Taking care of yourself after baby's delivery.

Over the weekend I had a deep freezer with every shelf covered in maxi pads. I have to have some frozen pads after baby. This was one of my last hesitations of birthing at home vs. the hospital, I LOVED those ice pads - they were so convenient and soothing. Then I found out you can buy them online, but they are 2.40 for ONE. And I wanted about 20.  So I learned how to make my own. And I had to learn without google's help. So I thought I'd help out other moms on what I found out to work the best. Last time I froze different things on different brands of pads - this is my favorite:

 I make herbal mixture from this Herbal afterbirth bath - you can get here 

In the video I called it 'tea' its not tea - don't drink it. It won't kill ya but it won't taste good. After baby you can make another batch to refill your peri bottle with. Ahhhh the peri bottle, a new mother's best friend.

The herbal mix has all this wonderful stuff in it: 

Comfrey leaf, Lavender flower, Shepherd's Purse, Uva Ursi leaf, Plaintain leaf, Red Raspberry leaf, Yarrow flower & Sea salt.

 It smells SOOOOOOO good! I wish there was smell-o-blog.

I wrap up a small handful into gauze and tie with rubberband. I made sure to leave enough of the mixture for me and baby to take an herbal bath after the birth, its healing for mom and baby. (my bits and baby's cord)

 bring to rolling boil then let steep - I let steep overnight.

Ok this is my favorite brand of pad for after delivery. They are BIG. They are SOFT. And they don't have wings - I usually like 'wings' but not when I am sensitive down there - no need for something to flip over and turn into a wax strip on me. 

Here they are freezing - once frozen I moved them all into one box, all ready to go.

and here is how I did it: 

Happenings & On my bookshelf

 26 weeks and I can finally, finally say I am no longer nauseous. 

 Summer is here!

 Kyle surprised me with tickets to the 25th anniversary performance of Phantom of the Opera at Prince Albert Hall broadcast at cinemark - Amazing - and the movie theater experience was cool views you couldn't even get from first row and great acoustics

 Started "carding" aka leaving information about not circumcising in places where new mothers might find it: pregnancy tests, expectant mom parking, in pregnancy books, stuffed in layette items, near prenatal vitamins - can you think of any other good places?

 Been going through room by room and purging/cleaning/painting/shampooing carpets or some combo thereof 

 Best Buds said goodbye, Houston bound, many tears shed!

Saw Baby Boo - DID NOT find out gender, didn't even peek. 

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What I've been reading:

 A book of LOCAL birth stories that benefits the Tarrant County Birth Network. It was fabulous. I go this Saturday to a start up meeting for the Dallas County Birth Network... Maybe one day I'll spear-head a Collin County Birth Network? We shall see...

 This is about circumcision, of course, and is fascinating. Did you know ancient circumcision was NOTHING like what we do today. It was much more conservative from ritual bloodletting to just a nick in the foreskin or removal of what extended beyond the glans. Then in the Hellenic period when Jewish men wanted to get into the Olympics (it was naked remember and considered indecent for your glans to be exposed) they would "restore" their foreskin by either manipulating it down or stretching it with weights. This upset the Jewish leaders so they started removing ALL of the foreskin from there on out. A practice John Kellogg (yes the cereal guy - he was a certifiable nutcase) pushed in America from a medical standpoint to reduce masturbation addictions.  And now you know the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say.

Got this to inspire me to try all sorts of homemade bread making feats. It looks hard and my motivation has waned.

 A fun read. I think my husband has every single book Stephen King has ever written and every once in a while I pick up and try the ones I haven't already read myself.

 I could have TOTALLY wrote this. Meaning I didn't learn tons of new stuff but I still thoroughly enjoyed reading it - she has a great sense of humor. Something every parent of a big family MUST have.

This book has been utterly fascinating. It uses the massive information gathered through eight decades of the Terman study and provides easy to read user friendly 'advice' I guess you would say.  I love that each chapter basically tells you what can shorten your life span then ends with a paragraph on why you shouldn't be too concerned about it. 

Loved the chapter on exercise. I won't spoil it but I bet it won't be what you are expecting to hear.

And the number one predictor of shorter lifespan?

Parental divorce in childhood.

see? like I said - 

interesting.

the one thing I would INSIST on in ANY birth

A pet topic of mine has made a resurgence in the news lately. Funny when 'back to basics' becomes new science.

There is a new video up explaining the benefits of delayed cord clamping by Penny Simkin.
Penny Simkin is amazing - her videos of relaxation techniques really helped Kyle and I prepare for natural birth. anywho back to the topic at hand:

Immediate cord clamping is like having a major blood hemorrhage for the baby.

Babies that get their cord blood have increased iron levels at 4 months old! Article HERE

Even if baby needs resuscitation that can be done on mom's chest and they need that blood and oxygen even MORE SO!

poor little Cora :(

Jaundice - I can only offer anecdotal evidence but of five babies the only one who did not have jaundice was PJ and he didn't have his cord cut until after the placenta was delivered.

Delayed cord clamping CAN be done in a c-section. - they can wait holding the baby there for 2 minutes. It may freak out the nurses but it can be done.

If you have a precipitous delivery (don't make it to the hospital/birth center) in time. Please do not tie off the cord - especially with a dirty shoe lace - yuck. Don't let the paramedics clamp either, Wrap baby up with placenta when/if it comes and go to where you intended to birth. Be warned no discount if you birth in the car even if they do nothing but let you shower at the hospital and you have to pay to get your car detailed LOL.




 I did a comparison video of  PJ and Cora's birth (I'd love to add video of Benjamins but its a non-PG shot and rather violent forceps delivery) In this video I show the difference in how the cord was handled. - the video is silent to start, there is much more footage of pushing than in my original birth video and the complete third stage (delivery of placenta) which is not easy to find in homebirth videos: