A blog written by my wife

Hello everyone, recently my wife wrote a blog on her myspace profile. It is always nice to get a fresh perspective, so here is what she wrote:

So, yeah like every1 knows by now..I'm pregnant..UBER pregnant (at this moment). I have approx. 31+ days of belly baby left...aww* So exciting !!!yet a lil scary (in a good-normal way). Peanut (baby's in uterus name) has been a good baby in the belly..the only thing with him is that...he has the NINJA complex. He moves 24/7 !!!but THAT supposed to be a good thing right? hehe. Hmm..reflecting on my preggo life..Hmm....gosh! I never got the whole morning sickness thing (which is great and was so not needed). However, my husband Will did get a nice lil taste of that..sorry but that was TOTALLY fine with me. LOL) but OH BOY did I have the cravings(a long with the nice weight gain argh!)!!. Let's just say that I'm never eating pumpkin pie, vanilla ice cream (vanilla ice cream with BBQ sauce and chicken nuggets), Ketchup with eggs, salsa with lime juice (tons of lime juice on everything) and pancakes EVER again...LoL. Wells..not so sure about the pancakes LoL. So far, things have been great...baby seems to be doing GREAT ...he is where he supposed to be...I'm bigger than life and now I even have this really attractive penguin walk which is fabulous HA!. Lately, I've been living my life in SLOW (super SLOW) motion..I don't do much and I do tend to get a lil more tired than usual. I technically live in the bathroom ...yeah, not fun (and pretend you didnt read this if it was too much info. for u). Hmmm...what else? oh yeah...luckily my ankles still the same..I was kind of happy to hear my Dr. talk about my "slim-bony" ankles..couz @ this point of my life I think thats the only slim part of me HAHAHA. Oh wells.... :) . Overall, baby William has been good to me ( I hope he is good to me while in labor LoL). Papa William..gosh, he has ben AWESOME...ultra (pls note I dont use the word ultra often)supportative, caring, loving and uber helpful. He always makes sure I'm good and comfy and he is always going the Xtra mile to make my moody butt feel better. He listens and yeah, sometimes he "ignores" the lil things that at times I make big LoL. He is one smart cookie and I love him :) and Hunny if you read this, yeah..thank you for all you do- it means the world to me :). Wells, enough of the hubby talk couz I'm sure some of u are about to P-U-ke hehe. Wells, yeah...I dunnoz what else to type..there is so much but since I'm a lazy butt...I really don't want to get into it (couz I'm sure nobody cares to read all the anyway). Life is good...I'm thankful for every single lil/big thing in my life... I'm excited about my new life as a mommy and if you read this...thank you (oh! so very much) for wasting 5 mins of your life on reading this non-productive blog that will give you nothing but something to do while you should be doing something else LOL. Have a FUNtastic day

Helpful advice to the dad to be

The other day I received an email from my sister. While I read her email she said that it was helpful to read lots of books (I still have to take trip down to the Library) from different points of view. She had mentioned that mostly you can give just ONE DOSE OF THE VACCINE AT AN OLDER AGE INSTEAD OF THREE DOSES IN THE FIRST YEAR OF LIFE. This of course is because a babies immune system is still immature and a vaccine is not as effective. So if I were to wait to give peanut a vaccine until 15 months, he will only have to have one dose vs. three to have the same level of immunity.

Another interesting thing is that you CAN choose to do some and not others. For example, hepatitis is routinely given at birth...but he DOESN'T need to be vaccinated for hepatitis right away. The only reason that the docs do it at birth is because that is the most reliable time for a baby to be seen by a doc. The same with most of the other vaccinations...the older kids get, the less likely it is that parents will bring them into the doctor. Its public health policy, not individual health policy.

When it comes vaccines, they are not a black and white issue, especially if they help prevent diseases. Delaying the shots is worth serious consideration. It allows peanut time to fully develop his immune system, and he doesn't have to have them for school until he is 5 yrs old.

I know that when it comes to my child's health there are lots of things that I can't prevent. But I can be informed about various topics taking as many precautions as possible and still live life without being in a bubble. With the way things are in today's economy and being a new parent, I tend to worry about peanut and he is not even here yet.

By the way, thank you sis for all your advice.

Old post

I have been meaning to update my blog with post on peanuts development. So you will see lots of old post from weeks ago.

Appointments and Classes

At this point we are 35 weeks and I read that peanut can be here anywhere between 37-42 weeks. There are about 34 days left until peanut should be here. As far as peanuts development a book I have mentions that he is more then 5 pounds now and between 16 and 18 inches (the size of a roasting chicken). At this point his nervous and immune system are still maturing. He will be adding fat that is needed to regulate body temperature. Everything else is pretty much formed and if he were born right now he has a 99% chance of surviving.

Yesterday we had an appointment at the doctors and it was pretty quick as usual. They checked peanuts position as well as his heart beat. While they checked peanuts position, the doctor grabbed his head and my wife said it felt weird. Later on while we were at Quiznos getting a bite to eat, she said that no wonder why her side was hurting when she sat down for to long; because peanuts head was there.

Later on yesterday we went to a class at Queen of the Valley on car seat & home safety. We were a couple minutes late, but the four other couples were just introducing their selves. While we introduced ourselves the instructor asked if we had a car seat and if we had tried installing it yet. Apparently while I was saying that I did attempt to install the car seat my wife was smiling. So everyone was laughing. Hey at least I tried.

The instructor of the class has been doing teaching this class for the last 15 years, so she was very informative. She presented a quick slide show and a dvd that came from the first 5 kit they give out for free in all the classes we have been taking so far. I found the class very interesting and learned some new things. Like the middle of the seat is the safest spot for a car seat. If you can't place it in the middle then the back seat on the passenger side is the second best. New cars after 2000 now come with latches on the seat and there has to be two on every seat. So if there isn't any in the middle seat then you have to use a seat belt. I also learned that car seat expire 6 years after they are manufactured. Did you know that 95% of parents don't have the right car seat or install it in their car improperly.

Towards the end of the class, the instructor had the guys practice installing a car seat on a demo chair using a seat belt. I think I did pretty good. While I was up at the front practice installing the car seat my wife signed up for a free class on preparing your pet for the new baby at the Napa Humane Society. We still have a few more classes coming up, so I will keep you posted. Oh and we have another appointment in two weeks, but I might not be able to go on the next visit. So I will have to ask my wife how it went it update you on that visit. Talk to you soon

Baby Yum Pregnancy Game

Vaccinations

The other day I wrote about some concerns I had when it came to my child's health, especially with vaccinations. My sister recently sent me an email telling me to check out a great book: "The Thoughtful Parent's Guide to Vaccinations" by Aviva Jill Romm. Apparently Jill Romm also writes several other titles about natural pregnancy and natural remedies for infants and children. So when I get the chance to go to the Library me and my wife are going to check out the book. I want to get all the information I can to be informed. I was doing a search online today and I came across this article below:

Do Child Vaccinations Cause Autism?

Author: Peter Gallacher
Have you got questions about child vaccinations? well in this interview we invited Claire Powell who is a nurse specialist with the Health Protection Team in North Wales, UK to answer some of your questions surrounding child vaccines.

Do babies need to be vaccinated?

We all get a little complacent, we don't see certain conditions anymore, [we think] my child will be fine. Without vaccinations we'd go back to the days when children under five would die. These vaccines get rid of these diseases.

How do we ensure our children get their vaccinations?

The health visitor will visit between day 10 and 14 and at that visit the health visitor will give the parent a book about vaccinations. There's a database that all children are registered on and automatically they'll be sent appointments through the post about their vaccines.

We hear a lot about MMR but what is it?

There's been a lot written about it. The thing to remember is that the vaccine is a weakened version of the live Measles, Mumps and Rubella viruses. MMR protects against all of them. Measles is a very infectious virus. The complications of measles affect one in every 15 children which is quite a high number. In serious cases measles can be a killer.

Mumps is caused by a virus and it can lead to fever, headache and swollen glands...before this vaccine, this was one of the biggest causes of viral meningitis.

Rubella, sometimes known as German Measles is caused by a virus, it's normally a mild condition but one of the most serious complications can be in unborn babies. If a lady was pregnant in the first few months and she came into contact with a child who had Rubella it could have serious complications for her unborn child.

And what about the links with autism?

The speculation started some time ago in 1998. Some scientists published a paper on 12 children who had autism but they also had bowel problems. Although scientists stated clearly in their paper that there was no proven link between the MMR and autism the resulting publicity unfortunately gave the impression that there was a link.

The number of children being diagnosed with autism has increased and one of the reasons is we're getting better at diagnosing the condition but some people took this as meaning that the increase was because of the MMR vaccine.

Many parents of autistic children know that there is something wrong with their child very early on and some babies may appear to develop signs of autism when they're older and this kind of autism is actually called regressive autism and was known about long before the MMR vaccine was introduced.

Unfortunately the vaccine is given at around about the time that children are communicating more..... they're pointing, they have a few words... it's at this time that autistic spectrum disorder is picked up which is the time the MMR vaccine is given.

There's been a lot written about this and I just want to say I'm a Mum myself and there is no link between autism and the MMR vaccine and there've been many, many studies done, not just in this country but in Finland, the United States and other parts of Europe. Every time these big, big studies with experts, people who do this all the time, have come back they say there's no scientific link.

If there was any doubt that these vaccines were going to cause any harm to children they would be removed, they would not be licensed. At the end of the day we're all in this job to protect children. We're doing this to prevent the diseases.

Why can't we give single vaccines?

All evidence shows that the vaccine is safe. The reason we don't promote the single vaccines is that it's the time gaps between the three vaccines that would leave children exposed to disease so there would be an increase in Measles, Mumps and Rubella leading to illness and possibly death.

At the moment we have the combined vaccine. It's also important to recognize that this is a two dose program. The second MMR is given between three and a half and five years. That's not a booster, the second dose is to ensure maximum uptake. If you're thinking of giving it separately... it would mean a total of six separate injections. Parents lives are busy....we already have problems with some parents making sure their children have completed the course. Our concern is that it's not a good strategy to get children protected. It has been looked at but it wasn't a good option.

Can a babies immune system be overloaded with this 3-in-1 injection?

If you think about a baby being born, it's quite a traumatic thing. If you imagine the baby coming down the birth canal, they're exposed to thousands and millions of viruses and bacterias so if they didn't have a good immune system they wouldn't cope with that at all. All our babies are born with a really good immune system...so a baby already is born with some antibodies. If they come in contact with a virus or a bug...children are vulnerable. If you think about giving all these vaccines...the body is more than capable of coping. The MMR vaccine is three live viruses that have been weakened...once the vaccine is given the body has no problem with coping with it. It's a myth that we can overload the system.

Are there any side effects?

There are some mild side effects. Within about 10 days the Measles component of the vaccine starts to produce an immune response and at that time a child may have a high temperature, a fever, they also may develop a Measles type rash. That doesn't mean the child has Measles and it doesn't mean the child is infectious but it's just the way the vaccine works. Then the Rubella component starts to take effect so really throughout this phase the child may have a high fever because it's the way the immune system is responding to the vaccine. By about three weeks after, some children may develop some swelling in the neck and again that is a symptom of Mumps but it's not infectious.

About the Author:

Peter Gallacher is a presenter on the UK's popular internet radio station for new parents My Baby Radio.Com. To read more articles like this one why not visit the website at http://www.mybabyradio.com/experts-faq/mmr/

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/do-child-vaccinations-cause-autism-548211.html

I found the article very interesting. What are your thoughts on the subject? Oh and we have an appointment tomorrow and I'll let you know how that goes.

The big question

Hello everyone,

Hope all is well. Things are good here. I am glad it's Friday, get to sleep in this weekend while I can. I hear that I won't be getting a lot of sleep for the next three months after peanut is here. And that's about a month away. Everyone is predicting when he's going to be here some are saying mid March others are saying a few days after the fourth. Who knows, he gets here when he gets here. Our appointments are getting closer and we have one coming up soon, as well as some more classes next week. So I am looking forward to the upcoming events.

As you may know, I work at a high school with autistic children. While working with these children, it can be both rewarding and challenging. Autism is becoming a more well known disorder, especially when the statistics show that 1 of 150 children (mostly boys) are born with autism. There have been many studies trying to link things to autism such as vaccinations, high fructose corn syrup, mercury, contamination of food, the environment, or even the water. But autism is a hard thing to diagnose. Most kids are not given the label of autism until around 5. So, could there be something that causes the disorder in the first 5 years? There is a new study showing that now genetics is playing a role in the disorder.

When it comes to vaccinations I have heard a lot of pros and cons. All I know is that they are important to get, to prevent diseases, but is there a limit? The other thing that I know is that baby's get more vaccinations now then when I was a baby and in bigger doses too. During the in-service meeting on 2/18 for BCRC the topic of what causes autism came up. This aide mentioned that their son can no longer talk after getting vaccinated.

The brain is a delicate organ and there are so many factors that affect how the brain functions. All I know is that there something going on that is causing this disorder. The more I work with these students and hear different reports, the more it makes me question things. Do I have to change the foods we eat, filter my water, move to a place that is environmentally safe, skip vaccinations? There is no possible way without living inside a bubble.

Brain Development

As of the 16th we are on week 34 and in my book that I have it says that peanut will weigh about 5 pounds (a size of a bag of sugar. He will gain a couple more pounds until he is born. Peanuts brain continues to form and now has billions of neurons. But the brain must now accomplish the complex task of connecting the neurons and synapses together. With trillions of connections continuously forming, it makes it easier for peanut to learn even while in the womb.

This brain development can cause the baby to sleep frequently at this stage. I don't see how, when my wife tells me he kicks a lot all day. He may even be dreaming while he sleeps. Apparently his eyes move back and forth like adults in REM sleep

Diaper Calculations

Ahhh Diapers. It's going to be a never ending process for a couple years once baby Will is here. I came across this above widget that calculates the amount of diapers and the cost. So I thought I might add it to my blog. Have fun

5 Amazing Pregnancy Facts

Good evening everyone,

Hope all is well. It's been raining all day so we haven't done much except go out to eat for lunch and stop by Ross to look at baby stuff. I spent most of the night mucking around on the setting of my blog. I changed a few things and added some new things. I came across a bunch of widgets like the one above. It's pretty simple, but hey I wanted to add something interesting and fun.
Talk to you soon

New Baby Registery

Hi Everyone, I just wanted to a quick note that we have a new baby registry at Walmart. Go here to see what we have listed there.

Week 33 (development)

As of this week peanut is now 33 weeks along. Leaving roughly 48 days left until he is here. According to my book that I like to refer to, it says that he is about 11 1/2 inches and weighs about 4 1/2 pounds. He will gain about 8 ounces every week. At this point peanut should be moving into the head-down position. Within the next 6 weeks he may descend into the pelvis. This causes him to press into my wife's cervix. This position not only prepares him, but allows blood to flow to his developing brain. During this week peanut will be in the process of receiving antibodies. If he were born right now, extra care would have to be taken to keep him in a sterile environment. Only because his immune system would still be immature.

Wills Room (the crib)

Good afternoon everyone, hope you all had a great weekend. For us it was another lazy weekend. I spent time working on some labels for a client and submitting logos for a contest. I'll have to wait and see if I won. We also spent time cleaning the house and getting things together for baby Will. Last Friday we got our crib and I spent the night putting it together. At first I assembled it in the living room only to find it wouldn't fit in the hall. So I ended up having to take it apart and put it back together in baby Wills room. Here is a picture of baby Wills crib.

Baby care

Today we had another class (baby care) at Kaiser. I found the class very informative and interesting. The teacher mostly talked about feeding, what to do when the baby is sick, sids, swaddling, changing the diaper. We also watched a couple of videos, luckily I wasn't dozing off this time. As far as everything else in our life, nothing is new. At this point we are week 32 and d-day is getting closer.

Week Thirty Two: Bone Development

As of today peanut has reached week 32. Leaving only 55 days to go, but he will be here before I know it. As far as his development goes, he will be weighing in at 4 pounds and is 15-17 inches tall. At this stage his skin is less translucent and pinker, as fat is deposited under his skin. What is interesting is that up until now his skeleton was just cartilage and has begun the ossifying into solid bone. This will mean his kicks will be stronger. Not only that, his kicks will become visible like in those scary movies when you see a figure move in a wall. With well-placed kicks under the ribs will take my wife's breath away. I bet my wife is going to love this!

Things comming together

Good evening everybody,
Hope everyone had a great weekend. We had a pretty good weekend or at least we tried. We stayed home and didn't do much. Especially since I was sick all last week and Yissel is starting to feel better after I got her sick. I hear being pregnant and sick is not a good combination. Yissel tells me that things are getting hard and uncomfortable.

We are on week 32 leaving only 7 weeks go and we are still in the process of getting the nursery together. So far I have put a dresser together and this week we will be getting the crib and changing table, so I am looking forward to putting those together. So after I put those two things together baby Williams room will be pretty much finished. All that we have to worry about are the small things.

Last night we started organizing our list of stuff we need to take when we go to the hospital. The list makes it look like we are going on a three day trip. We also got baby Williams clothes organized and looking at which outfit we will have him wear his first day here. Of course Yissel like the one that says I love mommy.

As far as baby William, he is doing great. He is still kicking a lot throughout the day. We find that he kicks more when Yissel eats the food I cook. I wonder if he likes my food; I am a pretty good cook. I tried making a chocolate cake tonight and it turned out pretty well.

It looks like there's lots more to come this week, with me putting together the crib and changing table and class that Yissel registered for us so I'll keep you posted. Have a wonderful night and I'll talk to you soon.