to help with baby or to help with other kids while you homeschool or to help clean dishes after dinner. This is better than a massage or even clothes. Shop at goodwill, but get a little tiny bit of help and you will feel like a new woman. People always wonder how I can do all that I do and much of what I do is fueled by God's strength and by students that help me.

I know for sure I could not homeschool effectively with all of my tiny children, if I did not have someone in the morning caring for the two toddlers and the baby while I schooled the other two older children. This has been a huge blessing and it blessed the student who WANTS experience while they are getting their teacher certification or whatever the case may be.

O.K. I think I have stuffed all of my homeschool information into this one blog. Now, it's time for some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz's

Scheduling...the art of the perfect NIGHT

max going potty

A lot of people think they have me pegged when they hear "home birth". They think I'm vegan and I have two king size beds pushed together and we all are one big happy vegan homeschooling co-sleeping family. Well, if you want to know what's for dinner...it's usually going to be BEEF.

So, all home birthers aren't vegan and still wear a bra after the birth is over. I also am not big on co-sleeping. I just can't do it. Yes, the baby sleeps with me for part of the night some nights. But I sleep better and she sleeps better when we have a little space between us. Usually, I have her bassinet or Moses basket or Miyo hammock in my room...for four days. After four days, I feel I MUST get some sleep, so I move the bed of choice into my closet. They will then sleep there for about three months or so and then move to their crib in their room. Every child is different, but this four day deal has been the same all five times.

I personally like the closet because it's dark and away from the rest of the house, so I can keep it reasonably quiet and safe from the other children. Let's face it, the most hazardous moments in the baby's first year will be what the siblings may inflict or try to accomplish when mom's not around. I also found that when I had my second child, the first one appreciated saying good-bye and having her go into the closet for naps. It helped both of us gently incorporate number two into our lives as she slowly slept her way awake. By the time my first one was ready to have the other one around all of the time, the second one was awake more and could be around all of the time.

My favorite book for how to put baby on a schedule is Baby Wise by Gary Ezzo. That one book gave me more confidence as a mom than almost any other book out there. I am not legalistic about scheduling, but I am very conscious of "the schedule" and when things get a little rough, I immediately go back to looking at the clock, waking baby up after three hours, and squeezing in a couple of 2 hour feedings at night before bed. I like for my last feeding to be at 10:30PM. Baby wakes at 2:30 and at 6:30Am and the night is good when it's this predictable, I don't wake baby at night, just during the day if necessary. She sleeps so well in the Miyo hammock, I DO have to wake her during the day.

I have not been able to feed her at 10:30PM until last night. Every night she wakes early...9PM or 8:30 and acts as if she's starving. Last night, around 8:45, friends came over and wanted to hold her. We peeked in the Miyo baby hammock and she was getting restless so I got her out for them to hold. I THEN, put her in my personal sling and wore her. We went out into the driveway and talked and I patted her bottom and she lightly slept as long as I did this. I came in and did some chores and she continued sleeping until 10:30 when I woke her up and changed her, put her on the potty, and fed her. She then slept BEAUTIFULLY the rest of the night. It was the perfect night with a 2;30AM wakeup. i had had some sleep so I had the strength (after feeding her in our bed), to take her back to her bed, and then at 6:30Am...same thing. I felt like a new woman with just some good sleep behind me.

One note here. The potty. This is another interesting factoid that has worked and works beautifully with me and with our babies. When I change the baby's diaper, I take off the diaper and then I hold them underneath their thighs and with their back against my chest. I hold them either over the sink or sit and hold them on the toilet. This is called "infant potty training" and it's not really potty training, it's just letting them relieve themselves if they feel the "need". Mine are VERY responsive to this and from the first meconium poop, like to go anywhere but the diaper. Every single one of mine really enjoyed these moments and usually when they squirm and cry it's either tiredness, hunger, or NEED to go potty. Today, I was at the lawyers office with my husband and Miley would not be consoled, so I took her straight to the bathroom and she pooped right in the potty and then all was better. (and that's about all I'm going to say about THAT)

I had to post about scheduling because I think it gives new moms amazing confidence when they know WHY their baby is crying. By two weeks old, I can tell why my baby is crying and sometimes she's just tired and grouchy and I promptly put her in bed and let her cry. She's cried as long as 15 minutes and then I turn around and she's totally asleep for a couple of hours. I don't really rock my babies until they are older. No time, really. Also, I like for them to learn to go to sleep without any "props". Oh, another AWESOME book on sleep is HEalthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child-Marc Weissbluth-this one is great for all phases of life...BabyWise is more for the infant....but either way, instilling great sleep habits from the beginning is key to enjoying one another and both of you getting great sleep.

My bit on Cloth Diapering and Cloth diapers

Michael has on a diaper cover I knitted in this pic

Cloth diapering is easy and simple and fun. Basically, you are putting a cloth in a velcro cover and velcro it on the baby...that's it! I sold cloth diapers before we had children and then we moved out to the country and UPS no longer came to my house, so I stopped selling them.

The things I like about quality cloth diapers:

*they are cotton

* they are always on hand

* they are extremely absorbent

*they come in cute prints

* they are versatile...you can use them for quick burp rags...

*If you have the internet, they are easy accessible and can be at your house in days

* I like travelling with them-as long as there is a washer and dryer where we are staying.

*no rashes

The quality makes the difference. I personally like Chinese Prefold diapers, the bleached ones. This is the old fashioned looking diaper with more layers of cotton in the middle than down the edges. After five kids, I have to own up to the fact that I do not really like the pocket diapers (for me). I used fuzzi bunz and my children seemed too hot in them. I line my diapers with a piece of fleece or a polar fleece liner. My favorite covers (for me), are the Bummis super whisper wraps (if I am using a velcro wrap), or the Bumkins pull up pants in super cute prints (if I am using a snappi fastener). If you use a velcro wrap, all you do is fold the diaper into thirds, place it down the runway of the cover and velcro it snugly around baby. If you are using a snappi fastener (a little $2 item that will snugly hold the diaper in place-use instead of pins), then you snappi the diaper around the baby and then pull up a cute cover on top.

In the photo, Michael is wearing a hand knitted wool pull up pants on top of a cotton diaper that has been firmly put in place with a snappi fastener. That's my personal favorite way of diapering, but for grandmas and helpers....I like to keep the velcro covers on hand-the snappi takes a TINY bit of practice.

O.K. The biggest "issue" with many is washing. So, what about washing? Mostly, the guys are nervous about this. They imagine the poop on their favorite golf shirt and that's the end of that. Basically, dirt is dirt. Your washing machine can handle dirt of all sizes and styles. It handles food stains, dirt, blood, chocolate, and more. When baby is little, their poop is just easy, it comes out just like anything else in the wash. As they get older, you can dump the diaper in the potty and then wash. Once I get to the point (1.5 years old), where I am scraping five poops a day and rinsing huge poop diapers out....I switch to disposables. This is where it gets dicey and I'm out. Usually, I'm pregnant at this point, too. So, it makes it a double exit for me. But until this point, you are saving money every week you use cloth and baby has little to no rashing.

For travel, use a little waterproof "ditty" bag. I like to have this on hand anyway. All yukkies go into this bag and then I separate it out when I get home. The ones out now....are TOO CUTE! I found a website that has all of my favorites (except for the Bumkins pull up pants). It's called www.diaperco.com. Very cool. It is located in Texas, so you'll get hit with state tax if you live here.

Feel free to email me with questions. There are local diaper classes through Diane with www.gobabygo.com. These classes are free and you can learn all about cloth diapering and see samples...this helps lots of people get comfortable with the process.

The Sitz bath

A picture of one of the amazing gifts we received. They are chocolate covered strawberries from Shari's Berries (www.berries.com) Thank you to all of the people who have given gifts....we are overwhelmed by your love

I have to write a little article on the sitz bath since I forgot to mention it on the postpartum tidbits. The sitz bath that I used from www.wishgardenherbs.com was totally amazing. I could feel my "parts" healing as I sat in it. I only did three baths, but it seemed to make a big difference for me....definitely worth mentioning.

I did not do the sitz bath on the first four births...because I assumed you had to sit in a special pot or something for it to really work. This time, my midwife boiled the leaves and then I skimmed them off and poured the pot of brown "tea" into a regular bathtub. I added hot water...just enough to bring the water level up a couple of inches, and then sat in it for 10 minutes or so. Easy. And so great!

A Few Postpartum Tidbits

Well, baby is about 10 days old and I thought I would journal a few little tidbits about this postpartum time before it flies out of my mind forever. This time, I didn't really tear, which made postpartum days a SNAP. By day three, I had no soreness at all and felt surprisingly good. By day 7, I felt ready to exercise again. But first, a few tricks I figured out this time.

First of all, I had tremendous post labor contractions. I immediately took herbs which I got from www.wishgardenherbs.com. The tincture I took was afterease. This seems to help a lot on the first day and then not as much on day two or three. I'm not sure why. This time, I immediately began drinking my magnesium drink (calm) which I got from www.vitacost.com. I drank it all day and had no post partum contractions starting about an hour after I drank it until six at night. At that point, my stools went all loose on me and I had to stop drinking it for the rest of the night. (if you have "d", take activated charcoal...works wonders) About four hours AFTER I stopped drinking it, the contractions started again, strong, every 10 minutes for the rest of the night. I could not sleep because of them and ended up in a ball in the bottom of my bathtub at 5AM. Finally, I got to doze from 5AM to 6AM or so. Needless to say, I was a wreck after that night and Holly suggested a heating pad and some advil. I started my magnesium drink again when the sun started shining through the window and had another contraction-free day. By the end of the day, "d" again. Stopped drinking it, then took an advil....and that was it. The post partum contractions totally subsided after that and I felt great.

The second I have the baby. I start wearing my "belt". This time I tried the "belly bandit" original. It was sort of hard and scratchy and by day three, I had a little heat rash from it and realized I could not wear that particular fabric for six weeks. I contacted belly bandit and sent them photos of my heat rash and they sent me an "upgraded" version of their belly wrap...the belly bandit couture. Very nice. Very soft, much more doable. I wear it day and night, just about 24 hours a day. This concept has been around for years in other countries. In other countries, women wrap their bellies right after the birth (very tightly ) with cloth and their stomachs go right down to normal much more quickly. I have wrapped all but one time and that one time, my stomach looked TOTALLY different than the other times. I had loose skin which I thought was beyond repair....and it stayed for 9 months. Finally, I did an extreme makeover stomach video workout routine and it got whipped into shape right before the next pregnancy. Not fun. My stomach looks the same as it did pre-birth by 6 weeks at the longest when I wrap.

Emotionally, I have not experienced any post-partum blues this time. I was all ready with my "baby blues" tincture from www.wishgardenherbs.com and I have been taking them since my milk came in, but I have never felt quite so normal in my life. The only "off" balance item is I am super clumsy and forgetful which seems to be par for the course when you are nursing, otherwise, by day three after this birth I felt better than I ever have and was pretty much ready to go again. God's grace for five children HAS to be part of the equation since you can't lie on your back too long with four others running around.

I'm trying to think of any other tidbits. I have gone walking and swam some laps today. I will say that swimming was the greatest gift of the pregnancy. I would hesitate getting pregnant again if we lived somewhere that did not have a pool. I did not swell this time (which is my least favorite side effect), and got to exercise up until the DAY of the birth. Then, when I swam today, I realized just how refreshing and wonderful swimming could be as a post partum pick-me-up. Wow.

Interestingly, this pregnancy left me totally different than the other four. This time, I realized I've been bitten by the pregnancy and baby bug and I seriously....could have five more. Once you pass four.......???? I dreaded each pregnancy leading up to number four. I knew we were destined to have four, so I just gritted my teeth and jumped in to each pregnancy counting down from four to one. After number four, I got back into shape as fast as I physically could....and then SURPRISE....number five. And suddenly, the whole process seems so simple and wonderful and uncomplicated. Now, I really will have to pray because I think I might be dangerously unafraid of the process and completely enamored with the whole pregancy and baby thing. You would think it would "get out of my system", but somehow, this pregnancy left me different than I was before. What's one more? Join the gang, we sing as we make another little space for the upcoming baby in our hearts and in our home.

July 16th, Finally, a birthday!

It's funny. Birth and death are never what we plan or expect them to be. And this birth was no exception. All of my "due" dates came and went as well as a few warm up contractions, cool down contractions, warm up labor...false labor. And then, last night at 1:45 AM it was finally "time" and the feeling when it's finally time is like this: all of the other times you're thinking, is this it? I hope it's it....and then when it's really time, you KNOW it's it. I KNEW when I got in bed it would happen last night and I better get a nap before the action went down.

Oh, I left out a small detail....yesterday my water broke at 10:30 AM. So, all day, I'm leaking water. I got in the pool for part of it, wore a diaper, a pad, but then at dinner I had one hard contraction and when I stood up, the kids asked why I wet the floor. It was a moment.

So, last night, after swimming almost an hour and walking almost 2 miles and no contractions...I just went to bed. At 1:45, I woke up with a contraction every 4 minutes, and at 2:30 I texted the midwife and told her what was going on and then let Mark know I was getting in the hot tub (he had fallen asleep about 10 minutes before...hats off to the dads who are going through it more than we are-ESPECIALLY when labor starts and stops for three weeks like that).

So, hopped in the hot tub, had about 8 contractions, time to push, and pushing took awhile. Usually, the head is the hardest part and then the body just pops out. This time, the head was hard, and the body was harder. I could feel the "bigness" and all of the parts on the inside of me. Thank you everyone who prayed for me. There was a point in pushing when I thought, I really don't think I can do this. And, thankfully, between the Holy Spirit and Holly and Mark....Miley Abigail CAME OUT.

She's a quiet little 'er, big, thing. She weighed 11 lbs. 2 ounces and her head measured 14 and 1/2, but the chest and stomach both measured 15 inches, and it FELT like 15 inches of mass was coming out of me. Finally, I pushed to the stomach and then flipped around and just pulled her out...that was pretty cool.

Thankfully, the Holy Spirit put it on my heart when I started to push to take it very slowly...and I had a teeny tiny tear/lesion that was less than any of the other four births. Praise God!

So, another Fessler has come into the world. And how can I complain? When I get down to brass tacks, labor was 2 hours from start to finish. Well, unless I add the other nights of labor in, but the recovery from a little warm up labor is simply....to sleep. Recovery from birth involves sleep, salves, herbs, belly bandits, and more. Although, I will say I feel VERY good this time. I've had two naps and the baby is sleeping nicely, plus I've eaten a car load of food and drunk about 120 ounces of "calm". Such a nice drink.

So, there you have it. Baby number five. I am so blessed....so blessed with lots of babies. And this birth was a good one. Just, so far, I haven't had any "canned" births. They have all been different times, places, dates, but I think God delights in that, don't you?

"There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven....A time to give birth....." Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

BIrth Day

Well, we had three due dates. The sonogram date was July 6th, the midwife's date was the 7th, and mine was the 8th. So, today's the last official possible due date, then we go into overtime. I have actually been in labor all day, but I'm not sure you would call it labor? God told Adam and God told Eve, they would have "labor". The word He assigned was the same word, ie. meant the same thing for both of them. Both of them would sweat. Adam would do it every day. Eve would do it when she had kids. I haven't broken a sweat yet. In fact, every 3-7 minutes I have a contraction which I would compare to ....nothing. Braxton Hicks? Except maybe one minutia stronger? It was like this on number three. I knew it was "labor" because of the every few minute thing, but it was so easy and non-laborish that I went to a restaurant that night. Once there, I realized I did not want to be there, point is, it was mild enough that I could go on with normal business. So, this one seems to be around that same type of deal.

I got all of the birth announcements addressed, made cookies, walked a little over a mile (this morning), swam, napped, read to kids, paid bills, felt a little bit like a loaf....Mark's picking up dinner. Will walk again after dinner and kids are put to bed. This would be a cool "birth" day: 7.8.2009...course, any day would be cool at this point. I'm dilated to 4 centimeters and baby moved all the way down into the pelvis last night. Kids are exhausted from so much swimming, we must cut back. But once you get this big, the pool feels SO GOOD. If you see a girl walking your neighborhood with her stomach sticking out of her clothes, she's not trying to be sexy, her stomach no longer FITS into any of her maternity clothes.

Wings...or How to Survive the Last Few Days Before birth

"He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary." Isaiah 40:29-31

And so, this is my passage for the week. I have 4 more days til due date and nothing energizes me or strengthens me to the task like the Word of God. You can do all the spa days you want, but when it comes to brass tacks, nothing quite beats reading His Word aloud to myself. In 10 minutes max, I feel my spirit soar and my mood lift and totally refreshed for the coarse ahead. This has got to be the secret to my success, because at this point I feel like I could go quite a bit more, yet the due date is less than a week away. The only restrictive thing would be, I would have to wear mumu's for the rest of the time since none of the clothes seem to hide my belly anymore.

In the meantime, the house is ready for labor. I have out the "birthing ball" which is just a pilates ball we hide in the attic. It's great for sitting on pre-birth and getting the baby to descend in the pelvis. It's also very relaxing in birth. I have herbs out....for transition and for afterpains. I have the baby outfits out, my outfit for after the birth, and a chucks pad for the bed. The bed is funny. The midwife wants you to make the bed with one set of good sheets, one plastic sheet, and on top a set of yukky sheets. After the 2cd birth, I just got a pad from bed bath and beyond-it's about 3 foot square and holds tons of liquid with a waterproof backing. That sucker has been awesome for birth, prenatals, and for when the kids wet the bed. If they do wet the bed, (it's pretty rare), but if I'm too tired to do much, I grab a chucks pad and they sleep on that.

Anyway, cloth diapers are out. I ended up with a miyo baby hammock, that's in the bedroom. My frozen condoms are in the freezer, aloe and witch hazel in the fridge (favorites for healing). Gatorade is on hand along with lots of bottled water. I usually make cookies for the midwife, but this will be too fast for much snacking. Birthing combs are by the bed and my finger is poised over the hot tub buttons to get it warmed up. Is that all? Hope so.

Oh yeah, I hate disposable pads. I use them for a day or two, then I turn to cotton. My photo on this blog are some of my homemade cotton pads. LOVE these! You can google luna pads or cotton menstrual pads and there are lots for sale out there. What I do after the birth is put a dark bucket of water by my toilet. As I soak my pads, I throw them in the wet bucket and then this gets sloshed into the washing machine every couple of days. The pads I made have a holder that buttons around the panties and then removable "liners". If it's a heavy day, I can use two liners, if it's light, I use one. So I have lots more liners than holders. Like my cotton breastpads, I really enjoy these.

O.k. So, the house is ready, I'm ready, and God's strengthened me for the task. So looking forward to meeting this one!

Time Management

Someone recently commented on how much I "seem" to accomplish in any given day. What with all of the sewing and domestic projects and kids and homeschooling....how do I fit all of this in? I pondered that for a bit and decided every woman fits in what she wants during the day and can be just as efficient with their time if they want to.

For instance, every woman has a hobby. Some women, it's shopping, or surfing the net, or talking on the phone, photography, watching t.v. or doing SOMETHING that takes time. I personally have an aversion to driving places, watching t.v., and more recently, do not like to waste very much time surfing the net. I'm not a big phone girl unless I HAVE to drive somewhere, then I will call everyone back who has called in the last month. But, really, 15 minutes of time is a valuable block and I will fit cutting out a pattern or sewing two seams, or organizing the kids closet into that little block of time. All of those little blocks of time add up and by the end of the day I will have sewn a couple of outfits, folded 2 loads of laundry, read 15 books to the kids, boxed up some goodwill, worked out, and gotten to pray over the business.

It's nice. Those little 15 minute "gifts" God gives us and learning to do with them the most efficient things possible that make your life what it is today. I have been blessed with help, so that gives me more time to execute what I want to do and to have done, plus, I am not so wiped out by the end of the day.

So, that's it. That's my secret to having a full and flourishing day. Lately, I like blogging at the kitchen counter while all of the kids clean up the kitchen. It takes them a long time to do this task and I generally don't have the patience to wait on them to do it...but I find if I can give orders while multi-tasking....then it's a winner for all.

A Week of Braxton Hicks

(I finished my diaper bag....yay!)

This week was interesting, to say the least. I always take "5-W" by Nature's Sunshine the last 5 weeks of the pregnancy, and this time, it gave me such intense contractions, that I had to stop. I guess once you get to the fifth pregnancy, your body doesn't need herbs to tell it what to do...it will just go into labor when it's ready.

What happened last week was, I upped my 5-w herbs to 6 a day. I felt the baby move down into my pelvis, and I had sex all in about a 6 hour span of time. That night my uterus (?) or some body part down there went into over an hour of spasms (I don't even think I would call it contractions) and kept me up most of the night. In the morning, I hurt. I was in so much pain I couldn't roll out of bed. THAT night, Mark rubbed my feet and about an hour later, I went into labor. The contractions lasted til 10AM. I can handle labor. I can't handle contractions happening on top of the most sore stomach muscles I have ever experienced. ANOTHER agonizing night with little sleep. The next morning, Mark made up a 60 oz. drink of "CALM" (my fabulous magnesium drink), and the contractions stopped. Magnesium is a muscle relaxant, so I guess it relaxed the muscles enough to make the contractions stop.

I had contractions on and off for the the next day and a half. But they weren't super consistent. IN the meantime, I called vitaminshoppe and asked the guy if I had done a million situps the night before, and now could not walk because my stomach muscles were so sore, what should I take? He told me there was an amino acid drink that gets the lactic acid going out of your muscles called "Extend". Mark went and got that drink and I started drinking it, plus lots and lots of fluids and gatorade. I have to admit, I have never been in so much pain in my life. It was the most painful experience I have ever gone through. Pain is an interesting thing, it wears you down on all fronts....spiritually, mentally, physically and takes you to a point mentally you thought you would never go.

In the meantime, the rest of my body was sore from bracing myself for the stomach pain. So now, my back, my arms, my chest, and my rear end were sore from "support". oh brother. Thankfully, I have help, and I was able to take 2 naps a day, plus, got some rest at night. I did NOT want to deliver in this condition and thank GOD the contractions stopped. I can't remember when the ordeal started, but, by Thursday of the week, I was feeling better, and by Friday, I was up and at 'em again.

In the midst of it all, the midwife kept checking me to see if there was any progression and had me go get a sonogram because she was nervous the baby was breech. The sonogram was our first. I thought it would take about 15 minutes, and they poked and poked and poked my stomach with the wand and took a good 45 minutes measuring and looking and typing. That was on Tuesday, and I was still in a "state", but the sonogram REALLY helped me mentally. Seeing the baby gave me a reality check that there was a real human being with lips and nose and hair and chubby cheeks that was coming out in God's timing.

Physically, I left in the same condition, but mentally, I had taken a turn for the better. The next morning when I woke up, I had a couple of contractions and just surrendered it all to God. A willingness to deliver came despite all of the negative conditions I would have rather not had there.

This is Sunday, Father's Day, and the only contractions I have had have been due to dehydration. As soon as I drink some water, they stop. I feel 100 percent better and am ready to go. Probably, I would not have gone through all of that if I had not been quite so bullheaded about the herbs. I knew in my heart I was pushing the envelope taking them, but I just kept at it. AND, I kept having continual Braxton Hicks all day starting the day I took one vitamin a day...so upping the dosage when I was already experiencing a level of discomfort was not smart.

Well, you live and learn. That's one less herb to take should I get pregnant again. Ha Ha.