When I dreamt up ōNLē ORGANICS it wasn’t a dream about just products. It was bigger. I dreamt of a way to reach mamas who are feeling alone in motherhood. Alone and lost in either their own or their child’s wellness. And while I am not a licensed professional, I am a mama myself. A mama that has felt lost and alone. A mama who struggled to find my child’s health for over 2.5 years. I know what it’s like and I want to help other mamas navigate such fragile times. I dream that ōNLē will offer community and friendship. I carry products because I don’t think it should be so hard for mamas to find quality wellness but my biggest dream is to offer the connection mamas need to thrive in motherhood.
Not long after I launched ōNLē I received a message from a mama who humbly shared her experience with me. She was a new mama feeling completely lost because all the advice she was receiving from pediatricians, family and friends contradicted what her heart knew was right.
A few months have passed now. I Just received an email from this mama sharing an update and her overall experience. With her permission I have copied it to this post. I will let you read it from here. But this! This is my dream. It’s alive! ♡
“As I’m writing this, my sweet little girl is sleeping sound after a fun filled day full of smiles and playtime; something that I wouldn’t dare to imagine just a few short months ago. I wanted to start out my story by prefacing that I wasn’t asked to share it, but I felt it was important because there are so many mamas out there in similar positions, wanting to do everything in their power to help their child but not knowing where to start. And while I really like our pediatrician, it felt like I wasn’t being truly heard when we were seeing our daughter struggle and the colic diagnosis we received was just a way of lumping her symptoms into a broad category without much help or support.
To give a little background, I gave birth to our daughter in February 2020 via cesarean section after making every attempt to flip her from her breech position {although, I firmly believe that she knew it was best for her to stay head}. I had hyperemesis throughout my pregnancy and was more than happy to know things would get better as soon as she was born. While it wasn’t the birth I imagined, it was the best thing for us and I’m thankful that she is here, safe and sound. I was lucky to have such a wonderful team of care providers and doctors and am grateful for the care we received.
As a first-time mom, I had all the things to bring our baby home, but I was nowhere near prepared enough for the emotional rollercoaster that was about to come. Throw in a global pandemic, and the isolation, stress and frustration was crushing.
At about 6 weeks old, we started to notice that her temperament was not getting better as she acclimated to life outside the womb. She was screaming day and night and didn’t seem to be soothed by anything. We were living on the yoga ball, bouncing for what seemed like an eternity day and night. I was feeding round the clock and our jaws hurt from making the shushing noise. There were endless tears from both of us, and my heart was broken watching her in pain and feeling like nothing I was doing was good enough.
Like any new mom would do, I Googled until the end of the internet and sought out the advice from our pediatrician, trusted friends, and family members. I tracked everything and followed wake windows and sleepy cues with more focus than I’ve given anything in my life. Even after talking in detail about what we were seeing, everyone’s advice felt like a band aid and not a fit for what I knew was best for her. While their advice came from a good place, everyone {except our pediatrician} kept recommending switching her to formula, saying it would calm her down and fill her up so she would sleep better. I knew this wasn’t the answer because I had enough milk to feed the neighborhood and knew she was getting the fore and hind milkbalance as recommended. Breastfeeding is a whole other journey on its own, and easily one of the hardest things I’ve done, but I’m glad we stuck with it.
Along with the advice seemed to come judgement, especially when things didn’t improve over the weeks, which just spiraled insecure thoughts and self-doubt. Deep in my heart, I knew something wasn’t right and knew I needed to advocate for my daughter. And because postpartum can be so challenging on its own, adding unnecessary guilt and shame to something out of your control isn’t necessary and thankfully there is hope.
While scrolling through social media and snuggling with a very sleep deprived baby, I saw Sarah’s post about Onle and her journey on their travel profile, and it felt like I was meant to see it when I did. After reading her story, I was elated to know that there was someone else out there experiencing so many of the same things we were and that she had taken it upon herself to provide a solution for the rest of us. After reaching out to Sarah, she graciously offered to call me and talk through what I was seeing. And after our call, I felt a million times lighter and finally had some hope.
We talked through what I was seeing in my daughter, our breastfeeding journey so far, family history of allergies and sensitivities and just life as a mom. It was the first time in weeks that I felt heard and supported in trusting my intuition. Our daughter was experiencing so much of what Sarah’s kids went through:
•Smelly poop– after reading that breastfed baby stool should smellsweet;I knew thatwe needed to get her on probiotics to help balance her gut. Thankfully, that fixed thefoul-smellingstool.•Mucus – she always seemed to be trying to clear excess mucus that we couldn’t see and at times it would get worse after nursing.I knew it had to be due to something she was getting through my milk, but I could never pin-point what it was.•Crying… all the crying– of course we knew babies cried, but she was crying and fussing for hours on end day and night.•Eczema– while we would expect to see some eczema in the creases of her elbows and knees, she had it all over her belly along with other patches all over.•How she hated being touched –after her bath or while changing her, she would cry. Even applying warm lotion was a struggle because she didn’t want to be touched.•How she hated being changed –even if we had cute newborn outfits to put on her, we wouldn’t dare because she would scream if we tried to put her in anything other than full zip pajamas.•How much she hated tummy time–the doctors, books, new mom group instructor all stressed the importance of tummytime,but we were lucky to get 15 seconds of a day at most.•How she was eating round the clock–I know babies need to eat a lot, but even after getting far more than the average number of feedings, she was still eating to soothe something.•How she always needed to be held and moving–as mentioned, we lived on the yoga ball, we couldn’t simply sit stationary and snuggle with our daughter, she had to either be bouncing or rocking to be calm.
After talking, I asked her what she would recommend. And, ever humble and kind, she recommended starting with the sensitivity kit to rule out anything that could be passed through the milk without having to do even more elimination and reintroductions. Although, knowing that I needed to start healing my gut as well because everything is so symbiotic when you are breastfeeding, I wanted to kickstart a cleanup on my side and then see if the same thing worked for my daughter. As you can imagine, with any major surgery, I was pumped full of antibiotics and pain medication during my cesarean section, which of course made its way into our daughter by default. By the time she arrived, both of our guts needed a little {read, a LOT} of help to heal.
I opted to go with the Candida Kit and UNEARTH sensitivity test and the difference has been incredible. Like anything worthwhile, it was not an overnight fix, but over the course of a few weeks we really started to see how everything worked holistically. Mind you, I am still a firm believer in modern medicine, but sometimes adding simple clean solutions to your regimen makes all the difference.
UNEARTH Sensitivity and Allergy Test – knowing that allergies and sensitivities ran in my family, I had a suspicion that there was something in my diet that was causing her distress. And after randomly eliminating and reintroducing foods, a simple finger prick blood test gave us answers. My sneaky suspicion that peanuts were a problem was right on, but other foods that I thought were causing reactions didn’t show up as reactive.
NOURISH Probiotic – I had been taking what I thought was a decent probiotic for years and was happy to try a new one to see if it would make a difference. I was shocked because I could absolutely tell that it was working after one dose. My system became more regular and I wasn’t as sluggish as I had been.
CLEANSE – After all the antibiotics from the c-section, and early case of mastitis, I knew I needed to jumpstart my healing process allowing for the probiotics to work their magic.
BALANCE CBD – I’ve taken CBD in the past, but stopped as soon as I found out I was pregnant and wasn’t really thinking about it until I read more about the Onle’s CBD and felt comfortable taking it again to get back to a balance that would help me function better as a mom, wife and person in general. I could tell a difference a short time after starting it, because I was in a more relaxed state and my nerves didn’t feel like they were frayingevery time our daughter would break into a colicky (heartbreaking) cry.
BALANCE for KIDS CBD – after trying creams, ointments and even prescriptions to help soothe her skin, Sarah recommended using some of the kids CBD on her rash and sure enough it helped calm the inflammation! I was so happy to have something to rub on her face and temple because she would just paw at it endlessly, but I didn’t want to put anything with chemicals that could go in her eye or eventually her mouth because her hands went right in her mouth at all times.
RELIEVE – bug bites, heat rash, eczema patches are all soothed immediately. For example, while we were playing a bug got her in her nipple and it turned bright red so we grabbed the Relieve gel and within 3 minutes it was completely back to normal.
While I could write and talk for days in detail about our journey this far, I will simply wrap up by saying that I am beyond grateful for Sarah and Onle and all the calm it has brought to our little family. If you are looking for amazing products with a creator who truly cares about you, you’ve come to the right place. And, if you would like to know more about what we’ve experienced, I’m sure Sarah and put us in touch and I can rave even further.”
Here are a few before and after pictures of her babies skin.
Reach out to me mamas. You are not alone in your journey of motherhood.
XO, Sarah
