Fall Asleep without Ambien!

Get a Good Night Sleep Without Drugs!!

My sister is an Ob/Gyn nurser practitioner. One of the major complaints she get is inability to fall asleep during the postpartdum period! This can be very frustrating since the old rule is sleep when the baby sleeps. For me it was never that easy! My doctor prescribed me Ambien but the side effects were so weird! I was tripping! I woke up one night because I was swatting violently at an imaginary 3lb. spider dangling from my ceiling! Scary. Oh and the night eating!! I ate a box of pop tarts in one night! The goal is to lose the baby weight not put it back on!! A friend of mine that works at the local health food store recommended I try a more natural route and that is when I found 5-htp! What is 5-htp? 5-HTP (griffonia seed extract) is a natural extract. This supplement helps the body increase serotonin production. It is thought that a lack of serotonin can be a cause for poor sleep. It is also the chemical in your Thanksgiving Turkey that makes you sooo sleepy after you stuff your face! Another natural ingredient that helps with sleep is Valerian root. Valerian Root has been used as a medicinal herb since Ancient Greece existed. The great historian Hippocrates (the man the Hippocratic Oath was named after) described its properties as a natural sedative in his writings as early as the year 440 BC. Finally modern science is able to explain why Valerian works. It is an agonist for Adenosine receptors in the brain – meaning it actually binds and alters the way the receptor processes metabolic proteins at the molecular level. If it helps me fall asleep without swatting killer spiders I'm game!! There is actually a good product available that is a more holistic approach to a natural sleep aide called HerbSleep
Herb Sleep has natural herbs such as Passion flower, chamomile flower extract, wild jujube seed extract, hops (strobile), and lemon balm extract all well known for their calming effects! There are many products in drugstores today that promote sleep but I personally choose the more natural route first! Good Night Sleep Tight, don't let the giant spiders bite!!
Check out more of my blogs or my Natural Store Jade's Hippie Gift Shop!!

Posted via email from greenasheville's posterous

Back to School Countdown has begun! Get it together Mom!

The Most Organized Mom in the World??

I am not one of those super organized moms that you read about in Better Homes and Garden magazine. Chances are good that on the first day of school my son will still have crusty globs of continuous spray sunscreen in his hair. The best I can hope for is a belly full of Life cereal and pants that don't come to his knee caps! The summer growth spurt has put a hurtin' on my back to school budget! I am actually giving myself big props, it is not even August and I am preparing for school now (school starts August 18 or is it the 19th? Not sure I lost the paper they sent home.
The summer started with me working a full-time job  at an auto repair shop. I put my son in camp at the local school. Summer camp isn't cheap and I had other ambitions besides working at a desk all day banking calories for a rainy day. Now I am home with my son and while the stress of working is gone, the stress of paying for the life I live and sleeping an hour later each morning are dangerous! Especially if I want to be primed for after school. So starting today I am committed to a smooth start.
First thing I need to do is start setting my alarm clock for 6:30 am. Wait, hold on,  before that, the first thing I will do each night is set up the coffee maker to have midnight black, extra strong java ready by 6:20am!!  Once the Coffee is in place then set alarm clock for 6:30.  The first day of school in my town is early August 17 (or 18?) so if I can start getting my lazy butt out of bed now it will hurt less on opening day!
The next thing I need to do is put the red wine away by 9pm each night. If I keep hanging out with the neighbors until 11:30 every night I will not be able to drag my hungover tired ass out of bed at 6:30 am every morning! Go to bed by 10:30 your not in college your a MOM for God's Sake!
I am well on the way but if I am going to be getting up every morning at 6:30 a.m. for no good reason I need something to do with that time.  Something that will even further prepare me for back to school! What should I do??   No one is doing anything interesting on Facebook at 6:30 am except reading posts from friends in foreign countries plus the morning news  is too depressing!  After I drink my liquid crack otherwise known as Flavorbean Coffee !!  I will do some minor reorganizing. NOT CLEANING. I repeat no cleaning allowed.  I will make a couple of lists and folders for any needs through out the year for example, school supplies needed, play date phone list, sports info, permission slips etc I'll put the folders in a my cabinet marked "Son's Stuff".    I also have very professional folders labeled "dog stuff"  "husband stuff" and "car stuff"  one of my folders just says BILLS with a sad face next to it.  Really it doesn't need to be fancy!
Almost there, now I need to figure out what this child of mine is going to wear to school. All of his pants were riding up to his ankles. The poor kid looked like Huck Finn on his way to meet with Tom for a day of fishin'! I made my boy think I am actually a talented seamstress because I transformed each pair of pants into board shorts with a pair of kitchen shears!  Well I can't shop for him so I will just tell the Grandma's to go to Penny's and pick out stuff in  size 8!  My own mom was never allowed to pick clothes out for me but she is a genius at picking out shirts my son refuses to take off!  With the money I save I will shop for fun stuff!  Maybe some books or incense at Tye Dye Jade's Hippie Gift Shop online!  I could use some meditation inspiration to get my early mornings off to a good start!
Now I am feeling proud, I am on the right track for back to school!  Oh wait my neighbor just called, Margarita night by her new pool time to work on my model tan!!! Maybe I'll start back to school prep next week!  Happy Monday everyone!

Posted via email from Gypsy