When there are bumps in the road...or in your mouth

My oh my it has bee a while.  I haven't had time to get on here and type with two hands.  I really don't like typing one handed.  Though I suppose that is because I am long winded!  Ha, ha!  Never the less, I have a few minutes.  I have been 'training' the baby to fall asleep on her own.  She was not settling well with nursing to sleep.  She kept fussing, kicking and would cry even as she was nursing to sleep.  I'm not sure why, but the only other way to get her to sleep was to walk her around and patting her bottom.  Doing that when needed *at times* isn't a big deal, but it was getting to be every time she needed to sleep.  I figured if she was going to fuss and cry through all of that I might as well take it a next step and teach her to fall asleep on her own.  I decided to first let her fall asleep on me.  I pat her back, making sure not to rock or sway, and talk softly to her if she starts to cry.  This is only day three and she only fussed a total of two minutes in my arms this morning!  So hopefully that means I will have more time to get things done around here :-)

As for the bump in the mouth...well I thought I would pass on what I have learned this week.  Usually with each pregnancy I would get inflamed gums, and maybe some bleeding.  This pregnancy I didn't, and I know that had a lot to do with my diet.  However, this postpartum period hadn't gone exactly as planned, and for the past few weeks I've eaten a very limited diet, the result of not having two hands, or the time to cook proper meals.  So a few days before Easter I noticed my gums over my last two molars was getting inflamed and started bleeding a bit (when brushing my teeth).  No biggie I thought.  Some extra care and all will be well.  Except that wasn't what happened.  Two days after noticing the inflammation this area pretty much 'exploded' in severity.  I have never seen my gums do what they did.  This was major swelling!  To the point that it felt my one tooth was a bit loose!!  Not to mention I was getting pain along with all of this.  So I tried some tea tree oil and some salt gargles.  Nope, nothing.  The next day, which was the day before Easter, I tried some garlic packs (I crushed some garlic, and mixed it with some coconut oil, and wrapped it in some gauze).  I put the pack in for 10 to 15 minutes at a time, every two or three hours.  Progress was finally noted!  Phew!  And then Easter.  I had some sugar, and to make matters worse, I was not able to do any of the garlic packs that day.  Monday morning saw me back to square one.  Ugh.  So I upped my routine.  I did the garlic, coconut oil, and added turmeric (for inflammation),and two drops of oil of oregano in a pack.  Thankfully I saw major progress in two applications.  If I had not seen quick progress I would have had to go into the dentist, because truly this was not a good looking situation!

After three days of this routine I felt defeated.  Things were not getting worse but they also were not improving any more than Monday.  Thankfully the pain was gone, and the swelling was down by 80%.  But the swelling wouldn't budge.  I even started a nutritional approach since I knew I didn't have time on my side if this thing got out of control.  I cut out all sugar, except fruit (though my only sugar source, save Easter, is honey normally).  I made a smoothie packed with greens and other good stuff for my breakfast, a large salad for lunch, and a gluten free dinner.  I started this eating plan on Monday, along with the extra applications of the garlic pack, but still no progress.  So I got online to see if there was anything else to be done.  A few of the suggestions were ones I was already doing.  Ugh.  But then I came across the idea of using a tea bag (that had been steeped, and cooled) on the gums.  I have tea bags, and what could it hurt?  The garlic concoctions were messing with my skin on my gums, becoming very sensitive and sore.  I left the tea bag in for 30 minutes.  It was bed time when I did this, and I fell asleep soon after I removed it. This morning I woke up to *NORMAL* gums!!  Huge sigh of relief!

I am very happy that I was able to tackle this without a visit to the dentist.  I will continue with the tea packs and maybe a garlic pack or two for the next couple of days, along with my new eating plan.  The reason behind swollen gums is that the bacteria of the mouth have gotten out of control.  No surprise there!  I already know I have a HUGE issue with the lack of good bacteria ever since the baby was born.  I made up a bit of a 'schedule' or plan on upping my good bacteria levels.  Since it seems to bother the baby if I eat/drink more than a certain amount of ferments I am starting from square one.  I am consuming 1/4 cup of kombucha a day.  Next week I will keep up the 1/4 cup kombucha and add in 1 tsp of fermented veggie juice.  Each week I plan on increasing the level of those two ferments until about two months from now when I plan on adding in 1 TBS of kefir each day and see how that is tolerated...in *me*.  I am hoping that since by that point we will be swimming in raw goat's milk that my body will be able to handle the raw goat's milk kefir.  We shall see!