Coreiki

I’m so excited to welcome you into the clinic for our Fall Harvest Gathering on September 26th 🍂

This one feels a little extra special. It’s our first big event since I returned from maternity leave, and it also happens to be almost one year since we celebrated the grand opening of Fern Acupuncture & Family Wellness and Apollo Acupuncture & Herbal Wellness.

Fall has always been my favorite season, and I love having a reason to gather around the equinox and celebrate the shift into a new season together. In Chinese Medicine, this time of year is an invitation to slow down, turn inward, let go of what we no longer need, and nourish ourselves for the months ahead.

We’ll spend the afternoon with Qigong, sound healing, acupuncture, seasonal tea, and plenty of time to simply connect and be in community.

Come for one session or stay for the whole afternoon. And please bring your little ones, babies and children are welcome. This is a family-friendly gathering (including all the sessions). Our baby, Atlas will be joining too 🥰

Friday, September 26 | 1–5pm�Fern Acupuncture & Family Wellness | 22110 E. Vista Way, Vista, CA 92084

The event is free! Register with the link below. We would really love to celebrate the season with you.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fall-harvest-gathering-family-wellness-community-tickets-1993945632061

I loved cantaloupe when I was pregnant!

I ate so much of it at this same time last year, until suddenly we had some that was overripe and then my smell aversion got the best of me and I was done with it!

Interestingly, this time of year coincides with the Earth element in Chinese Medicine. Earth is associated with late summer, which is typically hot, damp and sticky. The color associated with this season is yellow/orange, so typically foods of this color help balance this element. And also, sometimes too much of one food can also make Earth go out of balance.

So maybe that’s what happened to me 🤷‍♀️

The smell of overripe fruit and stinky feet stuck with me most of pregnancy but was particularly unbearable over the summer when I was in the first trimester and well into the second.

I just started eating cantaloupe again this week and can confirm it’s delicious again and even my baby is loving it!

We started introducing solids with Atlas officially since he turned 6 months and are definitely learning alot. We are focused on what’s called baby led weaning (blw) for those who are unfamiliar. Part of BLW encourages giving babies large pieces to chew on.

Cantaloupe has been an Atlas favorite. An extra perk of it is that it also contains vitamin C which supports iron absorption. At 6 months, babies iron stores become depleted, so it’s important to start supplementing. We have decided to do that with meat based products and are using vitamin C rich foods to support his absorption.

On top of nutrition alone, we are also introducing foods for the sake of Atlas learning how to eat and exploring textures. We were reminded by our pediatrician that eating at this age isn’t as much for nutrition as it is learning how to chew and swallow, as he still gets his primary nutrients from breastmilk. We are learning new things every day and are super excited about this process! Keep following along as we continue to share how this new phase goes for us 🍈🍉🍗🥩🥑🍓🥚🥕

Just some chunky baby six month summer legs to brighten your Saturday ☀️😎

Five years together and 6 months with our precious boy.

This week felt like the right time to share a little piece of our story that we’ve mostly kept close to us.

When I was very pregnant, Daniel asked me what I wanted for Christmas. Without thinking much about it, I said “I want a ring.”

So, we picked out rings over the holidays. Mine arrived on Atlas’s due date (January 19th), and we declared ourselves married. No big engagement or fancy wedding. We decided we’d do something more official one day, when and if it feels right.

Over the weekend, we celebrated five years at Seasonal Chinese Restaurant a restaurant that reflects the 24 micro-seasons in their cuisine that are also honored within Chinese medicine. There on the menu was the Fire Horse, the same Fire Horse our baby Atlas arrived with on February 4th. And sitting there together reflecting on our life, it all felt just right.

It’s been a grind these last few months navigating life with a baby, two businesses and no immediate family living close to us. We both feel really proud of ourselves for finding balance and loving each other through it all.

We are very grateful to Daniel’s sister JEN who watched Atlas for us over the weekend so we could have our date night.

I just love you Daniel Schwartz and I cherish you in this life and all the lifetimes to come ♥️

I wasn’t prepared for how emotional it would be to pack away newborn clothes.

This was one of my favorite onesies that he barely ever made it out of the house in without a p*e through 🫠

This little onesie held so many memories of those first few weeks 🥹 I look back at all the late nights, him sleeping on my shoulder, learning to be a mom, crying at the thought of something happening to him, constant feeding, etc.

In my latest YouTube video, I share what life was like (what I can recall as it’s a bit hazy) during 6-12 weeks postpartum: starting to get longer stretches of sleep, healing, baby wearing, continuing to breastfeed, getting out, and trying to hang on to the experience as it felt so fleeting 🥹

If you’re postpartum or preparing for it or know someone who is, I hope this series can be helpful and make you feel a little less alone ♥️

You can watch Postpartum Series Part 7: Weeks 6-12 on my YouTube channel (link in bio)

After a more tiring than expected day of motherhood, I collapsed onto this couch.

My husband is putting our baby to bed. There’s dishes in the sink even though we picked up lunch and dinner today. I feel guilty for sitting here, but some days it’s just like this.

I looked up and around my living room at my plants, my first babies. I actually managed to water, prune, and repot some of them these last couple of weeks after several months of slowly watching them die while sitting here feeding my baby or watching him sleep on me. I kept telling the plants that I’d get to them for weeks. And finally I did…

It reminds me of the resilience of living beings of all kinds. And it reminds me of my own resilience.

Sitting in the very living room where I had my birth tub set up where our baby was born and how this space has transformed over the last five and a half months. I now spend many hours in here playing with my baby on his play-mat.

I think about where I was five years ago. I had hoped to become a mother but wasn’t sure it would ever happen. And not just because I wasn’t sure I could get pregnant but also just if I’d be able to get all my ducks in a row to be worthy of becoming a mother. I thought that I needed to have my business a certain way, x amount of dollars saved, own a home, etc.

It turns out I didn’t need any of those things. I just needed love, trust, and many leaps of faith. Love for my life and my work has taken me much farther than I expected as everything is conspiring around me, and that has made all the difference ♥️

When it comes to babies, it’s very simple to treat with Chinese Medicine. I just use acu pressure and sometimes a little tool called a shoni shin that stimulates the points.

Most of the time I see babies 3 months to 1 year in my office but we can start as early as newborns. I treated many newborn babies at Rady Children’s hospital when I was doing my clinical internships , many who were in the ICU with very complex conditions.

I do acupressure on my six month old nightly to support his overall immune system, his specific element (in 5 element acupuncture ) and to support his sleep and digestion. It only takes a few minutes and is just like a little infant massage.

Most of the time I see babies in my office who get sick frequently at daycare. I help to knock out common cold and stomach bugs and provide continuous care with herbal medicine and showing parents acupressure points to help keep their immune systems strong. Typically babies only need 2-3 treatments to get better and then they may come again every 3-6 months for maintenance. They respond really well and very quickly. It’s non invasive and easy to do.

When it comes to herbal medicine, it’s a very low does of what are called granules like a little powder that can be added to a bottle , mixed in with food, or a little bit of water in a syringe. I started doing 1 little scoop of an immune boosting herbal formula for my baby around 3 months when we started to have other people and babies in our circle get sick. He’s stayed really healthy and we haven’t had any issues as of yet.

Some other things I like to incorporate into my pediatric treatments are Reiki, Tuina (Chinese massage), and simple essential oils like orange and lavender. Parents always get to be involved in the treatments and learn alongside babies.

Since attention and time matter with babies, I do a 1 hour (instead 2 hours like I do with adults) for initial consults and 30-minute follow ups. We adjust to their rhythms. They get to play during the treatment and listen to fun baby music and it’s great 💕

Visit my website to learn more about pediatric Chinese medicine treatments. www.fernacupuncture.com

I struggled with analysis paralysis for a very long time, in particular in early 2020 and all through the pandemic. It was a difficult time to navigate a new business and big life decisions.

I later learned in Chinese Medicine school that sitting for too long with big thoughts and emotions creates what’s called Liver Qi stagnation. It can lead to a lot of irritation, anger, headaches, sluggishness, hormonal imbalance, painful periods, etc.

Taking the leap into a new relationship in 2021 was definitely scary after recovering from divorce and heartbreak. It took me a really long time to get here, to trusting in this relationship and this big life decision of having a baby. I have to say almost 6 months into parenthood and it’s all been so worth it! I’m the happiest I’ve ever been 🥹

Yes, there have been tough moments and doubts.

Navigating postpartum life without family close by is not easy. Being a small business owner and taking the risk to even have a child and take time off was really scary. I have to constantly put faith in God, universe, spirit, and all my angels and guides that it will work out. And it is indeed working!

I feel called to helping others that may also be sitting with big life decisions, feeling stuck
and it perhaps is even creating illness or pain. I’ve been there! I so know the feeling of making a choice that will drastically change your life.

I’m here to listen and help you transform the stagnation or stuckness, whether it’s feeling like a hormonal imbalance keeping you from getting pregnant, a fear of giving birth, the endless darkness that can come with postpartum, or constant hopelessness in a complex layer of pain or health conditions. I’m here to guide you out of the dark and into the light as many times as needed.

Come see me at Fern Acupuncture & Family Wellness, 2210 E. Vista Way, Ste 2, Vista, CA 92084. Book with link in bio ✨🍃💕