Solace is one week old today

The week to me has seems to defy time as I have to focus to figure out what day it is or what events occurred on which days. It doesn't feel like a week progressed but then again it feels like more then a week has gone by, this seems to be what happens when you give birth and are drugged up by the natural hormones trying to balance themselves out and the body recovering from creating a baby in general.

I wanted to highlight a few things from Solaces birth being that it was a home water birth and very few people are familiar with what goes into it. First with any home birth you will need to purchase a birthing kit which can include a varsity of things depending on where you get it from. I got mine through In His Hands Home Birth Supplies which is a Christian based company out of Texas I enjoyed this company as they put in a few thoughtful extras with the kit and everything was packed tightly in a perfectly sized box with no extra packing junk just your supplies I got the deluxe kit which was $38 and they shipped that sucker out pretty fast too.


Above you can see the pool set up in the living room with the Midwife Ashley who works with Mary Lou of The Beach Cities Birth Service Elena who I think is a doula as well as assistant to Ashley and Mary Lou, and Victoria who is an amazing friend that has gone far above and beyond in helping us with the birth and getting adjusted to being parents. Her husband is also an amazing photographer of Rustin Michael Photography and I plan on having him do up some pics of Solace =D
Ok back to the birth stuff, The image above shows the pool which is a La Bassine Birthing Pool that a friend of ours loaned to us, we just had to get a sterile liner and hose to fill the pool. The pools and accessories can be purchased through Your Water Birth.com. The pool looks small but was ample room for me my hubby and the midwife to do her thing! Even though it's a blow-up pool the sides were sturdy for leaning on and no water spilled even with the pool a little over the fill line with the addition of boiling water to keep the water warm.

So that's some of the details here's one more image of our one week old little girl.

Welcome Solace Anastasia Perr

After horrendous contractions that had me spewing my guts out,getting the birthing pool set up and 4 hours of active labor and 5+ very painful pushes came this precious little girl.


I bring you Solace born at 5:06pm, 6.5lbs and 20in long! Darn right she's a little pirate squinting up at me with one eye as she feeds!

The Impending Baby

I think it is safe to say that the Impending Baby is now the Pending Baby I will try to keep updates on twitter which can be seen in the left column on this page or you can follow me on twitter by clicking here

I didn't expect to be so busy!

So blogging is general is backlogged I have a lot of things to post which are sitting on the back-burner for now. Things that have taken up my time are that we got a new car upon the discovery that the Impending Baby's car seat would not fit in the Mini which is our primary vehicle! Needless to say our over powered John Cooper Works packaged go cart Mini is gone. We now have the Blue Turtle a brand new 08 Honda CR-V.



Sadly I didn't get my 4 wheel drive which makes this SUV a mere UV. But I still have the Jeepness Of Fury (94 Jeep Wrangler) to meet my simplistic rugged 4x4 needs. BTW it made me very sad when I told people about us getting a new car and they all thought I gave up the Jeep Wrangler =( which is the car I've always wanted and when I spied this ol oxidized paint covered built up leaky wrangler at the corner of the lot in the big Annual Anaheim stadium car sales event about 7 years ago, I had to have it! So seeing that it was a bit of an underdog I got a warranty on it that more then paid for its self and shes had issues here and there but nothing really super major (although the tranny may need to be rebuilt soon =( ) However parts for this vehicle are plentiful and it takes less labor for it as it's so simple to work on compared to most cars today. So that's why I love my car roll up windows oxidized paint and all!

Alright so I've gotten off track! Other things that have been going on is the acquisition and organization of baby stuff that are necessary but remained neglected from our registries. As well as acquiring the birthing supplies and performing other preparations for giving birth at home.
I will try to keep up on things this week as the real countdown has started which is scary! So yeah things are getting interesting!

A slight change!

I won't be doing the talented friends post today because the next ones gonna be a biggun however this series will resume next week. I just have too much to do today with projects (for the baby of course) and just getting this place situated and baby prepped. Also I have a pile of dishes to do as the kitchen sink has been cloggged and they plumbers have been here since 8:30 am (it's now around 11:30 and still not fixed) as a self proclaimed haphazard handywoman this was way beyond what I could handle so I had to call in the "pros" and I will blog next week on three methods to unclog a minor clog. I also should have more goodies coming in for me to blog about next week as well =D It's at least something for me to look forward to. In the mean time check out the write ups I did for Wunderkind and Choklit on Etsy Addicts, and follow that blog if you love etsy don't already follow it!

The Adventures of a Haphazard Handywoman #1

I've decided to start posting on some useful things that just about anyone can do around the house. Some of the handy remedies I've stumbled upon with creativity and others I've done a bit of research, anyways these should be jolly good reads!

Problem: That plastic wall anchor ain't anchoring no more!


I recently came into this problem with the left side of the toilet paper holder. The dry wall (frail plaster-like wall surface) had eroded around the plastic anchor of the screws. So I removed the left side of the tp holder (there was a teeny tiny screw that needed to be unscrewed in the inner part close to the wall) and yanked the plate out of the wall which is not a thing you should do! I'm haphazard so you don't have to be =D unscrew the screws and gently remove the anchors. Anyways above you can see the blue plastic wall anchors on the screws in the plate and the nice big worn holes in the dry wall.


Next I measured the holes they were about half an inch in diameter which means I can't just go and place another drywall anchor in those, so I had to come up with something different.

Solution: Toggle Bolts!


You may have seen these guys if you ever installed a hook for a hanging plant or one of those old school lamps with the chain. These guys are tough and in this case a life saver! Buy the appropriate sized toggle bolt, ones that will fit in the holes without having to do mire damage to it, and the correct screw that goes with those toggle bolts.


Put the screws through the plate and thread the toggle bolts on with a few twists as depicted above.


Now here's the hardest part clamp the toggle bolt in half so you can get it into the wall, if the bolt is a bit too big use a flat head screwdriver to shave off a bit more of the wall by pressing in with it or rotating it in the hole so you don't damage that nice paint job.


Once you get the bolt(s) in the wall pull a little on the plate or screw so you create some tension to tighten the screw.


Now get the screw(s) secure and not wobbling in the wall you are set!
Here's the end result:


a toilet paper holder that does it's job!

Fail!

I messed up on an order by only shipping half of it, which = FAIL. It seems I am now suffering from preggo-brain which also = FAIL in dealing with simple activities. I just feel really bad for this customer, however she has been really forgiving about this whole ordeal even though it took me 5 days to get back to her which = FAIL. So I'm really kicking myself in the butt for this one and really pray I don't fail this bad again =(

Anyways, preggo-brain means the only thing I think about is the impending baby which is slated to be pending in (Egads!)less then 4 weeks! I still have a ton to do in this apartment =( which has brought out the handywoman in me which I will go into details about later! I've also had to drop some projects I planned on doing such as making cat scratchers out of the plethora of cardboard boxes I have about, and I will now be offering those cardboard boxes on craigslist. I also won't be doing all that I wanted to do with the chopped up christmas tree sitting on the balcony and I've dropped the candle making project which would have used the needles of the tree and I have no idea of what to do with those and will probably find a city compost bin to dump them in. However the other two projects are under way and the first is for the baby (of course) and that is a butterfly mobile.
Anyways the spring cleaning/baby preparations shall now be underway as I have a mop and a step stool to reach and clean the ceiling fan blades and the retarded 2 ft dust/mold collecting gaps between the tops of the shelves and the ceiling throughout the apartment. I shall spare you the rest of details because I feel utterly overwhelmed under the weight of what I need to get done before this little girl chilling in my belly makes her appearance. I just pray she will be a week or two late so I can get it all done!

Talented Friends Joanna Torres

In the previous posts I had you meet Julia LoVan of Julia LoVan Dresses and Corrie Hill Sullivan of Corrie Hill Design. Now I would like to introduce you to another fellow Etsyian Joanna Cheng Torres aka JojoCheng with her Jojo's Handspun Yarn shop on Etsy!



Joanna is another person that is a part of the Mosaic Community however I know her through her husband John Torres who is a very talented musician and a wonderful friend to my husband!
Joanna lovingly hand spins yarn which is a process I really want to see! Her yarn varies from rustic to ornate with a wide range of unique and vibrant colors. The color qualities seem to stand out even more with the attributes they are named with.

This one is called EFFERVESCENCE and is a delightful almost alchemistical mix of merino, corriedale cross wool, baby (cria) alpaca, tussah silk, BFL (bluefaced leicester), firestar (glitz). With such hand spun delights it's no wonder why her shop is near empty right now! But don't fret more will surly be up soon so keep an eye on this talented yarn maker!

Poor Ru

This is the ever adorable little Ru before I got lovely little this companion for Max she had a rough life! But now that I've had her for 6 or more years it's been all posh. Yes I spoil my cats with the best foods, Max and Brix are on Innova Evo and Ru is on Wellness because she has a sensitive tummy.
Anyways lately she's been itching and has some scabbing around her neck at the base of her tail but no hair loss so it didn't point to mange and when this first started happening I searched for fleas but couldn't find any and there were no reddish bumps pointing to these coming from flea bites. She has had a history of dandruff so I figured it was from that and would go away in time. As of last night, however her scratching had gotten worse and there are now scabs all down her back! So I searched the skin again and was able to spy one massive flea! I've been good at keeping the cats flea free until now which Ru being the only girl in the tribe has been painfully struggling with them. Also fleas love me and Ru has been sleeping on my pillow at night and I have not gotten any bites even though I have extra blood with being pregnant, which is another reason I didn't think she had fleas!
I did some research and decided to spray her with a diluted tea tree oil solution and rubbed it in, making sure she didn't lick at it as I prepped the tub for her arrival. (NOTE If you use tea tree oil as a means of flea control make sure your cats do Not ingest it as it is toxic to them if ingested I had to do some research on this before deciding to use it and some sites do not mention that!) Until three years ago I had been good at keeping the cats familiar with taking baths but since that has lapsed Ru being sensitive gets really scared so much so in fact that the bath literally scared the piss out of her, twice V_V Anyways to bathe the cats I use Wags Wheatgrass Coconut Shampoo which really helps their skin, coat, and smell, if that isn't enough it's all natural with no eco-unfriendly chemicals.


To check out this product Click Here
So here's a pic of the unhappy wet princess after her bath:



She should be done drying by now and I have one more thing to put on her itchy coat and that is a mix of Olive Oil with Coconut Oil and Honey, The oils are to soothe her skin and coat, plus enzymes in honey are very effective at treating itchy bug bites and wounds in general. Also by combining the honey with the oils it is not sticky, however she may end up getting lots of licking from Max as he loves sweets.

I actually found out recently that combining honey with coconut oil rendered the honey stickyless as I used it to clear up it a little itchy preggo rash I had, which is did over night! So there's a Wenchie remedy for ya!

Life as we call it

Yesterday was the most recent appointment with my midwife, and good news the baby grew! The measurement is still a little small but the 2cm improvement is a big one! Thanks for those who prayed and sent good thoughts for her not to be growth restricted! Other news on the appointment I elected not to take the group b strep test. Why would I elect not to take a test for a bacteria that is linked to serious illness in newborns? First because 0.5 percent of the women who have tested positive for GBS and delivered without treatment, had infants that became ill from it making that a rare occurrence. Second I'm doing a home birth so I don't have the use of intervening drugs be pushed on me, but that doesn't mean that the midwife could not administer the antibiotics through an IV during the birth process. Third I do not do well with antibiotics, as I've had a problem with sinus infections for most of my life and came to the discovery that the antibiotics given to me by the Doc. would make me more ill so that I could "feel better." Which means I got all of the side effects, lets add a little nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, extra dizziness, ect on to that sinus infection. Needless to say I decided to prefer to function better and get better by using homeopathic remedies and by doing this I also found the cause of the infections (something I sought from the doctors but they never wanted to diagnose) which was dust allergies.
However, with my reasons not to do the testing that does not mean I'm not taking natural preventative measures which Mary Lou has included in the birth booklet that she gives to her customers. These measures and the statistic above are referenced from Mothering Magazine, prevention can be done through the use of probiotics or the ingestion of fermented foods such as pickles, yogurt, kefir, miso and tempeh. Miso and tempeh are pretty frequent in my diet as well as



GT's Organic Raw Kombucha which really boosts my immune system, gives me energy, and is packed with the best vitamins for pregnancy, since most of the immune system boosting herbs I use are so are not to be used during pregnancy I have defaulted to this and yes it is safe for pregnancy. Garlic is also very effective at treating this as well which is something I include in nearly every meal.