JUNE 2020 ROUNDUP

Due date is one month from today which means we’re in the final days. 😬 It’s harder to get around with my growing bump but I know I’ll miss this belly once it’s gone. Cherishing every moment with our little guy inside me. It actually has gone by too fast. Pregnancy is such a gift and pregnancy after miscarriage is something I will never take for granted. 💙

5 years ago Corey and I were at lunch with another couple and the wife was pregnant and we got to talking and she said she was giving birth at a birth center. I had NO clue what that was. Corey and I had actually just started dating so kids were not even on my mind so I didn’t really think to ask her exactly what that was because I was so far away from that myself. I did think it was interesting though because this girl worked in a hospital and I had never heard of anyone not giving birth in a hospital before.

Fast forward to my pregnancy journey. My first two pregnancies I was with an obgyn and intended to deliver in the hospital, still not really knowing other options existed. Well as you know, after our second loss is when I became more crunchy and just started researching EVERYTHING to figure out why we could have lost our first two babies and that led me down a path of more “natural” minded things which included learning about other places to give birth. I’ll do another post another time as to why I chose this route but I asked in my stories recently if you knew what a birth center was and some people didn’t so I just wanted to share here!

There can be many different nuances with birth centers but I hope this gives a general idea. In general, a birth center is a more home- like atmosphere. It can be freestanding or connected to a hospital. Typically they are run by midwives so you don’t have a traditional OBGYN doctor. They have all the equipment needed to provide routine care and initiate emergency procedures. Surgeries cannot be performed there which is why if you require a C-section for instance, you’d be transferred to a hospital. They can perform all the normal prenatal lab work there.

Typically the mindset at a birth center is that birth is a normal event, not a medical condition that requires intervention. Typically this means there is no induction of labor here, little to no medication, fewer IV’s depending on the situation, no continuous monitoring and no synthetic oxytocin to augment labor. There is a backup doctor associated with the midwives/center. Typically you get more personalized care with a birth center.

Once labor begins you will go to the birth center, deliver your child in whatever position you choose (including water) and if everyone is healthy you’re typically released anywhere from 6-12 hours after to go home.

There are no epidurals at birth centers because there is no anesthesiologist. Many birth centers offer drugs like nitrous oxide though. (I’ll do a post on that another time as well; if you have MTHFR you should avoid this.) Midwives are trained in techniques to make labor calmer, easier and faster which helps with pain management.

A common misconception is that there is no medical equipment but that’s not true. They are stocked with all standard equipment typically used at birth like IV’s, oxygen, anti-hemorrhage medications and antibiotics. They are also equipped with up-to-date equipment for neonatal resuscitation.

Most birth centers provide for a home visit within 24 hours after birth to look at mom and baby.

I’ve included a few pictures of my specific birth center which is so dreamy! As soon as I walked in there the first time I fell in love.

This was a very quick overview but basically a birth center is just that, a place to give birth! You also do all your prenatal care there. I have a lot more on this but I just wanted to provide a general idea of what it was for those that didn’t know!

For all my fellow frizzy/curlyhaired girls- this is a game changer! I’ve been testing this out for a while and I wish I would have gotten it sooner.

I have naturally curly/frizzy hair. I also have tons of little baby hairs and I always have had them my whole life. I’ve been using this when I get out of the shower on damp hair and it has helped SO much. I took some photos to show you the difference. I did cover my face though 🤪! The first picture is with nothing on my hair and air-dried. The second picture is air-dried using the oil and the third picture is blow-dried using the oil. You can see how much less my baby hairs are there and how it’s just smoother overall in the last two pics. I definitely have noticed I don’t have to straighten it as much because it’s blow-drying much more smooth!

You only need a super tiny amount so this bottle is going to last a while. I put it on my ends first and then work it up to the top of my head. Game Changer!

This isn’t toxin related but for those new people here I wanted to share this sweet gift we got this week because a lot of you weren’t around back in November when we lost our sweet Bagel. Bagel was my baby and back in November we had to unexpectedly say goodbye to him. It was a very stressful few months of him being sick. To be honest I thought was going to miscarry again due to the whole situation. I was very early in my pregnancy when all of this was happening.

Bagel was the center of my world! He was 100% spoiled. I got him as a puppy in college and I was his person. I could go on forever about him but to sum it up- he was everyone’s favorite and he had the cutest personality. He was the most beloved member of our family and he got wherever he wanted. He was just shy of 10 years old.
So this week I received what I thought was going to be a baby present and upon opening it there were indeed things for the baby but this was also in there. I was completely caught off guard and touched. I won’t call this person out but she knows how hard it was losing Bagel and so she had this painted for us to remember our sweet guy. 😭 Thank you to @strayfaces for capturing Bagel perfectly! He would’ve been such a good big brother and I’m so glad we now have this to show our little guy when he comes to tell him all about Bagel and how special he was. 💙

Y’all I’m not trying to be overdramatic but this “bread” is DELICIOUS. I saw the recipe from @lilsipper and I slightly modified it and holy cow- it’s so good! I’ve been munching on this for a higher protein snack because it’s made with peanut butter & eggs. You can find the recipe on her instagram but here’s what I did. Use organic ingredients if possible and pasture-raised eggs.

Swipe over for how I made it.

Note: I didn’t want this to be a sweet snack per se but know that if you don’t add chocolate chips, it will NOT be any type of sweet so I’m glad I added in the chips just to give it a little something. You could always add a sweetener of your choice.

I’ve done things differently this pregnancy than what the “norm” is for some things and one of those things is foregoing cervical checks now that I’m this far along. (37 + 2!) I’ve had a few people ask me if I’m dilated and so I figured I’d address it here.

Cervical checks check for dilation and effacement and they are not really necessary except maybe in a few cases like if you’re about to be induced and need to see if your body has started naturally. All these really do is satisfy your curiosity but they don’t really mean anything. These are done more out of tradition than anything else and they can be very inaccurate.

Let’s just say I’m 3 cm dilated now for example. (I don’t know this, this is just a made up scenario). Well, I could be dilated 3 cm for 3 weeks or 3 days so that doesn’t really tell me anything about when I’ll go into labor. You can have women who are dilated for literally weeks and nothing happens and on the flip side you can have someone who goes from 0 cm to 10 cm in 5 hours or something super fast. So checking really doesn’t do anything but possibly get your hopes up or down.

There is also the possibility that doing a cervical check could accidentally rupture your membranes (or a provider could do that intentionally with or without telling you) which could put you into labor too soon and that could lead to other issues if baby isn’t ready to come out yet. You also introduce an increased risk of infection as well.

I don’t know what cervical checks I will have during actual labor but for right now where I’m at pre-labor I’m not doing them. I don’t want to risk anything and really it just doesn’t give me any good info. At a certain point if I am significantly past my due date I will do a membrane sweep and be checked then but for right now I’m not at that point so I’m just choosing not to.

I don’t even know if my midwife does them honestly. It’s not something I’ve had to even turn down- it just hasn’t been brought up.

If you’re just curious and want to do them- go for it! It’s your choice. That’s what I think is neat—you should have the choice to do them or not and in my case I’m just choosing not to.

If you are not wanting them and your provider mentions it, talk it out with them. This is a procedure you have the right to consent to or not. Ask them why they are doing them. Can you do them less often? Will the results change your care? Is it a necessary procedure based on your specific case?

Listen to the Pregnancy Podcast episode from 2016 or go to evidencebasedbirth.com if you want to know more.

I am not really a huge yogurt person. To be honest, anything like yogurt, jello, pudding… not my thing! I think it’s a texture issue. This yogurt has completely changed me though!

Years ago I would force yogurt down my mouth to get some probiotics in. I cringe at this now but I would buy something like a Chobani Flips yogurt, which is yogurt with some type of other food mixed in to make it more appealing and basically like a dessert. In reality, these were just complete sugar bombs with horrible ingredients. I didn’t know any better then! I would even try to buy the kid’s Danimals yogurt smoothies bc they tasted better. 😬 The ironic thing is that the ones I bought had upwards of 20 grams of sugar, which was completely terrible for me, and I was trying to buy something good for my gut…. I always say- know better, do better! Of course I would never buy those now. My friend actually introduced me to this yogurt and I’m super thankful! During pregnancy I’ve needed to eat lots of nuts/seeds and recently pomegranate seeds and so I’ve been mixing them into this and eating at night and it tastes SO good.

Why do I love this yogurt? First off, it actually tastes good. I could eat this plain if I needed to. I’ve never been able to say that about yogurt. I’ve tried two flavors- this one and the strawberry rose and both have low sugar. This one only has 1 gram. The strawberry one does have more (9 grams). I mostly buy the plain one since I’m adding other stuff to it anyway. The ingredients are simple; there is no added junk in these. It is Keto, AIP, Paleo , Whole 30, Vegan and Organic. They are free from dairy, eggs, gluten, seafood, shellfish, peanuts and soy if you have issues with those. They do contain coconut though.

I actually eat ½ a container at a time. I’ve found I don’t need a whole one. I’ve been eating ½ a jar at night with sunflower seeds, walnuts, pomegranate seeds and a few dark chocolate chips as a dessert and I actually look forward to eating it!

I buy these at Whole Foods but if you’re local to me they also sell at Sprouts. You can go to their website and type in your zip code to find a store near you that sells it! 100% recommend.

There have been SO many brands popping up with “allergen free” foods. The purpose of this post it to tell you that allergen free does NOT equal healthy. Allergen free typically means free from peanuts, tree nuts, milk/dairy, eggs, wheat/gluten, soy, shellfish, fish, sesame amongst other things.

There is nothing wrong with being allergen free but I think for some reason allergen free sends a marketing message that these products are somehow healthy. If you have true allergies of course you need to steer clear of these but eating an allergen free granola for example doesn’t do any good if it’s still full of refined sugars, refined oils, artificial flavors and other random chemical additives.

I talk a lot about dairy free and gluten free items here as that’s what I mostly eat but I find numerous things at the grocery store that are gluten free and dairy free that have horrible ingredients that I wouldn’t buy just because they are gluten/dairy free. There are a lot of brands who do allergen free foods well like Simple Mills, Tessemaes and Primal Kitchen to name a few. Their products are made with 👍🏼 ingredients AND are allergen free.

Don’t fall for marketing tactics! Food allergies are on the rise which means the market for allergen free products is up and this means brands want to get in on the action but not all brands are making clean ingredient products. This is why it is so important to read labels for EVERYTHING!

Y’all I could have a baby anytime! That is so weird.

Today I wanted to share some oils & other things I’m bringing with me to give birth. Obviously I’ve never given birth before so I don’t know what all I will experience and need but these are things that have been recommended to me so I’m just bringing them all and we’ll see what I need when the time comes!

Arnica Gel and Cool Azul Cream: Both of these are for topical application during labor and afterwards to help with any soreness/pain.
Claraderm Spray: If there is one item that has been recommended the most- this is it! I’ve heard this is just like magic for your lady parts after birth. I plan on spraying it down there while I heal and spraying it on pads. This was even in my care packet from my birth center to bring!

Rose Ointment and Earth Mama Nipple Butter: Both of these have been recommended as creams for breastfeeding so I’m going to try both out.

For any nausea/stomach issues: Peppermint and Digize. Note: Peppermint can mess with milk supply so this one should be used with caution. I plan on only sniffing it and not applying topically. My doula also said black pepper oil could help with nausea.

For an energy boost: Lemon and Orange

For a calming effect: Lavender and Valor and Stress Away and Peace and Calming and Gentle Baby

For pain: Panaway

To amplify other oils: Copaiba

For Immune Support: Of course I always have my Thieves!

My doula also has Clary Sage which can help induce labor or help with stalled labor. This one shouldn’t be used before 40 weeks. If I go past 40 weeks I will use this one pre-labor as well.

I love that I have these oils to bring with me to go through what I can only imagine will be the hardest thing I ever endure physically.