Giveaway

I just mentioned earlier today that I use mommysnacks.net to help me save big on groceries. Well today when I went to her site I saw this giveaway and wanted to share it with you. She is giving away 5 cookbooks that can help you save on meals. It also comes with coupons inside and if you don't win it you can get a coupon from her site to save $1. So go enter and you may win :)

Coupons

I told you a few weeks ago that I would keep you posted on how my shopping with coupons is going. I have learned that I can get better deals at Kroger (since they double coupons) using coupons than I can always get at Walmart buying store brands. Now there are always some items that are cheaper and that I still make a special trip to Walmart to purchase, but all in all I can shop at Kroger for less. You have to learn what the prices are and do your homework.

Last time I shopped at Kroger I saved almost $50 using coupons and store sales. Then I went to Walmart and purchased some card games (that I had coupons for) and saved $16. That was a fun shopping day. I would, however, love to save more. I'm learning that I do need to buy a Sunday paper because there are coupons in the paper that aren't available to print straight from your computer. But there are a LOT of coupons that you can use online. I go to the blog website mommysnacks.net where every week she actually post all the sales and where you can get coupons and what your end price will be after using the coupon. I have gotten stuff free using this website. The week I saved $50 I bought "I can't believe it's not butter" for .06 and two packages of shredded Kraft cheese free, along with some other great deals. I also keep up with 5dollardinners.com to find cheap dinner meals for our family. With my family being larger than her family I spend more than $5 on some dinners but I still save in the end.

So here is another way I help to keep our budget down while we are working on getting out of debt. Every little bit helps and it really feels good when I can save :)

"Preserved Through Motherhood" Part 6

Above Rubies article Preserved through Motherhood by Nancy Campbell. Continued...

Oxytocin

God is so good to the mother. he doesn't give her a baby and say, "Here you are; now you can manage on our own." Instead, He gives her two hormones to help her with mothering. Both oxytocin and prolactin are produced in the pregnant and nursing mother. Oxytocin is known by different names-the "love" hormone, the "cuddle" hormone and the "bonding" hormone. I love to call it the "calming" hormone. When the mother puts the baby to the breast and the milk lets down, she experiences a calming feeling come over her. Often she will fall to sleep on the job! This is such a wonderful boon to a mother, especially when she has a number of little children. I was not a calm and relaxed person when I started on the adventure of mother-the very opposite, in fact. But as I nursed my babies over the years, constantly being calmed by this

God-given hormone, my personality changed. My daughters used to call it "relaxin" instead of "oxytocin."

A dear young mother, who I know personally, gave birth to her third baby when her husband had an accident with very serious head injuries. It was touch-and-go for his life. Well-wishing friends advised her to wean her baby because it would be too much for her to cope with, especially as she had to drive an hour and a half to the city each day to visit her husband. But her wise mother encouraged her to continue nursing. Every day, through the long difficult months, she took her nursing baby to the hospital with her. The hormone oxytocin helped reduce her stress levels during this trying ordeal.

Oxytocin is also released in love-making, touching and even eating together. I am sure we would see a lot more peace and contentment if families would sit together and fellowship for their family meals. It is interesting that studies reveal less domestic abuse in breastfeeding families. And few breastfed mothers suffer from postpartum depression.

Oxytocin also causes contraction of the uterus, which inhibits the risk of bleeding and promotes the return of the uterus to its original shape and size.

Prolactin

Prolactin, which in involved in milk production, also has a calming and sedating affect upon the mother. Prolactin increases with sucking stimulation. the more a mother nurses her baby, the more prolactin she produces and the more motherly she feels. An interesting study disclosed that when prolactin was injected into a rooster, he became clucky, gathering the little chickens under his wings. Researchers on animals in the wild show that while nursing, the mother will fight to death any intruder that would touch her young one. But once she has weaned, the young animal is left to fight for itself. This hormone binds the mother to the baby and causes her to be very motherly and protective.

More later...

"Preserved Through Motherhood" Part 5

Above Rubies article Preserved through Motherhood by Nancy Campbell. Continued...

Anti-Aging

Estriol, this wonderful pregnancy hormone, also has anti-aging properties.

Manufacturers are now using estriol in face creams to reduce wrinkles, maintain skin firmness, elsaticity and moisture content. This is just another proof of being preserved through motherhood. Every pregnancy will help your aging. I love this, don't you?

Adrenal Fatigue

Pregnancy can help heal the adrenals. I know a young mother who suffered with panic attacks because of going through a serious trial in her life. She feared getting pregnant again knowing she did not want to combine the traumatic panic attacks with pregnancy. Eventually, after much research she read that adrenal burn out could be remedied through pregnancy. She went ahead in faith, became pregnant and has not had a panic attack since. Adrenal Fatigue, The 21st Century Stress Syndrome, page 252 quotes, "Pregnancy helps adrenal fatigue because the fetus produces a greater amount of natural adrenal hormones than the amount in the non-pregnant female."

More later - Oxytocin and Prolactin

"Preserved Through Motherhood" Part 4

Above Rubies article Preserved through Motherhood by Nancy Campbell. Continued...

Human Chorionic Gonadotropin

Do you feel sick when pregnant? It is the hormone, hCG, which is produced by the placenta to maintain the early stages of pregnancy. Don't despair,; try and smile for it is actually a blessing. when you feel lousy with morning sickness, remember that this hormone is helping you to prevent cancer. Johana Vanegas, M.D., a research associate at Fox Chase, revealed that rats exposed to hCG over a 21 day period (the length of rat pregnancy), are far less likely to develop breast cancer when exposed to a known carcinogen.

Estriol

Estriol is a protective estrogen hormone. It is one of the three estrogens produced by the body-estrone, estradiol and striol. During pregnancy the body produces up to 1,000 times more estriol to protect teh mother and developing baby.

In one particular study, researchers compared estriol levels during pregnancy with breast cancer incidence 40 years later. Results revealed that of the 15,000 women who entered the study, those with the highest levels of estriol relative to other estrogens during pregnancy had the lowest cancer risk. As the relative level of estriol increased during pregnancy, risk of breast cancer decreased 40 years later. In fact, women with the highest level of estriol during pregnancy had 58% lower risk for breast cancer compared with women who had the lowest serum estriol levels.

Estriol has also been shown to improve EAE, MS and collagen-induced arthritis. It also has benefits for heart health, bone density and postmenopausal health.

Later - Anti-Aging and Adrenal Fatigue

"Preserved Through Motherhood" Part 3

Above Rubies article Preserved through Motherhood by Nancy Campbell. Continued...

Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women. With every menstrual cycle, cells in the breast grow and divide and therefore have the possibility of accumulating mutations which could lead to breast cancer. Therefore, the longer a mother breastfeeds, the less likelihood of breast cancer. In The International Journal of Epidemiology it says that breastfeeding can reduce the risk of breast cancer by up to 30 percent.

David Bjerklie writes in Time Magazine, "An analysis of nearly 50 studies involving 150,000 women in 30 countries found that the number of children women bear and how long they breast-feed may help determine their chance of developing breast cancer. Women who had six or seven children and breast-fed each for two years had cancer rates less than half those of women who had two or three children and breast-fed them for only two months.

And what about your figure? Breastfeeding helps you to get back into shape sooner, bringing you back to size by six weeks postpartum. And you use up to 500 calories a day while nursing! Isn't that good? I loved all the years I was nursing babies. I didn't have to worry about what I ate and I still stayed slim!

Later - Human Chorionic Gonadotropin and Estriol

"Preserved Through Motherhood" Part 2

Above Rubies article Preserved through Motherhood by Nancy Campbell. Continued...

We are Preserved Physically

Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer is on the increase today. Twenty-two thousand women are diagnosed each year and 15,000 die of this cancer. One of the reasons is that women are cutting off childbearing. Pregnancy and breastfeeding provide a crucial resting period for the ovaries. Because of limiting their families, most women today are ovulating about 450 times during their life time instead of only about 150 times.

An article called Timing of Pregnancy and the Risk of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer states,"The accumulated evidence from epidemiological studies suggests that the risk of epithelial cancer of the ovary is strongly related to the number of ovulations throughout a woman's reproductive life." Pregnancy hormones are beneficial to the ovaries. They help to clear precancerous cells from the epithelial lining of the ovary. Because older women will have accumulated more cells than younger women, pregnancy at an older age is also a blessing." A case-controlled study revealed that women 30 years of age or older at the time of their last birth had approximately half the risk of women who completed childbearing before age 25 years. Another study reported a 60% increased risk of ovarian cancer among women who delivered their last birth before age 25 compared with women who delivered at an older age."

The more children a mother has, the less risk of ovarian cancer. Women who bear their first child before the age of 22 are less likely to develop ovarian cancer which again proves the Bible when it says,"As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth." (Psalm 127:4) Interestingly, a mother who gives birth to twins, or more, reduces her risk of ovarian cancer even more than a single pregnancy.

More Later - Reduced risk of breast cancer