Raisinglittlegrays

The lovely wonderful and dreaded  (at least for me) winter months are upon us 🙄 Most illnesses we can kick, but there are just some where my kids refuse to drink. Enter elderberry pops y’all.  If there’s ONE thing my kids love, it’s popsicles AND elderberry syrup. Combine and BAM.  It’s literally:  Elderberry syrup  Juice of choice  Half elderberry, half juice of choice in popsicle molds. Then sit back, freeze and then watch your kids inhale them. All while boosting that immense system and hydrating at the same time 🙌🏼 

Never say never. Like ever. We have recently discovered this. Chantry was 4.5 months old when we discovered we were 8 weeks pregnant with another bean. Oops. I won’t go in to details, but no.. this little nugget wasn’t planned. And that’s ok. God wasn’t done forming our family, even though we thought we were! This pregnancy has been very different from the others. I didn’t have consistent menstrual cycles, being as I was still considered a postpartum mama. I had What myself and others believed to be an anovulatory cycle in July. Basically, we thought my cycle was trying to bounce back from the birth of Chantry, but ovulation and luteal phase were absent.. which means a non fertile cycle. I spotted for 2 days in August, and then BAM September 1st came and I started bleeding. So I thought my cycle was just trying to regulate again. Well, 2 weeks passed and I was still bleeding.. or going in and out with some days bleeding and others not. Then mid September I passed a nickle sized clot.

The Homebirth Freebirth of Chantry Luella Gray:  I knew after the birth of Annestyne, that our next baby would undoubtably be born at our home. I also knew, that I wanted no medical professionals around. I wanted a birth my way, in my own home, and I knew we were fully capable of that.  I began prenatal care at 14 weeks, and extinguished it at 40 weeks. The office I went to was very welcoming, and honestly I rarely ever had to go in. I wasn't considered high risk by any means, so I was able to get on a program called baby scripts. Baby scripts allowed me to skip the appointments that weren't really "necessary". The basic come in, check your weight, check your blood pressure, pee in a cup, and check your measurements, and be on your way. Through baby scripts I was sent my own scale and BP cuff, and as long as I was checking those once a week at home, it allowed me to come in less. The equipment was paired to my phone via Bluetooth and an app, and th