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Birth of Quinn Alexander

So Quinn is my newest baby. This is how he was born.

Tuesday, March 20th, I woke up. Husband and I left early to go view houses for sale. We saw a lot of them and I did a lot of walking. I started to feel uncomfortable around the 3rd house. My contractions were very irregular, but they did hurt. I kept telling myself to ignore it. It was just false labor and it would go away, like all the other times it has in the past week. We got home and had lunch. I took a short nap and got an incredible urge to mow the lawn. Then I needed to do laundry. Then I needed to vaccum. Then I needed to clean Skye's bathroom. Then we went grocery shopping. By this time, I was getting grumpy with the pain from my contractions and just wanted to eat dinner and go to bed. I didn't actually fall asleep until around 11pm or so.
At 1pm I woke up to a whopper of a contraction. I woke myself up going "aoooaaooooooaoohh". I shook Jon after about 3 of those and told him I thought I might be in labor and I was going to go take a bath to try to make the contractions go away. This made them worse. Much much worse. I started to not be able to think during my contractions. I still was in denial this was real. I got out around 1:30 and told Jon to wake up, that I *might* be in labor. My contractions were very intense, 4 to 5 minutes apart and lasting at least one minute. I couldn't believe that I had progressed that fast in such a short amount of time. Especially since my last labor was a full 24 hours long. I decided to call people to watch Skye. No. One. Was. Answering. I started to freak out a LOT and had to go deep down to calm myself. All this time, my contractions were getting more intense and I was getting very loud. I did "ahhhhh AHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHH ahhhhhhh" a lot. Threw in some "ooooh OoooooOOOOOHHHHHHHHH" too. Later, I started to do lots of wonderful swearing. Finally, I got a hold of my friend and she came to get Skye. As JOn and her were loading Skye up in the car, I had a big contraction and felt the baby move down. Then pressure. And I thought "oh my god. THis baby is going to come out NOW". So I expressed my immediate need to go. I think I kept saying it over and over. I can't remember. I got in the car and had a contraction. That sucked a lot. A lot a lot. I told Jon I couldn't have another contraction in the car. I would probably die. I still had 2 more before we got to the hospital. We arrived at 3:30am. Jon parked and I got out as fast as I could, racing my own contraction. I tried to hobble as fast as I could to the entrance and then a room. I didn't make it to a room before another contraction hit and I had to lean on the wall. A few nurses saw me (and the whole place heard me I'm sure) and right away directed me to the nearest delivery room. I was asked to pee in a cup. I did so and found lots of mucus and blood in my underwear. I knew this baby was coming soon.
My contractions were now 2-3 minutes apart and lasting 3 centuries and I had almost no time to compose myself between them. TRANSISSION! I got louder here. I got to the bed somehow. They took my vitals and all that garbage. I wanted to punch them in their throats. I was pretty polite though. All I could think was "STOP TOUCHING ME". Luckily I was too busy roaring to say anything like that, and in between contrations I was too busy thinking "no epidural no epidural no epidural" to choke anyone. I did want Jon to push on me. I kept thinking I wanted him to push my back like he was trying to break it. That helped a bit. I was checked a few contractions after getting in the bed and found to be 100% effaced and 8cm dilated. THe nurse started to say I had a bulgy bag and she wanted to break it but I think I changed her mind when I informed her that I had group B strep. At this point I couldn't be still anymore between contractions and I was squirming around a bit. Roaring. You know... Nurse number one asked if I wanted an epidural. My wonderful husband said No ( love!) and I said no I think. I can't remember. Nurse number two comes in and sees me about to spontaneously combust and asks if I want an epidural. I was so damn mad at this point. Seriously, if I wasn't so busy trying to survive, I would have killed someone. They need to not ask women that. Just assume they want to go natural. Because you have no idea how tempting and delicious that epidural sounded. I had to chant to myself that I didn't need it. And I wanted it. Soooooooo bad. Most women would cave. It's like double chocolate brownies being held by a very muscular man who loves to tell you how awesome you are. That's what an epidural sounds like when you are 8 cm dilated and your contractions are trying to eat you.
Anyway, a few contractions later, my water broke. During a contraction, I felt a pop and a warm water fall. And I knew. I just knew that the next one was going to kill me. And..........it was the most intense sensation I have ever felt in my life. I can't even describe it. I started to breath way too fast. I was getting really scared. 3 or so of those and the automatic pushing started. I wasn't pushing. My BODY was doing it on it's own. I started saying "I think I need to push. I'm pushing I'M PUSHING!!!!!" They told me I coulndn't. Everyone in there was telling me not to push. To breath. To breath? It was horrible. With all the contractions, all the pain, the baby coming out, everything else, the absolute worse part was when I had to writhe in the bed and not push. I HAD to push. I think I endured 2 or 3 contractions like that and my CNM showed up. She checked me and, YEP, I was 10 cm and ready to push. All the pain went away. It was like bliss. It was so amazing. I don't know how to describe. This is what I wanted to do. My body was happy to do it too. I pushed for maybe 10 minutes and Quinn crowned. I felt that burning. My nurse midwife told me to push past the pain and not stop. There was no way I *could* have stopped. I had to push no matter what it felt like. It was really painful, but it was so short. I did a high pitched screech/scream that probably terrified all the early labor women. But then his head was out. She checked his neck for the cord. There was none. So I screech/screamed again and felt his weight slide out of me. It felt so good. Then I immediately got my slimy little boy placed on my chest and I just touched him and talked to him and smelled him. Born at 4:25am. Totally worth all I went through. No doubt. They asked if they could clean and weigh him. I of course said no. NO. Way.
 I tore a little, but didn't feel it. women are scared of that part. You seriously cannot feel it. Just the burning "ring of fire", and that's not even that bad. Just because it lasts 3 seconds. Then you get your baby. :)
He nursed well right away and is doing well still. He likes the boobie.

My whole labor, from start to finish, lasted 3.5 hours. Super duper intense. I almost had him at home.

Homemade Laundry Soap

So, I need a nice scentless detergent that does not cause build-up because I have to wash diapers. I also need it because I don't want all those nasty chemicals in my clothes either. So I've been getting expensive detergents that are phosphate free and dye free and perfume free. Well, I finally got fed up with the cost and looked into how I could go about washing our clothes and Skye's diapers cheaper. I found some recipes for homemade laundry detergent. It is easy to make and washes the clothes very nicely AND IS ENVIROMENTALLY FRIENDLY. There much less packaging involved with mixing your own laundry detergent. And It's just awesome all around. Here is the recipe that I chose.

2 gallons of hot water
2 cups of baking soda
2 cups of borax
1 bar of soap (you can use Fels Naptha soap or dove or any other soap that isn't frilly-foo-foo. Frilly-foo-foo soaps will have all kinds of extra ingredients in them that will leave gunk on your clothes and stuff)

First grate the soap with a cheese grater

Add water to cover the soap

Cook the mixture on medium heat until the soap is completely dissolved

Put the mixture in a container. You can use a bucket or anything that works for you. Add the 2 gallons of hot or warm water. Then dump in the baking soda and borax and mix nicely.

Label your container so that it doesn't get confused with something else. Use about 1/2 a cup per load (more or less depending on the size of the load).

Be sure to carefully stir the mixture before scooping up the liquid to put into the washing machine

Vinegar

I use baking soda and vinegar to clean and disinfect pretty much everything in my house. Natural. Safe around humans and pets. No horrible smells (the vinegar smell disappears as soon as it dries). I believe with all my heart that vinegar and baking soda are excellent cleaning agents and work wonders. Well, I was having my doubts. Since we moved into our house in September, the master bedroom toilet has had this ugly yellow stain in it. It looked pretty gross. I always clean my toilet with vinegar. I pour some in and use a toilet brush to scrub it. Then I flush. I wasn't able to get the yellow stain off so I used a rag and got my hand in there and scrubbed. Then I used one of those scratcher things and that still wasn't really working. It sort of worked, but it was killing my back and hands to scrub that hard. So I gave up. Well, today I was cleaning the toilet like I normally do and thought "I'm tired of this nasty yellow gunk. I want a nice looking toilet" and thought I would go get some poison toilet cleaner to make it pretty. I forgot to flush the toilet. I forgot about the poison cleaner and took Skye out to play while I hung some wet laundry on the line. An hour later I entered the bathroom to use it and saw that I hadn't flushed, so I went ahead and flushed. THE YELLOW STAIN WAS GONE! So I was just flushing too soon all that time. And vinegar really does have magical cleaning powers.

 I don't have a before picture, but this is the after picture. Nice clean toilet. All vinegar, baby.

DREADLOCKS!!!!!!!

So, I finally got some courage and now I have the dreadlocks I have been wanting for many years. I remember wanting them way back when I was in high school. Jon just used the twist and rip method. This method requires that you twist a lock of hair and periodically separate it into two chunks and and "rip" it toward the scalp causing hair to bunch up near the scalp. You do this until there are knots all the way to the ends (or close to the ends) of the lock of hair. My hair started out looking like it had messy braids. Now that it's had a few days of wear, it's looking scraggly. It's starting to come loose a bit and there are many stray hairs floating about. But, I have read enough about natural dreads to know that this is normal. It will be a few years before my dreads start looking "good" and I'm prepared to wait. I have been using a natural hair wash for a few months and this wash helps to keep gunky build up from forming in my hair. Store bought shampoos and conditioners have a lot of harmful chemicals in them as well as useless fillers that build up in your hair. Shampoos also strip your scalp of its natural oils, causing your scalp to overproduce oil. This is why people who use these shampoos have to wash their hair every day if they don't want oily hair. In addition, since these shampoos strip your hair of all oils, conditioner is often needed to immediately replenish your dry scalp by adding artificial softener (something your own oils do quite well).

My natural hair wash routine:

A wash made of a tablespoon of baking soda mixed with a full glass of water.
I then use a mixture of 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar mixed with a full glass of water and a few drop of essential oil. I have been using vanilla but recently switched to sweet orange oil.

The above pictures are the day Jon finished my dreads.

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Above is a picture of day 4.

 Day 4: My hair is forming loops and bumps. All part of the natural dreading process. The hair is tightening and pushing up.

 My hair is not really dreaded up near the scalp. I think that comes much later.

 Baby dreads!

Healthy Eating

I became interested in organic food many years ago but just recently purchased some books about it. They really made me want to go all organic. We really can't afford to go completely organic. We also don't live in an area that really has much selection when it comes to organic foods. I am trying to get in as much organic as I can though. I think it's extremely important for Skye to get as much organic as possible. I really don't want her body and brain damaged by all those filthy poisonous pesticides and herbicides. I want her to be as smart as possible (also why breastfeeding has been high on my priority list) and to not have infertility problems as an adult. I want her to live a long happy life free from cancer and other diseases. A great way to have some natural health insurance for Skye is to feed her healthy wonderful foods without dangerous chemicals in them. I know this in no way guarantees that Skye won't get sick or have health problems as an adult, but it sure helps a ton! Skye gets about 50% organic right now. I know that is not the best, but it's what we can do for her. I'm doing my best to feed her a ton of fresh fruits and veggies and most those are organic when i can find them. Organic bananas are easy to find, but it's harder to find peaches and apples. The farmers market helps a bit with that. I'm also thinking that when I get pregnant I will try to eat as much organic as possible. I want our new baby to get the best possible start, and that starts in the womb.

Natural CHEAP carpet freshener.

A natural SAFE/HEALTHY way to freshen your carpet without store bought powders: I take an empty spice shaker/container. I add baking soda until it's about 7/8 way full. I then put in ground cinnamon until it's full. Sprinkle this on the carpet (the carpet should be a dark color. If it's light, the cinnamon might stain it) and let it sit a few minutes. Vacuum up and the house will smell amazing. :)