When She Leaves…

January 4, 2013 By

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Sometimes during the hustle and bustle of our chaotic homestead life, I catch myself silently watching Prairie Girl.

Amidst the zipping up of tiny coats, bracing against the wind, feeding hay, and filling water buckets, I remember…

I remember a small girl who would have loved nothing more than to have horses outside her bedroom window. And a wheelbarrow full of manure to push. And eggs to collect.

That girl was me.

I don’t know of many little girls whose primary dreams in life involved barns and land instead of Barbie houses and tiaras, but mine did.… [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: Country Kids, Prairie Reflections 65 Comments

How I Used Essential Oils during my Pregnancy and Labor

November 16, 2012 By

I became interested in essential oils right around the time I became pregnant with Prairie Boy. However, I didn’t really start using oils very much until a few months later when the morning sickness subsided. All I could manage during those first few months was to keep the animals alive and Prairie Girl fed and clothed (barely)…

Once my energy came back, I was itching to try them out on some of the “side effects” of pregnancy.

There is a lot of conflicting information out there regarding the use of essential oils during pregnancy…

Some sources say to avoid all essential oils completely, while others say only to use select ones. To be honest, I was pretty nervous to use them at first… However, after educating myself and talking to more folks, I began to play around with them a bit more– with definite success!

Let me do a bit of “disclaiming” first:

I am not a medical professional. Please use caution when using essential oils while pregnant. The ideas below are simply what worked for me– please do your own research until you are comfortable with what you find. I only recommend using Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade oils (I use doTERRA brand). Many of the cheaper brands are impure and are NOT safe for ingestion or medicinal use.

My Favorite Essential Oils for Pregnancy and Labor

  • Lemon for morning sickness- One of the few oils I had at the beginning of my pregnancy was lemon. When a wave of nausea would hit, I would simply open the bottle and smell it. It provided instant relief. I know that ginger is recommended for morning sickness as well.
  • DigestZen for heartburn- I never get heartburn– unless I’m pregnant… DigestZen is a digestive blend made by doTERRA and a few drops of it in a capsule instantly relieved my heartburn.

    • … [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: Country Kids, Essential Oils & Natural Remedies 16 Comments

Prairie Boy’s Birth Story {A Natural Hospital Birth} Part Two

November 9, 2012 By

Click here for Part One

We loaded in the pickup and headed to town. Hubby made an effort to slow down as we bumped across the cattle guards, which was greatly appreciated… I tried to sit back and let all my muscles go completely limp during each contraction.

9 am

It took us an hour to reach the hospital on the snow packed roads. We passed off Prairie Girl to Grandma when we arrived. The receptionists and nurse who met us in the lobby kept asking if I wanted a wheelchair, but I refused. I had walked to the Labor & Delivery floor during labor with Prairie Girl, and I was determined to walk there on my own two feet again! I had several contractions on the way there. I stopped to breathe through each one.

10 am

I was relieved once we were finally in our room. I was ready to focus and get down to business. All the fears I had had about the hospital staff arguing with me over my birth plan were quickly dispelled. I had requested no IV, no constant monitoring, no time limits on labor, no restrictions on eating, and to be allowed to move around the room at will. The nurses were incredibly supportive of my requests and went out of their way to accommodate me. At one point I was sitting on the floor working through contractions and a nurse brought in some paperwork. She plopped down on the floor next to me and didn’t even blink.… [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: Country Kids 71 Comments

Prairie Boy’s Birth Story {A Natural Hospital Birth} Part One

November 8, 2012 By

October 25th was a typical day at home. Prairie Girl (formerly known as Prairie Baby– that nickname won’t work anymore!) and I cut up about 20 pounds of garden tomatoes that had decided to ripen all at once and spent the day working around the house. I was 39 weeks pregnant and absolutely huge and uncomfortable. I had hoped that I would have this baby earlier, but weeks 37 & 38 had already come and gone…

I had been having lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions and crampy feelings for several weeks, but nothing productive. That evening after supper, the crampy feelings felt slightly different. But, I didn’t get too excited and didn’t even mention it to hubby.

8 pm

I put Prairie Girl to bed and sat down with hubby to watch some pig butchering videos (Yes– really. Aren’t we exciting?). I noticed the twinges started to be more regular and were coming at around 15 minutes intervals. But they were so slight that I was almost positive that they weren’t the “real” thing. I ignored them and watched how to skin a hog.

As the video finished, I got up to take a shower and head to bed. The crampy feelings became more irregular as I moved around, which made me think I was merely experiencing some practice contractions. I decided to mention it to hubby, just in case. Since it had started to snow that night, we briefly discussed what needed to be done in the barn and what vehicle to take to town if this ended up to be the real thing. But I still told him to not get too excited, since I was sure the contractions would be gone by morning.

He fell asleep, but I didn’t. The twinges kept coming, but they were still 15-20 minutes apart.… [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: Country Kids 12 Comments
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