Amber Love

Once again Inspired by Finn has allowed me to offer my readers 25% off their entire purchase!!

  I have been in love with amber necklaces, for teething and other pain, for a long time now!

All through their teething years, my girls wear their necklaces around the clock!

I have written many posts about my Amber Love!

After seeing how well amber works, I have been trying other gemstones as well!

Be sure to check out their other gemstone jewelry for a wide range of relief.

Joint Pain

ADD/ADHD

Colic

Separation Anxiety

Stress

Metabolic and Hormonal Imbalances

A Short Emotional Fuse

as well as other physical and emotional discomforts,

 can all be eased, and even cured by the use of gemstone jewelry.

For more info on how it works click here.

Gemstone jewelry makes great gifts for all ages!

 

 

Your 25% off discount code: IBFinn

(this code is good for two weeks)

 

Shop here: Inspired by Finn

Amber Adoration

You all know of my adoration of amber.

I blogged about it here, here, here, and here.

I absolutely love it! I love seeing little ones wearing it! I love wearing it myself! I love telling people about it! I love giving people the chance to get a great deal on it!

If you still haven't gotten a chance to try it out, or even if you simply want more, now is a great time to buy. Influenced by popular demand, Inspired By Finn and I have teamed up yet again to give you a code for 25% off your total purchase.

After seeing how well amber works, I am very excited to start trying other gemstones as well!

Be sure to check out their other gemstone jewelry for a wide range of relief.

Joint Pain

ADD/ADHD

Colic

Separation Anxiety

Stress

Metabolic and Hormonal Imbalances

A Short Emotional Fuse

as well as other physical and emotional discomforts,

 can all be eased, and even cured by the use of gemstone jewelry.

For more info on how it works click here.

Gemstone jewelry makes great gifts for all ages!

So, without further ado, here it is.

Your 25% off discount code: LMLD

How to Tuesday: Sitz Bath Bags

At my Blessingway, one of the activities we did was to make herbal sitz bath "tea bags".

After Bunny was born, I had a gazillion stitches.  Bathing in a nice, healing, herbal bath was wonderful.  At that time, we had bought some premade herbal mix.  This time around, we put together our own mix. (home birth...home made mix... seems right!)

My grandmother and my midwife making sitz bath bags!

There are many, many recipes for sitz bath herb mixes.  We read the various healing properties of each ingredient and decided upon this recipe.

At the Blessingway, we taped the bags shut with a little piece of tape to secure them until I could stitch them shut, at home.

Each bag will make a gallon of "tea" for a bath.  My mama (my very own personal post partum doula, cook, housekeeper, etc) will brew a gallon 2X a day (morning and night).. allowing each gallon to steep for 12 hours.  After running a bath, we will add in the entire gallon pitcher of "tea", as well as 1/2 - one cup of celtic sea salt.  We may even toss some fresh yarrow flowers into the brew.  Very healing, very soothing.  I am not expecting any stitches this time around, but I imagine my perineum will be sore regardless!  This same brew can be put into a peri bottle for rinsing off after pottying.  It can also be used in a crock pot for warm compresses during labor/delivery.

We bought the organic herbs from The Bulk Herb Store, but all items, including the tea bags, can be bought from Amazon as well.

Linked to--

Teach Me Tuesday and Mama Moment's Mondays

Wild And Wooly

While I have always tried to be careful about keeping Bunny warm enough, now that the nights are getting pretty chilly in our little double wide (and Bunny is a blanket kicker), I am making a few warmer changes in our normal, daily lifestyle. Recently, one of my favorite blogs, Are So Happy, shared a link to their favorite woolens seller (now my favorite woolens seller), as well as what woolens they wear. Since I loved Are So Happy's Warmth Week Posts, and have incorporated some of their ideas into our life and love them, I decided that woolens were the way to go to keep Bunny warm in the winter (and fall, and spring).

The woolens still in their packages.

All the woolens, except the sleeveless undershirt that Bunny was wearing.

I placed a order for about $160.00 worth of wool. YIKES! I had to remind myself that I plan to have more children (plus, my sister's girls can wear them when Bunny gets too big), so it is really not that expensive in the end. The short sleeve undershirt I wanted was out of stock, so I happily settled for sleeveless. I also purchased a long john set, a pair of socks, a hat, and a pair of mittens. All in organic wool or wool/silk combo. The package came today, and I was anxious to open it. These woolens are gorgeous! So much softer than I had expected. I put Bunny in the sleeveless undershirt right away, and it fit great. I am using the long johns as pjs. Since her current cotton pjs are beginning to get to small, this will save me from buying more. And since wool only needs aired out and very rarely washed (it is self sanitizing), she can wear them every night if needed. I am so excited for Bunny to wear them for many chilly months to come.

Bunny in her new wool silk long john pjs.
Sooo sweet...

The sleeveless undershirt airing out
and waiting to be worn again in the next day.
(The two spots along the side are where water splashed out of Bunny's bath.)

A Sunscreen Safe Summer

Have you ever gotten a sunburn while wearing sunscreen? I have, and I know a lot of others have too. I always assumed that I was doing something wrong, or that the SPF wasn't high enough, or it had been too long in between applications. But this might not have been the case.

My research started just before our beach trip last summer. Bunny was not quite four months old. I had read on many different brands of sunscreen that they should not be used on a baby under six months old. On the other hand, I didn't really want to risk a bad sunburn. So my research began. I wanted to know why young babies shouldn't use sunscreen. What was the difference between four month and six month skin, to all of a sudden be able so use it? Was the sunscreen worse than sunburn itself? As our trip grew nearer, I skurried to find the answers. Then I came across an amazing amount of info at:
http://breakingnews.ewg.org/2011sunscreen/inlist=Y&utm_source=2011sunscreenfull&utm_medium=email&utm_content=image&utm_campaign=toxics

Things I learned:

~Turns out that some sunscreens have dangerous ingredients that can even cause skin cancer. Crazy, right? Others can contain poisonous ingredients as well as synthetic hormones. Some sunscreens claim to have a high SPF, but only protect against UVB rays, not UVA rays that are also bad (also the idea that we are protected leaves us more likely to stay in the sun too long).

~The best thing is a hat and shirt. The next is to find a good, safe sunscreen: http://action.ewg.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=YQG%2B2vEcWvSEwvXYTyQ6XaI8JqzFfIAx

~Babies under six months of age SHOULD NOT WEAR SUNSCREEN, OR GET SUNBURNT. Young babies lack the melanin in their skin that protecs them. Keep them in the shade and clothed for saftey.

~Folow these saftey tips: http://action.ewg.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=%2FFloUAF6BnbAEltHuCY64%2F2W3a%2FBM4WR

I am very proud to say that, at 14 months of age, Bunny has NEVER used sunscreen or gotten sunburnt (I haven't in that time either)! I keep her out of the sun or covered. And we do not go out in the heat of the day. It does take some planning, but it is so worth. I hope to continue this as long as possible.

Bunny wearing a rashguard bathing suit to keep the UVA/UVB rays at a minimum.

 Why do we all not know about this???
The FDA has been putting off making sunscreen regulations...
For over 32 years!!!

Take action!
Follow this link to sign a petition to the FDA about sunscreen regulations:
http://action.ewg.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1923&utm_source=2011sunscreenactionfull&utm_medium=email&utm_content=first-link&utm_campaign=toxics

In the mean time do your own research and be safe!

Review: Inspired By Finn

I have posted about My Amber Experiment in the past. I really love amber and Bunny wears it at all times. (You can see it peeking out in the pictures below.) It helps greatly with the pain and fussiness due to teething. I have given amber necklaces to several of my friends who have babies. One of them recently told me, "I thought you were crazy, but it really does make a huge difference."

A couple of  months ago, I bought myself an amber necklace from Inspired By Finn. I went with semi-polished mixture of light and medium amber. Both the fact that it is only semi-polished and that it is light in color means there is a higher retention of succinic acid, which is the most beneficial component of the amber. Since I started wearing it, I have had less back, neck and head aches, as well as less general aches and pains overall. I love it so much that I am ordering one for Bunny to match (The Hubs told me to, haha)!

 

I have contacted Inspired By Finn a couple of times before writing this review. Each time they have gotten back to me very quickly and were very helpful. I recommend them to anyone wanting to try (or buy more) amber.

Back To Basics~Natural Remedies

Ear Infections and Vampires Beware!

Friday~
Bunny woke at 11:00pm crying. After I nursed, sang, rocked etc., etc... She finally (we are talking like 1:42am) fell asleep. I assumed it was teething. Poor thing was having a hard time holding a latch. She slept well the rest of the night.

Saturday~

This morning I had some lovely ladies over for life group (a bible study kinda thing). Bunny skipped her morning nap (which is normally fine). Just as they were leaving, she was getting really sleepy, so I snuck away to put her to sleep. She dozed off and slept for about 30 minutes (she normally sleeps for about two hours when she skips her morning nap). She woke screaming at the top of her lungs and rubbing her ear. I nursed, sang rocked, etc., etc. She finally stopped fussing and was content for me to hold her. I put Hyland's ear drops and cotton in her ears and gave her Tylenol. She played, ate lunch and nursed again. I gave her ear drops and cotton again. Then rocked her back to sleep at 2:30 and she was up by 3:00, screaming. Same thing over again. At this point, I was starting to worry about an ear infection. She kept tugging it and not wanting me to touch it. More ear drops. I figured that (unless she got better) I would have to take her to the doctor's on Monday evening.

I have to admit, on the inside I was freaking out. I have issues with babies on antibiotics (as with any medicine). I prayed, and suddenly ask Mama to look up remedies online. She did and found out that garlic can not only help an earache, but (in some cases) can even cure an ear infection.

I didn't have any garlic, but onions are the next best thing. I chopped a tiny bit of onion and wrapped it in some tissue. As soon as Bunny had it in, she stopped fussing. A few minutes later, she was playing and being her normal, happy self. I replaced the onion packet a few times throughout the day. Later in the evening, my sister brought me some garlic from the grocery store where she works. I made a packet for her ear at bedtime and gave her Tylenol. She slept well, only waking to nurse (she didn't even cry, she just started moving around). I replaced the packet, and she fell back to sleep. I continued to pray and made extra garlic packets for the middle of the night.

Sunday~
Bunny woke this morning and was a little fussy. I repacked her ear with garlic and she cheered up in no time. She was still pretty clingy to me all day, but otherwise seemed fine. This afternoon, we went to Mama's house to visit. Bunny was happy to play for a while, but when I picked her up she felt warm. She had a temp of about 101. At this point the Monday evening doctor's visit seemed eminent. We added garlic oil to our treatment plan. Mama and I also researched Silver Shield (you should really look into it) and we decided that the Hubs would pick some up the next evening. Garlic, garlic oil and Tylenol before bed. She slept well and I replaced packet during the night.

Monday~
Bunny woke this morning completely fine! Praise the Lord! No doctor visit for us! No yucky medicine! Oddly, she was in an even better mood than usual (makes me wonder how long her ear had actually been hurting). I continued with treatments and The Hubs bought Silver Shield on his way home from work. Silver Shield, garlic, and garlic oil before bed. She slept better than she has in a while (really makes me wonder how long her ear had been hurting). Thank you God for getting us through this!

Tuesday & Wednesday~
Continued treatments, just to be sure. Bunny is even more pleasant than her usual chipper self (sleeping better too). I am amazed at the power of God, prayer, and garlic. I am so glad that I calmed down enough to check out my options for ear infection cures. Praise God!