johncsnider

Busy while waiting for an overdue baby #3. I was pregnant and having discomfort going from sitting to standing. I had to support myself and scoot to the edge of the seat to get up especially from low things like the couch. Yep, I was pregnant. I had to do a little waddle just to go from sitting to standing. Some people would say that this is just part of being pregnant. I say, I am too busy to deal with pregnancy crap like this! I learned a trick that made the discomfort go away in 15 minutes. My third pregnancy was really rough on my body. I was non-stop carrying a toddler everywhere. Our toilets are in the basement and on the second floor so I was always carrying a kid up or down a set of stairs. I had to bend all sorts of ways to snap two kids into carseats. I was walking or doing yoga almost daily to keep myself limber so my body could adapt to the changes that were happening.  Then it happened. I started having to stand up like a pregnant lady! Not me! I had to do the wiggle ...

Do you wonder why my family doesn’t get the flu? Here’s my secret recipe. Mainstream medical professionals all agree that the flu shot is safe for pregnancy women. While I was pregnant with my second baby in 2009-2010, it was during the swine flu scare and I had chosen not to get the flu shot. My caregiver tried all sorts of things: “You won the giveaway, it is free!” “No thank you”. It is always questionable as to how much the flu shot works and I personally didn't feel right about injecting merc ury ( Thimerosal, found in some flu vaccines)  and  formaldehyde  in to my bloodstream that would then go to my baby. So how is it that I have three germ carrying kids and have not had the flu in 9 years? Well 9 years ago, I was going through a transitional time and I was eating so much processed foods. This was just a year after I had been living in Africa, eating mostly unprocessed foods, and was exposed to plenty of Vitamin D daily. Now my body for the first time in several ...

We all spent years and years in school to essentially learn how to survive in the real world.  Many people went to specialized schools or universities to get an even more specialized education.  Most of us did not learn a thing about raising children and how they develop.  When I was first pregnant, I was overwhelmed with the fact that I knew nothing about raising kids or changing diapers.  There is a lot that parents SHOULD know before they bring the baby home from the hospital. Yes there are 45 minute parenting workshops at the hospital but they tell you little more than how to change a diaper, bathe the child, and not hit or shake your child. You may have family that are willing to help and be a wealth of information but I highly suggest reading books on different methods and determine what YOUR parenting style will be.  If you don't educate yourself then you are blindly sending your child down a path that molds their future. These are the books that I found...

In the movies it seems like a woman goes into labor, runs to the hospital, lays on her back and then has her baby. In reality, most women have an early labor that lasts for hours (and often days) in which it is in their best interest to stay home and work through their labor before going to the hospital. So what do you do at home?  Well a good birthing class will teach you what to do during each stage of labor and delivery. Most importantly, birthing classes give moms and partners the self confidence that they need and the tools to empower themselves. I am sure that most of you reading this are looking for a natural un-medicated birth and a good class will teach you how to be in control of your body and not experience "pain." There are several options that you should investigate to see what is the best option for you. image: www.123rf.com ronen Doula For my first birth, I had a doula who came to our home and gave my husband and I private birth preparation classes. ...

image: http://www.freeimages.co.uk What is a birth plan? A birth plan is a list of what you want during labor, delivery and postpartum. It is helpful for you to sit down and decide on what decisions you want made in advance so you are not having to make spur of the moment decisions in between contractions and no details will be forgotten.  During my first pregnancy, I had so much to learn and found it useful just to read through the options that my doctor never told me about. I became very educated by just researching what those options meant! Free birth plan template. This one is really good from Earth Mama Angel Baby:  http://www.earthmamaangelbaby.com/free-birth-plan Should I create a birth plan? During my first pregnancy, my doula had me review all the birthing options. She was adamant about me not being too set on a fixed "birth plan" because she wanted me to be flexible and not get too disappointed if my dream birth did not happen. Since my doula was at my side the ...

I had no clue what a doula was. Then two moms both raved about their doula. As soon as my husband heard the other husbands rave about their doulas, he was sold and instantly made me call her and hire her. The story that got me was the couple that went for the cessation with a breach baby. Of course that was not in their birth plan but they said that the doula kept them both calm and turned it into an embracing and positive experience where it would have been horrifying without her. I had a doula for my first birth and she was priceless.   And of course she shared her wonderful pregnancy tea recipe with me! I will speak more about her when it is my turn to tell my birth story. For my second birth, my midwife told me not to have a doula because she (psychic or really talented?) predicted how fast my labor would be and told me that as soon as my contracts started, I needed to run to the hospital and that she would be at my side the entire time! It was true! Here is some information ...

I just got a call from my midwife with my blood results and it showed that my iron was low. I am anemic. This also happened to me during the last trimester with baby #2. This was good news to me since I have been sluggish lately and was thrilled to know that there was an easy way to get more energy! There are two ways to treat low iron: diet and supplements. Diet Our bodies are designed to absorb two forms of iron: (1) from animals [heme iron] and (2) from plants [nonheme iron]. Animal based iron is the easiest for our body to absorb but animal meats do not contain as much as plant based foods do.  The National Institutes of Health, NIH, has great charts that show you how much iron is in each food if you click here . You can encourage your body to better absorb plant based iron by consuming it with foods high in vitamin C (citrus, strawberries, peppers, etc.).  Do not consume your iron foods with tea that contain tannins, calcium, unsoaked beans, or unsoaked grains.  The...

Congratulations if you are pregnant.  From the day you find out that you are pregnant, life changes.  There is a whole list of things that you are not supposed to eat and if it is not your first pregnancy then you will probably feel your body changing immediately.  Below is my top list of what needs to change and some useful tips on what to do/use. Prenatal Vitamins made from Whole-Foods These are more than just multi-vitamins and it is best to start taking them before conception.  They are higher in folic acid and often contain omega-3s or other useful ingredients to pregnancy.  Most vitamins are made from  synthetic chemical isolates that are hard for the body to identify and absorb properly.  There are a few brands like New Chapter and Nature's Plus Source of Life that make the vitamins using whole-foods so the  phytonutrients  appear in the vitamin the way your body is used to seeing nutrients in food.  You and the baby will better...

There are so many women out there trying to get pregnant and I know that some will stumble on this blog so I am throwing this one post here for these women. I spent time cleansing my body before trying to get pregnant.  I read more and more and even signed up to become a Health Coach at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition . My body became the type of place that I would want for a new baby. It meant doing things such as changing my diet to whole/non-processed foods, eating healthy fats, avoiding hormones in meats and dairy by buying organic and grass-fed, avoiding medicines, and I avoided things such as preservatives and artificial food coloring.  I have also heard many wonderful success stories of "infertile" women becoming pregnant after prolonged acupuncture and/or following a blood type or metabolic type diet. I started paying attention to my body in a whole new way. I read Taking Charge of Your Fertility, 10th Anniversary Edition: The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth ...