How Does my Garden Grow?

One of the many garden helpers. 

Well, I am so excited to say that it grows! All my life, I have been convinced that rather than having a green thumb I might as well have no thumbs at all. I didn’t have much patience with growing things and anything I did try to grow died in short order. My past track record has truly discouraged me from trying a full blown vegetable garden although when I picture who I would love to be that beautiful, bountiful garden is always there along with foods preserved for the winter and a lovely fresh spread on the table. 

This year, with much of Nathan’s prompting, footwork, and encouragement I have a garden! It is a trial run just so I can see things grow first hand and hopefully build a little confidence for future years. The beginning of this year was full to overflowing with work on the house we bought in December so when seeding time rolled around (and I still don’t know exactly when seeding time should be...) I was in no way motivated to start a new project, much less one that seemed like a mighty finicky baby that would need much TLC in order to survive. So I let seeding time pass and with a hint of sorrow planted one tray of seeds rather late. I might as well have had their memorial service then and there as that would have reflected the degree of my belief in their success. Sadly, I was right as they were seeds I had used in previous years and which had followed us across the country and spent a good deal of time living in a storage unit. Perhaps they were too old to grow or, the more likely option, there was user error. :-)

By the time it was apparent no wonderful seedlings were popping up Nate had worked hard to turn what used to be a swimming pool recess in the ground into a rich garden plot for me at the expense of his labor, time and many sheer pins for the rototiller. I had to plant something! There was no turning back and he was patiently reminding me that the planting window was going to close. I packed his promptings in my pocked and one day on my way home from the grocery store I did the unthinkable... I made an extra stop and hauled my now morning sick, tired self into a garden store on the side of the road. Thankfully they had a small assortment of vegetable plants ready for the ground complete with Brandywine Tomatoes, an heirloom variety that has been preserved since the 1800’s!

I hauled my small, promising garden home and by sheer willpower and with much needed help from the other hands in the home, planted my very first vegetable garden. I has been some weeks since and those plants that I put so neat and tidy in nice rows with marble borders have now grown into a near jungle from which we are beginning to reap actual food to eat!!!

One plant this Alaskan girl has never seen grown up close and personal is corn. I researched a non-genetically modified variety, 8-row bantam corn, and planted a few of those in square plots to help the germination potential. Honestly, I was not quite sure anything good could come from those severely dried kernels. A few days later little shoots came up and what a delight it has been to see the whole process unfold right in my back yard where I can inspect it daily and learn how corn truly grows. No longer will I have to induce car sickness straining to see exactly how those heavy ears of corn just appeared on the tall stalks along the road. :-)

I am like a proud Mommy, well I am that as regards all my children :-), but also a proud Mommy of the little plants I have watched grow from “plant infancy”. I love to take pictures of them and thought I would put a few here for fun and so any other Alaskan friends who have not gotten to see the corn process can enjoy it with me!

The eggplant process:

Eggplant flowers, one of my favorites!

The very beginnings of an eggplant. 

A young eggplant, so bright!

The corn process: 

A corn flower ready to wind-polinate the plant

The seeds naturally fall into the leaves.  Some leaves have tube into which the pollen goes and produces an ear.  This leaf does not but it was a good example of how the pollen falls and is collected.

This tube has been pollinated as evidenced by the purple color of the silks.  The ear of corn will form beneath the silk and all the way down to the leaf below.

A young ear of corn.  You can see the ear begins where my hand is on the plant and goes up to the silk.  It only takes about a week from when the silks appear for the ear to reach this point.

This poor plant was completely blown over in the wind and its own flower never had opportunity to open or pollinate as it was all messed up from falling over and broken leaves.  The neighboring plants pollinated it and you can see the ear of corn falling over a bit.

My trusty garden companion showing the height of the corn stalks.  He was the first one out with me at 7:00 this morning. :-)

A Japanese Beetle, our one faithful corn pests.  I have been spraying the plants with garlic and cayenne to help deter them.

Other plants:

Yumm when it is ripe!

Zucchini squash

Yellow squash

My herb garden and the marigold planting companions. :-)

Watermelon plants taking over the vacant space... can't wait for watermelons!

Morning Sickness in the Rear View Mirror

Ah, it has been a long time! I knew morning sickness was not too fun but it did seem to be a bit longer and a bit more tiring than usual this time. Oh wait, is there supposed to be a “usual” for morning sickness. Hmm... The one thing that I can say I have enjoyed this round of morning sickness is the ongoing experiment it has provided for me. Being the guinea pig wasn’t that great but learning what I have has been fantastic!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I found success doing the “I Love You” baby massage on myself when I was feeling queazy. That method never ceased bringing relief during the 14 weeks I was not feeling well - at least when I was not too discouraged to give it a try! I did, however, modify the method slightly to reflect my waning patience and energy. Rather than doing the full “I Love You” massage I would simply press my hands gently but firmly over any obvious lumps in my digestive system (except for the baby lump of course) or wherever it seemed to hurt (usually right below my ribs) and then slowly inhale deeply then exhale. I found that the simple movement of my diaphragm resulted in a gentle massage beneath my hands and consequently I found the relief I was seeking.

I also seem to have stumbled upon some sort of remedy for the “untouchable” symptoms of morning sickness. Let me describe what I mean by “untouchable symptoms”. I have concluded a few things: morning sickness is not just “in your head” or something that you can make up; there is a very real physical reaction in your digestive system to the presence of a new pregnancy; and there is also a physical response that results in things such as increased smell, increased saliva, etc. (the untouchables). The massage was definitely helpful in the slowed and painful digestive system and feelings of nausea but could not entirely remove the symptoms such as increased smell and saliva. These symptoms seemed almost untouchable. In fact, my morning sickness left around 11 weeks and I was feeling fantastic for about three days only to wake on the fourth and realize I was back to where I had started almost two months past. I was so discouraged at the return of morning sickness that I almost entirely neglected massaging my stomach to help the nausea. My true discouragement was in the realization of just how untouchable the other symptoms were or seemed to be. What had been manageable in its expected timeframe now seemed unbearable for the second round!

I took to the couch for a while and gave in to the fact that surely I was going to be ill the rest of the pregnancy. If morning sickness could come back so strongly, why would it ever care to leave? Nate was gently reminding me to massage my stomach (which still worked - I just didn’t care much to try any longer) and trying to encourage me as I sat in a chair and watched my little charges spend another summer day entertaining themselves around the house rather than enjoying the extra free time doing something extra fun. I ordered some extra vitamins hoping to give myself a boost. The one I was most excited for was Hema-plex which is a food/herb based iron supplement. I had used it in my previous pregnancies and figured it would be good this time as well. At least I might stop needing those three-hour naps every day! I was glad when it arrived and took some that very night. Much to my surprise, I woke the next morning and nervously waited for the all too familiar feelings to come again but they didn’t! I couldn’t believe it. I took the Hema-plex each day after that and every morning woke feeling great! Now that alone would not seem to be proof of anything, perhaps I just took the Hema-plex on the last day of my morning sickness and the apparent correlation was nothing more that a timing coincidence. However, if you remember, I had about three days that I was feeling great before my morning sickness returned the second time. As I looked back over my morning sickness I realized the few days that I felt good around 11 weeks coincided with my taking an iron infusion I had made. It was some high iron herbs infused in water and only lasted for three days in the fridge after which it was too old. Consequently, I downed it quickly so I wouldn’t waste any. It was very strong and bitter tasting so in the midst of all I had going at the time I decided not to make another batch.

A light seemed to blink on as I realized that both times my morning sickness left I was taking a food or herbal based iron supplement. I love to read most anything and as I mulled the possibility of iron being related to the “untouchable” morning sickness symptoms I remembered some of the things I have come across on the internet or heard first hand regarding morning sickness. Perhaps you have heard some of these and I am so sorry ahead of time for my lack of references for all of them.

• A pregnant mother’s blood supply increases somewhere between 20% and 100% during pregnancy beginning about the 6th week. (I did note where I found this and some of the following notes. I didn’t read the book but simply read an excerpt from chapter 2 on the internet. The textbook is “Heart Disease in Pregnancy by Carole A Warnes.) 
• The plasma in the blood increases in greater proportion than the red blood cells resulting in physiological anemia in pregnancy. (Also from “Heart Disease in Pregnancy”) 
• Twin pregnancies result in a more pronounced increase in blood volume. (Also from “Heart Disease in Pregnancy”) 
• I read online (I can’t remember where) that some time ago twin or greater multiple pregnancies used to be diagnosed or at least highly suspected in early pregnancy when a woman was anemic. Anemia, or low iron levels, was more likely in a twin pregnancy. 
• I have also talked with enough moms and read enough pregnancy boards to know that many moms of multiples tend to have worse morning sickness than moms of singletons. I know for sure that there are exceptions to this but in general it seems to be the trend. 

(And, no, I am not having twins...  :-) I just like the correlation between a more pronounced blood increase and more pronounced morning sickness.)

So, as I mulled all of this over it seemed to make sense that perhaps some portion of morning sickness is related to the dilution of blood following the beginning of the increase in blood volume. Our body would naturally want to correct the imbalance but it seems to take some time. Interestingly, the book I have been referencing has a graph showing the relative increase in blood plasma and red blood cells in pregnancy by weeks. It seems that while plasma increases in the very beginning of pregnancy red blood cells actually decrease slightly in the beginning of pregnancy and began to increase around week 12 even in the women who were not treated with supplements.  Those treated with supplements had an earlier increase in red blood cells. So, our body’s natural response to restore the proper balance in our blood does seem to take some time, surprisingly 12 weeks to even begin, and will even begin to restore itself without supplementation although to a lesser degree than those who are actively taking iron.

I know this is far from scientific but it was truly exciting for me as it seemed to be like fitting the pieces of a puzzle together! I did have my blood work done while I was feeling rather ill and it show that I was in the normal range but towards the bottom of it. I still find it interesting and am excited to see if and how this information affects myself (if I should be morning sick in the future) and others.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and thanks to those of you who participated in my morning sickness survey! I appreciate you taking the time to do that! Also, please remember that I am, in no way, a medical expert or professional... just a mommy who likes to read, research, experiment on herself, and find answers to those nagging little questions! That said, please do your own researching and make your own wise decisions with the help of your healthcare provider. :-)