What's Wrong with Her Face?!?

You tend to be a lot more relaxed with your second kid.  A lot.  So Wednesday night seemed like a great time for Lucy (she turns 1 on Christmas) to try TWO new foods at once.  I know, I know - you're supposed to only try one new food for a week and then add another.  But whatever.  Second kid.  So she got corn and chicken for the first time Wednesday night.  Both organic.  She was doing really well with the few little bites I gave her, so I gave her a second little pile.  Then I noticed the area right around her mouth was turning red.  I made note of it, thought maybe she had been rubbing it or teething and moved on - continued making the rest of dinner, putting dishes in the dishwasher, feeding Ellis, starting a load of laundry, answering work emails....ya know, multi-tasking mommy stuff.  I looked at her again, and thought "maybe that's spreading" but wasn't sure.  I kept being busy, then Jade walked in door and exclaimed "What's wrong with her face?!?".  Now Jade is usually my barometer for when to freak out.  He is always so calm and cool and collected.  And also, he's a guy, so they don't always notice the details.  But when he immediately saw it and freaked out, I knew I wasn't imagining the spreading redness.  I took her food away, which made her mad.  As soon as she stopped eating, it spread very quickly over her entire face and white welts began to appear.  She was getting fussy and clawing at her face.  Eeek!  I grabbed my Lavender while calling the doctor's answering service. 

While I waited for the nurse to call back, I rubbed the lavender over the welts and posted a question in my oily Facebook group asking for oily recommendations.  A few mommies answered right way (love my oily friends) and then the nurse called back.  Jade was getting ready to run to the store for Benadryl - this half-a-hippie doesn't have any over the counter meds in the house anymore but I was scared and ready to give her whatever she needed.  But then the nurse said NO Benadryl for kids under the age of 6 and told us unless she was severe (swollen lips, gagging, excessive drooling, trouble breathing), then all we could do was push fluids, give her a bath and watch for signs of severe distress.   Um, OK - oils it is then!  I'm not waiting for this to get worse!

Jade took her upstairs for a bath and I gathered the oils my oily friends had suggested.   Funny that everything they suggested made total sense and I realized I already knew what they were saying. I also have several resource books I could have referenced.  But in the moment of crisis (OMG is my baby having anaphylaxis), you forget everything you know.  This is why I'm an HR lady and not a paramedic or ER doctor.

Of course, if this ever happens to you, CALL YOUR DOCTOR.  I am not a doctor (I might have already mentioned that), this is just what we did after they basically told us there was nothing we could do but watch and wait.  I am not a watcher and waiter.  I'm a doer!  So I did my oily thing and she was totally back to normal within an hour. 

Lavender - I applied just 1 drop spread around her cheeks where the redness and welts were.

Frankincense - I applied to the bottom of her feet because when in doubt - FRANK! Frank is your friend! 

Copaiba - I layered this over the frankincense; it has anti-inflammatory effects.  For you science nerds, Copaiba contains the highest amounts of beta caryophyllene (55 percent) of any known essential oil.  Beta-caryophyllene is a sesquiterpene widely distributed in essential oils of various plants. Several biological activities are attributed to beta-caryophyllene, such as anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, antioxidant, anticarcinogenic and local anaesthetic activities

Purification - I applied to her spine; this a a blend of oils with purifying and cleansing properties and my intention was to use it to draw the toxin (allergen) from her system.


Maybe it was the bath, maybe it was the fluids, maybe it was the oils, or maybe a combo of all three that helped her. Either way, I am so thankful I have these amazing oils to use. When you're told there's nothing you can do, that's not always true - you can use oils!

I applied all of these oils "neat", which means straight out of the bottle. Dilution with a carrier oil like coconut or olive oil is usually recommended for babies, but Lucy has been oily since birth and I know what she can tolerate.

Whew - no more corn for this little cutie for a while!

 

 

 

To read more about these oils or order them, click here.
To get oily tips and tricks, go like my Facebook page Oily Living.

DISCLAIMER: This page promotes ONLY Young Living brand essential oils. I am not a doctor and I am not diagnosing, recommending treatment or offering cures for ailments or illnesses. These are my personal experiences in using Young Living Essential Oils with my family. YLEO are pure, therapeutic grade oils and the only oils I would use in the ways that I discuss.

 

 

Too Fat for the Funeral Dress

This post could be sad - but I'm going for funny. 

My dad died 8 years ago.  That sucked. And the holidays are hard and maybe we've gotten used to his absence, but it's not easier.  "They" (whoever they are) say it gets easier with time.  They lie.  You just get used to the giant whole in your heart, in your family, at the dinner table. 

So anyways, I was getting ready for my company holiday party last weekend and trying on all the dressy dresses in my closet.  Which are few these days - we don't go anywhere fancy or dressy anymore.  The few dresses I do have are from weddings I've been to or been in.  I had about 3 dresses I was trying to decide between but none were doing it for me.  However, in the back of my closet, there was another dress.  One that's been in a dry cleaning bag for about 8 years.  I've moved it, in that dry cleaning bag, from house to house.  I've moved 6 times since I wore that dress.  And it's moved with me, always getting tucked back to it's rightful place in the back of the closet, not to be worn.  I never wanted to wear it again, but I couldn't get rid of it either. 

So this dress - it's the dress I wore to my dad's funeral.  When I got the call my dad had been in an accident, I flew home to Dallas from Atlanta not knowing I was coming home to be told he had died.  My family spared me traveling alone having been just told that, so they told me when I landed.  My brother in law Patrick told me when he picked me up at the airport in my brother Nick's car.  I'm still not sure why he was driving Nick's car.  I remember I punched and kicked the dashboard - sorry Nick.  He took me to my sister's and his house where I slept fitfully in my niece's bed hugging a picture of my niece and my dad that had been framed and on her dresser for while.  She still has that framed picture on her dresser and when I go to their house and see it, I think of that night.

The following days we dealt with all kinds of horrible logistical things you deal with with someone dies.  And for me that meant shopping for funeral clothes because I flew home not knowing I would be attending my dad's funeral.  I found a dress the perfect shade of  UPS-brown (he had worked at UPS for forever) and some cute chunky heels to match.  My sister and I got necklaces with ruby-colored stones because his favorite color was burgundy and his motorcycle's name was "Ruby".  I looked pretty good and felt confident about standing in front of a bajillion people to deliver my eulogy.  It was standing room only at the church, even when waiting for the service to start in the family room, you could hear the fullness.  I looked out the window and the parking lot was PACKED!  I started to get sooooo nervous.  I decided I should go to the restroom one last time, even though I didn't really need to go, before marching into the church.  So I snuck out into the hall and into the ladies' room.  As I'm in the stall, a voice comes from the next stall and says "cute shoes".  I knew that voice.  It was Amy, my best friend for so many years.  We busted out of the stalls and hugged and cried and laughed at the kismet.  She too lived in Atlanta and flew in for this.  I hadn't seen her yet and it seemed like divine intervention was at work telling us both to go to the restroom at that exact moment, even though I didn't need to go and she had to make her way through a sea of people, so Amy could provide a little levity and tell me my shoes were cute and I looked good.  I'll always remember that. 

My dress looks like this, but with short sleeves and a sash belt,

so not really like this, but you get the idea

 

 

Back to present day and getting ready for my holiday party.  I decided enough was enough.  That dress was just a dress and it didn't hold any power.  It was a cute dress and it was OK to wear it again...and what better time to wear than for a happy, fun party rather than a sad event.  So I mustered up my courage and I didn't cry.  Not even a little.  I was excited.   I was going to wear this dress and maybe even carry a little of my dad with me that night to the party.  He always loved a party. 

And then it didn't fit.  I even had Jade help me try to zip it, but nope.  Turns outs falling in love, getting married and having 2 kids made me fat.  OK, not fat.  But fatter than I was when I wore this dress 8 years ago.  Dammit.  Sorry dad - no party for you. 

I'll guess I'll start working out in attempt to squeeze back into that damn dress.  I hate working out.  And I'm lazy.  I'm mostly happy with my body.  I mean, I'd like to lose a little (who wouldn't) but otherwise OK with how things have settled after babies.  But now this damn dress won't fit and because of my dad loving to go to parties, I need to wear it again. 

I'm also going to be adding Grapefruit essential oil to my water because research shows it's a natural appetite suppressant and I need to stop eating half pans of peppermint oil-infused rice crispy treats for dinner.  Even though that's like eating cereal for dinner and they are delicious. 

To read more about these oils or order them, click here.
To get oily tips and tricks, go like my Facebook page Oily Living.

DISCLAIMER: This page promotes ONLY Young Living brand essential oils. I am not a doctor and I am not diagnosing, recommending treatment or offering cures for ailments or illnesses. These are my personal experiences in using Young Living Essential Oils with my family. YLEO are pure, therapeutic grade oils and the only oils I would use in the ways that I discuss.