Sawyer’s Birth Story

I wrote this account shortly after Sawyer was born and have been wanting to share it ever since.

When I gave birth to my first, things went quite a bit wonky. The second time around, we approached things differently. I prepared the entire pregnancy to have an unmedicated, natural delivery. Here is the account of how all that shook out.

Enjoy!

THE FINAL WEEK – MONDAY

I want to remember every detail, but Sawyer is 19 days old, and details are already starting to fade. So I am writing my account of his entrance into this world.

39 weeks

The 39th week of pregnancy was so difficult. Our extended family had been hit with a stomach bug – it was spreading amongst all the cousins and aunts and we, thus far, had been untouched by it. I hit 39 weeks on a Saturday and that following Monday evening, Desmond started vomiting. I thought that there was no way I could bring a baby into the world and take care of my sick toddler and also that I DEFINITELY did not want to catch it. 

Desmond sleeping because he felt sick

We made a big pallet in the living room, Jeremy cared for Desmond, and Carlos brought us food… I sat on the couch and at 9:30, I noticed that my “Braxton-Hicks” were coming consistently and close together. I was thinking NO WAY can this baby coming tonight!! I continued to have contractions until around 6am.

I called my OB around 3am and told them I had been having contractions that were 5-1-1. They said I could come in or stay home – I opted to stay home since they were not super intense. I tried to rest and sleep, and at 6am, I finally fell asleep and everything slowed down. 

TUESDAY 

We woke up the next morning thinking no work for Jeremy – we are having a baby! But my contractions were slowed to just a few an hour.

I had an OB appointment, so I managed to drive myself to my moms, and she took me to the appointment. They were very busy, and I breathed through contractions while waiting to be seen. The midwife checked me and I said I was 3cm, 50% effaced, and at a -2 station. The midwife predicted my labor would start that night. I agreed.

WEDNESDAY 

We got a great night’s sleep, waited for labor, and woke up a bit disappointed that Jeremy had to go to work again. He was itching to start his month of leave.

That evening I went into my room and had some alone time, at which point contractions started coming consistently again. I decided not to tell anyone unless I felt like it was the real deal because I didn’t want another false alarm! After about an hour, I came out and told Jeremy I was having contractions. They were coming really close together and lasting a long time – 2-3 minutes.

I sent Jeremy to take Desmond to my mom’s before I called the OB, and I told my sister Bethany to come because baby is coming! Bethany and Josh eagerly came from San Marcos, and Jeremy took Desmond at almost midnight to my moms.

When he got back, I was having trouble getting through them because I was contracting for a full 5+ minutes. I had never experienced that, and I really didn’t like it. It made me feel like something was wrong. I googled it, which didn’t help.

Jeremy was making coffee. It was GO TIME. Then I got a wave of tiredness and told him not to drink it. I decided to just go to sleep. I felt that if it was the real deal, I would wake up. And regardless I needed rest.

Bethany showed up about 12:30, and I felt bad telling her I was going to sleep, but I thought I would wake up. 

THURSDAY

I did not wake until the next morning. Jeremy sadly went to work. Desmond was still at my moms. Jeremy had let his mom know I was in labor the night before, so I had various texts and had to let people know it was another false alarm. I don’t know why, but I felt so defeated. I didn’t really care if he came early or not, but I was getting very antsy with the start and stop.

We walked to get coffee to try to encourage labor

It was such a difficult week with my toddler’s sickness and the false alarms for labor – I was so overwhelmed and frustrated and tired.

FRIDAY

Around midnight I ate a big bowl of soup because I had a gut feeling he was coming.

I didn’t feel ready for labor. I had done tons of reading and practice and work to prepare, but the second false alarm had really put me in a bad state.

Evening before my due date

I asked friends to pray. I stayed up talking to Jeremy until about 1am. I was afraid of feeling out of control and the weird 5 minute contractions made me feel very out of control. We talked about why I feared that so much, the root cause, and trusting God. I went to sleep feeling a lot better.

THE LABOR

I woke up at 4:45am, feeling like I needed to pee, and having Braxton-Hicks. I went to the bathroom, and my underwear and shorts were all wet. Hmm, I thought, “either I peed myself during my sleep, or thats amniotic fluid.” I wiped and had bloody show. Then I knew this baby was finally coming out – right on time on his due date! (My water broke on my due date with both pregnancies.)

I woke up Jeremy and told him. So he and I had both gotten less than 4 hours of sleep. I wanted to go back to sleep, but the contractions came strong almost right away. I paced around the house like a cat… I was trying to get comfortable and into a groove, but I could not. 

The intensity, frequency, and consistency made me feel like it was time to just get to the hospital. I had originally wanted to labor as much as possible at home, but after the two false alarms, I just wanted to finally get to my birthing place.

We dropped Desmond off, still sleeping, at my moms at 7:05am. I texted two friends quickly – “in car. To hospital.” It was all I could manage to type. I then instructed Jeremy to please take the toll road! 

I didn’t get to say goodbye because he was still snoozing

There was no traffic, and as we got onto Mopac, a beautiful sunrise filled the sky. Everything felt really perfect. It was around 7:30am when we arrived.

When I got into my birthing room, LDR 5, I reminded myself of a cat again. I felt settled that I had finally arrived where I would have my baby. My contractions instantly strengthened. 

The mood was light-hearted. We decided to walk laps around the delivery ward. I would stop when a contraction hit, and my doula and Jeremy would take turns giving me counter-pressure on my hips.

At this point, I was really struggling to take the labor “moment-by-moment” because I was coping well, but afraid that I may not be able to handle it later. I kept reminding myself that I was handling it right now and to stay in the here and now. 

I started to feel tired and Darlene, my doula, noticed. She asked if I wanted to go back to the room, and I said yes. I tried to lay down, but it was hard to get comfortable, and my acid reflux was so intense that I had to stay pretty upright. I was able to rest somewhat. I had some broth, and after this short rest, I felt a lot better mentally. 

I remember my doctor, who had already been in once, coming in again and asking if I wanted to be checked. I declined because things were going well, and I felt the progress I was making. I didn’t want to know my dilation anyway throughout the process because I felt it would not help me mentally.

There was a shift to a more serious mood, and I no longer wanted to talk in-between contractions. Jeremy made a joke, and I realized that I was in a different stage of labor because it bothered me a little bit. 

I labored in all kinds of positions. I was mostly upright, and I could feel that gravity was really helping. Darlene kept asking, “where are you feeling it?” and I was analyzing that and feeling how it was changing. I was encouraged by this.

Jeremy sat in a chair, and I squatted and leaned back into him, so he was supporting me. I think I made a lot of progress in this position. As things got more serious, I started moaning through the contractions. I didn’t think I would do this as I had practiced a lot of breathing, but it just naturally happened.

TRANSITIONING

I hit a wall emotionally. I don’t really remember what time this was, but I would guess that it was around 1pm. I was tired and didn’t know if I could keep going. My contractions were on top of each other, and I just wanted a break for a while. I wanted off of the train.

I began to voice my concerns out loud, and in my head I was thinking, “I sound like someone who is transitioning.” But since with my first I had a very slow labor, I was really doubting that I could already be nearly complete after about 9 hours of labor. 

We ultimately decided that the nurse could check me. I was thinking that maybe I would go for the epidural at this point. I told her I did not want to know my dilation.

She checked and said something affirming like, “oh yeah, very good.” and she told Darlene and Jeremy that I was 7 cm at this point.

Jeremy came over to me, and said, “you’re almost there, babe!” I thought about what he said and how he said it – because he had a lot of excitement in his voice – and I concluded that he was telling me the truth. I decided in my head at this point that I must have been about 9cm. 

I had a couple more contractions and, suddenly, I felt a lot of pressure and ‘pushy.’ I had never had an urge to push with my first, so I was unsure what I was feeling. The nurse, doula, and Jeremy all looked and swore they saw his head. The room got very busy, doctor was paged, and I got up on the bed to push. 

PUSHING

My doctor was busy, so a different doctor came and was talking to me, asking me if I had pushed a baby out on my knees before, because I was on my knees and laying over the top of the bed.

I felt very overwhelmed and emotional in those moments. I started crying with joy because I realized I had actually done it – I had gone through all of that labor without an epidural and now was getting ready to meet my baby!

Doctor Sebestyen rushed in and had some not so great news for me. She asked the nurse if she checked me; she replied that she saw a head, so she did not.

The doctor had me get on my back at this point to check me. She said that there was a bulging sac, and that the head “was WAY up there.” A phrase that did not help my mental state during the pushing ordeal that was coming.

She also said that I was not yet fully dilated, that there was a cervical lip left. I was very discouraged to hear this because that had happened the first time, and my cervix had actually torn. She said I could try to push, and she would try to move it over his head. That worked, thank goodness! I was complete.

Then I began pushing, but I was trying to breathe him down, as they described in hypnobirthing. I was really struggling with the advice being given to me because breathing him down wasn’t working, and I had no urge to push. I wanted to get up and keep going through the contractions, but that wasn’t an option at this point.

The doctor talked to me about hypnobirthing and said I needed to physically push my baby out. I tried so many different positions and methods. Anything they told me to do, I tried, because I was desperate to get him out. 

I kept thinking how tired I felt and that I was the only one who could get him out. An epidural would not help me now, but I felt I needed some help.

I was very confused why it was so difficult – it felt the exact same as pushing Desmond out. But that time I had an epidural. This time, I could feel what I was doing, but I still couldn’t seem to get effective pushes.

The doctor said she could sense that I wasn’t ready to push and that I could wait. I wanted to wait and rest, but I was getting close to the point where I could not fight the urge to push.

She left the room, which discouraged me even more because I knew that meant I was not close. Jeremy told me after she had written on a paper 0-Station, so I had quite a bit of the birth canal to go to push him out.

I grunted like an animal, I roared, I reached down deep and tried everything in my power to push him out. It was confusing to me because sometimes I would push and make progress because they would all verbally react. Other times, there was just silence because nothing was happening.

I was just as tired as I had felt with Desmond, which perplexed me because I was about 10 hours in, as opposed to 40 hours into labor. I wept over the bar on the bed, I wanted him out so badly and felt like I did not have it in me to get him out.

I literally felt like I was losing it and had come off the rails. I was pretending not to have a contraction and sitting back with my oxygen mask, until I couldn’t ignore it any longer. I felt bad for doing this… And I would stop pushing before the contraction ended, but I just didn’t feel I had the strength for it. 

THE BIRTH

Next thing I know, the nurse started to really mess with the heart monitor and check my pulse. I could sense that the mood in the room had changed. She began to tell me that there were some issues with his heart rate.

I could not see any monitor, and, honestly, was not too worried by this. I had been in enough rooms for hospital births that I had seen this happen several times.

Then I started to feel like I really couldn’t get him out and was going to request vacuum assistance when the doctor walked in and said she was going to do just that because we needed to get him out.

Ironically at this moment, my IV, which hadn’t even been used, fell out of my arm. The nurse was frantically trying to fix that, and the room filled with staff. Someone else started an IV in my other arm, and the doctor was getting ready. 

I was instructed to be still while they did my IV. I could not bear to sit still during a contraction at this point. It was far too painful. I was pushing anyways. I started to feel an urgency to get him out.

I soon felt the “ring of fire” and was really happy, even though it was uncomfortable, because it meant he was crowning! I was nearly done! It was really satisfying to be able to FEEL everything throughout the process. 

I pushed with e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g I had within me. My strongest pushes ever were at this point because I could sense he needed to get out of there.

I felt the head come out, but then I didn’t feel the body release. About 4 staff members jumped on me and “body slammed” my stomach, and I felt a lot of pressure and assistance down there. Next thing I know, he is out and on my chest, crying. 

That moment is indescribable. It is the moment that I wanted so badly. I prepared the entire pregnancy so that I could feel that rush of emotions and have that instant connection. I have never felt anything like it – extreme relief that the pain is over and overwhelming joy and happiness. I DID it, and it was over, and I couldn’t believe it!

I did tell the staff that they could take him off my chest because he didn’t look right to me, but they reassured me that he was OK. I then began to find out what actually happened. I saw Jeremy hugging Bethany and crying and thought that he must have been relieved that it was over. But then he told me what it was like for him.

He had been watching the decels on the heart rate monitor as his heart rate continued to drop lower and lower. When the head came out, the doctor said “shoulder dystocia,” which is why the staff had jumped on my belly – which felt very good at the time, very painful in postpartum.

Doctor Sebestyen said he had been stuck on his shoulders without oxygen for about a minute. She did a maneuver below, and the pressure from the nurses pushed him out. It did break his clavicle, though, we found out later.

When he finally did come out, I didn’t see him right away, but he was blue, and Jeremy thought the worst had happened. As soon as he took a breath, he got his color back, and had an APGAR score of 8 at 1 minute after birth! 

This is when we figured out why my pushing came with such difficulty – he was a big boy with broad shoulders, weighing 8 lbs & 8 oz. The pediatrician told me later that he was above the 85th percentile for weight! I could not believe that my body made such a big baby and that I was able to birth him without having a c-section.

We cried and recovered and breathed for a bit in the delivery room. I did have some intense bleeding, so I was put on pitocin for 3 hours, which was rather uncomfortable without pain relief.

Bethany took beautiful photos documenting the labor, which made me cry as I looked at them because I had experienced it, and they documented it perfectly. The delivery of the placenta, by the way, was weird. I had a contraction, and it flopped out like a big blob about 4 minutes after I had delivered Sawyer. It felt nothing like delivering a baby and was much easier, thank goodness! 

There is nothing in my life so far that is as empowering as this experience was. I am so glad I did it. I am even more glad that I prepared for it and confronted so many fears. It was the journey of a lifetime. I had felt like God wanted me to confront a lot of things within me. I knew that I may have ended up getting an epidural or a c-section, but I wasn’t hoping for that – and all of my hopes came true, and now I have a healthy beautiful boy who was not easy to birth, but 100% worth every moment of physical and emotional pain. Thank you, Jesus!

My birth affirmations on the wall at home

Jeremy edited them as soon as we got home. So empowering!

Essential Oils for Relaxation

One of my favorite things about oils is how well they help me relax & de-stress. I tend to get wound up about all kinds of things, so I am constantly grabbing a bottle of oil to combat those feelings. Here’s some of my favorites…

Lavender

Add this oil to your bath, & you will feel so calm. Seriously. Try it.
It’s also great to rub on the back of your neck, or on your wrist then inhale deeply.

Wild Orange

Lately, I’ve been diffusing this at night to help me relax & sleep well. I also inhale it throughout the day to promote feelings of relaxation & to de-stress/unwind.

Peppermint

So,typically, this oil isn’t really used for relaxing, but since it can help alleviate upset stomach, occasional headaches, and open up airways, it helps me feel relaxed because of those benefits. My all-time favorite two oils to blend together are Wild Orange & Peppermint because they are so calming & invigorating at the same time.

Happy Oiling!

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If you want more information about the type of oils I use, contact me, and I will send to you!

Welcome to Your New Home

When Jeremy and I got the news of our little one on the way, we instantly knew that our 400 sq ft apartment was not going to do the trick. So we began to look for something a little more spacious with an extra bedroom for baby. We landed on renting a duplex near Jeremy’s work, and we are loving it.

It’s our goal to live simply here in this larger space, to have an organized, de-cluttered home where we can have people over, cook great food, and raise a baby…

Here’s some pictures…

 

Simplicity & Technology

I had somewhat of a New Years resolution to implement a cell-phone charging station in our home.  I wanted this for organization purposes – I love it when everything has a home and a place! But what happened was unexpected. I made a rule for myself that this is where my phone would go – if it needed to charge, if I were asleep, or if I didn’t need it that moment. 

What happened was that for the first time in a really long time, I was able to actually release and detach myself from my phone for a bit. At night, I would normally browse through Facebook or Pinterest until I fell asleep, which was usually for about 45 minutes, but sometimes more like an hour and a half! It never helped me fall asleep quickly to wind down like that. Now, if I want to do either of those things, I don’t go to bed yet because once I put my phone down, I’m done with it. I have a nice rain app I put on to tell my brain it’s time to wind down, and I read a book until I fall asleep. 

Guess what? I’m sleeping WAY better, falling asleep faster, and I’m reading a ton. I bet in the last few years I’ve read less than 10 books total,  but since I started doing this, these are alll the awesome books I’ve finished:

1. Thrive by Arianna Huffington

2. Excuse Me, but I Was Next by Peggy Post

3. My Bipolar Family by David Lovelace

4. Home Sweet Anywhere by Lynne Martin

5. The Unlikely Lavender Queen by Jeannie Ralston

6. Wild by Cheryl Strayed

All of the books have been SO interesting  & have been really happy with just this simple change in my daily life. 

Cheers.

-Amber 

Living the Simple Life: an Update on Life with Fewer Possesions

Last August when Jeremy and I found an awesome apartment in the SOCO area in Austin, we wanted to live there so badly, and downsize, that we were willing to move into, gulp, 250 sq ft. We went through a huge purge of our possessions, and this is what life has been like ever since…

1. Light – stuff can make you feel heavy. Fewer possessions = a lightness that is unlike anything else
2. Less attached to “stuff” – since we’ve moved, I have gotten rid of, on average, 1 bag of items a week. I’ve continued to simplify, downsize. I am letting go of things and not looking back. Several family members have moved or are about to move and have offered us various things. If we didn’t need it, we said no (which we’ve found, we need VERY little beyond what we already have).
3. More space for what really matters – since our space is tiny, the things we have in it are the ones most important to us. This has made us “get out” of our space more – spending a lot more time outside than we did when we lived in 700+ sq ft. And spending more time outside has greatly enriched our lives.
4. New definition of “Need” – our perspective has totally shifted. We find ourselves buying less, wanting less, and having more will-power to say no. The impatient, must-have-it-now feeling is more rare, and for that, we are glad!
5. Gratitude – the things we do have, we’re thankful for. We can’t help feeling that we still have so much – definitely beyond what we need.

What I didn’t expect was that after we sold/gave away 3/4’s of our stuff was that we would have to keep giving away MORE. How does it accumulate so quickly, anyway? We didn’t expect the daily need to eliminate items that were cluttering our life. I will say that living in this tiny space has been frustrating at times – I don’t have an empty shelf to just throw things on. Some days I’m too tired for it – I want to have unlimited cabinets and closet space for everything, but I remember the above list, and I decide that I don’t truly want unlimited space.  I want to live simply. I want to have space for the important things in life. I want to be grateful for what I do have. 

 I hope that if you’re feeling the urge to get rid of stuff, do a little “spring-cleaning”, etc… that you will go for it! The process can be fun if you let it (especially if you have someone helping you!), and it’s totally worth it! 

 Cheers to simplicity.

 

  

  

  

  

  

The Clean Gut Diet – My Experience

Well, if you follow me at all, you’ve seen far too many pictures of smoothies over the last month or so. Many people are asking me how the cleanse turned out for me, if it was worth it, etc, so I thought I would share.

Overall, I’m really happy I did it, have felt some significant changes, and feel empowered over certain food habits that seemed unbreakable. If I had to rate it on a scale of difficulty from 1-10, I would probably give it a 9. I’ve done elimination diets in the past, and this was much harder for multiple reasons.

Let’s start out with all the awesome stuff…

I did Clean Gut because I was looking for a solution to some chronic problems. Having been diagnosed with IBS when I was in high school, and only experiencing that worsen, coupled with frequent headaches, constantly having an upset stomach/nausea, I knew that things were not right in my gut and that I needed an intensive overhaul to correct them.

Having completed the cleanse & the extra week to identify triggers, I have figured out that gluten is a big trigger for me. I very quickly get a bad headache – which I didn’t have at all on the cleanse – and I feel bloated & very moody. When I don’t eat it, I feel great. So I’m glad to finally know which things I need to eliminate! (I know you’re probably reading this and thinking that gluten-sensitivity is a fad, and I have even thought that in the past, but there is validity to how difficult it is for our digestive systems, especially for those who already have problems).

My stomach is rarely upset. Even though I’m eating “normal” foods and not just what I had on the diet, my stomach seems stronger, able to handle them more easily. The only time I’ve really felt sick is when I’ve eaten about 3x as much as I should have. (Or I have gluten, of course.) Previous to the cleanse, I was taking digestive enzymes with each meal because every time I ate a full meal, I didn’t feel good.

I lost almost 10 pounds in 3 weeks. I have found that whenever I cut out carbs & desserts, I drop weight very quickly. I had been struggling with my weight ever since we moved and I got a job where they fed me 2-3x a day, so this was a very welcomed change.

Sugary fruits like bananas are too sweet for me now. I used to have 4-5 bananas a week, and now, I can’t even eat half of one! When I did Whole 30, I heavily relied on sugary fruits and vegetables like bananas & sweet potatoes. Now I can survive without them. Stevia still tastes great to me, and I’m looking forward to continuing to eat a low-sugar diet.

The things I want and crave are totally different now, and I feel I have a new understanding of what my digestive system really needs to thrive. Since the diet, Jeremy and I have added Kefir to our daily diets, and continue to take additional probiotics and eat a lot of vegetables (which wasn’t happening before).

Why it was SO, SO HARD….

For the first 9-10 days out of 21, I felt extremely sick. If you’ve ever experienced an intense detox, you know what I’m talking about. I was just about ready to quit because the extreme fatigue made it difficult for me to function, especially at work. I was moody & short with people, more easily annoyed, and just all-around miserable. I would recommend that anyone who does this diet be able to take some days off, if needed. Your body needs tons of rest.

Most diets ask you to cut some things out. The difficult part about this one, though, was that I not only couldn’t eat what my co-workers were eating, but I didn’t even get to eat a meal in the evenings, just drink a smoothie. Smoothies are great, but they aren’t meals. I found that especially challenging for the first 1-2 weeks. I much preferred Whole 30 where I could come home and make a huge, nourishing meal! (I do believe, though, that Whole 30 didn’t heal my gut at all the way this cleanse did).

Food choices – the choices were pretty limited, especially for what to put in a smoothie. I got pretty bored of having the same smoothie 40+ times in 3 weeks.

I spent a TON of time cooking. Every evening after work, I would cook lunch for the next day. So it went, get home after 7pm, cook, go to bed, repeat. I woke up earlier to make smoothies in the morning. It was a huge time investment and definitely something I couldn’t have continued long-term.

We couldn’t go out to eat really at all during it. That’s pretty hard for someone as social as me – I kept having to decline & re-schedule plans. Of course, afterwards, we made it up for it with visits to Stanley’s and Trattoria Lisina. 🙂

It is pretty cool to know that we can heal our bodies of chronic ailments if we give them what they need. I would recommend Clean Gut to anyone dealing with a chronic problem & heartily recommend the book, which I really enjoyed as it goes into a lot of scientific explanations and was written and developed by a doctor.

Here’s to taking care of ourselves!

Simplicity & Christmas

If you know me at all, you know that I LOVE Christmas. I’ve been a Christmas freak for as long as I can remember. I used to start celebrating, listening to the tunes, in October just to extend the season a bit.

Something has shifted in me, though, over the last year. I don’t love Christmas any less, but I think my love-relationship with it has gotten a bit healthier.

Last Christmas Jeremy and I decided not to buy each other gifts. Instead we created a memory together by going out to a nice dinner and to the Dallas Symphony. It.was.awesome. That lit a spark inside of me. I realized that Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. (Grinch quotes are required in any Christmas blog post, in my book.)

A second important thing that happened last Christmas was that I did most of my shopping on Amazon to avoid the craziness and stress of the malls. At least 5 of my gifts didn’t come in time for Christmas due to crazy weather in the northern states in December last year. We had to go out and buy replacement gifts days before Christmas and stressful doesn’t really begin to capture what that was like…

This year I wanted it to be different. I wanted to cut down on the stress of the holidays because I believe it’s a beautiful time of the year (my absolute favorite time of the year, actually), and somehow for me it had become nothing to do with peace & joy.

So, we talked about it & decided not to do gifts this year unless homemade. We opted out of gift exchanges, cut down on a few holiday commitments, and are making an effort to be present this holiday season.

And guess what? I’m enjoying it more than I’ve enjoyed the Christmas season in a long time. I’m not worrying what to pick out for so-and-so, running around shopping, spending too much money. When I took the weight off of gifts, I was able to step back and see how much more there is to Christmas. It feels STRESS-FREE!

I’m focusing on being more intentional with my friends and family, looking for those around me with needs I can meet, listening to tons of Christmas music, thinking of my precious Savior’s entrance into this world, and thanking God for this time of year.

What have you found helpful to cut down on the stress of the holidays?

Second Cruise, Baby! // Essential Oils for Sea Sickness and Nausea

In 2010,  I went on a cruise with Jeremy’s family, where I had such a hard time with anxiety, sea sickness, and claustrophobia, that I vowed to never, ever go on a cruise again. I wanted to share my experience the second time for anyone out there who deals with sea sickness or anxiety (ask me how come I decided to go on a cruise again – that’s a whole ‘nother blog post involving faith, and bikram yoga, among others.) 

The cruise the second time was so much fun – I really enjoyed myself! But I know I wouldn’t have been able to do it without help from these oils.

On my first cruise, I experienced nausea & vomiting, even though I had patches on. Additionally, I really disliked some not-so-fun side-effects from the patches – like blurred vision. I still threw up 3x on my first cruise with this medicine plus others. I knew that the second time around I was going to have to find something else. 

The following recommendations are based on my personal experience and ideal for someone who is looking for a safe, side-effect free, natural remedy for sea-sickness and anxiety.

Here are the Essential Oils I Used While Cruising:

Ginger – the chemical constituents in this oil can help disrupt the message our cell receptors send to our body, telling it to “throw up.” {See this cool study here on how Ginger has been used for post-operative nausea.} I put it in a roller ball with fractionated coconut oil (has to be diluted, so this makes for easy application), carried it with me, and applied each time I felt symptoms (sometimes every 15 minutes, others every few hours). By the 3rd day, I rarely needed to apply (my body just kind of adjusted to my surroundings).

Peppermint Beads – these fancy little guys are just like a mint – a tiny bead that contains peppermint oil. I used these in tandem with the Ginger oil. They can help soothe and calm and relieve nausea, plus they are so easy to pop in my mouth – I love the convenience.


Grounding Blend – small spaces, new noises, rocking, tons of people, new environment, disaster drills – just a few things that caused my anxiety on the cruise. I used balance oil – it’s so calming to me – the smell almost instantly calms my whole body and especially my mind. I kept this one with me in a roller ball as well for easy application.

Additional oils I used as needed:

Lavender Oil–  to help me calm down; it can help with ‘fight or flight’ feelings.
Coriander Oil– for when I felt dizzy.
Digestive Blend Oil – for my upset stomach from some of the “cruise food” (not the real food diet my body is used to…)
Peppermint Oil – helps me with headaches
Headache Blend – helps me find relief from headaches from dizziness, tension, or eye stuff.

I applied many of these oils directly next to my ear because the cause of my sea sickness is an inner ear problem. Several people in our group never felt the boat move at all – must be nice!

Highly recommend the slide.

Happy to report – I did not even get close to throwing up on my second cruise. Whenever I felt the urge coming on, it went away so quickly after using the ginger oil.

On my first cruise, I experienced little relief from anxiety and had several panic attacks due to claustrophobic feelings. This time around, oils helped me calm myself and overcome in the moments that I felt those feelings again on the second cruise.

I’m so passionate about Essential Oils because of the many benefits I have experienced in my life. If you want to learn more about essential oils or try a sample, let me know by commenting below, or contact me!

Transitions // September Happenings

I feel like my posts lately have confused a few people as I post from Dallas, then Austin, then Dallas, then Utah, heck- even I can’t keep up! So, here’s a quick update on what’s been going on in our world lately…

We are now officially living in Austin and loving it. Our little place is coming together nicely, and Jeremy and I are learning how to live out all this Simple Living stuff we’ve been reading about for months. What fun.

Jeremy and I are actively job-searching, so please keep us in your thoughts and send anything you see our way.

We just returned from a cruise to the Caribbean with Jeremy’s family – it was a wonderful vacation and break before starting new jobs here. Previously to that, I had the privilege of attending the DoTERRA Essential Oils Convention in Salt Lake City Utah, which was so much fun!

Dallas friends – we are missing you all SO much! Please text us if you’re in the ATX. 🙂

Austin friends- hit us up! We would love to hang.

Growth // Simplicity // Minimalism

Word on the street is we’re relocating. Moving to a new city. But it’s kind of an old city since we were both born and raised there – Austin, here we come.

Jeremy and I just recently found a place to live, deep in the heart of it all, on West Annie St. near S. Congress Ave. Our new place is approx. 400 sq ft.

Say what…? Currently we are living in almost 800 sq ft, and we moved here because our previous place was too small (649 sq ft). I’m excited about the new space – we knew it was the place for us – but it means that we have to get rid of a.lot.of.stuff. 

Since I’ve been reading a lot of blogs about simplifying and Jeremy reading about the minimalist movement, we aren’t at a loss for ideas on storage in a tiny place. That doesn’t make this process any easier, though.

Here’s how we’ve been evaluating everything we own…

1. Essential to Life: This is an item that we would have a very hard time functioning without – something we use regularly, probably daily. (cups, plates, etc)
2. Non-Essential but Useful: Great example of this is the lemon squeezer (thank-you, whoever invented that!) We could definitely survive without it, but why chunk it when it’s useful? These items get to be out only if there’s room after all of the 1’s.
3. Not Right Now: Things like our Fiesta Ware that we love and use, but we have 12 place-settings. Someday we hope to be entertaining 12 people at once, but not right now. These are getting boxed up and put up high.
4. Get Rid of It! These are the items that are weighing down our lives, we never use them, they just take up space. Or items that just cannot fit into our tiny space (like our kitchen table, king-sized bed, extra pots and pans that we never touch)!

We literally took everything out of our kitchen cabinets and evaluated each item one-by-one. Then set it in the appropriate pile. Right now we are test-running with our 1’s put back in the cabinet for us to use, and our 2’s close by (they get to come along if our new kitchen has space).

We generally seem to agree on what needs to go and what we need to keep. Not 100% agreement, though, of course, because certain things are more sentimental to one of us than the other. So we are respecting that and having grace, while trusting that we have both committed to live simply, and that is going to mean giving up some things that are hard to let go of. 


This has actually been an extremely difficult process for me. I didn’t realize how much comfort I get from my “stuff.” Yet when I let go of items, I feel free, happier, lighter. So, I’m embracing the change, letting myself be sad for things, then let go of them… and remember that happiness doesn’t come from them, and that life can be wonderful and enjoyable without tons and tons of stuff.

What I love the most about simple living is that it makes space in my life for things I really, really love – like quality time with people I care about. 


Simple Life = Happy Life.