OCM, Shampoo and most importantly, Baby Jace update

So I am on day 9 of my OCM routine, of 50/50 ratio castor oil and EVOO, and my skin is still looking amazing! I have to admit, I have had an extremely stressful few weeks here, I had 3 doctors appointments dealing with VERY serious issues, and my husband is applying for a part time youth ministry position at a friends church, and we happen to have a out of town guest magnet on us! We love having people, but this is the 3rd weekend in a row preparing for an out of town guest, and I love to be hospitable, but hate figuring out how to do it on a budget... so anyways, through all that stress I have got one zit, and it just popped up today. Now, this is actually a huge improvement for me, in a week I usually have little clusters of tiny pimples, and once a month I get a behemoth that hurts so bad I can't leave it alone. I have seemed to rid myself of the little pimples, but here's the monster... so I will have to keep updating on if the oil kills it or not.

I had a hard time going back to trying my baking soda shampoo. I came to the conclusion (after using my shampoo a couple more times) that I loved it, it smelled amazing, it felt great, it styled well, it was familiar, and maybe it was bad for me and my family, but it was a relationship that just beckoned me to lather. But, I stuck to my guns and tried adding more baking soda to my shampoo free shampoo, then more apple cider vinegar to my conditioner free conditioner. IT WORKED! My hair feels super clean! I think our water is hard, so from now on, I am going to keep up with 2 tbsp per cup of water. I am thinking I could even try doing the baking soda every other wash, and then working my way down from there, that way I won't get into such a huge love affair with my shampoo! :) My hair is really soft, and doesn't feel at all oily today. Wow, maybe this will work too!

Laundry soap...Check!
Liquid Hand soap...Check!
Toothpaste..... Check!
Face wash... check!

Shampoo.... in progress!

I would love to start my 1 year old on a shampoo free method, I just read that the baby shampoo we use has some pretty crazy known carcinogens in it. She has tons of curly hair, so we use a conditioning shampoo. My biggest concern is getting it in her eyes though... either baking soda or apple cider vinegar would sting really bad I think... and she always seems to get soap in her face... How can I get her on something more natural??? I am going to look around for a safer, more natural baby shampoo until she is older.


OK, so the most important update, on my baby Jace (in-utero). We were told 4 weeks ago that Jace has a heart issue called hypoplastic left heart syndrome.  With this, he would most likely make it to birth, but there would be an immediate need for open heart surgery as the entire left side of his heart would not work on its own and no blood would pump through the left side, and thus his entire body would be without blood. Only his lungs would get blood. This also meant that I would have a repeat c-section because the heart surgery would have to happen ASAP and we would have to have the peds cardiologist surgeon available to do the surgery. WELL... while Jace's heart is not good, it is in very bad condition, he does not have hypoplastic left heart syndrome, he has a hypoplastic left valve in his heart. Basically, his pulmonary artery and aorta are straight, and both receive blood from the right valve, and while the left valve is underdeveloped, one of the ways it is working is that it is not separated from the right valve, so both valves are working together, essentially, to pump blood to the body and the lungs. This is a crazy situation, and while it is not normal, they basically are going to just tighten his pulmonary artery so the majority of the blood goes to the body, and so his lungs aren't overwhelmed with too much blood flow, which would damage them. It will still take 3 surgeries to fix this, but they are not considered open heart, they just have to cinch the arteries. Still scary, still not so cool, but a quicker recovery is certain. He also doesn't need it as soon as he enters the world! so for me this was HUGE, because I don't want a repeat c-section, I want to go natural, and start breastfeeding him right away. Last week that was not a possibility, but this week they are encouraging it! WOW! I am still praying for a miracle, because lets face it, God makes a better heart than we can with surgery, so I am praying that God will completely heal my sweet boy's heart. I feel so much closer to him this week, since I heard his heartbeat three times and saw him on sonogram machines twice. He is precious, I hope we meet under PERFECT circumstances, at least health wise, I know for a fact the perfect scenario for birthing is not too likely! :-)

Praying for a Miracle. Please pray with me!

(Oh, I am also working on some knitting, because I just ordered some AWESOME wool yarn! you guessed it! Jace is going to have some sweet longies and soakers when he is born! I will try to post pics and tutorials... but I am so slow at knitting, so we will see how that goes!)

Am I crunchy yet?

Last night, I went with my family to the library, which is always a blast! The main library in our city has been newly renovated with some awesome features for us! There is a really cool kids area, with all these adorable little reading nooks that you can climb into to look for a good book! My 19 month old is ALL about climbing, it is super fun! Then they recently put in this giant light bright board! There are 3 panels on the walls that are maybe 5-6 foot square that are black with holes, and they have these acrylic tubes that you can pop into the holes that light up! Eliana loves these, and she can't get enough of putting the tubes into the holes and watching them light up! She says (in her cute little toddler voice) "WUAIGHT!! WUAIGHT!!" (this is my best attempt at phonetically spelling how Eliana says "Light", but its still not quite right!) Every time, there is this moment of awe, we sometimes get a "woah!" and then hundreds of high pitched, so excited she can barely squeak the word out, "WUAIGHT!" over and over again until she thinks we get how absolutely amazing she thinks this light is! Ah, if pregnancy wasn't so hard, and our issues with bad genetics weren't so hard, I would probably pop out new kids every day! ;) So fun!

Anyways...back on subject... I got a few books on living green while saving money. I started reading one called Shift Your Habit, by Elizabeth Rogers. She also has a website with some more information here. It has been really good so far, some of the things we were either already doing, or have taken a step further. But, it still has a lot of great suggestions. Some I don't see myself doing, but others are really simple, like how much money you save per light bulb per hour if you just turn them off. Or, if you have a multi-bulb lamp, just remove a bulb or two. That saves a certain amount of money per year, and if you do it around your house, there is a much bigger savings. Anyways, things like that, some common sense, some just things I may not have thought of. Plus, I like how she tells you a realistic number on how much making these shifts in your habit can save. She goes into details, like how an average bath tub holds 42 gallons of water, so if you take a 5 minute shower, it is better than taking a bath, but then she has a chart for how many minutes in the shower compares with the number of gallons used. good food for thought! 

Ok, so on the subject of showers, I lived in Peru for a couple summers in college, and well, it is part of the reason why I don't think I would regularly be able to take cold showers! But one hint that they do in Peru is that they turn the shower on and get wet, turn the shower off and use all your soap, shave, whatever, turn the shower on to rinse. This saves a lot of water, and makes taking a cold shower more bearable. In Peru, if you did have a water heater, it was only usually for a very small amount of water, so by the time you got wet, you had to wait for the water to warm up again. The idea, though, holds here too, warm or cold shower, get wet, shower off, lather up, shower on, rinse (and turn it off again if you need conditioner). Something I am considering. Right now just the thought makes me shiver... :)

So today, I took a shorter shower, and went shampoo free for the very first time! I tried the baking soda and apple cider vinegar mix... and I think it might need to be tweaked a bit, but overall it's ok. It doesn't look oily though, what do you think?

I know people usually rant and rave on this method after using it for about a year, and I don't think I feel the same after my first trial. My hair feels soft, but having naturally oily hair and hard water might mean I need 2 tbsp of baking soda per cup of water, and maybe more vinegar? Even still though, I didn't think my hair would do as well as it did. It seems to be soft, and its really just on my scalp that it feels a little oily. I may not have rubbed it into my scalp enough either. But since I am planning on slowly weaning myself off shampoo, I won't be washing with baking soda for another few washes. I think I will fix the mix tonight while it's fresh on my mind! 

The Oil Cleansing Method continues to be the absolute best thing I have ever used! Its hard to tell because of the lighting and bad photography... besides the places I picked at, I am clearing up, my face has no new spots, which is definitely not normal for my face! And did I mention how smooth my face is? From all of my knowledge of face stuff, I would imagine I should be breaking out by the sheer amount of how much I am touching my face because it feels so wonderful! I keep wondering when the honeymoon will end! Haha! 

OCM, homemade toothpaste, and plans to ditch shampoo!

Day 3 of OCM, Still loving it! my face looked awesome all day yesterday, and I did my ocm last night, and still looking awesome! I might be overdoing how much i need to wash my face, but it feels so clean, and soft. I don't need to use any lotion on it, and it feels better than it has ever felt using any sort of skin regimen. (And I have used a lot, want a short list? Clean and Clear, Noxema, Oxyclean, Proactive, Clinique, Mary Kay, Arbonne, medicines from the dermatologist... just to name a few... I also have tried things like just using baby wash, or something like that. Basically, if it was sold at Walmart I have used it. If it was a fancy expensive face wash I may have tried it (when some family member decided something had to be done about my face!)  I have been through a lot, like I have said. So this is working really well, and it is really amazing I can say that my face has not felt this soft and clean after any of these other regimens. However, still just day 3.... plenty of time to break out, so I will keep you posted!

Today is actually Day 4 of my own natural toothpaste. I feel like I can't say a ton about it yet, since toothpaste takes a while to prove its worth. My teeth feel clean, and not slimy like they can sometimes with conventional toothpaste. I also feel like they are less sensitive? Could that be possible or am I just dreaming?

I also have come up with a plan to wean myself from using shampoo. I am planning to go to a baking soda combo to replace my shampoo, and an apple cider vinegar combo to replace my conditioner. I have been dreaming and planning this, but haven't taken any steps forward because I just bought a huge bottle of shampoo right before I read about this. A lot of people swear you have to go cold turkey with ditching shampoo, but some do say you can replace a wash here or there until you eventually cut out shampoo altogether. I like that idea, it seems less scary! So that is the plan, I mixed up my solutions last night and am planning on using them tomorrow. Wish me luck!

I also have some plans in case of extra shampoo!

My sweet daughter just woke up from her nap. It was very short. *sigh* Wish me luck on this afternoon too!

OCM Day 2

Day 2 of OCM, and I really am pleased! I used my oil cleansing again last night (a lot of sites have varied opinions on how often you need to do it, I might be overdoing it by every day, but we will see!) I have a bad habit of popping, so I have a few scars on my face too. But on day one, I had a cluster of little zits above my left eyebrow, two on my neck, and a few on my hairline on my right forehead. I woke up this morning (again, with super clean, soft skin) and the only bumps I can feel now are 2 that I messed with. WOW! I am pretty
pleased so far!

I will have to load pictures at some point!


Update: Ok... this was from day 2!

Welcome Back Me!!!

welcome back me! I have been gone for quite a while, and I am not really too sure what exactly is the reason for my absence, it has not quite been a year, but almost... I guess between a daughter who has been not sleeping well (shortly after writing my last entry she started only taking one 15 minute nap a day... at 13 months! and sleeping maybe 10 hours at night...) so we were all lacking in the sleep department. After a lot of searching for an answer we went to a sleep specialist and did a horrible sleep study... she had so many wires glued to her body, and getting her to sleep was a nightmare! They did find out she has sleep apnea, and her tonsils are almost blocking her windpipe, so that might have something to do with it!! She was, I guess, having night terrors because of her lack of REM... and toddler fits are rampant, as I am sure you can imagine!

Meanwhile, I found out I was pregnant!!! I am due at the end of November. We, apparently, have bad genetics, because when my daughter was born they swore up and down that she had downs syndrome... which was false, she actually has a duplicate #7 chromosome, but so does my husband. He is (mostly) normal!  Hehe... no, I am kidding, anyway he is not normal it is because he is extraordinary, I love my husband so much! So in order to not go through a very trying time of talking with genetic counselors and specialists at the hospital we decided to do genetic testing this time around. While it wouldn't rule out the chance of downs, it would at least give the doctors some pause to say "hmmm... maybe there is another reason this baby has certain findings...." Unfortunately, it sent us tail-spinning into a mess of genetic issues again. They found a huge cyst on the back of the baby's neck, and after a few weeks of torture (because they told us that miscarriage and stillbirth are likely with some of these cases, and they didn't know what was causing the cyst) they found that his heart is not pumping correctly. It is called "hypoplastic left heart." His left heart is underdeveloped and not pumping any blood to his body. so without a miracle, his little heart can only pump blood to his heart, not to the rest of his body. This, amazingly, does not usually end in miscarriage or stillbirth, the umbilical chord usually acts to keep the baby alive. And it is fixable, and we live in a city with some amazing heart surgeons. I am still not thrilled, obviously, and am still hoping and praying for a miracle! I cannot imagine the birth experience having something like this in the mix. I don't think any person should have to enter the world under these circumstances... But what an amazing blessing that even though it is not good news, we could expect our baby to die immediately after birth if we were even 10-15 years in the past. We are in the right location, the right time, and we have a lot of hope that our sweet boy will have a future... so many parents get news to the contrary, and that breaks my heart. I would be a complete fool not to count myself insanely blessed, even with this hard news.

oh yeah, and did I mention our daughter was in the ER 2 times in one weekend? She was admitted with the first, she completely lost her ability to walk, stand or sit up on her own... It was super freaky, turned out to be a bad case of temporary displacement, which is related to vertigo as I understand... then after we were released the very next day she crammed a hanger in the back of her throat, and when i helped her to get it out she started bleeding everywhere and the doctor said we had to go back... sheesh... I was a mess!

Anyways, it has been a whirlwind since I posted my tut, and I am now just along for the ride! So I have slowly been getting back into doing the things I love, my random and ever changing interests... and here's what the nesting gene has allowed me to do in the past two weeks....

1. I have been sewing TONS!! I made a ton of little newborn soakers and longies with upcycled wool, and have gone garage saleing and to goodwill and salvation army store to get some really amazing wool sweaters! they are so cute, unfortunately (no...what  am I saying... fortunately!!!) my daughter is now potty trained, so I can't try any in her size... We started EC late with her, and she was still potty trained so quick that we are sold, I can't wait to start EC early with our boy! I also serged up some sweet flats to use as inserts and doublers, and some cloth wipes using some old sheets I had. They are so nice and soft! My daughter and I have been using fabric markers to color them for her little brother! She is so excited! And with toddler scribbles and mommy cartoons, I think he will love them!

2. I have also found out that we are poor! Who knew!? ;) I guess making my own kids diapers, EC and garage saleing, sharing 1 car...and all the other tricks we use to live frugally I hadn't felt super poor, but sure money gets tight. Anyways, we will qualify for about every government assistance program out there once we have our baby. We are on WIC now, which is super helpful! I get way too much milk, but being a bit of an oddball, I have found ways to use it. I made yogurt, Ice milk (just like ice cream without the cream!), Ice milk sandwiches with chocolate grahams... So I have been working a lot with making new foods and recipes! But seriously, Eliana got super constipated the week after we went on WIC... she never has so much dairy!!! We will be passing up on a lot of the milk, I have a feeling... I mean, what family of 3 really uses 9.5 gallons of milk in 4 weeks!?! crazy!!!

3. Then looking into some frugal recipes and frugal living tips, I have also re-ignited the green freak inside... I found so many cool recipes to make for cleaning up my house and cleaning up me! I am trying to slowly finish up products I had been buying and replacing them with things like baking soda, vinegar, borax, glycerin, essential oils... So far I have made a recipe that actually does kill my weeds (2 tbsp salt, 2 tbsp dish soap, 2 cups vinegar, spray it on weeds when it is sunny)! I also made homemade toothpaste which will take some getting used to, but I feel like my teeth get clean easier and stay feeling clean longer... I got the recipe here, and supposedly it will actually help  keep my teeth healthier than my Colgate! (who knew!) Another crazy thing I did was I made a laundry detergent, which is safe for cloth diapers... and with a very similar recipe made a gallon of hand soap with a bar of soap! (woah!!!)

4. I am giving this frugal "me cleaning" tip its own category because I am super thrilled about it. I am starting a new face regimen. This is always scary, but I was really apprehensive about this one... although everything I have read supports it. I am not purchasing a $12+ bottle of any dumb old face wash, instead I am using oil. YES! OIL!  the very reason why we wash our faces, and here I am slathering it on and massaging it in!!! SCARY!!! It is a recipe that calls for 2 different types of oil, castor oil and extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) in equal parts. You massage it into your face for a whole minute! I did it my first time last night, and all my acne commercials that were floating around in my head were screaming "WHAT ARE YOU THINKING???"  But I figure now is a good time to break out if it goes awry, I can totally blame it on pregnancy hormones! ;-)  So then you put a wet (hot) washcloth on your face, and when it cools you use it to wipe off the oil. No soap, just wipe the oil off. After my first go, my skin did feel a bit oily, but soft. I felt a little like I had just used a night cream or something. Then when I woke up this morning, my goodness! My face felt super clean and smooth! Why would this even work??? Well, something the acne folks don't tell you, but your chemistry buddies would is that oil breaks up oil. So when we use soap or face wash we are harshly removing whatever oil we can, but then we are also training our faces to make more oil to replace what was lost. With the oil cleansing method (OCM) we are breaking up the bad and removing it, and leaving our faces with enough oil so that it will not try to replace it. The dirt is what causes pimples, not the oil. So having oil on our faces is a good thing. This is what I have read at least... I am kinda excited to blog about it on here so I have a record of my actual journey though, because it seems like once someone blogs about  things that are "green" they are usually already sold and think everyone should do it, but I may not have the same luck with whatever they swear by. I have no idea if this will work, but I was pretty thrilled when I woke up this morning. Anyways, more updates to come, maybe I can get some pictures too!  If this works, I might even try going "poo free"!