Grounding Blend Essential Oil- A Lifesaver for This New Mom!

First off, I must apologize for not maintaining this blog for the last few months. I had my first baby on September 8th, 2014, but he had some severe complications during delivery that landed him in the NICU at Vanderbilt Hospital for six weeks. Our baby was diagnosed with Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (when the umbilical cord stopped giving him oxygen while I was in labor with him) and Meconium Aspiration Syndrome (where he passed meconium before he was born and aspirated it in his lungs).

Our baby boy, Tommy, a few hours after he was born.

Those six weeks were the hardest times in my life and my husband's life. We spent the first two weeks not knowing whether our baby was going to live or die, and the last four weeks trying to get him to stay stable and helping him get through his withdrawals from morphine. (He had to be put on morphine because he was in so much pain, and he became addicted to it.) My husband and I went through the "refiner's fire", so to speak. We learned and grew in so many ways for our greater good from this scary experience. On October 13th, 2014, we were blessed to bring our beautiful baby boy home, completely healthy and happy, and miraculously, with no lasting complications.

I want to share with you an amazing experience I had with the Grounding Blend while he was weaning off his morphine.

The first two or three weeks, I didn't feel comfortable putting any essential oils on him. He was so sick, and I didn't want to interfere with any protocols that the doctors were doing. But after a few weeks, he started doing much better and I started putting Frankincense lotion that my mother-in-law made on his skin, since it was dry and peeling. It helped so much with moisturizing his skin and seemed to keep him calm. I also put a special blend on him to help with his withdrawals.

The oil I want to focus on today is the Grounding blend. This oil has been THE oil that helped us get out of the hospital sooner than later. This blend consists of Spruce, Rosewood, Frankincense, and Blue Tansy essential oils, diluted with Fractionated Coconut Oil.

After my son stabilized and was able to breathe on his own, he moved out of critical care and into a regular hospital room where my husband and I were able to stay with him all day and all night. He was pretty healthy at this point, except that he wasn't eating on his own and had to be fed through a tube and was still working on getting off of morphine.

At this point, the morphine withdrawals were the worst part. The doctors were cutting only .05 ml every other day, as long as he could handle it. But he would have some pretty severe withdrawal symptoms. When he first started withdrawing, he was throwing up constantly and had a fever, tremors, and sweating. After a while, he stopped the throwing up, but the fever, tremors, and sweating continued. He also didn't sleep and wouldn't eat very well (once he was eating via bottle). He cried constantly and the only way we could get him to calm down and sleep was to hold him. But that only worked sometimes.

I remember one night, he was having an extremely difficult time with withdrawing. My mother's intuition told me that I had to use the Grounding blend. I got my coconut oil and mixed a couple drops of the Grounding blend in my hand and massaged it on his feet and the back of his neck. And within seconds... he completely relaxed and fell asleep. I was absolutely amazed, but wasn't sure if it would work again. But it did. Over and over. I finally started dropping one drop on my hand and rubbing it on his blanket or the crib sheet by his head after we put him down to help him sleep a little longer.

The last three days were the hardest for his morphine withdrawal, especially because they were cutting it in half on the first day, and on the second day he had nothing to give him that high. Not one drop of morphine. It took him about two and a half days of extreme withdrawal to get over that. My husband and I were holding him nearly 24/7, since it was the only thing that would keep his heart rate low enough to not have to go back up a dose on morphine. We also used the Grounding blend constantly. It was so amazing to see how it worked, to see him freaking out and then after applying a few drops of the blend on the bottoms of his feet, back of his neck, and down his spine, to see him turn so calm and the heart rate number on the monitor drop back to normal levels.Within seconds. It was such a miracle for us.

Because we were able to keep him calm, he went through the last three days of withdrawals without having to go back on the morphine. We were able to get out of the hospital on the day we were hoping for. I know we would not have been able to do that if it wasn't for the Grounding blend.

Not only did it keep Tommy calm, but I think it helped me stay calm. The aroma gave me just enough relief from the stress to keep going and take the best care of my son that I possibly could. I don't know what we would've done without it!

Tommy, at 6 weeks old. This is the evening we arrived home from the hospital. As you can see, he was VERY happy to finally come home!

 
Even before we were in the hospital with our baby, the Grounding blend was my FAVORITE oil ever! I love its piney smell and how it immediately brings a sense of peace and calm and center amid chaos. I can be completely stressed out, frazzled, and feeling like I'm going to lose my mind, but when I open that bottle of the blend and apply a few drops to the back of my neck or the bottom of my feet then smell my hands, I just find my center and am able to get myself back together again and keep going.

SO... I highly recommend the Grounding blend for everyone. Especially mothers! (and fathers too!) Balance is so great for those little ones when they're being extra grumpy or just plain difficult. And it's a great oil to add to a nice, relaxing, hot bath after a long day.

If you want to know more about the Grounding blend and what essential oil brand we recommend, please feel free to contact us at: journeytopersonalfreedom@gmail.com. Questions and comments are welcome!