HOUSTON METHODIST SUGAR LAND HOSPITAL

pelvic floor muscles and restore neuromuscular control. Each Emsella session brings thousands of supramaximal pelvic floor muscle contractions, which are extremely important in re-education of your muscles. “Emsella chair is beneficial to patients because strong pelvic muscles help improve sexual satisfaction, urinary issues and erectile dysfunction for men.”

The Core to Floor therapy is ideal for women who have a common condition of abdominal separation that can happen after childbirth, leading to lower back pain and urinary incontinence. This therapy can help to strengthen and tone the abdominal and pelvic floor muscles for both men and women, and most patients need a series of four treatments.

Visit www.DrShel.com or call 281313-7435 or to schedule your complimentary consultation and receive a complimentary demo.

https://www.drshel.com/floor-to-core/

New and Expectant Moms are Invited to the Community Baby Shower at Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital

The Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital Community Baby Shower Committee.

Houston Methodist Childbirth Center at Sugar Land invites new and expectant moms – along with their partners and babies – to the annual Community Baby Shower from 10 am to 2 pm on Thursday, August 4th. This event is held in recognition of World Breastfeeding Week and will take place in the Brazos Pavilion Conference Center on the Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital campus. The event will feature demonstrations on how to safely use baby carriers, presentations on the importance of safe sleeping practices, water safety, post-partum recovery and a Sugar Land police officer will speak about car seat safety. In addition, lactation support from the Childbirth Center and community partners will be available to talk one-on-one with moms and provide guidance as needed.

“This is a great opportunity for new moms to speak directly with someone who understands their concerns,” said Donna Timmer, MSN, RN, IBCLC, lactation consultant. “Our goal is to celebrate new and expectant moms, as well as help them learn techniques to provide the best care for their newborns.”

Timmer says attendees are welcome to stop by any time during the shower. Demonstrations will be provided throughout the event and light refreshments will be offered. Attendees can also participate in numerous raffles and door prize drawings. In addition, all new and expectant mothers will receive a handmade burp cloth and nursing pads made by our community and staff.

“This is a fun event, but it’s also a great outreach program,” Timmer said. “Sometimes a mom gets home from the hospital and realizes that she needs additional support or information, and we’re here to help.”

Visit join.houstonmethodist.org/babyshower-sl for more information about the Community Baby Shower.

For more information about Houston Methodist Childbirth Center at Sugar Land, visit houstonmethodist.org/childbirth-sl or call 281.274.7080.

the drunken cyclist

By Jeffrey M. Kralik, Ph.D.

Recalling My Past at Ancient Peaks

While I grew up in the heart of suburbia, my mom came from a long line of farmers, and we would spend most of our vacations on one of the farms helping to feed, milk or herd the livestock. Sure, my siblings and I all professed to hate it, seeing it as a fate worse than death.

At some point in my childhood, we stopped making those long drives out to “the country,” and I eventually came to the realization that I missed that time spent with my grandfather riding along in his tractor, bailing hay, even the smell of manure.

A couple of weeks ago on a trip to Paso Robles, part of the Central Coast wine region in California, it all came rushing back to me. Sure, I visited some of the familiar spots with their elaborate tasting rooms and refined “tasting experiences.” But it was my trip to Ancient Peaks that caused me to recall all of those summers as a youth down on the farm.

I met up with founding winemaker Mike Sinor and one of the co-owners of Ancient Peaks, Karl Wittstrom. It was the latter that evoked all of those memories within me. With his deep baritone voice and weathered hands populated with sausage-like fingers, Karl was captivating with a few stories (which no doubt are a part of a lengthy anthology) of his upbringing in the Paso Robles area.

The story flowed from the beginnings of the Santa Margarita Ranch (it was founded before the American Revolution and is one of the oldest continually operated cattle ranches in the country) to how the Robert Mondavi himself was the first to recognize the potential of the site to grow high quality wine grapes.

It was the Mondavi family, in fact, who eventually convinced the then owners of Santa Margarita Ranch to lease the family several hundred acres to establish the Margarita vineyard. A few years later, Karl and a couple of partners purchased the Ranch, and a couple of years after that, they bought out the original lease and quickly founded Ancient Peaks Winery, with the name honoring the Santa Lucia Mountains that tower over

Ancient Peaks Chardonnay.

the vineyard.

While Karl and the story of Ancient Peaks had me fondly remembering my youth, it was the quality and affordability of the wines that quickly brought me back to the present. We tried the wines over a delicious lunch in the Ancient Peaks Café (a must stop on any visit to Paso) and I have to say that I was impressed with the entire range from entry-level to wine club exclusives.