At Home…in Alaska

Archive for July, 2007

Chickens
7/06 1 (L)

7/12 1 (L)

2! Just two measly egg this month. *humph*

Children

P. says “digadigaw” for chicken! I have no idea how she could have translated it like that… *shakes head* But it’s pretty funny to hear her say it! LOL

7/06 First time L. grabbed and put something into her mouth! Has put my finger or her blanket into her mouth (if close by) but this is time she was on her stomach playing on the bed with her paci out in front of her and she reached out with the interest and intent of playing with something. Her coordination is so good! She hardly fumbled it, chewed on it for a while and then dropped it when she grew tired of it. Also, she is pushing herself up really far with her arms! It won’t be long before she’s on her knees too! She’s only 4 months (in three days)! This is the earliest I’ve had one of my children so intent on crawling. Mostly, she doesn’t like being on her stomach and wanted up so badly she wouldn’t “practice.” She’d just lay there lifting her head and fussing. I’d prop her up on her hands but she wouldn’t stay (although she was strong enough). Anyhow, she’s suddenly caught on and she’s real close to lifting her bum too!

7/15 L. rolled over 2x from tummy to back! Also, belly laughs finally when tickled! Silly girl would just lay there giving you a strange look and grunting or just give the slightest giggle. She has discovered her toes in the past couple of days as well and they are now her favorite “toys.”

7/26 I love how L. clasps her hands when she’s nursing! *mush-mush* She’s done it for quite a while now (since she was a couple of months at least) but it always makes me smile!

7/27 L. is rolling from back to tummy! Both ways have been accomplished now…what’s next?!

Celebrations

7/04 Independence Day was celebrated our friend’s the Phelps home (our pastor and family) along with a couple of other families from our church. We had a great time and love them all!

Not much to report this month. Mostly, we were slammed making knives…which is a good thing…but didn’t leave much time for enjoying summer activities either. Next month will be pretty busy too but we’re hoping to fit other fun stuff in as well. Fall/winter will be here far too soon… *ugh*

‘Til next time,
Tamara
♥ oxoxox ♥

The main thing I did this past week…

The main thing I’ll be doing this week…

Will have to catch up with everyone when I’ve refreshed a bit…

~Tamara
♥ oxoxox ♥

Enter this contest for a chance to win $300 dollars worth of free organic dairy products from Horizon Organics!

Hat tip to Jenn! Thanks Jenn!

~Tamara
♥ oxoxox ♥

Oh never mind! Having my sale items on a page on this blog just wasn’t working to my liking.

So, just go to the old link. It should work again…although its nothing fancy. No spiffy looking shopping cart, etc. As I said originally, I’ll fix it up again as time allows.

~Tamara
♥ oxoxox ♥

I’m feeling much better! It was slow going but I finally feel like I’m back in the swing of things around here again.

Very busy with home, children and dh’s business.

Also, the fireweed is blooming already which means summer will be winding down soon and we are squeezing the most out of it that we can!

Finally had my last check up with the midwives yesterday. All is well. Still have slightly high b/p but they check it off as “normal for me” kind of thing. As long as I keep up with the natural remedies they have suggested, I should be able to maintain it at a decent level. Almost to my prepregnancy weight. It’s only been recently that I’ve begun to feel “half way normal” again and that my body could handle adding some “extra more vigorous exercise”. Hips/pelvis in particular. So, I’ll be adding a treadmill workout again soon. Probably Mon. of next week. The midwives were concerned about the bout of mastitis and said to be sure to contact them if it flares up again. (That side still feels “funny” although not bad.) Baby L. is 13.3 lbs at 14 weeks! Her heartbeat is still in the 140’s - a calm baby.

I created a new page here at my blog because, although I’ve shut down my “official” store, I still have things to sell. You can still think of it as “Your Online Gift & Thrift Store” - new, handmade and gently used items. Check it out by using the “Prov. 31″ link above! I’ll be listing things here and there as I have time. Stop by often and see what’s new and have fun browsing! Feel free to pass along the link as well…this large family could use the extra income…and we like blessing others by passing on what God has provided as “extra” for us.

~Tamara
♥ oxoxox ♥

1. Rest more.

2. Drink more water.

3. Very warm showers/baths. (Focus shower on affected area.)

4. HOT moist compresses. (Especially before nursing.)

5. Nurse with baby’s chin pointing toward affected area.

6. Massage affected area after h.m.c. and during nursing.

I already knew these and have been doing them over the course of the week. In the midst of the fever, pain, etc. though, it was hard to remember what I’d read/heard/learned. So, here it is in written form to refer to if it happens again (God forbid!). #5 was the hardest. Baby L. was mostly refusing that side, getting very upset and even screaming if I so much as *attempted* to present it to her. She didn’t want it in different *positions* either - thank you very much! So forget trying to point her chin to it - which would have been the regular cradle hold but her belly more up near my neck - almost upside down! (How exactly I was going to do that while so out of it and in pain (remember all over body so bad I can hardly *hold* baby) AND with a struggling baby I don’t know… Guess I could have figured out a configuration while lying down… But, I can quit rehearsing it because she wouldn’t have gone for it anyway!!) To get her to take any milk out of it at all, I had to wait until she was very hungry and nurse on that side first (of course); but, after the initial letdown and gulping was done ;-), she would let go and turn her head away and start fussing (or crying/screaming if I so much as insisted *sigh*). She would still be hungry though and I was forced to give the other side despite the infected one not being drained as fully as it needed to be. I have a small battery operated pump that works ok in a pinch (read only when eng*rged and there’s plenty of milk to flow - which I’m not really) but didn’t have any batteries for because I haven’t used it in eons. I’m not sure it would have worked anyway as my previous aside alluded to. The most successful attempts were in the middle of the night when she was sleepy and didn’t know what was coming at her. Again, as soon as the initial letdown was over, she wouldn’t take any more to speak of - sleepiness being the cause now though.

Anyway, I had the bright idea that I could now look things up on the Internet again. (Yes, a “duh” moment. Can you blame me? It’s been a rough week…) I was reminded of the following:

6. Raw garlic

7. Raw honey

8. Cabbage leaves

I have natural remedy books on garlic and honey that have been in my “to read” stack for ages that I really should “bump” up the stack sooner. Anyway, I know that they are both anti-bacterial, fungal, etc. and it should have occured to me to use them. Oh well. Since I’m still sort of “out of it” (fuzzy headed, sore, tired), I made sure I had some raw garlic today. I’m out of honey unfortunately. I heard about cabbage leaves a long time ago but never needed the info until now and since I do not generally buy cabbage there’s not a bit of cabbage in the house either.

Here’s a link to where I was reading and got my reminder :

Welltellme.com - Mastitis

The article mentioned is here.

Also mentioned is Emergen-C. I have 3 packets left from pregnancy/labor and did think of trying it but just didn’t. I wasn’t feeling very hungry and probably the thought of the “taste” of something, anything as a turn off. I was hungry last night though and this morning and the thought of Emergen-C actually sounds good at the moment so as soon as I’m done typing I’ll go drink some of that as well. (I say “as well” because I drank my garlic crushed in a mug of boiling water like tea.)

Hope this information will be helpful to someone else…although I’ll be sorry at the same time…sorry that you need it. Mastitis is not fun.

~ Tamara
♥ oxoxox ♥

I’ve been experiencing a horrible case of it since Monday afternoon. Fever, pain throughout my body, my head feels like it’s going to explode, all of the symptoms that you can find listed for it, I had them…on top of a red, swollen, bruised looking (1/2 of it anyway) bre*st. It hit me out of the blue, all of a sudden I was horrible sick, went immediately to bed and was there until this morning. The only way I could get warm was to get into a hot bath, wrap myself in a fleece robe and get back in bed with extra layers of blankets. (I think I did that three times.) Oh, and turn up the heat. We’re pretty accustom to having low temps in our house - 66 ° F is as high as I can stand it most of the time - and a sheet and one blanket are usually all I need to sleep with. So, these were great indictations to my dh that indeed I was sick.

Today, things are a little better. The pain has subsided to all over soreness, I think the fever is gone - certainly much lower than it was, I didn’t have the presence of mind to get the thermometer out and check what it was so I can only go by “feel” - , the chills are gone as is the shaking…but oooo my head still pains me greatly. So, I sort of feel like I’m coming out of the cloud I was in… It was difficult to even hold the baby, nurse her, etc. She is still mostly refusing to nurse on that side and it’s been a frustrating tearful experience for us both.

I’ve had an infection of this sort one other time but not to this extent. This was bad. Really bad. Since I’m still in the midst of it, I’m praying it’s over soon!

♥ oxoxox ♥

ps - i replied to two comments. check the “recently commented” list in the sidebar.

In case anyone has noticed or was curious, I’ve completely shut down/deleted my store. I’ve been having computer problems along with no internet service, had some trouble getting into it, things got a little messed up, it wasn’t open for business anyway since L.’s arrival…and, well, I just don’t have time to mess it right now. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, I can start from scratch again and get it up and running…Lord knows we could use the extra income. For now though, it’s closed and I’ll be focusing strictly on my dh’s knives. He has quite a few “seconds” floating around the shop that can’t be a part of our wholesale orders so I’ll put them up as clearance items on his website. I haven’t worked on it in ages either due to our busyness with the wholesale end of things, etc. Anyway, if anyone is interested in that, I’ll be getting those changes made soon and his link should work above.

Thanks again to our loyal patrons for their support!