September 28, 2013

[Rooney]

Our family's challenge for this weekend is to get the rest of the fans going in the greenhouse, the rest of the lights hung, and to get our first set of starts going. 
My challenge for myself is to start baking bread again since the replacement part came in for my Bosch mixer today.  I would also like to get some treats baked and enough meat cooked for four or five days of meals.  We'll see. 

[Leahsgarden]

If your family is anything like mine, they're going to gobble up all the baked goods.

Me? I'm just trying to knock stuff off my baby prep list. Due date was yesterday, but since the start of the pregnancy I've always said I'm expecting the baby in the beginning of October. Seems like none of my children want to be born in their original due month. Caleb was May 30th, born June 9. Logan was March 21, born April 2nd. This baby, September 26, born... ? I'm guessing October 7th.

[Sandlappersue]

Leah, I am excited for you!


As for me, I need to glass clean the house, clean some ceiling fans, mop some floors, replace air filters, wash 3-4 loads of clothes (all our clothes are line dried), put away those and ones from yesterday, clean off hearth.

[gaggleofseven]

Today is a decluttering day for me. Putting away all the odds & ends that accumulate throughout the week, vacuuming, and cleaning the bathrooms are the main tasks. Also changing the wreath on the front door to my fall wreath.

[MissMandy]

My challenge today is just to put 'real' clothes on.  After an incredibly rough day yesterday and Jean not being home makes it all too easy just to lounge in yoga pants all day .  I should also do a load of laundry.

Mandy

[greyhoundgirl]

Not feeling well today so I'm going make my challenge getting thank-you notes done.  There are several people I want to thank for the past weekend:  one of the speakers in particular, our adopted "family" here who helped Earl with the kids so he could come to the closing service, the couple who blessed us this week, etc... .

[Rooney]

If your family is anything like mine, they're going to gobble up all the baked goods.

Me? I'm just trying to knock stuff off my baby prep list. Due date was yesterday, but since the start of the pregnancy I've always said I'm expecting the baby in the beginning of October. Seems like none of my children want to be born in their original due month. Caleb was May 30th, born June 9. Logan was March 21, born April 2nd. This baby, September 26, born... ? I'm guessing October 7th.

Oh Leah October 7th is a good baby girl day!  My next to youngest has a birthday October 7th. 

[gaggleofseven]

My challenge today is just to put 'real' clothes on.  After an incredibly rough day yesterday and Jean not being home makes it all too easy just to lounge in yoga pants all day .  I should also do a load of laundry.

Mandy

There are days when we're going through something difficult that accomplishing the minimum is all we can do. ((hugs))

Jennie

[Leahsgarden]

If your family is anything like mine, they're going to gobble up all the baked goods.

Me? I'm just trying to knock stuff off my baby prep list. Due date was yesterday, but since the start of the pregnancy I've always said I'm expecting the baby in the beginning of October. Seems like none of my children want to be born in their original due month. Caleb was May 30th, born June 9. Logan was March 21, born April 2nd. This baby, September 26, born... ? I'm guessing October 7th.

Oh Leah October 7th is a good baby girl day!  My next to youngest has a birthday October 7th. 

My mom's older sister was born on October 7. She was having her 4th birthday when my grandma went into labor that night and had my mom on October 8. So... I know what day my mom is cheering for!

[Leahsgarden]

Forgot to add that I knocked one thing off my baby list. I mixed up the essential oils I need between now and postpartum. One of them is a perineum spray for after birth. I used it after Logan's birth and oh my... it was such a relief and made going to the bathroom so much easier.

I also mixed up 6 oils to make a "Reduced Bleeding Blend". You start putting it on a week before you give birth (yeah, that'd be typically 39 weeks...). I did this for Logan's birth and only lost about 30 CC's of blood. That's like 1/8th of a cup, and it's acceptable to lose 500 CC's in a vaginal birth and 1000 CC's in a c-section.

In a box, I put all the oils I'll likely use for labor and birth. Peppermint really helps me with the heaves and queasiness. Black pepper took away my back pain. I have frankincense and myrrh set aside for the baby. Frankincense on the crown and myrrh on the umbilical cord.

I still need to mix up helichrysum with fractionated coconut oil for the crowning. It really helps with not tearing, I only had two skin splits with Logan's birth.

What I'm disappointed about is that there doesn't seem to be any real solutions for the after birth pains. I didn't have any with Caleb's birth! I didn't know I was super lucky. But Logan's? I was shocked. It was hurting for about 3 or 4 days after birth, mostly with nursing. I'm just dreading that...

[greyhoundgirl]

Forgot to add that I knocked one thing off my baby list. I mixed up the essential oils I need between now and postpartum. One of them is a perineum spray for after birth. I used it after Logan's birth and oh my... it was such a relief and made going to the bathroom so much easier.

I also mixed up 6 oils to make a "Reduced Bleeding Blend". You start putting it on a week before you give birth (yeah, that'd be typically 39 weeks...). I did this for Logan's birth and only lost about 30 CC's of blood. That's like 1/8th of a cup, and it's acceptable to lose 500 CC's in a vaginal birth and 1000 CC's in a c-section.

In a box, I put all the oils I'll likely use for labor and birth. Peppermint really helps me with the heaves and queasiness. Black pepper took away my back pain. I have frankincense and myrrh set aside for the baby. Frankincense on the crown and myrrh on the umbilical cord.

I still need to mix up helichrysum with fractionated coconut oil for the crowning. It really helps with not tearing, I only had two skin splits with Logan's birth.

What I'm disappointed about is that there doesn't seem to be any real solutions for the after birth pains. I didn't have any with Caleb's birth! I didn't know I was super lucky. But Logan's? I was shocked. It was hurting for about 3 or 4 days after birth, mostly with nursing. I'm just dreading that...

'

Sounds like you have things all set to go!  Those after birth pains are something.  I've never really heard a reason why, but they seem to intensify with each successive birth.  Maybe that's what we don't remember them with our first births?

[Leahsgarden]

I had a retained placenta in my first birth, so maybe that hindered the after birth pains? That, and I couldn't get Caleb to latch onto my bare breast. We had to buy a nipple shield, but he essentially went 3 or 4 hours without breastmilk. Logan was latching on within half an hour of birth.

I have some lavender and white fir in my box for the after pains, but I get the impression it's mostly something to grin and bear.

[Rooney]

I had a retained placenta in my first birth, so maybe that hindered the after birth pains? That, and I couldn't get Caleb to latch onto my bare breast. We had to buy a nipple shield, but he essentially went 3 or 4 hours without breastmilk. Logan was latching on within half an hour of birth.

I have some lavender and white fir in my box for the after pains, but I get the impression it's mostly something to grin and bear.

I am sorry to say that the afterbirth nursing pains do get worse each time.  Last time I thought I might actually need something for the pain, but I did just what you said, grin and bear it.   Those oils that you are using for the birth, do you have a list of them and what each one does?  If you do could you PM them to me whenever you are not busy sometime?   Are some of them just for waterbirth? 

[Rooney]

I had forgotten how easy it is to bake bread if the wheat is already ground.  I baked these loaves of wheat, but instead of honey I substituted blackstrap molasses.  Turned out ok.  Also did get 18 chicken breasts baked and two chocolate cakes.  Was hoping to get ahead on the treats more, maybe later in the week.  Here is how the first batch of bread turned out.

[Leahsgarden]

I had a retained placenta in my first birth, so maybe that hindered the after birth pains? That, and I couldn't get Caleb to latch onto my bare breast. We had to buy a nipple shield, but he essentially went 3 or 4 hours without breastmilk. Logan was latching on within half an hour of birth.

I have some lavender and white fir in my box for the after pains, but I get the impression it's mostly something to grin and bear.

I am sorry to say that the afterbirth nursing pains do get worse each time.  Last time I thought I might actually need something for the pain, but I did just what you said, grin and bear it.   Those oils that you are using for the birth, do you have a list of them and what each one does?  If you do could you PM them to me whenever you are not busy sometime?   Are some of them just for waterbirth? 

I'm a very unsuccessful water birther. I had a pool set up with Caleb, and it really did help with the back labor. But it wasn't deep enough for me, and I wasn't progressing like I should have. My midwife wanted me to go to the bathroom, and then I wanted to go to the bed, not the pool again. I ended up having Caleb in the bed, with them pushing on my hips because he was "stuck". (My sister-in-law ran into the same problem during her birth that was 12 days before Caleb, but since she was at the hospital, they just resorted to a c-section.)

With Logan's birth, I had all the intentions of having a water birth. After 1.5 hours of labor, I called my mom and sister to come help set up the pool. They didn't have the right wrench to unhook the laundry hose, my mom went out to buy one, but it was too small... and by then, I was too busy pushing Logan out. He was born 3 hours after my contractions started.

So with this baby, not going to do anything "water birth" this time. We're very frankly expecting it to be a 1.5 hour labor, and mostly Chris is hoping he doesn't have to catch. My midwife lives an hour away, and it takes her about 30 minutes to pull everything together. I've given Chris full permission to call Mary when HE thinks I might be in labor, since I spent half of Caleb's labor and half of Logan's labor thinking it wasn't the real thing.

I'll PM you with more details about the essential oils.