Meeting the Family and Settling In

Ro’s siblings decided right off the bat that they like him.

And Ro decided right off the bat that he did NOT like having a bath.

Ro's Birth

As my due date approached and then passed by, I distracted myself with Christmas preparations.  I decorated the room where I would give birth,  surrounding myself with “pretties” to bring peace and joy. I also created a playlist of tranquil Christmas songs to listen to during labor.

This small blue rosary (on the right) was made by me and will be Ro’s baptism present. Imagining baby's baptism while resting between contractions helps me through hard labor.

We received an unusual white Christmas…

…and more freezing rain and hazardous road conditions were forecasted.
After my midwife appointment on Thursday, NaDean decided that she would come spend that night at my house rather than risk a possible middle-of-the-night hour-long drive over ice.

While we were waiting, I challenged NaDean to a game of Hanging With Friends. She kicked my butt. I said it's because my mind was so distracted. ;-)

Nothing significant happened Thursday night, the roads were clearing up by mid-morning Friday, and NaDean prepared to go back home. As she was getting ready to leave, I had a strong contraction and my water broke. It was right around 11:00 am.
 
We took a final belly shot…41 weeks.


To get contractions to pick up, Greg and I went for our traditional “rosary walk”, praying for a smooth labor and delivery and a healthy baby.


And I walked off and on, rocked on the birthing ball, took the homeopathic herbs that NaDean gave me, and tried to keep my mind calm…all day. This labor progressed more slowly than my other labors. I fought anxiety. As the evening progressed and “real” labor had not started, I began to feel tense and pressured.
Eventually, I withdrew to be alone. I did not want to answer any more questions about how I was feeling or if contractions were progressing or if I needed anything, and I did not want to hear any suggestions about what to try next. I just needed to completely clear my mind and relax.
I turned down the lights, laid down in my bed, and turned on my “Tranquil Christmas” playlist. Contractions picked up to about every 6-8 minutes.
When it became too uncomfortable to lay still, I decided to go for a walk around 9pm. Both Greg and NaDean offered to walk with me, but I declined, preferring to stay alone and quiet. Contractions picked up to every 3 minutes while I was walking, and I walked for about 45 minutes around the neighborhood church parking lots before coming home. By this point, I felt relaxed and confident that our baby would be here around midnight.
That last hour of hard labor in the tub, I still wanted to be alone. Greg and NaDean were both in the room, but stayed out of sight. It helps me to stay completely relaxed if I don't have to talk to anyone or have anyone touching me. And staying completely relaxed with my mind clear helps me to stay on top the contractions. I informed NaDean when I felt like it was time to push and asked her "What time is it?"
"Eleven-fifty[something]," she replied. "Why?"
"I'm just curious." I said. I was hoping he would be born before midnight.

Ro arrived on December 29th at 12:06 am.


Daddy and big sister couldn’t wait to hold him.


And then he was more than ready to eat.

He weighed 8lbs 10oz…


And was 21.25 inches long. His head and chest circumference were both 14 inches.

Of course I updated Facebook as soon as we had all the stats.

I think he looks a lot like Mojo’s newborn pictures. He has his Daddy’s dimples!
By this time, it was around 3am, and we were all quite ready for a nap. The rest of the children spent the night with their Grandma Lil, and they met their little brother later after we’d all gotten some rest. More pictures to come.

This Christmas…

I decided to play “the pregnancy card” this year (I’m ready to “pop” any minute), and I scaled way back on my normal Christmas preparations. I did not send out cards. I did not do a bunch of shopping or make a bunch of homemade gifts. I did not do a bunch of baking. And other than Christmas Eve Mass, I did not go anywhere.

Honestly? This has been the best Christmas I’ve had in quite awhile. Aside from pregnancy discomforts and anxieties, this year has been less stressful and more peaceful. I’ve actually enjoyed Christmas. Maybe I’ve been too busy doing too much stuff that really doesn’t matter? Maybe my future Christmases should be this simple?

The kids put up and decorated the Christmas tree. I left it just the way they decorated it.



The kids got two gifts apiece from us. They seemed to greatly appreciate them. Greg and I each ordered the other something that we had been wanting, but we didn’t spend a lot of money. (My present is a pair of these –I can’t wait to play with them! I can’t post Greg’s because he isn’t sure what I ordered yet.)

My dinner was quickly thrown together from boxes, cans, and the frozen section, but regardless, the temptation to use paper plates was fleeting and easily overcome. I love getting out my “fancy” dishes and my Christmas tablecloth.

As we were getting ready to sit down to Christmas dinner, the doorbell rang. It was my brother, whom is in the military and stationed thousands of miles away. Big smiles all around here!

We ended the evening by watching “A Christmas Story”—Caveman got a bb gun for Christmas, and the phrase “you’ll shoot your eye out, kid" was the most repeated phrase at our house today.



To top it all off…



We had a rare white Christmas!

I’m feeling pretty blessed tonight. And I’m thinking that this is the way Christmas should feel. Merry Christmas.

Our Favorite Herbal Remedies For Cold and Flu Season

As I’ve mentioned previously on my blog, my interest in herbal remedies came from my Grandmother…
     “My introduction to natural remedies came from my Grandmother when I was a child. For boo-boos and stings, she would snap off a piece of her aloe vera plant. Once at her house, I had a toothache, and she used a jar of clove oil to soothe it. She used honey to quieten coughs.
A few years ago, around the time our third child was born, I began looking more into the ‘old ways’ of doing things. It started with small things, like using steam and eucalyptus oil for stuffy noses rather than reaching for a decongestant. Or using a few drops of warmed olive oil for an earache. I discovered how things like garlic and apple cider vinegar benefit our health. I had always believed in the healing powers of plants, but I became seriously interested in learning more about natural remedies. I gathered knowledge gradually, here and there, little bits at a time.”

The internet can provide a wealth of free information about herbal remedies, although when looking for “natural cures”, one often has to sift through a bunch of junk to get to the gems. I am not interested in the latest fad or costly supplements (“snake oils”) and am more interested in remedies that I can grow, harvest, and prepare myself. I appreciate scientific studies, but in the absence of scientific studies, I am interested in how long such cures have been in use and how consistently documented the effects have been. (Face it, most scientific studies are conducted and published by big businesses who stand to gain a profit from findings in their favor.)
Most of the herbs I use are quite gentle. Many can be found at the local supermarket. That does not mean they are not effective!
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”  ~Hippocrates

Over the years, I have discovered that changing our diets and some of our habits, along with ditching the over-the-counter drugs in favor of herbal and home remedies, have kept us healthy.  In fact, in our growing family of eight, none of us have had to resort to antibiotics to treat our illnesses since…I think 2008? 
(Our doctor visits have been so few and far between that when I took the kids for checkups this summer, the pediatrician’s office did not have some of my kids in their system, even though I knew they have all been to at least one checkup. Regardless of what others may think about my children only being seen by a pediatrician once a year, the pediatrician confirms that they are all quite healthy. I present this as evidence that what we are doing is working well for us.)

Learning Herbs is a good introductory website. Herbalists such as Susun Weed, Heather Nic an Fhleisdeir, and Rosalee de la Forêt provide a wealth of herbal knowledge on their websites. (As a Catholic, some of the spirituality does not mesh with my own, but that’s OK. I appreciate the herbal knowledge of these women, and I take what I can use.)
If I am unable to grow/harvest my own herbs, I order them online from Frontier or Mountain Rose Herbs.
In my kitchen, I have a big binder of herbal remedy recipes that I have collected from these and other various sources, and I will share some of my most-used, tried-and-true, simple-to-make favorites.

Elder
Long documented as an anti-viral, we begin taking elderberry syrup at the first sign of a virus—scratchy throats, runny noses, sneezing, etc. Especially if there is flu in our area! We have had excellent luck with this cutting down the severity and duration of our colds.
Elderberry syrup:
1/2 cup dried elderberries
2 cups water
1 cup raw, unfiltered honey (preferably local)
Bring the elderberries and water to a boil, and simmer for 30-45 minutes, until the liquid is reduced by half. Strain the liquid, add the honey. It will keep refrigerated for 4-6 weeks.
Elderberry flavonoids bind to and prevent H1N1 infection in vitro

Echinacea
We also take Echinacea, well-known for its immune-boosting properties—at the first signs of illness.
Tea—place the dried herb into a mesh tea ball, steep in hot water for at least 20 minutes. (Steep all herbal teas for 20 minutes to receive medicinal benefits.)
Tincture—squirt a dropperful directly onto the back of a sore throat. Yes, it makes the children hate me for about five minutes, but we have had good luck with this curing sore throats quickly. You know that feeling like you are swallowing glass? Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. And when the kids get to that point, they will actually ask for the tincture. (How to make a folk tincture.)

Ginger tea—grate about 1 inch of a ginger root, steep for 20 minutes, add lemon juice and raw honey. Ginger is a warming, stimulating herb which strengthens the immune system, loosens phlegm, and soothes scratchy throats (honey and lemon are also immune-strengthening and soothing.)

For stuffy noses/congestion:
Chamomile flowers—place a handful of chamomile flowers, along with a pinch of peppermint leaves into a bowl and cover with steaming hot water. Place a towel over your head, drape around the bowl, and breathe in the steam. Follow up by blowing all the junk out of your nose and a cup of strongly-brewed peppermint tea.

For fevers:
I don’t treat fevers—they serve a purpose in killing viruses/bacteria in the body. Rather, I treat discomfort associated with the fever and support the immune system in fighting off the illness. We stay hydrated with teas and bone broth soup, rest, and our immune-strengthening herbs. Some of the teas that we drink during fevers are chamomile, lemon balm, and elder flower. I also add rose hips to our teas for extra vitamin C. We avoid juice, as the high sugar content can weaken the immune system.  I have found that whenever I can let the fever run its course, rather than bringing it down with anti-pyretics, this shortens the duration of the illness. It’s better to let the body do it’s job.

Garlic has well-documented antiviral and antibiotic properties, as well as a whole other host of health benefits. Although I had read much about garlic being a broad-spectrum antibiotic, I never actually put it to the test until I developed mastitis after Baby #6. Mastitis, which can make one feel worse than the flu and pneumonia combined, is one of the few times I would ask the doctor for antibiotics! Yet it was on a Friday evening when my fever spiked and my muscles ached so bad I could not move. Desperate, l asked Greg to chop a clove of raw garlic into 3-5 small pieces, and I swallowed them like pills. I continued this every four hours throughout the night (along with cool rosemary compresses on the affected breast), and by morning, my fever had disappeared. I was back to normal by the time the doctor’s office opened on Monday morning.
We get raw garlic down the kids by adding a crushed clove to soup or spaghetti, mixed with butter and spreading on whole grain bread, or in hummus—I’ll add 4 cloves of garlic to my batch of hummus, serve it to the kids with raw veggies, and they will eat it over the course of a day.
For ear infections, we crush a clove of garlic, let it sit in olive oil for about 30 minutes, warm slightly, and apply a couple drops to the affected ear.

There is no way that I could write ONE blog post that comprehensively covers natural/herbal support for colds and flu; there have been whole books and websites devoted to this subject. But these are a few of our favorite simple, readily-available remedies.
As always, please keep in mind that I am not a doctor, none of my advice is meant to be construed as medical advice, and none of it is intended to be taken over advice from your own physician, especially if you have any underlying health issues or are taking any prescription medication. I am simply sharing what has proven helpful for our family.

The Feast of St. Nicholas

As a Catholic family, we celebrate various saints on their feast days, and one of our favorites is St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas is known for his love of children, and stories of his kindness and generosity made him popular world-wide. It was these legends that eventually evolved into our modern-day Santa Claus traditions.
We have chosen to teach our children about the real, historical St. Nicholas rather than the modernized fantasy Santa Claus, and to celebrate him on his feast day, separating the St. Nick traditions from our Christmas celebration.  On St. Nicholas’ day, we traditionally have a breakfast of cinnamon rolls, sausage, and hot chocolate, and we find in our stockings gold-wrapped chocolates, candy canes, warm socks, and other small goodies.

Our Christmas celebration will be focused on celebrating the birth of the Christ.