Regarding Hives & Blessed Mary 12/27/95 Greetings, Salutations and Best Wishes to all for the Holidays and the New Year!! I so admire what this exchange is all about. Hives: I've always gotten hives at transitional times in my life and they continued mercilously until I calmed down. The following happened over a period of 15 years and stopped 18 years ago. 1) When I decided not to return to College, I got them 15 minutes after I got up in the morning and started walking around. As soon as I laid down they'd disappear. It took me a week to calm down enough for them to leave. 2) When I got pregnant and doubted my ability to sustain life. I went to LLL meetings and after a week of conferring about my fears, they stopped. 3) When we got the key to the house we finally bought, it was such a surprise, I broke out in hives. After more conferencing I was given three indications to take a bath and three things to put in it, peppermint, oatmeal and as much epson salts and I wished. I took the bath a long time, adding hot water to keep it warm and when I got out I felt totally tranquilized and they went away. Blessed Mary: Did she need schedules and instructions in the barn that held the manger? I so glad I nursed my son until he weaned himself because I've never doubted my intention to give him the best! At nearly 18 he recently concurred that he thinks our relationship is strong because of that closeness we've had. Despite all the neurotic baggage we've been able to work things through. I fear for the lack of tenderness in the world that's needed to encourage and support mothers. EJSharp - Aspiring BF Advocate