One of my goals on my bucket list of life is to grow my hair long enough to donate. The problem is, I’ve always had bleach in my hair from highlights so I haven’t been able to. When I got pregnant early last year, I decided that it was the perfect time to finally grow out my natural color. This meant growing out the henna. The problem is that the henna was so red (which I loved while I had it) – but growing it out would leave a drastic color difference in my hair. So, even though it killed me inside, I went and had bleach applied to my hair one last time to lighten the henna as much as I could.
It’s been about a year and a half since I started the grow out process and the ends of my hair are still tinted red from the henna! I don’t regret trying it out at all – but use this as a warning that if you do choose to dye your hair with henna – it’s there for the long haul. Meaning…until you grow it out. All of it. I suppose you could try dying over it with a darker color, but from my experience – I think some of the red will always show through.
So, to answer Angelica’s questions: No, I don’t use henna anymore. But, I’m sure one day I’ll get the itch again, and go back to the red. Honestly, if you’re adventurous and not overly obsessive about your hair – I say do it. You won’t believe how healthy it makes your hair! And the resulting color is truly gorgeous. Now – who wants to place bets as to if I’ll actually grow my hair long enough to donate? Looking at the last picture above…I’ve got a LONG ways to go…
Please, feel free to leave any addional questions you have about using henna to dye your hair below. And, if you have any other questions about my blog or eco-living in general – feel free to shoot me an e-mail at jenny(at)thecrunchywife(dot)com.
This week, I started my second beginning aerial class. This series is at a new studio, a little closer to home. The class is 90 minutes this time as opposed to an hour, and boy what a difference 30 minutes makes! This studio also works you much harder (which I love and hate at the same time.) Boy am I sore. It feels great. It was so much fun, though, and I can’t wait to go back next week.
I’m taking this series with my friend, Lisa, and I was incredibly jealous of her ability to climb the silks on her very first try. I’m five weeks in and just now able to climb! At least we know I’m getting stronger.
We did half the class on silks and half on trapeze. I learned a new technique for foot lock and was actually able to do it in the air, which was awesome. Can’t get double foot lock in the air, just yet, but I know I’ll get there soon. We also did a bunch of strengthening exercises on the trapeze. For some reason hanging upside down on the trapeze is so scary to me – I couldn’t do it without the teacher holding onto my legs! Well, she did take her hands off for a moment, but I freaked.
The best part of the class was when we climbed an aerial silk up about 8 feet to get to a trapeze and then swung back and forth (working on our pike position) before dropping to the padded floor below. I actually felt like I was doing something more than just climbing a couple feet off the ground. It was awesome. I really need to work on keeping my shoulders down, though!
My goals this week:
+ 20 push-ups (minimum) daily. The teacher explained that since we’re doing so much ‘pulling’ on the silks, it’s important to do some ‘pushing’ at home, so that both sides of our arms get worked. Otherwise we’ll end up all lop-sided, and we don’t want that now, do we?
+ Walk to the local playground and practice strengthening my shoulders by hanging from the monkey bars and working those shoulder muscles.
+ Lots of ab work to strengthen my core.
+ 3-4 workouts on the elliptical – really need to get that cardio going!
+ LOTS of stretching. I need to work on my flexibility big time.
Do you have any favorite strengthening exercises? Joining a gym just isn’t in the budget right now, so I have to go all old-school and work out at home. I’d love to hear some ideas!
*I want to start this post by saying that this is a warning that I get very personal in this post. Lots of personal exposure here; even some revealing pictures. I’m a huge breast-feeding supporter striving to normalize the act, and I feel like it’s important that I get this information out there.
Monkey is now 5 months old and I feel like an old pro when it comes to breast-feeding, but I wanted to write this post to say that it was not always that way. In fact, it was flat out miserable in the beginning. So much so that I almost quit. Multiple times.
But here we are, 5 months out and (other than maybe half an ounce of formula he received in the hospital), Monkey has been exclusively breastfed. I don’t think I could ever express in words how proud I am to have made it this far.
It’s funny, when I think about breast-feeding, I picture women doing it for centuries – feeding our babies as nature intended. It should come naturally, be easy, and be accepted by society, right? I’ve found none of those things to be true. At all. It didn’t come naturally for me – in fact, it felt very awkward at times. It was no where even close to being easy, and I definitely don’t feel like society accepts it as ‘normal’. Luckily living in Portland puts me in a place where breast-feeding is probably more the norm than any other part of the country, so I haven’t felt any evil stares [yet]. In fact, every mother in my mom’s group breast-feeds.
So, why was it so tough in the beginning for me? First of all, even though I had taken a class in the subject and researched it to death, I feel like the hospital where I delivered set me up for failure. While the nurses said they supported breast-feeding, I really didn’t feel it. Right away I was given a nipple shield to use as well as formula to syringe into the nipple shield – supposedly a way to entice Monkey to drink from my breast. It worked, yes…but as a result it took me weeks to wean him off the nipple shield.
I’ve heard the shield is a great tool when it’s truly needed, but in my case I feel it wasn’t essential in order for me to successfully breast-feed my son. So why did they give it to me? To make their jobs easier. I was in a state of absolute exhaustion (hello…30 hour labor and no sleep for 50 hours) so for them, it was easiest just to get me going in a way they knew would work. I just wish they would have given me a chance to try to get my son to latch. I should have insisted, but I was so tired I didn’t really know what was going on.
Luckily, I knew how important it was to breast-feed constantly for the first couple of days in order to have the highest chance of building a good, strong milk supply. So even though I was using the nipple shield the 5 days we were in the hospital, I had Monkey on my boob literally 90% of the time he was awake. I knew it was what I needed to do, plus he seemed to cry until he was on the boob anyway. Even if he wasn’t actively drinking the whole time. I am so thankful that I did this, for I do feel like it was the main reason for helping me develop a strong supply. It is now my main piece of advice I give any pregnant mom who is hoping to breast-feed. Keep your baby at the breast as much as possible those first couple of days.
I won’t lie, it was a bit odd having my boob out all the time, but after being exposed for hours during labor, I didn’t really care much anymore. I just wanted to do what was best for my baby.
So – when it finally came time to head home, things were going well. Or so I thought. Monkey was latching (with the shield) and he was getting milk. We weren’t sure how long we’d be in the hospital, so the nurses had me start pumping in case we had to leave him there without me overnight. Luckily, it didn’t come to that – but because I was pumping, I knew my milk was coming in. That, and my breasts were full/hard/uncomfortable all the time. I found that sticking cold cabbage leaves in my bra those first few nights at home really helped.
After being home for about a week, breast-feeding became incredibly painful. It was so bad that every single time Monkey latched on, I would be in tears. Or, I would try my best to hide them. It got a bit better after the first minute or so – but it continued throughout each nursing session. I had always read that ‘if it hurts, you’re doing something wrong’. And, since the nipple shield ordinarily used to relieve pain and my pain level was a 9/10 with the shield, I knew something was wrong. So, I scheduled an appointment with a lactation consultant at the hospital. The one I saw said that it looked like I had the beginnings of a yeast (candida) infection on my nipples and Monkey also had one on his diaper area. No signs of thrush (same thing as yeast) in his mouth just yet. Usually when thrush/yeast/candida is present, the first signs are white spots in the baby’s mouth.
Yuck.
To make a long story short – I had what seemed like a million appointments with my midwife, more appointments with (a new) lactation consultant, and even more appointments with my son’s pediatrician. Eight weeks later and I was still in pain. Immense pain. The only way to describe it is that my nipples felt like they were on fire. I couldn’t shower without wincing in pain. I couldn’t wrap a towel around me to dry off. If a piece of clothing just barely brushed against my chest I cried in pain. It was miserable. I remember feeling like I would never feel normal again and that it would never end. How could all of these doctors and medical professionals not be able to get me better? Here are all the treatments we tried in those first eight weeks:
+ Me going topless whenever at home. Sleeping without a shirt, too. (Although I winced in pain if the sheet would accidentally brush against me at night.)
+ Exposing my breasts and Monkey’s bum to the sun whenever possible (through a window…the sunlight kills yeast.)
+ Monkey getting at least 30 minutes of open air time to his tush every day. (His diaper rash cleared up super quick though.)
+ Boiling all pump parts and nipple shields daily. Oh how I grew to despise this task.
+ Nystatin cream for Monkey’s bum.
+ Various over-the-counter meds for my nipples (miconazole, clotrimazole.)
+ Two rounds of oral fluconazole for me (The second being Dr. Newman’s candida protocol.)
+ One round of oral fluconazole for Monkey.
+ Oral grapefruit seed extract for me.
+ Apple cider vinegar rinses on my nipples after every single feeding.
+ Coconut oil on my nipples after every apple cider vinegar wash.
+ Coconut oil on Monkey’s diaper area at every change.
+ Washing and drying my clothes/bed sheets/towels in HOT water and a HOT dryer daily. Oh how I grew to despise this, too.
+ All purpose nipple ointment applied to my nipples four times/day.
+ Gentian Violet applied to my nipples and Monkey’s mouth.
+ The candida diet (basically eating nothing but veggies and meat) for four weeks.
+ Weaning off the nipple shield around week 7/8. (I remember being SO thankful to finally be done with that.)
Ugh remembering all of this stuff is making me tired. Man those weeks were rough.
Monkey during the gentian violet treatment:
Nothing worked. Nothing. Everyone kept telling me ‘Just wait until 6 weeks, it’ll be better then’. Then I heard ‘Just wait until 8 weeks, it’ll be better then’. I was miserable. Happy because I knew my Monkey was getting the best thing for him, but sick of being in pain. And very discouraged because there seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel. On top of everything, I was getting maybe 3 hours of sleep per night because Monkey wanted to eat, constantly. To say that I was exhausted was an understatement. Would breast-feeding ever be enjoyable?
Finally, around week 9, I saw yet another lactation consultant. She was my savior. Immediately, I knew she would help! About five minutes into my visit, she discovered that Monkey was tongue tied. Not only was he tongue tied, but he had an upper lip tie as well. You see, when we’re all developing, we have pieces of skin that connect our tongue to the bottom of our mouth and our lips to the gum-line. They’re supposed to retract so that they don’t obstruct tongue/lip movement. Sometimes, it doesn’t retract all the way like it should – which is what happened in Monkey’s case. Monkey actually had what’s known as a deep tongue tie, so it wasn’t extremely obvious (hence why none of the other doctors/consultants noticed it.) For more information on tongue and lip tie, see the resources listed at the bottom of this post.
This new consultant explained that because of his issues – Monkey hadn’t been able to breast-feed efficiently, with or without the nipple shield. As a result, he had been ‘flicking’ my nipples with his tongue while feeding causing them to get cracked and sore. These cracks combined with the moisture from my breast-milk created the perfect environment for yeast to grow. So, while I tried everything imaginable to heal the yeast, it just couldn’t completely go away because Monkey kept nursing poorly. So, while all this time we thought we were treating an incredibly stubborn case of yeast – we were actually completely missing the underlying problem(s).
In addition to the tongue and lip ties, the lactation consultant noticed that I was suffering from Vasospasms on my nipples. Basically, they would turn white immediately after nursing and then purple a few minutes after that. She explained that some of the pain I was experiencing was caused from that. Vasospsasms are generally triggered by cold – and of course here I was sitting at home without a shirt on all the time…trying to heal the yeast, but in reality it was just making the problem worse. So, she came up with the following treatment plan:
+ Get Monkey’s tongue and lip tie snipped to fix his latch issues. This would increase movement of his tongue. (We did, two days later, and he shed true tears for the first time since being born. It was miserable on mama, but he survived.)
+ Introducing a new position to nurse in that would help encourage a proper latch for Monkey.
+ Skip all of the crazy intense washing routines of clothes/sheets/towels in an effort to bring some sanity back to mama.
+ Apply warmth to my breasts immediately following feeding sessions.
+ Never go topless (even at night) so that my breasts don’t get cold minimizing the occurrence of Vasospsasms.
Me at the appointment nursing in the new position; face-planted instead of laying horizontally on a pillow:
I left that appointment with a sense of hope. I remember it was just before Monkey’s 2 month well baby check that we had his tongue/lip snipped. I went back to the consultant the day after the procedure and she showed us some exercises to make sure that it didn’t grow back. Three weeks later, I was pain free.
Pain free! I never thought I would equate those words with breast-feeding. Ever. But, by the time Monkey hit three months, I was truly pain free and finally started to enjoy breast-feeding. I can’t express to you how amazing that felt.
So in the end, what did the trick? Well, ultimately snipping the tongue and lip-tie were what started the path to recovery. I do think that following Dr. Jack Newman’s candida protocol really helped to kill the yeast that was there – both in me and in Monkey. Then, snipping his tongue/lip allowed him to latch properly. The apple cider vinegar rinses also aided in recovery from the yeast. The heat (I used a rice bag heated in the mic) applied after feeding sessions really helped the Vasospasm problem. And, within three weeks – I could finally dry off from a shower with a towel pain-free! Imagine that!
So why did I have to suffer for so long? I think it was a combination of things. I think using the nipple shield right away – especially during the extended hospital stay created a breeding ground for yeast. We were washing the shields in my recovery room’s bathroom – with just hot water and maybe a little soap. We started boiling them when we got home, but I think the yeast developed in the hospital and then the shield just kept harboring that bacteria. Then, Monkey’s tongue and lip tie went undiagnosed for so long. He was gaining the right amount of weight (in fact, he was gaining more than enough), so we didn’t have reason to suspect anything was wrong. Even though he wasn’t latching properly, he was still getting enough food. I’m so glad I found that third lactation consultant who really knew what she was doing.
My advice? If you’re having difficulty with breast-feeding in the beginning, please don’t give up! Trust me, I know how tempting it is, but seek help before calling it quits. I can’t stress this enough. And, if you’re not finding the results you need from one lactation consultant, find another. Also, if you suspect something may be off, find some experienced in tongue and lip ties and have your little one checked. Now that I know what I’m looking for, I’ll be checking my next baby right away.
If you are a successfully breast-feeding mom; kudos to you! I know it’s not easy and I commend you for your efforts. I also want to mention that if you tried and you weren’t able to breast-feed for one reason or another, please don’t feel bad. It’s hard enough to be a new mom. The best you can do is try. Luckily, I didn’t have any milk supply issues so I feel incredibly fortunate for that.
What do I think of breast-feeding now? I love it. Absolutely love it. I have a bond with my son now that I never imagined. Before I got pregnant, I always knew I wanted to breast-feed because of the health benefits, but the idea made me a bit nervous. Not by the act itself, but just of the unknown. What would it be like? How would it feel to have my breasts produce milk? Would I enjoy it? How will I know if my baby is getting enough? Well, now that we are 5 months in…I am overwhelmed with how much I truly love it.
In the beginning, Monkey had that milk drunk face after each feeding (other moms know what I’m talking about) – it just melted my heart and I so miss that face. But now, he’ll sometimes stare up into my eyes while he’s feeding and I can just feel how much he loves me. Then, he’ll come off and smile that huge gummy smile. It makes my heart happy. It’s a bond that I can’t describe. I’m not sure what the future holds for us, but I know when we do decide to wean, I’m going to miss our feeding sessions. My immediate goal is to make it to 6 months exclusively breast-feeding, and my long-term goal is to make it a year with partial breast-feeding. While those first couple of months seemed like they would never end, and I cried more tears than I care to think about — I am so glad I stuck through it.
Do you have questions about my struggles with breast-feeding and how I overcame all of the obstacles mentioned in this post? Do you have thoughts to share? Do you want to share your breast-feeding experiences? Do you have more resources to share? Please leave them in the comments or e-mail me at jenny(at)thecrunchywife(dot)com.
RESOURCES
Find a IBCLC certified Lactation Consultant
La Leche League International (for support)
Kelly Mom – tons of great advice on breast-feeding, PPD, and more
The Leaky Boob – breast-feeding support website/blog run by a momma of six beautiful girls. Be sure to check out the facebook page, too.
Mothers Overcoming Breastfeeding Issues (MOBI)
Making More Milk – help for those with low milk supply
Tongue and lip-tie information
About two years ago, I tried ‘No Poo’ for the first time and failed miserably. ‘No Poo’ is the term coined for nixing sham’poo’ (and conditioner) and washing, instead, with baking soda and apple cider vinegar. If you’re crazy hardcore (I like to think I am, but in actuality I’m not) – you skip shampoo and conditioner altogether and just use water.
So back to what I was saying. About two years ago, I attempted this feat with high hopes, only to have them completely crushed. Half of my hair was left feeling greasy, while the other half was dry. But, I chalk this up to a few reasons:
+ I was just about to start working and didn’t really want to risk nasty hair at a brand new job – I think I’d scare all of my new co-workers – so I only gave it a few days
+ My hair was super long then and I don’t think I spent enough time scrubbing in the shower
+ We lived in a different rental house that had extremely hard water
This time; however, I am absolutely loving the results. My hair feels so much lighter and seems to dry way faster than it did before. Plus – it looks healthy!
I know what you might be wondering…why skip the shampoo and conditioner in the first place? Isn’t it fine to use a natural, biodegradable variety? Where’s the harm?
Well, if you’re using a great product then technically there is no harm per-se, but you’re actually not doing what’s best for your hair and scalp. You see – even if you use a product free of nasty chemicals that are harmful to you and the environment, you’re still stripping your scalp of it’s natural oils. I mean, it makes sense – the job of shampoo is to clean your hair…but what you might not realize is that at the same time, it’s washing away all of the beneficial oils your scalp creates naturally.
But, how come hair gets oily so fast when going a day or two without shampoo? This is me exactly. I have crazy fine hair and by the end of the day the roots look nasty. It’s been this way for as long as I can remember. Sometimes, I can stretch it out to washing every other day – but that’s pushing it. You see, shampooing your hair creates a vicious cycle:
By allowing your scalp to go into overproduction when it comes to oil, you are (unintentionally) making the problem worse. There’s a reason why your head produces oil, or sebum as it’s technically referred to, in the first place — it makes the skin balanced and moisturized while keeping the hair sleek and shiny. When you continuously wash it away with shampoo, you’re causing the skin to get dry and flaky which results in an overproduction of oil. See the pattern here?
Cutting out the use of shampoo will help to regulate this cycle so that your hair doesn’t become overly dry or greasy. But, you don’t want your hair to be dirty…so you need something to keep it clean. The answer is a baking soda and water mixture. Baking soda absorbs oil without stripping the scalp completely. It’s also mildly abrasive so it’s great at scrubbing away dirt and grime.
If you wash with only baking soda, your hair will eventually start to dry out a bit, so you need to add something to keep those ends conditioned. For this, the solution is apple cider vinegar. Apple cider vinegar applied to the ends of your hair works as a great conditioner without causing excess oil build-up. I’ve also been using the vinegar over my entire head of hair once every 4-5 washes so that my scalp doesn’t have a chance to get too dry.
Another way to to help prevent oil build up is to use a hairbrush with natural bristles, and then brush at least twice a day for 5-10 minutes at a time. The natural bristles help to distribute the oil throughout your hair so that it’s not concentrated at the roots giving it that greasy look.
I do miss the smell of my shampoo and conditioner, but I’m starting to get used to the idea of just smelling clean. If you can’t get over the pungent smell of apple cider vinegar, you can add a cinnamon stick, essential oils, or herbs to cover it up. I promise, though, as strong as the vinegar smells while you’re in the shower – you won’t smell it anymore once your hair is dry.
If you google ‘no poo’ you’ll come up with a ton of results and various ways to mix your baking soda wash and apple cider vinegar rinse. For me, I found that the following ratio to work well — 1:8 (baking soda to water) and 1:4 (apple cider vinegar to water.) The other key to this recipe is finding containers that allow you to apply to solution exactly where you want it. The first time I did this, I mixed the solutions in cups and not only was it hard to get good coverage, I wound up wasting product because I was using way more than I needed. I’m currently using an old Dr. Bronner’s bottle for the baking soda wash and an old peri bottle for the apple cider vinegar rinse. They both seem to last me about 4 washes.
As far as routine, I’ve found that it works best to apply the baking soda mix to dry hair. I squirt it all along the hairline and on the routes. Then, I let the warm water run over my hair for literally half a second, take my head back out of the water, and then massage it in thoroughly. Since the mixture won’t foam up, you need to really scrub those roots. After that, I go about the rest of my shower and save washing it out for last. Once the baking soda is rinsed out, I grab the apple cider vinegar mixture and squirt it on the ends of my hair. Some say to rinse it off with cold water, but I can’t bring myself to do that, and I find rinsing with warm water works just fine.
Right now I’m washing every other day. On the second day, my hair is starting to look greasy, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was when I was using shampoo (and I’ve only been doing this 2 weeks!) I’ve read that a lot of people have to go through a transitioning period in which their hair looks greasy all of the time because it’s so used to producing all of that extra oil. Luckily, I haven’t experienced that (yet.) But, I have also read that if you want to extend the time between washes, you might need to deal with some greasiness at first. A lot of people have such success using this method that they’re able to wash only once or twice a week. I’m hoping to get to this point eventually, but for now I’m happy with my every-other-day routine.
After failing at my first attempt with ‘no poo’, I was hesitant to try it again…I actually waited two whole years! Now, I’m sold and have a feeling this will be my regular wash routine for a long time. I’m excited to see how it holds up. In the last couple of weeks, here are all of the ‘no poo’ benefits that I’ve discovered:
+ Great on the budget
+ Good for the environment (ingredients are non-toxic and I’m not regularly purchasing shampoo/conditioner which reduces waste from both product and packaging)
+ My hair feels lighter (maybe because all of the product build up is finally gone?)
+ My hair dries much faster
+ It seems that the extra scrubbing in the shower helps to get out all of those loose hairs that I’m losing post-pregnancy (seriously…sometimes it seems like fistfuls) – so it comes out in the shower rather than all over my house
Now…while this post seems very upbeat and it sounds like I’ve found the perfect method for washing my hair, I’m still not 100% convinced. I keep thinking that one of these days I’ll get out of the shower and that my hair will feel a mess. It’ll be interesting to see what happens. I’ll be sure to update as the weeks go on.
My hair before attempting ‘No Poo’:
My hair the day after washing with an all natural, organic shampoo and conditioner (told ya it gets greasy fast):
Immediately following my first wash/rinse with baking soda and apple cider vinegar:
Two weeks of washing every other day (so 7 washes total) using baking soda and apple cider vinegar:
Are you an avid ‘no poo’er? Did you have a transition period? Am I being overly excited too soon? Should I expect things to go sour? Any tips for extending length between washings? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
This weekend marked week 3 of my aerial classes with my friend, Corrie. It was great! While my arms decided that they weren’t going to be as strong as last week and I was only able to climb the silks a few feet, I accomplished huge strides on the low trapeze!
Corrie and I also mastered the ‘double foot lock’ on the silks! This is used when you’re up in the air…gets you in a good, locked position for doing tricks. We have to get one foot locked in from standing, but then we’re able to get the second locked in while hovering a couple of feet off the ground. Looks easy, but I swear it’s not! The first picture is me, and the second is Corrie. We were pretty proud of our little feat.
If you were anything like me as a child, you remember how easy it was to swing around on the monkey bars, do flips, and hang from your knees. Well, at 28 years old, it’s not quite so easy anymore. For me, at least. At my first aerial class, when our teacher showed us that we were going to work on ‘tucks’ with the trapeze – swinging our legs up so our feet touch the bar — I thought ‘oh that looks easy peasy’ in my head. I did that all the time as a kid.
Not so much. Not only was it NOT easy, but I wasn’t able to do it at all! Talk about discouraging. Some of the other first time students whipped their legs up to the bar like it was nothing. Well, this weekend I did it. And I even went into a straddle! It seriously felt amazing and my smile was beaming from ear to ear. Check out Corrie and I hitting the inverted straddle on the low-flying trapeze. You can see the teacher’s arms out as she’s saying ‘see, you just did it!’
I am realizing; however, that I really need to work on my body. Not only do I still have 7 pounds to lose to hit my pre-pregnancy weight, but I also have a personal goal of losing 10 more on top of that. Aerial is also showing me that I have zero upper body strength. It’s already gotten better, but I have a long way to go. I’m starting to do daily push-ups, and the husband and I are starting a yoga routine together. (Any podcast recs?)
I also need to start incorporating some major cardio into my workout routine. A gym membership is not in the budget right now, but we have an elliptical so I’m [planning on] doing most of my cardio right there. I am also hoping to get out for a few runs in the next few weeks.
I’ve got one more week of aerial classes in this series, and then I start a new 7 week series at a new studio the following week! Part of me feels like I’m cheating on the original studio, but this new place is a bit closer to home, and when you’ve got a small baby patiently waiting for you to return – the shorter the drive, the better.
Hi and welcome! I'm Jenny - a green living new momma, adoring wife, and MSU fan.
