2015 the year of TSW

It's been almost 2.5 years since one of the worst periods of my life... I have never written about it because well it is a time in my life that I wanted to forget.  I didn't want to relive any of it and I was embarrassed.  Until now, because well I have realized that I am over the trauma and now I feel like if I can help just 1 person who is living with eczema or with TSW (Topical Steroid Withdrawal) then it is worth trying.  So I am going to be vulnerable with you all, and share my story. 

In 2015 my eczema became the worst its ever been since I was a kid or at least since I can remember.  I was going to the dermatologist almost weekly to try everything they could think of.  Test after test, cream after cream, prednisone for weeks, and the start of photo light therapy.  My skin was getting worse and worse and it was affecting my life so much that I could barley work, I couldn't take care of my kids, and I fell into depression.  

Finally after hours and hours, night after night of researching, I came across TSW or Topical Steroid Withdrawal and also the 'Flawless Program'.   After a week of hesitation I took a leap of faith and I signed up for the Flawless program.  When I received it, I stayed up all night reading and it was like everything started to make sense.  Basically this program explained why my eczema was getting worse, why it never cleared up, and why I have been dealing with this my whole life.  You guys, I cried with happiness because in all my life, this was what I had been waiting for.  What I had wanted to hear from doctors but never did.  It gave me hope that someday I could be freed of this horrible disease and freed from steroid creams.

So that next day, I went cold turkey with my asthma medication and all the steroids I was on to "control" my eczema.  The idea behind it all was this:

When I was little, I had eczema (dry skin and itchy to the point of making myself bleed).  My mom took me to the dermatologist.  He prescribed hydrocortisone cream.  My mom put that on my spots and it cleared it up.  Then it came back and so she continued to put cream on to help my eczema.  This cycle of having eczema, going to the doctor, and him prescribing higher doses of steroid creams each time continued for 32 years.  By this time in 2015, I was using the highest dose of steroid cream and it wasn't helping.  My skin was so thin that any time I itched which was always, it would break open.  So I started on Prednisone which is a steroid taken everyday by mouth that helped clear it up but made me feel horrible and was not a fix but a band aid.

Christina the founder of the flawless program was the first person to tell me that all this time, my skin was actually addicted to steroids!! I mean how did I not think of that before? That is what steroids do... they are addictive in nature.  So every time my skin showed signs of what I thought was eczema it was actually just my skin saying "give me steroids".   And the reality was for most of my life, I probably didn't even have eczema but instead my skin was addicted to steroids and when it didn't have it, it flared up and showed signs of dry rashy itchy and cracking skin (which is what dermatologists look for when diagnosing eczema).

So her program was extreme and broken down into stages.  The program was to help guide me to rid my body of all steroids and help repair my skin function, and my body's auto immune system.  To do this, you stop all medications and change my eating habits toward foods that are easily digestible, anti-inflammatory, and healing for skin.  This meant not only was I not able to eat gluten, dairy or sugar of any kind, but that hundreds of other grains,vegetables, fruit, and meat were off limits.  Foods that are healthy for skin were allowed only. (ie. grass fed beef, rice, cooked vegetables, and sweet potatoes)  And the reason why the diet was so extreme was because as I started to realize the symptoms of going off topical steroids are by far the worst thing I have ever been through.  So by changing your diet, you are helping the symptoms diminish and helping your skin repair from the inside out.  

Every inch of my skin was itchy, red, inflamed, and broke down.  I remember sitting in a HOT bath for hours just to take away the pain.  This was my lowest.  I couldn't do anything else.  I was just too itchy.  So for 9 months this continued and was told each step of the way what to look for next and to keep going and that it gets worse before it gets better.  I also kept up with going to photo-light therapy twice a week.  This is going to the dermatology office and stepping into a total body UVB light rays for a few seconds - a couple minutes.  The light helps decrease inflammation, increase vit. D, and "sanitizes" the raw skin.  You do get a tiny burn each time, but I swear by it, and I know it helped me during this withdrawal phase.  

At about 6 months I hit the worst of it.  But weeks after this, it was like something shifted.  My symptoms were exactly on point with the program and my skin started to heal and change.  The last 3 months my skin was looking so much better but my body when through the worst itching I have ever had.  It was constantly itching.  But it was all mental. My brilliant mother suggested using a TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation)machine.  This is a small devise that I kept on my body all day and night and hooked up the leads to where ever was the itchiest place.  When I had an itch, I cranked up the machine and it delivered a electric impulse to that area which gave it a shock of pain.  But... the pain would make my itch go away.... it was a miracle! So instead of itching and breaking my skin, I could instead endure a little pain to that area  and then with in seconds it would stop.  I did this for about 3 months and finally 9-11 months later my body was healed.  I no longer was having flare ups, I no longer had itching, my skin had NEVER looked better.  Also eating so healthy helped me lose all the baby weight which was an added bonus.  I was the happiest I had ever been in a long time.  It changed my life, it saved my life, and I owe it all to Christina who had the gut to design a program and inform others of what doctors still to this day do not understand.

Fast forward 2.5 years and I haven't touched any steroid creams and never will again!  For me, because I do have eczema and extremely dry skin, everyday I use Cetaphil cleanser and Cetaphil lotion and essential oils.  I also have found some tried and true companies that I could highly recommend.  Together I have a non-toxic skin regimen and although I get the occasion skin flare up still from eczema, I know how to treat it naturally.  I didn't need to keep up the strict diet because my body can function properly now and can fight the natural inflammation that happens with eating food that is not so great for you.  When I do have the occasional flare up, I can almost pin point now what caused it.  Be it food I ate or if I have been stressed out.  Stress for me is a huge factor in my eczema.   I notice that when I am feeling anxiety or worried and I almost always start itching my hands.  This is where essential oils have been a huge game changer.  Using essential oils to keep my stress low and my anxiety under control.

I can only pray that other people will understand the consequences steroid creams have.  I pray that people will stop putting them on their kids.  I pray that people who suffer from eczema will be able to sift through all the eczema "cures" and find the same information I have... I pray for these people every day.  

If you know anyone who deals with eczema, please don't hesitate to reach out to me.  I will forever be on a mission to educate.  

xoxo

Adaira Waveland

Our sweet new baby girl was born late on November 22nd.  She weighed 7lbs 2 oz and 20in tall.  

Our hearts are full, our family is complete and we are forever grateful.  

Adaira you are so loved and welcome to our little family of five.

Baby Girls Nursery

 When we moved into our new house, knowing it was only a 3 bedroom and knowing we were pregnant, we immediatly put the two older kids together in the 2nd largest room.  They were so thrilled to share a room!  It made the move alot easier because they had each other and they had a new space where they could chit chat all night long, play, and be the best friends that they are.  So this 3rd bedroom kind of became the storage room until we unpacked and also our office. 

So once we had unpacked and moved the desk into the playroom, we finally could start on making this room 'her' room.  I of course wanted an all white room but decided to add pops of color.  I have tried so hard to do this nursery on a budget and I can say that I did pretty darn good.  Over the past years and past moves, I had purged most everything we had for a baby.  So I knew that setting a budget for the room decor and the baby essentials was gonna be tough.  But I started collecting things early on and bought most everything on sale, the rest is all DIY.  One of my favorite finds was this rug here.  I had kept the crib mattress for when we had sleep overs or family visiting, but I found this almost new crib on Craigslist.  The lamp KC built, the side table was from our bedroom, and book shelves were from Lachlyn's old room.  I spent a lot of time and research looking into gliders.  I knew that it was a key item that I needed for breastfeeding and for reading books, two things I take pretty seriously here.  Because this room is pretty small, I had to find a glider that did not take up too much space.  Also wanting to keep it in budget I found this one here.  After reading hundreds of reviews on a dozen chairs, I choose this one.  And I am so glad I did!  It fits perfectly and is so comfortable.  Something that I was concerned with when buying online.  It glides and swivels incredibly smooth and fits me and KC.   Another tip for buying items is to put them on your registry.  I got 15% off through a registry, 5% using a target debit card and then waited until I saw a promotion on getting $40 back if you spend over $150.

The dresser is an old dresser but I bought cute drawer pulls from home goods to dress it up a little.  The shelves over the changing pad are another favorite of mine.  Buying already made leather strap shelves can cost over $100 on etsy.  But I found this blog that helped me get started on making my own for less than $25.   I changed it a little by adding screws to hold them to the wall, and leather push pins to hold the leather to the wood.  Now they are super secure and baby safe. 

Organization and storage in the room was a big deal since her closet is still being used for my craft supplies and office supplies.  I only had 1 shelf to use to put extra diapers, everything else is in that dresser.  I really have only bought essentials for this girl.  I did buy 1 toy for her room, and 1 toy for her car seat and that is it!  I'm sure she will get more later and really who needs toys when you have 2 older sibling to entertain you. 

I am still waiting to put some kind of art piece above the crib but haven't decided what to do yet.  We still haven't even decided on a name yet!!!  Hoping to get a little more clarity these next couple weeks.  - eek

In the Moses basket are some of my favorite special items I purchased for little girl.  The cutest Sherpa lined bonnet ever was from Stella + Wilbur.   Pacifier is by Natursutten.  Pacifier clip is from Wild Creek Co.  Newborn beanie is from one of my favorites, Candy Kirby Designs.  The wooden brush and the Medihoney is from Amazon. 

I love this space.  I am so ready for her and have wanted her for so long that I tend to just hang out in here for no reason.  Can't wait to share of what else I found that are new to me, and other items that I got again knowing from prior experience how much I loved them.  

why three?

The story behind baby Fletcher kinda gets me a little emotional which well now a days isn't hard to do.  ( preggo hormones are no joke!)  So KC and I have been married for almost 14 years now and we both have always talked about having 2 kids.  So after we had Lachlyn we both were kinda feeling like ok, we have a boy and a girl and were pretty much done with babies.  KC felt complete but I was always on the fence... I didn't want to agree to never but I was happy with where we were at.   

About a year or two later I started getting pretty bad baby fever.  I also started to feel bad that Lachlyn wouldn't have a sister.  KC was still pretty set on just two kids.  I admired his thinking in a way.  He really wanted to give each kid everything we could.  He wanted to provide the best we could and be able to go and do more.  So I continued to push my desire of a 3rd deep inside.  Well another year passes and that feeling didn't just grow a little, it was like I felt full force that I wanted another little one and I started regretting.  KC and I had many many talks over months and months and I had asked him to do some serious praying about what God had in store for us.  I prayed everyday for God to take that feeling away because I knew how badly KC felt. 

So Lachlyn turned 3, and Rhone was 5 and the age gap started to grow.  So months passed and KC and I had another talk... he said that he had been praying and that he felt like God was calling us to adopt.  I cried many tears of joy and knew that I felt like adoption was also what God wanted.  Because of my auto immune issues, asthma, and eczema I really was so frightened to push my luck with healthy kids.  I have always been so incredible fearful of passing down my issues to one of children.  So right away, I went to our church and started on the path to researching what organization we would want to go through.  We had meetings with our church and with the organization.  I filed all the paper work and yet in the back of our minds we knew we couldn't afford it.  (don't get me started on the how I feel about the costs of adoption: that's a whole other post) 

We prayed and prayed and had hope that God would provide.  We also new that in our current rental house there was no more room for another little one so we started looking into buying a house.  The housing costs here are pretty expensive and we weren't quite sure how our little savings that we did have could cover the down payment on a house and adoption.  So we decided to make steps in a responsible way and bought our house first so that we could provide for our family.  We also decided to take out the IUD I had for birth control and to pray and leave this whole decision up to God.  So we put in offers and offers until finally I think it was the offer #6 we finally got ours accepted.  And well God worked pretty fast and that same week we found out our offer on our house was accepted we also found out that we also were PREGNANT!  It was quite a emotional time, it was a lot of change and a lot to take in. 

On a side note // It is pretty amazing how when I get to a place that I can't handle and I give it up to God, he delivers in such amazing ways.  I feel so blessed to have my relation ship with God and to be able to go to him and in our marriage and trust him that he knows better what is right for our family then we know ourselves. 

This house, with out a doubt was a gift from God and so was this precious baby!  We are so excited and can't wait to have her in our arms.  I was a little worried about the age gap between the kids but I also have come to realize that it is going to be so different than when I had a baby and a toddler!  Rhone and Lachlyn completely understand what is going to happen and are preparing already with playing mother and learning how to take care of babies.  This baby girl will get so much attention and love that I am not sure my heart can handle it! 

KC has been working so incredibly hard not only at work where he is killing it, but also on our fixer upper house.  There were projects that we have been doing over here in full force to get them done before she comes.  I am so thankful that I have been healthy enough to continue to work so that we can pay for the house work and prepare for our little family of 5! 

I am now 35 weeks along and counting the days until we get to see her face!  Thanking God each day giving us these 3 little blessings and can't wait to post about her arrival! 

Family of 5 coming soon

Last weekend my amazing sister went with us to take some pics of our family,  bump included!  I am about 34 weeks now and we are going crazy in anticipation for this little girl!  She will be the missing piece to our puzzle and I know her brother and sister can't wait to hold her.  Baby Fletcher, we can't wait to meet you and you are already so loved xoxo

School Daze

  

The dreaded back to school happened this September... dreaded because I much prefer my kids with me.  Weird to some but when your a working mom, time with your kids is priceless.  Plus, we don't need a schedule, I don't need to pack a lunch and snacks everyday, and no homework!  It really is a lot of work for the parents when kids are in school am I right?!  But Rhone thrives in school and Lachlyn now is too!  It's pretty amazing to see their excitement each morning.  Because we moved this spring, Rhone had started 1st grade at his new school.  I was a complete wreck while he was Mr. cool.  He wasn't nervous, he had gotten over being away from his old friends and after frequent visits to his new school over the summer to play at the play ground he was actually really excited.  I envy his confidence.  I gave him a goal the first day to meet 1 friend and he came out that day with a couple!  Granted he didn't know their names, but he is so friendly and kind that making friends comes easy for him.  

Another huge thing that happened the morning of his 1st day, was his 1st wiggly tooth!  He was so excited but also very nervous because he was concerned about eating or loosing the tooth at school.  Little did we know it took 2 weeks for the sucker to fall out.  

Lachlyn also started at a new preschool this year in Pre-K.  She goes 2 days a week and she absolutely loves it!  Last year she was in a preschool daycare so she is pretty used to the routine and going every day I work, but this school is a little different.  It is bilingual Montessori school so were hoping she comes out knowing a little more Spanish than me (which is pretty easy to do:).   This school also picks Rhone up after his school gets out so at the end of the day, they get to see each other which they say is their favorite part.  

I have to say, this whole school business is stressful for me.  Not the kids or KC, just me... I wish I could home school and keep them in a bubble with me, but they are free bird kids and they love being on their own and thriving in new environments.   Does anyone else learn from their kids as well?  They continually teach me.  Looking through the eyes of a child can really make you realize that life is an adventure, its easy, its fun, and isn't' that exactly what God asks us to do with our faith.

Life Lately

Life Lately... well I took a 3 month break from this whole blog thang.  Life for us has been pretty hectic.  I can't believe the last thing I posted was Lachlyn's birthday!!  I can't even believe that i haven't even blogged our crazy exciting news yet?!  - I'll get to that in the next post-  Between kids being out of school, moving into a fixer upper house, and me working practically full time now it's been hard to set aside time for this space.  But I have missed it!  I have missed writting.  I have missed taking endless pictures and posting them here.  I feel like I have missed the whole summer. 

Speaking of summer, tomorrow Rhone goes off to school! School!!! I can't even believe how fast this summer went.  I feel like I just wrote about him ending Kindergarten and now he's off to 1st grade.  He is so excited which is pretty huge when I think about just 4 short months ago he was crying crocodile tears about leaving his school and his friends.  This summer was so great and being in the new house for about 5 months now, he has adjusted a lot more to the neighborhood and his school which we purposefully took him to play and ride bikes all summer in hopes he would grow to love it.
 // can't wait to share his 1st day with you all soon//

This summer has been pretty full.  We worked hard but we also played hard.  We took some amazing trips full of great memories this summer.  2 Camping trips, kids stayed with the grandparents for a week by themselves, California, Disneyland, and many small weekend trips around WA.

But finally our big news is that we are expecting baby #3 this November!!!!

We are so crazy excited and it has been a long journey to get to this point.  This little baby GIRL is such a blessing from God and we are beyond ready for her.  I will try to post soon about her little story and how she came into our lives.

Coming into to this new season of fall and school starting I am excited to get back to updating my little space.  Love that this little diary of mine is so forgiving and love that I can write and share this part of my life here.   And although I have over 2000 pictures sitting here on my computer of just this summer, here are just a few of our summer.