Archive

I love the long days of summer! I can get so much done outside because of the length of daylight we’ve got here in the south. However, long days of daylight eventually begin to wreak havoc on my hours spent sleeping…. and that eventually begins to take its toll on me.

I know several of you suffer from chronically deprived sleep patterns that may be caused by attempting to utilize every last drop of daylight….. but many are sleep deprived for other reasons …. and frequently those are health related. If you struggle with sleep, pop in all next week…. (beginning Saturday actually), and I’ll uncover some facts that may surprise you, along with tips that may help you reclaim your ZZZZZZ.

See you soon!

Liz

My world has come to a standstill…..at least it feels that way. I take my hat off to all those mamas who have (human) babies. The 24/7 is real….. even more real when you’ve got one with a health problem.

Elsa’s entry into the world, while received happily by us has been fraught with issues. The last two days, we’ve been unraveling the problem(s) that have plagued her.

1. Elsa’s problem #1: Hypothermia at birth: Although we live in north Texas, believe it or not, it can get dang cold here. It’s a different kind of cold than up north where it’s drier. Here…. it can be bone chilling in the winter time. We found her within 30 minutes of her birth, but she was already half frozen even in that short amount of time. Despite our efforts of heat lamps, warming pad, time indoors in front of the fire with us, we could not keep her warm.
2. Elsa’s problem #2: Low blood glucose: It appeared that because she was so cold, she wasn’t eating. Not eating was causing a dangerous drop in blood glucose. Between this and the hypothermia, we were setting ourselves up for losing her.
3. Elsa’s problem #3: Pneumonia: Babies are so very tender, especially ones born under such dangerous conditions. For whatever reason, I’ve found that calves and foals can be particularly tender at any time of the year. The vet heard rattling in her lungs, and her oxygen saturation came back at 72%. That is not conducive for living long, as eventually organs will begin shutting down.

Once we found out she had pneumonia, we upped our game. Frankly, the vet, rather gently attempted to talk me out of saving her, simply by telling me her chances of survival were slim. That news came Wednesday. Today is Friday, and baby girl is doing better. She has been on a round of two antibiotics, and spent about 48 hours in our bathtub. Because we wanted to do everything we could to support proper lung function and boost her immune system, we’ve been diffusing therapeutic grade Frankincense, Copaiba, and Lemon around the clock. Our bathroom became an aroma tent for her.  Two days of tube feeding…. and then we tried to teach her to nurse again, with very little success. We were all disappointed. Honey, (her mama) was THRILLED to have her back this morning after two days of absence. Honey’s mourning was heart wrenching. She went into a depressed mood, and didn’t even call for her baby. It was as if she knew she was dead. This picture isn’t so great, but neither one of them would stand still for a photo op.

Tube feeding is time consuming, but so is keeping a calf in the house….Keeping the house clean is a chore all it’s own. I’ve done load after load of towels and blankets. Little girl has proven that both her bladder and her bowels are functioning… this is GREAT news, as it means her organs are working. Her blood oxygen saturation level yesterday afternoon confirmed that….. it had risen to 95%.  Because she is so tiny, she needs food every 2-3 hours. Feed. Clean. Repeat.

Honey, Elsa’s mama, can’t be forgotten in all of this…. she has a bag full of milk at any given time, and has pined for her baby. Throughout all of this,  Honey has been a trooper. She is young, and has never been milked before…. so, on top of missing her baby, she had a crash course in getting to know me intimately while I milked. You can’t just walk up and start milking a cow. It actually takes time, trust, and a learning curve on the cow’s part. So this… milking….. has to also be added into the equation. Thankfully, because of scheduling at work, I was given a window of 7 days in a row off (Thank you Jesus!)…. but by next Wednesday, I’ll have to come up with a longer term plan.

​This brings me to Elsa’s Problem #4: Last night in the wee hours of the morning as I was placing the tube down her throat for yet another feeding, I felt something odd on the roof of her mouth. No wonder the poor thing can’t suckle well…… she has a cleft palate! After feeding her, I promptly did a little research…. what are our options?…..are we looking at surgery, is death the only option…. what’s next? Surprisingly, I found a small group of farmers and ranchers who have successfully raised cleft palate calves. It appears that if you can get past the initial suckling problems (ie: get creative with feeding), they can actually grow up and thrive. I also found that this particular congenital defect is almost always due to ingesting a plant in the lupine family during a certain time of pregnancy. You know I’m going to be stalking those fields in the spring with the intent of destroying that offending plant.

Today is Friday. Technically, she should be dead by now. I won’t say she’s thriving, but I do believe she is at least 85% better than she was on Wednesday. But the “window”, according to the vet, is still 3 days away.

Y’all keep praying for her. She is a cutie, and she’s worth fighting for!

Hugs and love, Liz

August is right around the corner…. literally. I wanted to give a shout out to my friends (old, new, and unmet) who have wondered when the next Women’s Health class is. It too is right around the corner! Hope to see you all there. August 7th (a Monday) 6:30pm CST.

Remember, these classes…. while free…. do require an access code to attend, so you’ll need to sign up. Hope to see you there!

You can sign up HERE.

Have a blessed and joy filled day! ~ liz

OK ya’ll….. I’m coming clean here… Sleep is important to me. I’ve researched sleep for several months now, and the more I researched, the more I appreciated its value. These last few days have been ginormously busy for me…. so much so, that I have not had a moment to catch my breath except when it’s time to head to bed.

By 9:30 each night, I had to make some decisions…. what was more important? Sleeping or blogging. I know that many of you have hung out and reached out to me during sleep week, but I also knew that none of you would lose sleep if I missed a blog posting day.

So….. I chose to make a good example of myself, and picked respecting my bedtime hour over blogging and sharing with you all.

There is much more to sleep than I could cram into 7 days anyway, and I’d love to share more. If you’d like a more in depth class I’m happy to schedule one at some point.

If I’ve piqued your interest in any products that have helped me and thousands of other people sleep please let me know, and I’ll show you the most economical way to own your own stash.  Everyone deserves healthy restorative sleep!

​Enjoy!

Who doesn’t need overall great health? The key to nearly 90% of dis-ease, body system dysfunction and emotional disorders lies in our gut. We are now offering Gut Health 101 on a monthly basis. If this month doesn’t work for you, OR if you’d like a private class for yourself and/or at least 5 friends and family, please feel free to private message me. These classes are interactive and online, so no distance is too great to prevent learning!

“I took the class and it was very informative. The questionnaire that we filled out before hand allowed me to make personal connection to the information as we went along. The information that was shared helped me put 2 and 2 together for myself and my son. The connection of our emotional health being connected to our gut health was eye opening and I believe I now have a clear path for improving both in my life! Liz James is a wealth of knowledge and she has a heart of caring for people! Priceless! This was life changing! Thank you and I am looking forward to more classes like this” -JE

“Liz’s Gut Health 101 class was very informative on many levels. I have been working closely with a local Nutritional Wellness center for 11 months trying to get my gut back to healthy. Even after all that time and all that they have taught me and that I have learned from extensive reading, I still learned more from Liz in her class. I am looking forward to more of her teaching. She is clear and concise and easy to understand. I think everyone I know should take this class. I KNOW that if they did and followed her advice they would feel a whole lot better!! -KT

“What a wonderful class. I learned a great deal and was especially fascinated by the link between chronic skin issues being and indicator of the health of one’s gut. Well taught and easy to understand. The pre-class questionnaire was awesome!! Nice job ladies!” -AC

Did you know that 60-70 million people in the USA have a digestive disorder? This accounts for 48.3 MILLION visits to the doctor a year. Those numbers are actually much higher….. and we’ll discuss why in this class. Your gut health is closely tied to all aspects of your overall body and emotional health. Join us as we unravel the how’s and why’s of your GI and what you can begin doing to fix what’s going wrong.

Contact me for next class! xoxo Liz