It is a broth made up of potato skins, carrots, and celery. It is best sipped warm like tea, it will rejuvenate you and speed your recovery after childbirth. Don’t forget to add a tablespoon of whey into each cup, it will help you digest and absorb the potassium and other minerals in the broth. It helped lessen my postpartum bleeding on the days I remembered to drink it. Click here for the recipe.
The Weston A. Price Foundation recommends drinking up to one quart of raw milk per day when pregnant or nursing. Drinking raw milk or eating raw cheese while breastfeeding your baby will ensure that she receives adequate calcium and synergistic minerals. Raw milk was the answer to one mother’s low milk supply, read her story.
There are too many good things about egg yolks to list here, so I’ll just say that you really cannot eat too many. Asian women eat up to ten eggs a day for the first month of breastfeeding! The yolk is the best part of the egg since it is rich in choline, which is essential for your baby’s brain and nervous system development. Numerous eggs and egg yolks should be consumed during the first few weeks of breastfeeding when extra nutrition is essential.
To continue reading click here.
Which Foods Helped You The Most Through The Postpartum Months? What Foods Would You Add To This List?
]]>Stress Free Dinner Time On Those Busy Summer Days
This time of year, it is especially handy to have dinner simmering in the crock-pot while you’re out and about or spending the day at the pool or park. Perhaps you think about soup and stew recipes when you think about using your crock-pot, but the crock-pot is actually a great choice for summer meals. They save money, time, and energy. Plus they don’t give off much heat, thus helping to keep your kitchen cool.
Click here to read about the four reasons to dust off your crock-pot this summer.
Do You Use Your Crock-Pot In The Summer? What Is Your Favorite Crock-Pot Recipe Or Seasoning?
]]>
Vincent
The First Big Scare
In May of 2013, God blessed us with a son. His birth was uneventful and he appeared to be a strong healthy baby until we realized that he didn’t want to eat. For two days we tried every trick in the book to coax him to breastfeed, but nothing worked. I started pumping and we fed him using a tiny finger feeder. Finally he started to eat! But we still didn’t know why he wouldn’t breastfeed. Soon he started vomiting, which was the scariest thing to see a newborn baby do. At five days old we took Vince to the doctor because there was another problem, he hadn’t pooped! At this point we already knew what Hirschsprung’s disease was and we were fearing the worst. The doctor did a rectal exam and POP out came all the poop! Oh, how happy we were that it wasn’t anything more serious.
Vince was doing great for the next two weeks, but his poop became thicker and thicker until we had to help him go using a rectal thermometer. We kept that up for awhile, but we knew that he should be able to go on his own and gradually stopped. He would go on his own every once in a while and we were convinced that that was just how he was. Vince was very happy and so it was hard to think that there was something wrong with him, but I always was thinking and worrying about him. This went on for about one year. It was so hard for me to focus on anything else because I was always worrying about him. I tried to convince myself that everything was okay since he was happy, but I couldn’t.
First time at the hospital
The Second Big Scare
When Vince was 10 months old he went two weeks without pooping. We went to the doctor, who told us to give him a laxative. We did and he started pooping again. It wasn’t until Vince was 13 months old that he went two weeks without pooping again, but this time he started vomiting. I knew this was serious since he didn’t poop very often and we went to see the doctor right away. Again he told us to give him a laxative and see what happens, but Vince didn’t want anything other than milk straight from me. We called the doctor who said to give him an enema, but we decided instead to go to the hospital in Ephrata. There they gave him an enema and NOTHING HAPPENED! They sent us home saying that he will poop eventually. We went home and gave him another enema and he finally pooped! Yay!
Three days later Vince started vomiting again. We went to the doctor, who sent us for x-rays and then told us to go to the Hershey hospital where we would be admitted. After hearing the doctor say that I felt relief. Relief from a whole year of worrying about Vince not pooping often and knowing that we were going to finally figure out what was wrong with him.
Before Surgery
The Diagnosis
At the ER in Hershey, they asked about Vince’s life history, took blood and urine samples, and put and IV in him. They weren’t sure he had Hirschsprungs because he was so happy and his belly wasn’t noticeably distended, but once I told them that it was in my family they started to believe that he did. The next morning they preformed a barium enema and almost immediately they saw that he had Hirshsprungs. His intestine was four times its normal size and was starting to deteriorate. The rest of the day they gave him enemas to clean him out and the next morning they did surgery to give him a colostomy.
After his colostomy surgery
Hirschsprungs?
Hirschsprung’s disease is genetic. There is an error in the DNA which prevents the ganglion cells, which move food through from your mouth to your rectum, from making it the whole way to the bottom. Sometimes they stop in the small intestine or somewhere in the large intestine. The ganglion cells help the intestine to relax. Without these cells the intestine stays constricted and tight. Depending where the cells stop can determine if any poop can move through or not. Only the last six inches of Vince’s large intestine didn’t have these cells, allowing soft poop from milk to pass through, but once he started eating solids it got stuck inside of him. They gave Vince a colostomy to allow his swollen intestine to shrink back to its normal size. They taught us how to take care of it and we went home.
After his colostomy revision surgery
Oops!
Three weeks later Vince was playing and fell on his belly. I consoled him and set him down to go play again, but he kept crying. I checked his colostomy and it was huge! I immediately took him to the emergency room. We were admitted and they did surgery the next morning to fix it. He had a loop colostomy and it prolapsed so this time they gave him a regular colostomy. The reason it prolapsed was because his intestine was so swollen that they had to leave the hole fairly big, and since his intestine shrank back to its normal size the hole was now too big making more of his intestine come out or prolapse.
After his colostomy surgery
The Major Surgery
Three weeks later we were back at the hospital for Vince’s pull-through surgery. They would take down Vince’s colostomy, cut out the last part of his large intestine with the missing ganglion cells, and reattach him at the rectum. The surgery went great, just as planned, but Vince wasn’t recovering well. He was in more pain than his other surgeries and his belly kept getting bigger. They tried to take blood samples for testing, but no one could find his veins! Two days after his surgery we were moved to the PICU. They put in a central line and the next morning they did exploratory surgery to find out what was wrong.
After his major sugery
Will He Make It?
We were scared. Going to the ICU? That’s where my mother spent three months and she didn’t make it. I remember telling Rodney that maybe God wants Vince with Him in heaven. After Vince’s surgery the surgeon told us what he found. Vince was full of infection, a blood infection, sepsis. They washed a lot of it out of him and even though his reattachment incision was not infected they gave him an ileostomy as a preventative measure. Our heart’s sank. We were allowed back into the PICU to see him and everything imaginable was hooked up to him. He had about ten medicines going through his IV, a breathing tube, a catheter, monitoring leads and cuffs, drainage tubes out of his belly, and the ostomy bag. My mother looked very similar while she was in the ICU, so I knew what he was going to look like and it wasn’t a big shock.
After the surgeons washed the infection out of him
Waiting…
We spent that entire week in the PICU, waiting. Waiting for Vince’s body to heal, for the antibiotics to help his body kill the infection, for the swelling in his belly to go down so his lungs could fully inflate and he could breathe on his own without the breathing tube. We held his hands and talked to him. He was sedated, but he could hear us. At the end of that week the doctors started slowly weaning him of the ventilator and the sedatives. It isn’t a pretty process. They switched him to some oxygen and weaned him from that also. They lowered the sedatives more and Vince became very irritated. I don’t think he slept for 24 hours one day. He would constantly move his head from side to side and it seemed as if his nose was extremely itchy. The nurse told us his symptoms looked like withdrawal. The doctors increased that medicine and his symptoms stopped. The particular medicine he was on is used as a sedative at high levels and as a pain killer at lower levels. He was on it for five days and became addicted to it.
With Mommy
With Daddy
After Vince was weaned off the oxygen we were moved back down to a regular hospital room. The next few weeks Vince slowly got better. His withdrawal symptoms caused some issues with his breathing since he would itch his nose so much, so he did have some oxygen then. The doctors kept taking blood samples and his white blood cell count was going down then jumped back up and would come down again. They gave him different antibiotics and that made the difference. Vince was more awake and would play with toys, then he started crawling and slowly started walking again though he was a little shaky. We tried to give him some food, but he refused to eat and breastfeed, so they put a feeding tube in him so his digestive system would get used to food again. This was a slow process with increasing his feeds and him sometimes vomiting. He started eating some solid food, but not much, so they decided to send us home with the feeding tube. We were to give him formula through the tube overnight and maybe more if he still didn’t eat during the day. At this point they switched the pain medicine to which he was addicted to an oral dose, and did the same thing with his antibiotic. All of his medicine we could give him through his feeding tube and at this point it was a blessing.
Getting better
Going Home!
So, after 4 weeks in the hospital we were able to go HOME! This was scary. There were still lots of hurdles to jump and now we were in charge, but I know the doctors and nurses in the hospital had confidence in us. Several people say to me that they don’t know how we made it through those 4 weeks and my answer is that you only take one day at a time and you do what you have to do. There was no other option and even though it was hard emotionally, spiritually, and physically, we got through it on God’s strength.
God’s Words
When Vince was at his worst I was reminded of these truths:
We only have peace during this time because we have entrusted Vince to God. He is much safer with Him. Releasing Vince to God means we are free to cling to His Almighty hand. We can only watch and see what He will do.
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ever ask or think, according tot he power at work within us, Ephesians 3:20.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. 2 Timothy 1:12
When God is BIG, problems are small. When God is small, problems are BIG. – James Macdonald
Sometimes God delivers us from the storm, and at other times He delivers us through the storm. -Joni Erikson Tada
No more feeding tube
Final Challenges
The day before we were discharged from the hospital Vince began to breastfeed again. This was the first time he nursed in 4 weeks! I had been pumping the entire time in the hospital. The day we went home he didn’t nurse and 4 days after that. I thought this was the end, but finally on the fifth day he nursed again and has ever since. Once we were home Vince started eating better. We gave him formula overnight for four nights and after that he was eating enough during the day that we stopped. We wanted to take the feeding tube out at that point but he couldn’t handle his antibiotic orally, so we had to wait another week until that was finished.
Vince gradually returned to normal with the exception of his pain medicine which we had to wean slowly so he wouldn’t experience withdrawal. We had to give it to him every four hours and did that for two months! His ileostomy proved more challenging than his colostomies. His poop was more runny and we had a hard time getting the bags to stick well, so his skin would get raw. That made us look forward to getting rid of the ileostomy.
After his final surgery
The Take Down
Vince’s final surgery to take down his ileostomy happened November 10th. The surgeon told us it would be a 4 – 5 day stay in the hospital, but we were able to go home after 48 hours!!! Everything went better than perfect, and Vince’s body healed quickly. He started pooping no problem and we had to keep him from eating this time. It was hard to believe that this whole journey was over! Vince is so happy, and Mommy and Daddy are happy because we get to change LOTS of poopy diapers! Haha!
Thanks for reading our story. I wrote this all down to encourage those going through similar experiences, so please don’t refrain from asking me any question! God took care of us, and He will take care of you!
]]>Here’s The Story
My pregnancy and labor went great (read more about them here). So there I was lying in bed with my firstborn son on a sunny Friday morning. My husband and I slept and played with him. We tried to get him to eat, but he would just fall asleep as soon as I tried to nurse him. “Does this mean he isn’t hungry?”, we thought. He would sleep for about 2 hours and wake up crying. Each time I tried to feed him, but he promptly fell asleep in my arms. Saturday morning we started getting desperate. My midwife stopped by and showed me a few tricks to help get Vince to eat from me. We tried so hard that whole day to no avail. Saturday evening my midwife came again. She checked his blood sugar which was still normal. Praise God! We started feeding him molasses water from a finger feeder to get his strength up, so he wouldn’t be so sleepy and she gave me her electric pump to bring in my milk.
Feeling Distressed
You can imagine how I felt. Scared. Depressed. Tired. Unprepared. Rodney, my husband, was my lifesaver. He stayed strong even though it was stressful to him as well. My emotions we everywhere and he helped me stay sane. I felt so far from God during this time. It was hard for me to pray…and so Rodney did that for me. I know God was close to us, and He heard our cries for help. Thanks to Him this is past, but He taught us so much and strengthen us through this experience.
Back To The Story
As soon as my milk came in, we started feeding it to Vince using a finger feeder. He was doing well at this point but soon started vomiting. At first it was green and then it turned to yellow. I have to say that this was the scariest thing to experience… jumping out of bed in the middle of the night because you hear your newborn gagging and coughing.
The Other Problem
One other thing wasn’t right with Vincent… he wasn’t pooping. We tried to massage him, bicycle his legs, take his temperature, but nothing was working. The midwife tried to make him poop, but her attempt fail also. After five days I called a local pediatrician and made an appointment. We took Vince the next day. The doctor stuck his finger up Vince’s butt and all the poop came out! Hallelujah! The diagnosis: his hole was a little small.
Victory
Two days after he started pooping, Vince began eating from me. I used the finger feeder to get him started and he latched on! It was a great day! We even went away in the evening. My midwife thought that his high palate might have been the cause of him not latching on, but I believe it all had to do with him not pooping.
Happy Ending To The First Week
This all happened in one week but it felt like it lasted a whole month. I know it could have been much worse, so I am thankful for the experience because I know God was refining me in the process. It takes way more emotional and physical strength to be a mom than I realized, but I never knew I could be so strong. Thanks be to God for the strength He gave my husband and I!
What Lessons Did You Learn From Your Baby’s First Week?
]]>Let’s Get Started!
First, we need to create a sourdough starter. This will give us our yeast and bacteria that will make our bread rise. The basic idea is to mix the same amount of water to whole wheat flour together and let it sit on your counter for about 12 hours to ferment. Then repeat the same process over and over again until the starter is very bubbly and well established. It may take up to one month for a starter to be ready to use for making bread.
To read more of this post and for a sourdough bread recipe visit Modern Alternative Kitchen.
]]>Read the rest of Vincent’s birth story at Modern Alternative Pregnancy.
]]>Nothing satisfies my sweet tooth more then berries and chocolate! Growing up my mom would always have frozen berries and for dessert I would pour myself a bowl of them, add milk, and drizzle chocolate syrup on top. Yum!
My husband’s family, on the other hand loves ice cream. Never was dessert served at their house without ice cream. And so that is where I got the inspiration for this ice cream recipe. Enjoy!
Chocolate Covered Strawberry Ice Cream
Print recipe
| Serves | 8 |
| Prep time | 30 minutes |
| Meal type | Desserts |
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup raw honey
- 4 egg yolks
- 3 cups raw cream
- 1 cup raw milk
- 2 tablespoons vanilla
- 1 1/2 tablespoon arrowroot powder
- 1 dash sea salt
- 1 pint strawberries (diced)
- 3 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Note
Makes 2 quarts
Directions
| Step 1 | |
| Mix the honey, egg yolks, cream, milk, vanilla, arrowroot powder, and salt together, until the honey is dissolved. | |
Have You Ever Combined Your Two Favorite Desserts To Make One? What Did You Create?
]]>How I’m Feeling
I’ve been feeling great! I really have no complaints so far in the third trimester. My blood pressure is on the high side, but not high enough to be of concern. My last two urine tests were “gold star” worthy, says my midwife. My iron has stayed at a steady 11. I’m still drinking my 1 quart of Red Raspberry Leaf Tea and taking my fermented cod liver oil every day. So far, no Braxton Hicks. God continues to bless me with great health and I am so thankful!
Baby Stuff
These days are filled with getting the remaining baby items needed. I was surprised with two baby showers, which helped us tremendously. Thank you everyone who gave gifts! Then with the gifts cards we were able to get our car seat for free! We feel so blessed!… and excited now that we have all this baby stuff sitting around. I purchased the remaining items on my amazon registry this week, which totaled a number that made me gulp before I hit the checkout button. BUT, I need to keep reminding myself that it paid for all of the cloth diapers we will need for this baby and perhaps following ones.
This Week
This week started out very different from the rest in my third trimester. Saturday, we went out for lunch and I ended up getting heartburn when I laid down to go to sleep that night. I awoke around midnight and drank some kombucha (a vinegar-like drink). In the past this has relieved my heartburn in five minutes and I can sleep the rest of the night. This time, it help right away, but I woke up again with heartburn in two hours. So, I drank some more and on continued this cycle of waking up every two hours. Until the alarm went off.
The next night I slept very good with no heartburn! Yay! Monday around 4:30 p.m. I felt like I needed a nap. I haven’t taken naps during my pregnancy since the first month! This happened again on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I just happened to read in one of my baby books that it is caused by the production of the hormone oxytocin and could mean that I will have an easy birth. That’s cool with me!
The Baby Drop
Tuesday afternoon I started to notice the baby moving lower than usual. I felt pressure very deep in my pelvis and thought “Ouch” every step the last half-mile of my walk, and every time I stood up from sitting. The facts suggest that the baby has dropped. I like the way babycenter.com explained it:
You may find that you feel a little different after your baby has dropped. Some pregnancy complaints may get worse, while others may improve. On the one hand, your baby will be taking up more room in your pelvis, so you’ll probably find that you have to urinate even more often than before. You may get an uncomfortable feeling of pressure deep in your pelvis, feel increasing discomfort when you walk, and even begin to waddle a bit.
On the other hand, with less pressure on your stomach, you’ll be able to eat a little more without feeling uncomfortably full, and if you’ve been suffering from heartburn, you may get some relief. You’ll probably find that breathing feels easier, too.
Haha… am I really starting to waddle? lol. It seems as if I am hungry all the time now! Anyways, my midwives suggested to me today that I may be farther along than I think since the baby has dropped already. I guess we will find out soon!
When Did Your Baby Drop During Your First Pregnancy?
]]>Out of fear of taking a dessert of which I’d have to bring most back home, I decided to make a snacky dessert. That way relatives can eat it throughout the day. Introducing… Caramel Popcorn!
One note: in my picture I only used 1/2 the caramel that the recipe makes and it did cover it well, but if you want every kernel of popcorn to have plenty of caramel just follow the recipe below. 
Caramel Popcorn
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 Gallon Organic popcorn (popped)
- 1 cup Rapadura
- 1/2 cup Organic butter
- 1/2 cup Organic coconut oil
- 1/4 cup Blackstrap molasses
- 1/2 teaspoon Baking soda
- dash Sea salt
Directions
| Step 1 | |
| Place popped popcorn on a cookie sheet. | |
I was feeling left out, so I decided to make some, the real food way of course. So, here’s my recipe!
Let me just say that the recipe is not perfect. My peanut butter was a little runny, too runny to shape anyways as you can see from the picture. Perhaps adding more arrowroot powder would help that. As with any candy recipe I make, you can see my lack of patience with dipping and dripping. lol. Maybe your finished eggs will look nicer than mine did.
This recipe uses a lot less sugar than the standard peanut butter egg recipe. That was my goal. So, don’t feel bad about enjoying these peanut butter eggs!
Peanut Butter Eggs
| Serves | 18 |
| Prep time | 35 minutes |
| Meal type | Desserts |
| Occasion | Easter |
Ingredients
- 12 tablespoons Raw butter (softened)
- 1/2 cup Organic creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 cup Raw cream cheese (or substitute more butter)
- 1 cup Rapadura (powdered)
- 1 tablespoon Arrowroot powder
- 1-1/2 cup Semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup Organic coconut oil
Directions
| Step 1 | |
| In a small bowl, cream the butter, peanut butter, and cream cheese until smooth. | |
| Step 2 | |
| In a food processor, process rapadura until mostly in powdered form. Add arrowroot powder and process until mixed together. | |
| Step 3 | |
 Gradually beat the rapadura mixture into the butter mixture. Mix on high speed until it is creamy with no lumps. | |
| Step 4 | |
| Drop by tablespoons onto a waxed paper-lined baking sheet; form into egg shapes. Freeze for at least 10 minutes. | |
| Step 5 | |
 In a small saucepan, melt chocolate chips and coconut oil; stir until smooth. Remove from heat. | |
| Step 6 | |
| Dip eggs into chocolate mixture; allow excess to drip off. Return to the baking sheet. Let stand until set. Store in an airtight container. (I put mine in the freezer.) Yield: 3 dozen. | |