Hypnobabies did loads to help, but it wasn’t a totally quiet birthing, so be aware!

We had a real sloooooow start (5-6 days of stop/start), but then a super fast finish, so prodromal labour might just be useful after all!

I was checked at 40+2 and was 1-2cm dilated, cervix thin and soft. Sounded good. 2 days of niggling then 5-6 days of on & off contractions (and definite ones, not BH, manageable but getting more powerful day by day), including 3 nights of little sleep as they were waking me, were pretty tiring for me, despite the hypnobabies tracks and techniques working really well. By Tuesday 17th I was sure I wasn’t ready but worried because my son was fighting the contractions and I thought he might be getting tired out too! So I felt I needed him monitoring for my own peace of mind – I called in and they agreed, despite my having an appt about induction for the next day. We got ready and went in, the contractions every 9-12mins but still not “regular”.

I was then 40+9.

I was checked at 9.50am – 4cm dilated, cervix thin but not fully anterior. Baby was absolutely fine! They admitted me to a room on delivery suite, we had a great couple of midwives, used Hypnobabies and coped fine with the contractions I was having, but they were still “irregular”. I felt like things were moving along though and decided to spend the hour before the next check going into really deep hypnosis on the bed, getting totally ready for birthing. That went brilliantly – maybe too brilliantly! Externally I looked like nothing was happening, though I felt it was and was so relaxed I was unable to describe how many, how often or how strong the contractions were. They just felt very natural.

Checked again at 1.50pm – still only 4cm (though different midwife checking). I was utterly miserable at this as they wanted to send me home, saying it wasn’t really active labour. I had to agree – it could have gone on for days longer – but we’d had my boy picked up by my sil already, my parents were travelling down and I had really believed this was it. I think the hypnosis went out of the window at that point as I was so crushed that it didn’t seem I knew my own body after all – and so, so tired. (editors note: it is a shame that care providers don’t trust a mom’s intuition!!!)

I got off the bed and went to the toilet. There was an immediate increase in frequency and power of contractions (3 in 5-6 mins), but I no longer trusted my body. As we left the room I told the midwife I was feeling so hot and trembling with the disappointment of it all. Discharged at 2.15pm.

We walked from delivery suite but by the time we got to the door I felt as if I was totally trembling and couldn’t imagine how I’d get to the car. We stopped just outside delivery suite in the hospital cafe for me to get myself together. I put it down to panic that my body was again going to fail me and I’d need the full induction and so on, but I was so hot and trembly. Dh said I looked totally calm and together and didn’t feel hot and I just wanted to whack him. The pressure waves were powerful and frequent and because I had just dropped totally out of calm hypnosis I was really struggling to manage. I used the breathing techniques that work well with stress and panic and got through it but I felt more and more fixated on getting a grip of myself rather than analysing what was really happening.

Eventually I told dh that I didn’t want to go home, I didn’t know what was happening, but I wanted the safety of the delivery suite and to use some gas & air till I’d got a hold of my emotions. We made our way back super slowly and were readmitted via triage at 4pm. In the triage waiting room, despite it being quite busy, I just did what I had to with each contraction – should have been a clue that this was real! I’m not the most uninhibited person so to drop to my hands and knees in a waiting room in front of lots of strangers was quite unexpected! Looking back, all the signs were that this was transition, but I couldn’t believe it at only 4cm dilated! I just wanted gas & air to get some calm – the “release” and “peace” cues worked but I had to fight them into my consciousness. And dh kept saying “relax” which was really bugging me as I was expecting him to say “release”!

With teeth gritted, I waddled back to the same room we’d just left and met the 2 new midwives. By this time I was totally focused on my body’s needs and quickly got into a rhythm with gas&air, and still used the Hypnobabies stuff once the gas & air had restored a little voice of calm! I realised afterwards that I had barely opened my eyes since getting back into the room, and can’t remember much about when I was on the bed, ball – anything! I vocalised a LOT with every pressure wave – again, really out of character for me, but it felt so freeing and right. It wasn’t any shouting or anger though – so glad I didn’t experience that.

They didn’t check me again at that stage – didn’t feel it would be helpful or comfortable and the policy was to check no more often than 4 hourly – but it was clear my body had taken over and was going FAST! We think we were readmitted about 3.30-3.45pm. Apparently they first saw the head at 4.45pm.

I soon had an overwhelming urge to push but no idea if it was too early. I resisted for a while then asked to know how far I was gone – 9.5cm with just a lip of cervix to sort out! I tried so hard to NOT push, but I couldn’t believe (epidural last time) how much my body took over. Once that stage started I didn’t need the gas&air except for a quick couple of puffs to get my strength together in a lull. I got to an impasse with pushing on my back which was where I’d felt I wanted to be till then. When I turned over and knelt up on the bed, it wasn’t long before baby came out. The pushing came very naturally but wasn’t like the “breathing out” I’d been expecting to use. It was a gutteral, whole-body power-high experience and worked alongside the “peace” cue brilliantly. There was a point where I thought I couldn’t continue, but because my muscles were so tired I couldn’t find them, not because of any p**n.

Isaac John was born at 6.34pm – 9lb 6oz (8lb 15oz at 5 days old). I delivered the placenta naturally but that took about 45mins and was very hard work. One minor internal tear and lots of bruising but that has gone down pretty quickly really.

We are all fine. He is a real chunky monkey but has lost the fluidy swelling in his face and neck and I am just still shell-shocked by the turns and turnabouts of yesterday and that we are now a 2 child family. Wow! He is a vigorous breast-feeder and I have forgotten everything I learned first time, including about meconium and burping and blisters!

But most of all, I just can’t believe how NOISY I was – I am usually so self-contained but that went out of the window (and I quite enjoyed it!).

So thank you Hypnobabies home study! You helped enormously, even though in the end, I did it my way!

Sarah

Thanks to Thing 2 for creating this fun video for me!

Would You Prefer to ENJOY Birth?

Get a free copy of The Top Three Tips to Enjoy Birth

Email Marketing You Can Trust

Story behind the video.

I have a giant sign on the back of my van which says – Enjoy Birth.

A few years ago T1 started saying – Destroy Birth with Hippo Babies. The complete opposite of Enjoy Birth with Hypnobabies.

I knew it was a Lego Video waiting to happen.

My boys love making Lego videos and in fact taped one over my friends birth video I had taken. That was a bummer. But they redeemed themselves when T2 finally made me the Destroy Birth with Hippo-babies video.

• I LOVE how he came up with the “birth brick” instead of the birth ball.
• He also came up with the idea that the Hippo-baby part was a dream and then she had to put on her Hypnobabies CD to help her fall back asleep.
• His friend helped him do the voices.

Have you ever felt like stampeding hippos came through a birth you were at?

To begin, I didn’t have the money for hypnobabies and wound up using the book about hypnobirthing with the CD. My husband was gone a lot, and really did not participate in this preparation. I think a formal course or home-study course would have been preferable, but you do the best that you can.

My water broke on Thursday upstairs at the headquarters of my fire department. I was sitting down and felt like I was leaking, but was confused as I didn’t have to go to the bathroom. When I stood up, I gushed and wound up crossing my legs. When I asked for help because my water just broke, I got  lot of blank looks. I asked for a towel and the rookie got me two paper towels. The paramedic was trying to convince me to get EMS to come, but I told them it was not an emergency and I wanted my husband to get me. My last birth was about 19 hours and I wanted to hold off going to the hospital. I waddled to the women’s restroom with my legs crossed and was kept company by an assortment of dispatchers, fire department secretaries, and hr ladies (I didn’t want to be alone) while the guys fetched things and made phone calls. At this point the guys were panicked because all the ambulances were out, LOL.

Anyway, I had a strong menstrual like feeling anytime I moved and water would gush. I felt like things might move along pretty quickly once I moved and allowed the water to flow, and since it was Nashville rush hour, I changed tactics. I told my Dh to meet me at the hospital, ad my friend drove me to the hospital in her police car.

The nurse midwife called me back while we were en route, and at this point the menstrual like feelings were about 8 minutes apart. It wasn’t painful, and seemed much better than the menstrual cramps I normally have. She tried to talk me into going home. I live about 45 min to an hour away, and in rush hour it is anyone’s guess, and I told her I wanted to be checked out just in case. I noted the time on the clock as i was having a pressure wave while talking to her, and the next one was less than five minutes apart. Kristin got me to the hospital in record time.

The check in desk was somewhat skeptical, but the triage nurse began to take me seriously when I stuck the two beach towels in the sink. Pressure waves rapidly progressed in triage from 5 min. apart to about 3 1/2. My Chief’s wife was working but either had to leave and come back or could only stay for four more hours. I seemed so comfortable she couldn’t believe I was close yet. I told her I would let the midwife check me and to please stay and make a decision then.

The midwife was skeptical as well, but I turned out to be 6cm dilated and 90% effaced with the baby extremely low. (This was the only cervix check during my entire pregnancy).

I had hoped to labor in the only birth tub, but it was broken. In my birth plan, I had said that students were ok as long as they read my birth plan and didn’t do anything for learning that did not need to be done. This turned out to be a huge blessing, because in addition to Marie (my Chief’s wife), I had another supportive woman who stayed with me throughout and suggested different tactics as they were needed. My husband would not have been cool about Doula, as he felt it was taking away his job (plus no money available), but he viewed these ladies as medical professionals. The vast majority of my birth plan was honored.

Once in the room, I felt horribly warm. As soon as I ate an ice pop I threw up… My experience from my daughter’s birth was very similar, I think this is just what I do and not a failure on hypnobirthing.

Begin BOP.

Things got intense fairly quickly. One of the women in the room was using the pain words, and wouldn’t you know, I started to hurt. But at this point things were incredibly intense and progressing quickly with little time between waves. I was having a lot of trouble regaining control between them as I didn’t feel like there was enough time to use the visualization techniques. Oddly enough, I began to have back labor. One of my favorite things I picked up from hypnobirthing was the numbing glove technique. I had almost forgotten it, but as soon as my husband put his hand on my back gently, I felt instant relief… I let myself imagine that instead of the glove on my hand it was on his. Moving around helped a lot, and allowed me to concentrate on the waves as individuals rather than on them as a whole. At this point I wanted nitrous oxide, it is something Vanderbilt is experimenting with. They acted like it was a huge deal and that I needed an IV, and
someone special to administer it… which I felt was fairly silly as I have personally given it in the field and didn’t feel like it was anybig deal.

They were wheeling in the bottle about the time I moved to the bed. I was crouching against the back on the bed, and was feeling incredibly relaxed as I finally had a bit of a break and I could use the bed to totally go limp against.

I realized they were telling him to leave and that the rolling sound was that of the bassinet being moved into place.

At this point they later said that they thought they could see the baby crowning as I squatted.

Previously, I had torn badly with my daughter and the midwife tried to talk me into laying in a more traditional birthing position so she could help prevent damage. I hated this position as I felt like I really needed to give my legs something productive to do like squatting, and they began to cramp. I felt like I lost control at this point… I can remember telling everyone to shush when they were telling me to push. I found that it was easier for me to wait till the top of the wave and then push when my body was overwhelmed with the need to, it didn’t really hurt then as much and was just going along with what was happening without me (if that makes any sense???).

Baby was born fairly rapidly, just a brief pause for the cord wrapped a around the neck.

End BOP

He was instantly placed on my abdomen, they waited two minutes before cutting the cord, and allowed us to bond for a long time before weighing and doing other things in the room. He was very alert, had an Apgar of 9, and was trying to lift his head to look around on my stomache (they were pretty impressed with this). It was at least four hours before he was taken to the nursery briefly.

Overall, I think I did get some benefits- the four and a half hours from water breaking to birth seemed like only 45 minutes, and for most of the birth I was very comfortable.

I loved the nurse midwives and would totally encourage anyone not happy with an OB, but wanting a hospital birth to consider this option. Vanderbilt is typically thought of as the place to go for difficult births, which left me very hesitant as I was afraid of interventions. But they seem to respect the desires of the nurse practioner patients, and really made the birth experience 100% better than my previous. No IV ecetera. The recovery has been remarkedly easy compared to my previous and there really is a runner’s high afterwards

My friends are throwing me a Book Signing Party on Thursday May 31st.  If any of you are in the area and want to come, you are invited!

Just click here to find out more!

Also I love all the amazing reviews and feedback we have been getting!

Today’s stop on our Virtual Book Tour is especially amazing.

Mama Birth reviewed our book, see what she says about it.

“This is a first time mama and she was so calm during her birthing time… see if you can even tell when she is having a wave in the video! My birth notes even say “hard to tell how far apart they are, she is just so calm!” -Description from Lindsay (doula and Hypnobabies instructor)

I am so excited to be the first stop on the Virtual Book Tour for the Gift of Giving Life book.  I am honored to be one of the authors of the book, so of course I am excited about it being out.  We are so thrilled that it has already been getting rave reviews.

How it all started

I interviewed Felice, who was the one who started the whole project.  Our ring leader.

What inspired you to write a birth book about spirituality of birth?

I was pregnant with my first baby and there was a dearth of information on it. My mother died when I was young and I lacked that person to talk to or go to with questions. My friends weren’t much help as far as comfort. They were terrified or traumatized by birth.

Then by the grace of God I was led to a great yoga class in a spiritual community and I realized that pregnancy could be spiritual and bring me closer to God. They had a few good books on pregnancy that were mostly written by Sikhs and I love how they unapologetically talked about God and spirituality. I noticed this missing from all the books I found at the book store. I realized something like that needed to be created for women of my faith.

The inspiration actually came to me when I was lying down in my final resting pose in a yoga class and communicating with my baby by just breathing in and out and I got the “inspiration” to write a book. I felt like she told me about it first. Then once the inspiration started flowing it just wouldn’t stop, so I had to write it. Then I was lucky enough to be inspired and led to the women who would help me. One of which is you! I am so happy to have your voice in the book, Sheridan.

Has being a part of this project changed you in any way? 

In almost every way. Probably the most obvious is that my career path has changed. I was guided to become a hypnotherapist, and a Kundalini Yoga and meditation teacher. Learning about how the mind works (in relation to everything else) has changed the way I communicate, the way I parent, the way I see the world. And having a deep daily practice of meditation gives me so much peace and power.

But I also changed in subtle ways too. In the beginning I thought that the book was about natural childbirth, then I came to see it was really about the spirituality of birth, and even now I am realizing that is not what it is actually about. It’s about the amazingness of being a woman no matter what stage of life you are in.

What is the favorite section you wrote?

It’s strange, I don’t really remember the sections. It’s almost like they wrote themselves. When I read them now I am sort of shocked that I wrote them. I guess I do have a special spot in my heart for the Meditation Chapter. It is such an important thing to me. There are many misconceptions about meditation and I just really love to clear those up and help people find their own practice, because that will be the biggest game changer for women and men the world over, if they can learn to commune with God.

Coupon Code and Free MP3

Visit The Gift of Giving Life site to sign up for their newsletter and to receive a free Meditation MP3 as well as tips to help increase spirituality in your pregnancy and birth.

For my readers I have a coupon code for 10% off a copy of The Gift of Giving Life.   Click here and after you add the book to your cart use this coupon code.  GWFWXR3F  This code is good until Father’s Day 2012.

T1 is an awesome Boy Scout and I use him and his scout friends to help out at the charter school my other boys are at.  I had them help at a Harvest Faire in the fall and I really appreciated their help.

At one point T1 came up to me with his friends and said,

“Tell the boys it is OK to breastfeed in public.”

(first off I love that he knows that and secondly how great he wanted to defend it!)

So I ask the boys, “What is going on?”

1 boy said,

“There is a lady over there breastfeeding and that is disgusting!  She should go in the bathroom to feed her baby.”

(I instantly think, he didn’t come up with that on his own, he heard that from someone else he knows, most likely family…. So I tread lightly)

“Well, it is actually her legal right to feed her baby wherever she wants.  So if it makes you uncomfortable just go somewhere else.”

They ran off away from the breastfeeding lady and helped somewhere else.

Later on the Ride Home

Later when we were driving home they started talking about it again.  I listened but also reinforced that a woman has the right to feed her baby anywhere.  That it would be disgusting to feed a baby in a bathroom, would they eat in a bathroom?

Being 13 year old boys they all said “YES” to that question without hesitation.

I ended with saying I could see how it may make them uncomfortable and they can always leave the situation.  But that I imagine when they have babies and their wives  breastfeed,  I know they will support her in feeding her baby wherever she wants.

They were quiet for a few seconds and then moved onto a new topic.

It was a challenge to stay neutral

I hope I handled that in a way that respected their feelings, but opened their eyes to seeing it in a new way.  I am super glad that my son was cool with her breastfeeding and came to me to help defend it to his friends.  I hope that when they grow older they will see it as something normal.

This was my third baby, and my second Hypnobabies birth.  This pregnancy and preparation for my birthing time were very different than my other two.  I was induced two weeks early with my first baby, and never had any Braxton Hicks or anything leading up to the birth.

With my second, I had prepared for birth using Hypnobabies and followed the schedule religiously.  I had a few Braxton Hicks before my birthing day, but nothing major.   I felt well prepared for birth and when it actually started, it was very textbook.  Pressure waves started light and far apart then became more regular and I knew it was time.  My birth with my second child was perfect and wonderful.

For this baby, everything was different.  I could NOT find time to listen to my scripts with any regularity.  Braxton Hicks started at about 20 weeks and got more frequent as time went on.  By 30 weeks I was having so many and they were pretty intense, that I began to wonder if they were the real thing and if I would know when my birthing time was starting. I also had a lot of anxiety going into this birth because my second child got stuck on the way out and at one point my midwives wanted me to consider having this baby in the hospital “just in case”.  An ultrasound at 36 weeks showed that this baby was much smaller, but I still had a lot of fear about another dystocia.

About two weeks before my guess date, I started having some pressure waves that were not Braxton Hicks, but didn’t feel like the real thing either, and I started to worry that I wouldn’t know the difference.  On May 2nd I had my 38 week appointment.  I laid out my plan to kick start labor around 39 weeks.  My midwife offered to do an internal, which I declined.

That night while I was getting ready for bed I had about 4 Braxton Hicks in rapid succession, then just as I was catching my breath I had a pressure wave.  There was no question in my mind that it was The Real Thing.  I had another several minutes later.  I went to the bathroom and saw some bloody show.  It was about 10pm, and my husband had just gone downstairs to play video games.   I let him know that baby might be coming tonight and not to stay up too late.  He decided to just come to bed.

I laid down listening to my pregnancy affirmations since I hadn’t had any more waves and tried to sleep.  My pressure waves woke me up off and on all night.  Each time, I woke up, I started another track.  At about 4 am I noticed that the waves had become more regular, and I told myself that with the next one I would wake my husband so we could start timing them.  I still felt ok, just getting a bit tired from the interrupted sleep.  The next thing I knew, my two year old was climbing into bed with us at 7am!

After breakfast, I logged onto my favorite message board and posted a whiny post about false labor and went on about my day.  I was still having pressure waves, but only about once an if that.  They were not intense at all for the most part.  I even gave my 2 year old a piggy back ride through a few of them.    By 10:30 I realized I hadn’t felt baby move at all since my last pressure wave at 4am.  I ate, drank and laid on my side a while and still felt nothing.    I decided to try again in a bit, thinking she might just be tired after all of the squeezing she’d gotten the night before.  After I’d given my kids lunch, I tried eating, drinking and lying down again and still got nothing .  I called my birth center to talk to the midwife on call.  She told me to come in to get put on the monitor for a bit.

I got to the birth center at about 2, and as soon as I put my car in park, I got hit with a pretty intense pressure wave.  While waiting to get put on the monitor,  I had another.  The midwife on call was attending a birth when I got there-in fact MOST of the midwives were, and I was seen by the clinical director.  While I was on the monitor she let me know that they were very busy-3 of the 4 birthing suites were full and they had two women who thought they might go today.  I was on the monitor for about 15 minutes and had had two pressure waves.

I looked at the tape, and noticed how LOOOOONG they looked on paper and asked the midwife to give me a time check.  They were 8 minutes apart, and about 1 minute-1 min, 15 secs long.  They had been intense, but nothing major so I asked the midwife is she thought they were the real thing.  After looking at me like I had two heads, she said “only YOU can tell ME that!!!”.  The waves stayed that regular for the whole 30 minutes I was on the monitor.  The midwife asked if I wanted to stay, or at least get an internal check, which I declined and decided to go home.

On the way home I had to pull over several times to relax through some pressure waves.  But when I got home-they stopped!!!!!  At 5 pm they started to pick back up, and I told my husband that I really needed to take a nap.  I started dinner and had to stop a LOT to rock or squat through the waves.  I still felt ok-like I had HOURS to go.  I got dinner to the simmer point and went to lay down.

I called my mom to let her know that the baby might come tonight.  She asked me if she should cancel her 7pm hair appointment and I told her I thought it would be later than that.  A few minutes later I had a pressure wave that made me change my mind and I called mom to let her know to come soon.  My mom got there at about 6 and fed the kids dinner.  My husband came to check on me and I told him to start packing up the car.  I got another pressure wave as soon as he left our bedroom, and I started to shake afterwards.   I started to get nervous because I remember that once the shakes started last time, I met my baby VERY soon afterwards.

My waves still were not regular, but I called the birth center anyway since I knew they were filling up.  They told me they were full, but the pull out couch was still open.  I lied and said my waves were 5 mins apart.  We left the house at 6:50 or so.

On the way out the door I asked my husband to grab a bucket-just in case. Good thing, too!  As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, I threw up.  We got the the birth center at 7:10 and I slowly made my way to the family room.  While my husband and midwife made up the pull out couch, I went to the bathroom.  I had a pressure wave and at the end I felt a little pushy.  They checked me and I was at 6cm.  We filled up the tub, and I got in.

With my next wave I felt REALLY pushy, but declined a check.  The nurse who was with me commented on how calm I was several times, which was amazing to me since my anxiety was through the roof, I was terrified of another dystocia.  I had another wave and told them I needed to push NOW!

I got out of the tub and got checked again and was only 9cm.  I was on the verge of a panic attack at that point and said that I had to push NOW.  My midwife told me she would push my cervix out of the way so I could and let me know that it would not be fun.   I told her to go right ahead.  As she reached in, my husband said “release!!!” and started whispering “relax” as I began to push.   About a minute in, I asked the midwife to stop, and she told me that I would have to stop pushing and I couldn’t.  I felt I needed baby out right NOW, so we kept going and my cervix was out of the way in a few more seconds.

As I felt baby crown, I did begin to relax. I was super focused and very relaxed as I pushed her all the way out.  After a whopping 5 minutes of pushing, Sinclaire Elise was laid on my chest at 7:40 pm.  She was beautiful and perfect-just like her birth!

Thank you again, Hypnobabies!!!

After years of work and collaboration, it is here!  This is a great gift to buy for yourself or for a woman you love.

  Click here to buy now!  

Horray, our book has been born.  It is beautiful.  You can buy it now and it will be in your hands in a few days!  Just click here to buy.

 One Sentence Summary: A spiritual look at pregnancy and birth through inspiring birth stories and essays from dozens of real LDS women, scriptures, words of the prophets and other spiritual texts, The Gift of Giving Life if the essential pregnancy companion for every LDS woman.

“… imparting the beauty and joy, and the faith and trust, that is inherent in becoming a mother.”

“a collection of tender personal journeys in birthing and nurturing new life that provide moments of profound meaning to this common yet mystifying experience unique to women.”         ~Bonnie Baliff-Spanvill, Former Director of The Women’s Research Institute, Brigham Young University

Read Other Blurbs and Reviews

Write a Review – email us at: thegiftofgivinglife@gmail.com

See the Table of Contents

Read Excerpts from the Book

T1 (Thing 1 – age 14 broke his arm and jaw mountain biking in March) has survived and even thrived with his broken jaw.  Instead of losing weight he actually gained a pound.  :)

Here are some tips to help if you or someone you love breaks a jaw.

Mental State

• If you haven’t had surgery yet – Tell everyone who will be in surgery to speak only positively.  Saying such things like – “your stomach will feel calm and comfortable.”  ”You will heal quickly and easily.”   I did this with T1 and the staff was very accomodating and amazed at how quickly his recovery after surgery was.
• Believe that your body can easily heal itself!  IF you struggle with this hypnosis may help you to recover more quickly.

Supplies

• Borrow or buy a good quality blender.  You can spend $400 on a blendtech and if you have the money, go for it.  But we had our handy $100 Kitchen Aide and it did what I needed it to do.   I used it at LEAST once a day.  I would blend up a nice BIG smoothie each morning and freeze half for later in the day.  I would sneak in spinach and other healthy things too – see later tip for more info.  (Edited to add, my blender broke just as T1 got his jaw unwired.  So maybe it is worth it to spend more money, though my magic bullet still blends just fine!)
• Get a Magic Bullet.  We used ours numerous times a day.  If I had to choose between getting a blender or a magic bullet, I would get the magic bullet.  What I LOVED about it is that if I made a big smoothie in my big mixer, I would freeze half in a magic bullet cup.  When T1 wanted more I could pop it in the microwave, add a bit of milk and blend it up.  Super easy.  I would also blend up soups using this and heat in the cup.  The cups work great from freezer to microwave and are easy to clean.  I would just rinse off the blade as I used it throughout the day and pop it in the dishwasher at night.  Everything cleaned up so well, unlike some of my other cups which would leave smoothie residue in them after the dishwasher, but these cups were CLEAN.
• You need straws and get the thicker ones.   Some are pretty skinny and it is harder to suck soup thorugh those.  Also if you want get a cute straw holder! The straws in here are not super thick – but it is fun to get the straws out of here and makes me smile a little bit each day.  Let me tell you, straws are used ALL day long!  We go through at least 10 a day.   Note to self – if you have also broken an arm – skip the cute straw holder, you need 2 hands to work it, one to open and one to grab a straw.  I should have thought that through better.  But you probably don’t have a broken arm too, so you can count your blessings as you easily use your cute straw holder.  :)

Main Food “choices”

I will be honest, my biggest concern when T1 broke his jaw was how to keep him full. He is a HUNGRY 14 year old growing boy, I knew I was in for a challenge.  Here is how I did it and I did it so well, he gained a pound instead of losing weight!  Man can not live on Ensure alone.  So I made sure we had each of these other items at least once a day.  One cream of wheat, one soup, one shake and one smoothie along with unlimited Ensures.

• Ensure –  T1 had at least 5 of these a day.  Wow, and they aren’t cheap.  You can find coupons and Costco has them too.  At Costco they are about $1 a bottle.  Sometimes on sale and with a coupon I could get them for a little less.  I also got the generic kinds, especially if they were on sale.

• Soups – I started with just tomato, but quickly realized these were easy to blend up and add variety to his diet.  His favorite was the Sweet Potato Chipotle soup.  I would mix with some milk in the Magic Bullet cups and heat up for 1-2 minutes in the microwave.  Easy meal.
• Instant Cream of Wheat – Fast and Easy breakfast.  I would heat in microwave, stir well and then add milk to desired texture.
• Healthy Shakes – Carnation Instant Breakfast – I would blend with frozen banana, milk and bluebonnet calcium and it made a fast and easy shake.
• Smoothies —  Endless variety of these, they have mixes in the freezer, but you can easily create your own.

Things to add to your “smoothies”

• Liquid Calcium – this is a must as your bones are healing.  Bluebonnet Liquid Calcium is the best and its fruity flavors make it easy to add to smoothies.
• Protein Powder – You need protein too, so get a good powder.
• Veggies – Go to Green Smoothie Girl to learn all about incorporating veggies into your smoothies, this may revolutionize your life!

Wild Meals -

There comes a point where you just need something MORE or DIFFERENT to eat.  It can be done!  We have blended up In N Out burgers with beef broth, we have blended up eggs and bacon.  Your imagination is your only limitation.  Dinner Through A Straw has a great cookbook which helped inspire us.  Our Doctor gave us a copy, but it is worth buying if you don’t get one.

You will Survive!

Before you know it you will be back to your old self. The stories you can share will be worth the challenge.  I have linked to some items from Amazon and I am an affiliate with them.  Feel free to shop around and find these items at different places, borrowing some things makes more sense if you can.   But again if I was to only buy one supply it would have been the magic bullet, that was our go to tool.  :)