Week 39 – only 7 days till my due date. Hoping I don’t have to wait much longer!

Getting contractions a lot now, dilated 3cm, using Evening Primrose Oil nightly. I still need to pack this week so we can move into the new house so I’m not making a HUGE effort to go into labor yet. I have so much I need to get done and I really don’t want to do it while toting around a newborn. I’m trying to get as much as possible done and I have a list a mile long for this week!

Last night, I made a oil belly rub concoction of olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil, lavender essential oil and Black Cohosh. Hoping it not only helps prevent new stretch marks, but stimulates some more contractions and progress.

I get so infuriated watching shows on TLC like Baby Story and seeing stupid, ignorant doctors talk perfectly healthy women into getting pitocin and an epidural, when they went in there planning on a natural drug-free birth. Then they lay there for HOURS with no idea what’s going on down there and no way to know when to push. Just so frustrating! So unnatural and ridiculous!

I watched Birth As We Know It yesterday and got to see some amazing, strong women give birth naturally and beautifully. It’s so amazingly frustrating to then turn on TLC and see someone who is perfectly healthy and intending on going drug-free end up getting talked into doing what’s convenient for the doctor… Makes me want to scream.

How to Make Condom Slushies

1. Pour approximately 1.25 inches of rubbing alcohol into a condom, and then fill rest of the way with tap water leaving room to tie into a knot at the end.

2. Gently roll another condom onto the liquid filled condom and tie into a knot.

3. Make at least 4 of these Condom Slushies and place in freezer for 2 hours, overnight is even better. I always put into a toilet paper roll to prevent puncture.

4. Remove one Condom Slushie from freezer, wrap in wash cloth and place on vulva I also use these for hemorrhoid after birth

5. You will now experience bliss

Other Helpful Hints:

RAW Honey is also great to have on hand for small tears and abrasions.

Comfrey tea bags also good for tears, abrasions, and hemorrhoids.

Rubbing extra virgin olive oil on the babies bum after birth makes it easier to clean up sticky meconium.

I’m just entering my third trimester of pregnancy and expecting a baby boy in late August. Since finding out we’re having a boy, I’ve done a lot of research about circumcision and came to the conclusion that there is no way I can do that to my child, despite the small benefits that people seem to claim there are.

As for doing it for sanitary reasons, I think that’s the most absurd excuse. From my research, it really isn’t any more hygienic to have a boy circumcised. In fact, the foreskin is designed to protect the head of the penis from germs. Why else would God have put it there? And if a boy is taught proper cleaning habits, he most likely will not have a problem.

In this day and age, we wouldn’t cut off a woman’s labia in the name of trying to help prevent yeast infections. That would be insane. It’s the same kind of thing… Women have to clean themselves properly in order to not only prevent things like yeast infections and overall odor but we have to take special care to clean “down there” during our periods as well. We face many challenges with our southern regions, but we don’t alter them or cut a portion off to make it “easier” to take care of. That would be… well, really, really dumb.

One thing I have been researching pretty heavily is the “sanitary” reasons. I can understand perhaps doing it back in the days of the Jesus for sanitary reasons and whatnot, but we live in a much different world. Unless a guy is a pig and doesn’t shower or care enough to keep himself clean, or stick his thing where it doesn’t belong, infection shouldn’t be an issue.

I have a friend who is rabidly anti-circumcision… I also have friends who are very pro-circumcision, so I’ve gotten the dish from both sides. My husband and I also have a friend that got circumcised as an adult because his foreskin was unable to retract properly and he was told that getting circumcised would fix the problem. Unfortunately, it didn’t. He now has more problems after being circumcised because there are still dissolving stitches stuck under the skin that never dissolved and the skin is too tight for him to get a full erection, making sex quite uncomfortable. Uncommon maybe, but still alarming.

The thing that bothers me the most is that I fully believe that God designed out bodies a certain way for a certain reason. Circumcision is like telling God his design was flawed and we need to fix it. How rude! We might as well go and get plastic cosmetic surgery while we’re at it…

And I don’t agree with the argument that God is the one that told the Jews to start circumcising. First of all, God told us to do a lot of things in the Old Testament that were later reversed in the New Testament as part of the entire reason why Jesus died on the cross. We were redeemed from having to follow a large set of rules because of that.

The second point is that circumcision back then is completely different than it is now. They didn’t remove the entire foreskin and leave the poor baby boy’s penis bleeding, naked and exposed. That would have been deadly back in a time where clean water, sanitation and medical care was scarce.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians have both said that yes, there are some very small benefits but they are not outweighed by the risks involved in this day and age. Safe sex practices and good hygiene are just as effective.

Health insurance won’t even cover circumcision in at least 16 states now and some private insurance companies refuse to cover it now as well because it’s considered an “elective procedure” at this point.

Apparently, between the 1920′s and 1980′s it was extremely popular and the “normal” thing to do. Studies have now found that it is not only not medically necessary but they are finding more and more bad things are happening as a result of standard circumcision. Erectile Dysfunction being one of them…

Circumcision is an American anomaly. Worldwide, 20 out of every 1,000 infants are circumcised and 18 of those are in the United States alone. Ironically, you can skip making the circumcision decision altogether—which is what the other 980 parents do—and your child will be happy and healthy. The US circumcision rate is currently 56% and dropping every year as awareness about the subject rises.

I always thought it was a standard thing to do, required, necessary, etc until I actually decided to research the subject and actually find out what it was all about. Once I started looking at all the information, including lots of medical studies about it, etc, I’m a little relieved that I bothered to look up information about it instead of just assuming it was necessary and going ahead and doing it uninformed. Thank God for Google!! lol I’ve spent days reading and reading and discussing the subject.

And I’ll tell ya, after watching a few videos of the procedure being done on a newborn, I would never want anyone doing that to my poor little baby… Absolutely no way.

When I decided I was all done having kids, God laughed.

Long story short, Yaz does NOT work. I repeat, Yaz birth control pills DO NOT WORK.

Bold statement, right? Heh… well I can prove it.

Proof that the pill is less than 99% effective when taken as directed.

Well my last post might explain why I haven’t taken the time to post on here! lol

Everyone has been talking about getting their flu shot lately. I wish more people knew that studies show that flu vaccines are unsafe and ineffective. Check out this article on Mercola.com

I’ve only gotten the flu 2x in the last 10 or 15 years and I have never had a flu shot. I know lots of people who get their flu shot every year and then end up with the flu within 3 months of getting it. That doesn’t sit well with me.

With the flu shot, especially when getting it early, is a gamble because they have to guess as what type of flu they *think* might be going around that winter. Just seems like too big of a gamble to me.

Personally, I pump myself up on Emergen-C vitamin drink mix that gives you 1000 mg of C plus B vitamins and more. Plus I take Airborne Effervescent Health Formula (which I love) and comes in some pretty nifty flavors this year. In addition to that, I make sure I eat a healthy diet so that my body is strong and can fight anything that I might catch.

I’m pretty neurotic when it comes to germs so I really try hard to stay away from sick people, wash my hands while I’m out and when I come home, and make sure I always have a bottle of Source Naturals Wellness Formula. That stuff is great!

What are you going to do about flu season?