Trying - Week 1: Drink more water

There are subtle, but important, changes to your body and sense of well being when you start drinking more water. Your skin looks better, you’re more alert though the day, your body eliminates toxins better and faster, all the systems of your body just work better. And you have fewer (real) headaches... very important when you're Trying!

My Nurse Midwife, JoAnna, has me drinking 75 ounces a day to get in the habit. That's the water equivalent to a little more than six 12 oz pop cans. I can totally do that! Here are some ways I've made water a part of each day as I try to conceive:

1. Added a water bottle to my "accessories">
   *What I did: requisitioned two lidded tupperware juice containers from the house, 58 and 64 ounces each. I bring them and a favorite cup to work every day. Not glamorous, but free, and they do the job nicely.
   *Other ideas: Travel cups, thermos, stainless steel, high tech plastic
   *Get creative:
   Make a bottle cover: crochet, sewn fleece, knit
   Make a cup: Go to a pottery studio, like The Canvas here in Juneau, and take a class.
   
2. Cube it.
   *What I did: I'm bad about eating citrus, but lots come in our box from Full Circle Farm (a Community Supported Agriculture farm in Washington State), so oranges and grapefruits sit around getting a bit old. Once every week or two week I spend 15 minutes juicing them all, then freeze them in ice cube trays and store them in freezer bags. I add some to my water bottle each morning before going to work.
   *Other ideas: Make cubes from water, fruit juices or concentrates, fresh citrus that grows in your area, or just keep lemon & lime wedges in the fridge for a quick squeeze.
   *Get creative: Find juice recipes in cookbooks or online (I just Googled "juice recipes" and got a bunch right away) and cube them.
   
3. Get a good source of water
   *What I did: Nothing. I live in a pristine rainforest, the Tongass National Forest, which offers my city a pure source of drinking water. It gets treated before it gets to my tap, of course, but not much needs to be done to it.
   *Other ideas: Find out the quality of the water in your area. If you’re unsure, or know your water source is below minimums, buy a filter pitcher for the fridge or a filter system for your sink.
   *Get creative: Please do your utmost not to buy bottled water. Not that the water is bad (though it's rarely any better than tap water) it's just that the number of plastic bottles in our world's landfills is unbelievable. There are lots of sites that focus on this, but here's a good one I found: Lighter Footstep.
   
4. Where to go from here...
   *Make your bottle a regular addition to your bag or car, take it everywhere.
   *Pass up sugar drinks and high caffeine drinks whenever you can… your bottle will help and restaurants often serve good lemon water… for free!
   *Drink! If you forget your bottle for a few days… don’t fret, just clean it out and start again.
   
   
   

   Of course, drinking more means peeing more... but that's something you'll have to get used to also, if your Trying is successful!

   
   
   

   Kampai, a sante, cheers, slainte! Drink up.

   
   

The Journey from Shopping to Making

So what is this blog about? Let me explain...

When I was pregnant with my first child, Clare, 9 years ago, one of the first things I did when I passed the 12 week mark was go window shopping. I comparison priced, I listed needs, I listed wants, I measured, I felt fabrics, I was even accosted once by a shop owner who thought I was doing espionage for another baby store! I was determined to buy all the right stuff for my baby.

That was fun, frankly. And it allowed me to channel my hopes and fears toward something beyond my belly and the life-long responsibility growing larger within it every day.

But now I'm now planning for a second child (see my Stay-at-Homesteader blog for more info about this crazy once-a-decade decision!), and I'm going to do things differently. This is a different world, and I'm a different person. My husband, Sean, and I are a different couple, too. No... he's the only husband I've had, and he's Clare's dad, but we've grown so much in the past 10 years, professionally, personally, and as partners, that we are certainly going to be different parents this time around.

One of the biggest personal changes I've undergone in the past decade is my relationship with "stuff" and consuming, and with the credit cards I've used to buy it all. This change has come on gradually and has roots in my childhood (thanks dad, great grandma Reed, and Mother Earth News), so I think I come by it honestly. Now it's time to make good on it.

So, while we're "Trying" (our household euphemism for lotsa sex every month), after we succeed (I'm all about the power of positive thinking!), and once our baby is born, I'm going to research, find, and make, my very own self, as many of the items needed for this whole procreation thing as I can. And I'm going to write about it here, so you can do it to.

Let me know if you have questions about what I'm doing, need clarification of things I write about, or have ideas of stuff I can make. Also, if you make any of the items I write about, I'd love to offer a link to your information. I'm open to the fact that there are going to be things that other people make way better and efficiently than I can. As long as it's homemade, even if it's made in someone else's home, I will be thrilled to hear about it.

So... let's get making babies, and all the stuff they need.