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Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Saving Sleep (part 2) - Mommy's sleep issues

In my last update on sleep we were fixing Caden's night time waking, well after 9 months of interrupted sleep. I was still waking up multiple times a night even after Caden was sleeping through the night at 9 months. Here we are at almost 15 months and I needed to find a solution.


I recently started reading about the word of essential oils and found a little online business called Full Moon Mothering, http://www.full-moon-mothering.com  , She sells amber for Mama & Baby and essential oil blends. I started out just following her on Instagram and reading her posts about Lullaby Oil. This blend seemed to have a cult following so I thought I might as well give it a try.

At the same time this oil arrived I also discovered Trader Joe's Well Rested Herbal Tea. I had been cautious about herbal teas since Caden was still nursing but he just weaned last week so I decided to combine the tea and Lullaby oil before bed time and see what happened.

Well Rested Herbal Tea ingredients include Chamomile flowers, Lemon Grass, Spearmint Leaves, Tilia Flowers, Peppermint Leaves, Passionflower Leaves, Blackberry Leaves, Oranges Blossoms, Hawthorn Berries and Rosebuds. And it is quiet tasty!


Low and behold! I have slept through the night for a little over a week now, I haven't done that since before Caden was born! I feel like I have found the magic combination! Hopefully, maybe, once I get my circadian rhythm back on track I won't need either of them for a good night's sleep but for now I can deal with drinking some tea and rolling some oil on my feet before bed.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Colgate Optic White - Influenster VoxBox

I was sent a Colgate Optic White Toothbrush + Built-in Whitening Pen complimentary for testing purpose from Influenster and here is what I found.


First of all I try to be as natural as possible but when I received this box I was ecstatic. As a former smoker my teeth aren't really too pretty and I've always wanted to get them whitened. So I was all for testing this product.

In my box was the toothbrush with whitening pen and tooth paste. It claims "Whiter teeth in 2 days*" (note the elusive asterisk). It's supposed to be an easy to apply and you don't have to time it or rinse it off. I found it difficult to get an even coat that wasn't streaky. And I didn't like the feeling it left on my teeth. I felt like I needed to brush my teeth again right away.

 Please excuse the gnarliness.
I ended up testing the product for a whole week trying to get a better result....

Before


After




I don't really recommend this product as I don't really see any improvement at all. The toothbrush is definitely awesome at cleaning but I don't think it whitens as well as it suggests. After testing this product I am looking into natural ways for whitening teeth. My next experiment is oil pulling. Stay tuned for a blog about that.