Product Review: Happy Mama Spray from Earth Mama Angel Baby--A Morning-Sickness Life Saver

In the previous post: The Hunt for Organics, I mentioned about Earth Mama Angel Baby, an Oregon-based organic skin care company that focuses on pregnant women and new moms. All their products are claimed to be organic and non-toxic, with USDA Certified products. I also talked about ordering them and writing product reviews.

I could not foresee then that my first product review would be their product that tackles probably the most annoying feature in early pregnancy: morning sickness. However, morning sickness (or rather, all-day sickness) did strike me hard on top of me having to go to graduate school and try to function like a normal person. Therefore, their first product that I reached to is Happy Mama Spray from Earth Mama Angel Baby.

Happy Mama Spray, as is described on Earth Mama Angel Baby's website, is made out of organic and natural herbal oil such as organic lime peel extract, Ginger oil, and ylang ylang flower oil etc. to tackle nausea and morning quasies in early pregnancy. I got this spray from the pregnancy essential bundle deal I got from Earth Mama Angel Baby.

Before I reached to being 6 week pregnant, I only had nausea without vomiting hoping that the vomiting part would never start. At the same time, I also needed to go around graduate school just like nothing happened, which was pretty hard when a wave of nausea hit. When I reached the day when I was exactly 6 weeks pregnant, vomiting started, but luckily it only (for now) happens at night before I go to bed. Nausea still continues throughout the day. In such situation, I find that having the happy mama spray on hand immensely helpful.

Firstly, it is of a convenient size, very easy to slip into my backpack without others seeing the label "mama"; still being in my first trimester, I do not want too many people to know. Secondly, it is very user-friendly: just spray on your wrist and inhale; the smell would alleviate nausea a little bit. Thirdly, the smell is just a bliss: not strong nor strange, just enough to ease the morning sickness. And it does work pretty well! The smell contains all the scents that a nauseated mom would find pleasing and soothing: the fresh smell of citrus and orange, accompanied by a light scent of ginger and some unknown fresh scent (I would think it's ylang ylang). Immediately my nausea would be lifted.

I did find that the spray does not work for vomiting, though. In no way could it stop me from vomiting. I attribute this to my vomiting being a byproduct of heartburn together with nausea, instead of me being nauseous only. Another down side of the spray is that most of the time, when I spray in on my wrist and sniff, I feel like a drug addict, because it is basically the same action to ease the needs (laugh).

In all, I think Happy mama from Earth Mama Angel Baby is a life saver for morning (all-day) sickness. Although it may look creepy for a mama to constantly sniff her wrist, it is worth the comfort of not being nauseated for a while. And I believe others would understand.

Strongly recommended for purchase.

My Heart is going Insane! --And some check-outs and exercise that may cope with it

I have been feeling short of breath ever since I found out I was pregnant. In fact, the very first thing my mom noticed after I told her was that I was always out of breath when I was talking to her over Face time. She was concerned and told me to do some regular exercises.

It was not until a few days ago did I experience some craziness of my fast heartbeat. Before I was pregnant, my heart was always in the healthy "low" range of normal: about 62-64/minute. Yet the other day when I was lying in bed trying to go to sleep (insomnia has been bothering me these days as well), I felt that my heart was beating so fast that it felt like I was running in a race. Again today when I was just walking up and down the stairs in the library, my heart started all over again. I felt my pulse right away: man, it must have been beating like more than 100/minute, like right after I did some aerobic exercises!

I started to get worried. When I was first suspicious of being pregnant, I have read it somewhere that short of breath was a sign of early pregnancy. But increased (or insanely fast) heartbeat? Never heard of it.

I feel so blessed to live in an interconnected and informational society right now. Mostly if one knows how to use search engines and evaluate web sites (which is an important digital literacy that schools should emphasize in their students, so says research and me as an education major in grad school), one could fairly easily find the answer she is most anxious for. I have used Google a lot as a first time mom who knows basically nothing about being pregnant, so this time there is no exception.

Turned out that it is also a normal symptom to have increased heartbeat during early pregnancy (or pregnancy at all), because your heart is pumping more blood to support the growing baby. I have read a post here that some moms even feel like she skipped a heartbeat sometimes.

Another issue for shortened breath and fast heartbeat might result from a too-tight bra. As one gets pregnant, the breasts start preparing themselves for breastfeeding for postpartum. Therefore, sore- and/or enlarged breasts are common among pregnant women. Therefore, reconsidering one's bra size may be a good idea. Here is a link to some red flags that your bra doesn't fit anymore. If any of these shows up, definitely go to a maternity store or (personally I prefer) Victoria's Secret to have your bra size re-measured and buy a comfortable bra.

Exercises
A reader of the blog before wanted to know some safe exercises during pregnancy--there are different ones targeting in different stages. But in general, here are some rules to evaluate and find out what are the exercises that are most suitable for the individual. One of the rules is to "steer clear of dangerous sports", which I found interesting because it is definitely subjective. While I found it absolutely disturbing and terrifying to see pregnant moms in any stage booking a ski trip, I have also found a lot of comments on the fact that it is OK to go skiing when pregnant. In fact, my husband's co-worker who is about the same weeks as I am just booked her a skiing trip somewhere in the country.

After synthesizing the websites on suggested exercises, I found that swimming, doing Yoga (or stretching and practicing breathing), and walking are the three most-commonly recommended exercises during pregnancy (and early pregnancy). However, I do want to reserve some thoughts on whether the chlorine water in a public swimming pool would be healthy for the growing baby; also I am concerned whether some bending exercises in Yoga might be potentially harmful for the growing fetus.  Therefore, I have adopted walking as my routine exercise (although my hubby does not see walking as an exercise at all). It is perfect that I have a puppy right now so that walking with her provides a perfect bonding time with me and the little one. Meanwhile, having a puppy walking with me greatly increases my willingness to get out and get walking.

In all, increased heartbeat is perfectly fine with pregnant women, and there are several things to do to check on different aspects of the causes. Definitely check into the fitness of your bra, and start exercising so that your heart gets stronger for the growing baby.

How My Body Changes...

Every mom and mom-to-be, or even people that are around pregnant women know that the body goes through dramatic changes ever since a pregnancy begins.

For me, it seems more obvious: ever since the second week or so, I have felt cramps and back pains like I was going through menstrual pain. An interesting flashback here: I have always had awful menstrual pain ever since the beginning of my undergrad, to the point that I had to take pain kills to be able to function. After I got married and started birth control pills, symptoms have been reduced some how, but still were present. Therefore, I was always dreaming about the day when I get pregnant and I'd be period-free for 10 months--ah how wonderful that would be! But no, reality hit me harder than a rock: not only has it not gone for good because there was no period anymore, but also it has become this constant, every-day-pain which I would only experience for 4-5 days per month before I was pregnant.

Other early pregnancy symptoms started showing since I found out: nausea (but thankfully not vomiting),  food craving, peeing often, emotional instability, and irregular bowel movements. A part of being pregnant is also a battle to deal with these symptoms, especially the ones dealing with using the bathroom： personally, I hate going to the bathroom either too often or not at all. So naturally every reader here sees how painful I am right now.

What triggered me to write this blog is the irregular bowel movements I have been experiencing. Three days ago, I was suffering from constipation to the point where my cramp was so bad that I had to call my OB office (which I have not been to yet) and talked to the nurse about whether I should be worried. After checking my due date and how far along I was, she said it was probably intestinal problem, and suggested some soothing ways like taking a hot bath, in-taking fiber, drinking a lot of water etc. So I did. And today everything just hit like flood, and I have been having diarrhea for the entire day. Grrrrrr. In my home country, people say that eating apples is a both-way solution: if you are constipated, apples could make you go; and if you are having a diarrhea, apples could potentially stop it. Skeptic as I was, I am willing to try everything now to Deal With It. So next time in town, I will make sure I stack some apples up and try the "therapy". If it works, I am definitely going to update this post.

Another one is the constant trip to bathroom to use #1. I even timed myself once: 2 times in 3 hours; maybe not bad compared to late pregnancy, but still frequent enough to drive me insane. There is nothing one can do about it but to endure. Do NOT try not to drink water frequently. Drinking at least 2 liters (approx. half gallon) is actually the recommended amount of water in-take everyday. I was definitely not a water drinker before pregnancy, and was worried whether my water in-take would be enough for the baby, because most of the times I do not even remember to drink water. Turns out that I was over-worrying: my body craves for water now everyday. I constantly find myself thirsty, and the only thing I want is pure water.

In sum, there is nothing a woman can do about those body changes in pregnancy than just Deal With It. One night I had enough and asked my hubby why women have to suffer through this for giving birth to babies, and he said:"Well, because Eve took the fruit from the tree."

Oh well, that is true. Since husbands have to toil the soil, let us just adjust to the changes to the body and bear beautiful lives.

The Hunt for Organic

When I first told my bestie that I was pregnant, she asked her mom about tips for pregnancy. One of the few her mother gave me was to use organic for everything I put on my skin.

I have never been an organic person; in fact, my own mom has called me a "chemical person" just because I did not even care to look at the ingredients in a beauty product. And believe me, I use a lot of them.

Recently (but still before I got pregnant) I have been concerned about cosmetics and skin care made out of natural ingredients such as mineral or herbs. But whole-organic? Never heard of; do not even know where to start.

Again, I began my journey of exploration on Google.

Lists of certified organic brands came on when I put "organic skin & body care" in the search engine. I clicked one of them, titled "Top 25 USDA Certified Organic Skin Care Lines"

It did overwhelm me for a while trying to decide which ones to choose from. I have to admit that I am a "judge-the-book-by-its-cover" person, especially for products, so one particular brand attracted my attention: Earth Mama Angel Baby

But to come think about it, I am in urgent need of replacing my ENTIRE beauty line, from shampoo to lip balm, because when I checked my shower supplies, everything had sulfate and paraben in it, which just stressed me out. Therefore I used social networking again and found out that Whole Foods Market doesn't just have organic food, but also organic beauty supply in a sister store called Whole Body, which in Nashville is conveniently situated right across from Whole Foods.

Then I went with another married friend of mine, and we stepped into the store with limited research done. Luckily the store salesperson was super sweet, helpful, and honest. According to my skin type, she recommended a line called Juice Beauty, which happens to be ranked within the top 25 on that website as well. The store also has local-made organic bar soaps sold by weight (meaning you can cut a piece of soap out of a humongous bulk), which just smells heavenly and all natural. In addition to the soap and the facial skin care, I also bought shampoo, conditioner, and a lip balm. Here is a picture of my prey that day:

Left to right: Acura leave-in hair conditioner; Juice Beauty Clear Skin sample/traveler kit; Mongo Kiss certified organic lip balm (vanilla honey flavor, hmmm); Andalou hair conditioner and shampoo; locally made organic soap

I tried the juice beauty right away that night: it was comfortable and moisturizing, with no dry-out effect for the cleansing gel. However, the smell is kind of horrible for me. But I can stand the smell, especially when I don't have any alternatives for any of these yet.

I did go to the website again for Earth mama Angel baby trying to see whether I could find something else, and it seems that all of their soap product is versatile for multiple usage. Just to be sure, I talked to them on Facebook, and the person answering the questions was very patient and helpful, and even offered a code for 15%discount. So I went to the website and ordered another line from them, just to be used after I am finished with the Whole-Body-Purchased line. Here is what I bought:

So here ends my hunt for organic for now. I will probably post product reviews after I get t o use all of them. The notion stays the same: get the best during pregnancy for your baby and yourself.

A New Mom's Worry and Fear

This probably happens to all of us: as soon as we find out we are pregnant: we start thinking back about what taboos of pregnancy we broke; then as the pregnancy goes along, we are paying attention to whatever we eat. However, as new (especially first-time) mom, we sometimes forget about the special role we just started taking. And some of the times, the condition just don't allow us to choose what we know is the best for our baby.

Here are some scenarios of me.

Scenario 1: right after the pregnancy test showed as positive

I am at the bathroom sink, looking at myself in the mirror: well, what I was really doing is to look at my newly-colored, not-so-well-showing hair. It was supposed to be brown, but because of my already-dark shades of the hair, the brown only shows up under sunlight or lights.

Then I realized how more awful it could be than just not looking like what I wanted: it is hair color! it is a DYE! Chemicals! I colored my hair with over-the-counter hair color just for fun and a little bit of change one day before Valentine's to surprise my hubby, but who knew I could be pregnant then? What to do what to do what to do? I was driven crazy by the sudden sense of realization, and started Googling the answers I needed so desperately.

After some number of page- and forum viewing, I came to the conclusion that, over-the-counter hair color is mainly not harmful for the baby if only used once during early pregnancy. That gave me a relief of sign.

Scenario 2: Pink Meat, what?
I was eating at the school cafeteria, and somehow chose steak over chicken. Now remember that I am not originally from here, so I forgot that steak could be cooked differently; and since it was cafeteria food, it was not customized. Anyways, I started eating and most of the meat was well done. Only the latter part of the steak showed a little of pink meat, and pink juice leaked out when I was cutting the steak. Being a new, first-time mom, I forgot about my new identity, and ate the entire thing. It was not until shortly after when I reflected back did I start to panic. OH MY GOODNESS IT IS RAW MEAT! Well, not completely raw, but still pink. What if it had bacteria? I remember when I first told my closest friend that I was pregnant, she asked her mother for advice for me; the first thing her mother ever said was to stay away from sushi and any other raw- or not-well-cooked meats. Cold sweats was coming down: what should I do?

Again, I used the power of social networking: I posted the situation on the pregnancy forum embedded in the iPregnant app, and got some answers immediately from veteran mother-to-bes.

Turned out again that it should be fine. Just don't make a habit of it, they say.

Scenario 3: OH NO THE PROFESSOR HAS BRONCHITIS
The professor of Literacy for Diverse Learners came in and started coughing. She also told everybody that her doctor diagnosed her with Bronchitis and she is on a certain kind of antibiotics.

I just wanted to run out of the room. Bronchitis and she is still coming to class? Really?

But I couldn't, because we had to do a presentation that day, and it was a group project; how I performed would influence how my partner did, and we just put so much effort into this one.

So I suffered through the entire 3 hours, trying to get as far from the professor as possible, while at the same time worrying about whether I would be affected or not. I was never a germphobic (not even to airborne diseases), but everything changed after I discovered I was pregnant.

I only want to say that mom's worry and fear are common and natural, because we all want the best for our precious baby. What I can say now is that we just need to try our best for our babies, and don't fret about the rest.

February 24th, 2014: How did we find out

Today is supposed to be the first day of my period after I get off my birth control, but I had a feeling that it wouldn't come; or maybe I should say that I was hoping that it wouldn't come. I have been feeling weird for a couple of weeks: first it was the excessive secretion that came out of nowhere; later came the cramps on the belly and backache to the point that I was going to faint in the school library and had to sit/lay in the bathroom waiting for one of my friends who lives nearby to bring me Tylenol; then it was nausea; but it was not until I drank an entire gallon of orange juice in two days and my breasts started hurting did I think about the possibility of me getting pregnant.

So , I took a home pregnancy test as soon as it reached the date when the prints on the pregnancy test box tells me that it could detect the pregnancy hormone (hCG for the real medical term), albeit of the low accuracy rate (somewhere around 50%). The vertical line of the positive sign kind of showed up, and I was elevated; yet hubby could not see it at all! Still, I was it as a semi-confirmation anyways, and became extra careful of whatever I was eating or doing.

After 4 days of anticipation and waiting in misery, I finally was able to take the pregnancy test again today, the first day of my supposed menstrual period, which would bump the accuracy rate up to 99%. And finally, there was the clear, blue plus sign!

I AM PREGNANT!

I am going to be a mommy!