How to make: Placenta encapsulation

Sliced placenta

Steamed placenta

Dried placenta

Finely ground placenta

After a particularly stressful week I have never been so thankful for the hormonal support my placenta has been giving me. There was a small lapse in timing in-between finishing my course of smoothies and starting taking my placenta pills and, gosh, did I feel it. I was a hormonal mess for about a day and a half, but lo and behold as soon as I started taking my placenta pills I have been feeling calmer and centred again.

We made two different types of placenta pill, raw and steamed. The raw ones have more of a kick to them but the steamed ones keep better.

Instructions

(By M)

Raw:

• Wash the placenta, removing any bloodclots along with the membrane (a bit like removing the skin from a chicken breast)
• Finely slice the placenta – the finer the slices the faster it will dehydrate.
• Place on a foil-lined baking tray and pop in the oven on its lowest heat until fully dried (50C / 110F. You may have to prop the oven door open if it gets too hot – you're drying it, not cooking it). That means no pink bits, the pieces of placenta should snap when folded, not tear! This can take up to 8 hours, turn halfway through.
• Remove from the foil (some might take some persuading) and put in your pestle and mortar. You could probably use a coffee grinder, but traditional Chinese medicine says this creates too much energy (?) apparently. Besides, grinding it by hand is much more satisfying.

Steamed:

• See stage 1 of 'Raw' above.
• Place the placenta in a steamer above a pan of boiling water. Only fill with water to a couple of inches depth as you don't want it boiling over. Steam the placenta with some lemon, ginger and chilli.
• As for 'Raw' above, place in the oven on the lowest possible heat.
• Grind it!

Now to encapsulate your placenta powder… You can buy a specialist encapsulator but I used a folded piece of card to fill the capsules (think refilling a pot of glitter). It's a bit fiddly, but oddly therapeutic.

Yield-wise we got roughly 30 steamed and 40 raw. We did previously remove five thumbsize pieces for smoothies and a walnut sized piece for a tincture so you may well get more, dependant on placenta size of course. Keep refrigerated in a lidded jar and take 1-2 daily.

Weekend Excursion: Columbia Road Flower Market

On Sunday, after nearly six years of living in London, I finally visited Columbia Road Flower Market.

After a coffee with friends we squeezed our way through the crowds and densely packed stalls under rays of beautiful spring sunshine. As lovely as the flowers were there are only so many stall you can walk past before they all look the same. The shops, on the other hand, are brilliant and really varied. I think I may make a trip back on a regular day so I can peruse at leisure without the crowds.

Next week it's our NCT reunion lunch so there will be no outing but I am compiling a list for all the other Sundays to come. I'm always on the look out for inspiration, so if you have any ideas please share!

The First Weekend Excursion

It was a drizzly and grey day in Greenwich but it marked a new milestone for our little family: our first family outing!

We spent a few hours meandering around the Market where hubble ate some Chinese food and I bought a summer turban. The market itself was not brilliant but the shops around the outskirts are fab. I bought my own body weight in sweets from Mr Humbug and discovered an amazing designer called Sika, the shop was a little wonder of beautiful clothes, I think I may have to buy a dress from there for my friends wedding in the summer. Yay!

I also fell in love with the paper cut art of Paper Moon, we are a little bit poor at the moment but as soon as I have some spare pennies I will be returning to buy something lovely for our walls.

Sunday is now Family Excursion day.

Roll on next weekend!

A Natural Birth

It was the only thing I've ever really revised for. I read all the books, I did my homework, I knew my options and I'd written the plan.

Apparently it doesn't work like that.

Goodbye water birth, goodbye aromatherapy and massage. Good bye yoga positions and active birthing.

Oh hi there tubes, needles, catheters and drips.

It wasn't what I wanted. I could be sad. I could feel disappointed.

But I don't.

I now have the most precious thing in the world held to my chest and she makes everything worth it.

My daughter, Bean*.

And by the way, my hand isn't normally that swollen.

*Not her real name :)

Nursery Print

The second print arrived today for the nursery. I love his happy little face. Hubble thinks he looks like a monkey. Hopefully we can start putting these things up this weekend/next week.

Very behind on my projects this week. Hopefully the headboard will be finished today so I can make a start on the pom poms.

The print is from here.

The Postman Came a Calling

I love getting post at the best of times but now I'm a nesting little home bunny it is all the more exciting (contact with the outside world!). Today the postman brought me a bundle of goodies for the nursery and little bump face...

The tissue paper is a revelation, I was so worried about trying to buy CMYK coloured tissue paper over the internet as obviously they weren't named as such and you can never tell if what you see on screen is what you will see in real life. Opening and seeing the colours was amazing. They couldn't be any more perfect. They were also very cheap and delivered in a couple of days from here, very highly recommended.

The print is by Steph Says Hello. I saw it and fell head over heels in love with it, it makes me smile every time I look at it! It was actually this and the second print (coming soon hopefully) which inspired the nursery colour and style, we had been going down a completely different avenue and the wham! this came into my life. She has a beautiful selection of prints available here of which I have got my eye on at least one other. 

The dungarees are from my favourite place to look at beautiful children's ware Love It Love It Love It. The clothes they stock are all bright and beautiful with lots of gorgeous patterns. I've only bought a couple of bits from them (unfortunately they are a bit out of our price range for baby ware- they grow too quickly!) but everything has been beautiful. The dungarees I have loved from a far for some time so when they were reduced I couldn't resist any longer. Now they are here and they are even more lovely than I expected.

Off to a Good Start

My first nursery embroidery. A bit wonky in places but not a horrific first attempt if I do say so myself.

One down, maybe three more to go. I think I may even try some new stitches for the next one. I'll be a pro before you know. 

Today I'll make a start on the headboard for the bed. Exciting times people, exciting times!

Bedroom for a Baby

We are currently in the throes of decorating. The lounge is now fully painted white ready for an onslaught of prints and pictures. It makes such a huge difference, it is now so much brighter and looks so much bigger. I'm a very happy bunny with all of Hubbles non-stop work, he has been a very good boy!

The nursery has almost finished its white makeover and we are almost ready to start introducing colours and accessories. I am very excited about this. We decided to go with a CMYK colour scheme in the end using  pom-poms, prints and fabric for the colour.

I love pom-pom displays in nurseries. Really I want one above our bed. I'm not sure how Hubble would react to that!

I love these displays (found on Ohdeedoh). The pom-poms I can do but the concertina balls -HELP! Does anyone know how to do this or where to find out?

I ordered the tissue paper today- very exciting and plan to make a start next week. I also have a small selection of glittery butterflies salvaged from an old garland from Mee Boutique to interweave with the pom-poms.

Lets just hope she doesn't make an early appearance! Only 14 days to go and so much to do!