A Homemade Mama and Baby Postpartum Gift

And I have to say, I'm kinda proud of it.  I've been planning this for a while to give to two of my sisters who are due within weeks of me.  This is the kind of gift I would love to get so it was a lot of fun putting it together.  Much of it was inspired by a conglomeration of other creative internet people so I definitely didn't come up with this all by myself but I'm proud that I put it together for them and I think they really liked it.

It's sort of a homemade, crunchy kind of gift :)

 Newborn Hat with a Touch of Lace

I love this pattern of Ginny's.  It is so simple and takes only an evening yet I think it makes such a beautiful little hat for a newborn.  I used organic cotton and decreased the cast on to 72 stitches since I was using thicker yarn.  And because I find most hats designed for newborns never fit my babies until they are several months old and I wanted my sisters to be able to use them on their little ones right away!

Herbal Healing Salve

The Herbal Healing Salve I put together using a bunch of different resources online.  In my slow cooker, I steeped calendula flowers, comfrey leaf, lavender (some from our own garden!), and peppermint in organic olive oil for a full day and then left it overnight.  Calendula and comfrey are known for their healing abilities.  Comfrey, especially, is good for healing tissue. 

The next day I strained the oil out squeezing as much as I could out of the leaves...it was messy.  I used a mesh strainer and some pantyhose to help strain everything I could into a glass measuring cup.  There's probably a much better way to do that, but this worked okay.  I then used Elizabeth's measurements and melted one ounce of beeswax for every 8 ounces of oil, adding the diffusion (that's the right word, right?) once the beeswax had been melted in a tiny crockpot I picked up at a garage sale this summer.  Once it was all melted together I added just a few drops of lavender oil that contains some vitamin E.  I poured the liquid into two really fancy baby food jars and a larger jar (salsa, maybe?) for our family and let it cool until firm.  It smells really good! 

In the basket the salve is meant to be used for postpartum healing on the perineum or for cesarean incisions.  However, this salve can be used for baby bottoms, little boy cuts and scrapes and chapped skin.  Michael has already been using ours for a chapped chin. :)

Lavender and Witch Hazel Bottom Spray

So simple.  Simply combine witch hazel with a few drops of lavender essential oil in a spray bottle.  This can be used directly on the healing skin after birth or sprayed onto a postpartum pad or cloth diaper.  Spraying it on the pad or cloth, then freezing before use feels really nice to a postpartum perineum :)

Postpartum Herbal Bath Tea

For the bath tea, I used 3 c. calendula, 3 c. comfrey, 1 c. lavender, and about 1/4 c. each of shepherd's purse and witch hazel leaves.  Also helpful would be St. John's Wort or plantain but I didn't have those on hand.  I combined all of the herbs in a bowl and then put about a cup of the mixture into each package, using panty hose as my tea bag.  I got about eight out of my mix.

After birth, the tea package (the whole package...don't empty it!) can be steeped in a pot of hot water on the stove for about an hour.  Then add the newly made tea to a postpartum bath with some epsom salts to help soothe and heal.  I imagine this would be good in a sitz bath as well!

To finish the gift, I put all the different pieces of the gift into a basket from the dollar store, wrapped with some tissue paper, and tied on a St. Gerard medal to the tag. 

So, there you have it:  a homemade crunchy new mama and baby gift made with lots of love!

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