Showing posts with label parenting. Show all posts

Sick Tea (antiviral tea)!

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Little Bear was sick-sick for the first time last week, and it was viral... Momma has never felt so helpless (flashback to the midnight earache incident)! All I could do is round up every antiviral in the house and treat internally (tea) and topically (balm). I can't find where I wrote the instructions for the balm, but as soon as I do, I'll get it posted, too.

The interwebs and other more-seasoned parents warned that this particular virus was a doozy and that it would entail 7-14 days of pure heck. I'm not sure if LB got off with a pansy strand of the virus, if his immune system was killer strong already, or if the tea and balm actually helped, but we only ended up with 3 days of really sick and a few days of recovery - YAY!

For what it's worth, here's our magical antiviral tea recipe:

Boil a quart (4 cups) of purified water. Pour over 1 echinacea tea bag, 1 red rooibos tea bag, and a sprig of rosemary. After the tea has cooled a bit, add a few drops of oil of oregano, 1 teaspoon of elderberry concentrate, and 2 teaspoons of raw honey. Drink 3 quarts each day until you're all better. If you can't handle 3 quarts (or can't get your little one to drink that much), make sure you're getting 3 teaspoons of elderberry and a few tablespoons of raw honey throughout the day.

Good luck!

Miracle Earache & Ear Infection Remedy! {Momma's Magic Drops}

One of a mamma's simple pleasures is the quiet that falls over the house between the kiddos' bed times and momma's bedtime. I don't like that time to be disturbed. By anything.

Especially by the sound of a screeching toddler...

At about 11:45 last night, Little Bear (2 1/2) started screaming like a banshee. My first thought was, of course, bad dream... I ran to his room and he was sitting up in bed clutching his ear. I will concede that he's really not ever sick and has never ever had ear troubles, so he may have been more dramatic than most kids. Either way, the sound of my baby in pain induced a bit of a panic.

... Crap. An ear ache is probably not ER worthy, although his screams are pretty intense. Can I get an OTC drop that will help? What kind of artificial meds are in those drops? ...

I had to do something, but I had no idea what. There were some old homeopathic, glycerine-based ear drops in the medicine cabinet (not sure why, though), but they turned out to be entirely useless. Dude wouldn't even let me hold a warm rag on his ear to soothe it, and I was out of ideas.

As I snuggled my still-bawling little guy, I googled like a maniac. The only remedy I could find that could be made with what I had on hand was garlic and olive oil. I had no expectation of success, but I had to do something.

Apparently, both ingredients are highly antibacterial and garlic is a crazy good anti-inflammatory.

SO, to cut to the chase, Little Bear sat on a chair in the kitchen whimpering, "muh ear, muh ear. muh ear hut" while I made "Momma's Magic Drops" {Seriously, naming not fun things fun names somehow makes the idea less appalling to the little ones...}

I have no pics of the actual process, because I was beyond tired and frazzled by the time we were at this point in the night...

Put 1/4 cup unrefined olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.
Add about 4 cloves of crushed, coarsely chopped garlic.
Let it simmer until the garlic pieces start to brown.
Remove the garlic and bring to room or body temperature.
Use a dropper and drop several drops in the affected ear.
Wait several minutes with the bad ear up to let the oil run down into the ear (we sang the ABCs three times slowly while eating chocolate).
Repeat several times a day until the ear is better.

You can store the oil in a glass container in the refrigerator. When you're ready to use them, fill up the dropper and leave it on the counter to warm up for several minutes.

No exaggeration, within seconds of the drops going in his ear, LB was calmed down. And, by the time we were done singing the ABC's, he was already starting to doze back off. He woke up this morning tired, but without even the slightest indication that his ears were hurting. SUCCESS!!!

For good measure, we still did drops this morning and then two more times during the day.

*HUGE sign of relief*

Do you have another natural DIY remedy to share? Have you tried this one? I can't say how well this will work across the board, but I will for sure try it again if/when LB has an earache again!

Supermom Crib Sheet Trick

I *think* I read about this in a product review comment before Little Bear was born. Regardless of where the idea came from, it's saved me tons of sanity over the past year and a half! I've only done it with crib sheets, but I don't see why it wouldn't work on a toddler bed or even a twin-size mattress.

I seriously feel like a supermom when I have to change the sheets and can do it in less than 15 seconds!

What you'll need:

4 fitted crib sheets
1 mattress protector
3 crib pads (mine aren't full-length, but I wish they were)

What you do:

1. Take the mattress out of the crib, and put the mattress protector on it.

2. Put a crib sheet over the protector.

3. Lay a crib pad flat over the sheet.

4. Layer another sheet over the pad.

5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 with the remaining pads and sheets. I use 4 sheets, but you could do more or less, depending on what works best for you.

When you're layering, you'll want to start with the tightest-fitting sheet and work your way out to the loosest-fitting one. I found that the jersey-type material was stretchier than the sateen or regular cotton sheets.

Now, when your little one wets through a diaper or spills a water cup in the crib, you just have to remove the top sheet & pad, and you're all set to go with clean sheets!

I promise that when you have a late-night accident, you will really feel like supermom when you can do a sheet change that quickly & easily. I can't even imagine having to take the mattress out of the crib and start from scratch every time Little Bear had an accident!

Why Didn't They Warn Me?!

There are certain things that I've decided are "hidden" secrets of momdom. Seasoned moms know them, but either choose not to tell new moms or just take them for granted because they've become such an expected part of life.

BUT, these things need to be recorded. To be shared. To be explained.

As soon as I found out I was pregnant with Little Bear (who I swore was a girl until the second gender ultrasound pronounced him officially a boy), I bought several pregnancy and new mom books and subscribed to every major milestone/prep blog and website available. I like to be prepared. I like to know what I'm getting in to. And, I NEED to feel at least somewhat in control of what's happening.
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In all of this sometimes manic reading and learning, there were things that I swear I was never warned about. Or maybe they seemed so far-fetched that I assumed they never really happened to real moms.
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Consider this a warning! Even if it sounds awful and horrible, and you think that it could never happen to you, you must believe that it can - and that it very likely will!
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With that being said, here are the things that I wish someone would have told me before I found out the hard way {heads-up, some are a little graphic}:

Your boobs may leak. Yep, you'll be sitting there in class/at work/at dinner and lactation will be the farthest thing from you mind - until you look down and notice that the entire front of your shirt is soaked. WHAT THE HELL!!! Whatisthis!!! Oh, yeah, you'll find out later, boobs can leak while you're still pregnant. Consider yourself warned. {Solution: keep a sample pack of boob pads on hand at ALL times while your pregnant. I was only 24 weeks along when this happened to me...}
The first ultrasound. Uhm, yeah... When you see new moms getting their ultrasounds on tv, it's the nifty little wand that they rub around on your tummy. Not so much. The first (and maybe second) ultrasound is actually transvaginal. If you're not expecting it, it's a not-so-good shock and leaves you feeling more than a little violated. That's all I'm saying - Google it if you want more info (I suggest not selecting google images for that search...)
You may get horrible acne. Even if you've never been one to break out, something about all of the crazy pregnancy hormones can cause you to break out - badly. Don't worry, though, because on one else will notice once you look like you've eaten a whole watermelon patch.
Morning sickness can be more like an awful, trimester-long hangover. Yay!
"Cravings" can sometimes feel like an insatiable need to eat something with no idea what something is. Until you figure out what it is, nothing else sounds good. You will want to kill anyone who tells you to just eat anything or who tries to solve the problem by listing random foods in hopes that one sounds good to you - none of them will.
When your water breaks, it's not a one-and-done deal. Nope. Every contraction after for quite a while will cause more water to leak. For me, it was a lot of water. I honestly thought that I was peeing myself every time I had a contraction. {Solution: get a pack of Depends (adult diapers) and slip one on once labor starts. You do NOT want to be in the middle of the produce department feeling like you're wetting yourself repeatedly.}
After the baby is born, you will have what basically equates to the longest and heaviest menstrual period you've ever had. It's almost like something from a nasty horror movie. They'll give you big-o weird pads (think 10 overnight maxis all stuck together) at the hospital, but you're much better off just buying a pack of Depends and hauling them with you. You probably think I'm joking, but I'm not. Seriously - get yourself some Depends. You can thank me later... Actually, send daddy to go get them. It's pretty embarrassing to buy them, and he owes you. For the rest of your life, he owes you.
Don't even bother taking non-maternity clothes to the hospital with you, because there is no way in H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks that you will be wearing them home. Yeah, it's maternity clothes for a while. Sorry.

It may sound like a gross, awful road (sometimes it really is), but there is NOTHING in the world like holding that amazing little bundle for the first time. In that instant, you will (almost) forget everything that you've been through. Until next time...

Since every pregnancy is different, you may have a whole different list of surprises - exciting, I know! What do you wish someone had told you before you were pregnant?

SIGH

Husband: What's a cow say?
Little Bear: Mooooo
Husband: What's a sheep say?
Little Bear: Baaaaaaa
Husband: What's a dog say?
Little Bear: Oof Oof
Husband: What's Mommy say?
{My eyes dart across the room}
Little Bear: *SIGH*

Confession: I am a sigher. A compulsive, exaggerated sigher. There's nothing like the honesty of a kid to kick you while you're down, right? I sigh over everything. It's my go-to response to anything that is not wholly awesome. I really don't want Little Bear to grown up thinking that Mommy is always put out by him or annoyed with him, though. I suppose I'll add it to the list of things that I need to work on...

What was your not-so-glorious moment of the week? We promise not to laugh... too hard!

Fabulous First: Easter Basket!

Although this is not our first Easter with Little Bear, it's the first one that I've had to put a basket together for him (he was only 6 months old last year). I may have gone just a little overboard, but here's what he's getting (NO junk candy and NO useless crap here!):

Because Little Bear and I fly relatively frequently and because he LOVES to pack things up, I used a Melissa and Doug Trunki instead of a standard Easter Basket. He is obsessed with the pillow packs that come in Amazon's packages, so I used those as a base filler.

To make it pretty and Easter-y, I topped the pillow packs with pretty green Easter grass.

I did a little dry run tonight, and hid a few eggs to get Little Bear ready for the big day. Before he would put any eggs in his bucket, he wanted to open it and check the inside out - I have NO idea where he learned that Easter eggs were filled with goodies, but it made my job a whole lot more fun :)

I filled 2 dozen small plastic eggs with organic whole grain cheerios, bulk organic raisins, chocolate Earth's Best cookies (over half whole grain), and the marshmallows from my all-natural lucky charms (these are my mommy crack - I have a bowl almost every night, but shhhh don't tell anyone). These will mostly be for hiding around the house/in the back yard.

Nevermind the beer in the background :) Momma needed a little Blue Moon action after today's tornado fiasco!

I filled some bigger eggs with Annie's fruit snack packs.

Ok, so, don't judge... I may have had a little too much fun with the non-food goodies that went into the basket. I think there is an element of mommy guilt that comes with keeping the "good stuff" away from Little Bear (i.e., foods/candies filled with unhealthy and even toxic additives, colors, artificial flavors, etc.). Even thought I know that I'm making the best possible choices for his health, I still don't want him to feel left out or isolated - especially during the holidays. Sooooo, I more than compensated :)

Here's a list of some of the fun fillers I used:

Melissa & Doug Animal Sounds Puzzle
Easter Egg Chalk
Water Gun
Peeled Dried Cherry
Elmo Ice Pack (he's been super clumsy lately but HATES the ice pack)
Elmo Smoothie Pouches
Elmo Snack Cup
Raisin Boxes
Melissa & Doug Sprinkler Toy
Melissa & Doug Sunglasses
Tub Star Crayon
Small Drinking Cups
Stellaluna Board Book

Sooo, now I have a huge basket to hide until Sunday! While at this age Easter is all about the treats and the gifts, I can't wait until Little Bear is old enough to really understand why we celebrate Easter - there is so much awesomeness for me to teach him!

Romans 6:8-11 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Easter Baskets

It seems like each holiday brings new challenges to my natural eating & living commitment! I think Easter and Halloween are the worst/hardest... I'm compiling a collection of healthier options (that won't break the bank), and I'd love any of your suggestions! I'll keep updating this list up until Easter, so please keep checking back, and keep sending your ideas in!
I feel like Easter as its seen in the Christian faith isn't really the Easter that we celebrate in America. The secular celebration is more of a celebration of spring (baskets, egg hunts, etc.), so most of my suggestions reflect that. It's a great time to prepare for beautiful days outside and all the joys of spring (and summer)!