Our Vaccine Choice

I took the kids in for their first well child check up since we've moved here. I wanted to make sure that we had a primary caregiver lined up before we actually NEEDED one. Besides that, SJ is two now, and for us that means it's time to start immunizations. With Z this was a very positive experience and I even saved the band aid and put it in his baby book. Unfortunately this time was not as happy go lucky.

We were very open with the Doctor about our choice to delay vaccines, but that we were ready to get started with SJ and continue on with Z, and were interested in doing that at this visit. So the Doctor said that she was fine with that and that we would make up a schedule, but that it would take some time because they won't be able to get all caught up in one day. Of course not, I said, the last thing I want is to give them a bunch of shots at once. And while, I thought she was going to come back with a chart for us to discuss a schedule like I did with our previous pediatrician instead a nurse came in with a bunch of papers with information on all the different shots (7 to be exact) they were going to get.

I said "no, no, no, no, no... who are these for?" and she said "your children, they are way behind and these are the immunizations that the doctor has ordered up for me to give to them." I tried to stay calm and explain that I was not interested in bombarding my children with a ton of shots all at once. She stated her stance about public schools. I said that they are not in day care or school. She asked if they went to church. I said yes they go to church [but last time I checked they do not exile children that are not up to date on their vaccines. And like our former physician said, an unvaccinated child is not a threat to vaccinated ones, so those that have had shots should not be concerned.] I didn't say all that, but what I did say was "I understand what you are trying to do, and I know that they are behind and it will take a long time for them to be caught up, but I am in no hurry and I feel comfortable starting with one for SJ and seeing how she handles it."

So we went through the shots that were prescribed one by one and I told her I didn't want them. SJ left having received the DTaP, which was the one I originally planned. The nurse was shocked because I turned down many vaccines that might seem less harmful, but I wanted this shot for the same reason I did with Z, which is to protect the new baby against pertussis and I like the kids to be up to date on tetanus as well.

I've watched a couple different Vaccine documentaries. One called Vaccines: what the CDC documents and science reveal and The Vaccine War that was featured on PBS. I read, and own, the book on Vaccines by Dr. Caves, along with countless articles from unbiased magazines. I've also read online articles by Dr. Miller and Dr. Sears. We've had several caregivers (from Texas, thank you very much) be involved in our delayed vaccine choices. I am grateful for vaccines and what they have done to eradicate many disease. It also seems to be that too much of a good thing can be dangerous. I am not an expert, but J and I do try to stay current on the information that is available to us and reevaluate our decision periodically, but what the nurse I dealt with yesterday may not realize, is that it is not a choice that we have made blindly. I am grateful to live in a country where, although it is the most vaccinated nation in the world, at least we are a free country where we have the right to choose and make informed decision. This is something I will continue to fight for so that my children and grandchildren will also have these rights no matter what!

Z's Reaction

Last time I was pregnant Z seemed to understand, but he was only two so it was very limited. This time I was SO excited to get to tell him and see what his reaction would be. He loves babies and I know he is going to be a wonderful big brother because he already is. SJ on the other hand gets jealous pretty easily, but I am sure she will adjust to being a big sister. I want them to be as involved as possible in this pregnancy, because the way I look at it, we are ALL expecting. I've sat down with them and showed them diagrams online of what the baby looks like. I've showed them fruit that corresponds with what size the baby is. I encouraged Z to tell meme what he learned about the baby and he said "my mom thinks the baby is like a plum". Eh, close. Even though I think Z was a little distracted and wound up the night we told him THE BIG NEWS I still managed to get the reaction on video.

So in case it wasn't clear enough on the video, there is only ONE baby in my tummy, and that is all the news.

Friends With Bellies

One of my favorite parts of pregnancy is the camaraderie with other pregnant women. There are at least 4 other women from my little blog roll that are also expecting; It's A Crackerjack Life, The Bug's Life, Mama the Reader, and Meet Virginia.

One of these bloggers also happen to be one of my best friends.

AND another one of my closest gal pals from Texas is also pregnant and we are due THE SAME DAY!

It's not the first time we've been pregnant together either. And there is another friend back at my Texas church that is also due a month ahead of me and she has all girls so I can't wait to find out what she is having this time. All 3 of these lovely ladies are expecting baby #4. I guess the Texas mommas are a bunch of baby machines!

Luckily I am not the lone ranger here in Kentucky either. I have had the pleasure of meeting some really cool sisters on recent trips here. One of them is mother of 4 boys and we should find out what they are having really soon. Her younger sister is a newly wed who recently found out they are having their first. Exciting time for both of them.

Can't wait to see all of these adorable babies.

Our Family is Growing

Ahhhh! Finally, I get to officially announce that we are on our way to becoming a party of 5. There have been so many details this past month that I have wanted to write about, and now that the secret is out my readers will be probably be facing an onslaught of blog posts. To kick it all off I'll list the TOP TEN updates for the first trimester.

1. I wanted to take the pregnancy test February 14th, but was afraid that the results would be negative and that would have put a big damper on my valentine's day so I opted for February 15th instead.

2. I took the test and had my husband be the one to see the results. So this time he got to announce to me that I was pregnant. It was really special.

3. The due date is October 10th.

4. If I had to bet on the arrival date I would pick October 5th because both of my kids were born early in the a.m. exactly 5 days before their due date.

5. Speaking of the #5, this year we become a family of 5, my son turns 5, and this baby will be the 5th grandchild for my parents.

6. As an avid supporter of home births for low risk pregnancies, and having both of my children out of the hospital, I was shocked to find out that midwifery is illegal in the state of Kentucky. More on this later.

7. It's a long story, but I found a wonderful CNM that delivers at a women's center in Lexington. This seems to be the closest alternative to a home birth . The problem is that Lexington is just over an hour away, but I am so passionate about my birthing options that I am willing to do whatever it takes.

8. Right now the baby is the size of peach.

9. I am feeling good, but I have definitely struggled with insomnia and nausea.

10. I just started showing. I'm not big enough for maternity clothes, but those that know me have noticed my baby bump.

Green Eggs and Ham Party

Last year for SJ's first birthday we had a cupcake party and everything was pink. I didn't want to do something ultra girly again and feel like it was the same party so this year the theme was Green Egg's and Ham. Everything was green. Here are some of the ideas we implemented for this special occasion-

1. We kept the invitation simple by creating an Evite. I love how easy it is to keep track of your guest lists and that it sends out reminders.

2. The Green Eggs and Ham cake/cookies is what started this whole idea.

3. For the meal we had a tasty baked ham, with green deviled eggs, and many other sides.

4. I filled up green water balloons in various sizes to use in place of ice to keep the drinks cool.*

5. I also made this yummy green punch and garnished it with limes.

6. All 4 of us wore green to the party. Not coordinating, but green nonetheless.

7. The birthday girl sported this headband that gave her springy green pig tails, it was really a St. Patrick's day accessory, but it seemed very Suess-like and she loved it.

8. I wove dozens of balloons together and hung them from the chandelier to 4 opposite corners of the room.**

9. I also taped about 18 balloons in the formation of a 2 above the cake table.***

10. Other than that we just embellished here and there with more green! The theme was convenient considering her birthday party was a week before St. Patrick's day and her birtheday is 2 days before Dr. Suess's.

I had originally wanted a very intimate little party with a simple homemade cake, but one thing led to another (like Pinterest, and getting 200 balloons at a discount price) and even though it was a little bit more than I originally anticipated the party and the entire process was tons of fun.

* I found the idea for the ice balloons on Pinterest, but couldn't find a link to the tutorial anywhere! Obviously you fill the balloons with water. I chose to do different sizes. You also want to be aware of how they lay when you freeze them. I laid my balloons flat in a freestanding freezer and they were fairly round, but you wouldn't want them all squished together or bumped up against anything because they will come out looking like deformed balloons, which would not be as cute. Also, by the end of the night most of the latex had cracked, but it certainly didn't affect the practicality of keeping the drinks cool and the presentation looked great for the majority of the time.

** For the balloon garland I used thin nylon string and started off by tying it around the first balloon. Each balloon after that I just wrapped the string around the balloon 3 times (between the balloon and the balloon knot) and pulled it really tight. They stayed fine without having to actually tie them together which was good since the string was SO long. As far as how we blew up 200 balloons we used my husbands air compressor and it worked great! The balloons will stay inflated for days so you can prepare them ahead of time. It took a couple hours and there were 4 of us working on it, but having a few friends over along with a viewing of the movie Up to get you in the balloon mood makes for a wonderful pre party party.

*** Taping balloons to the wall was another Pinterest idea, but for me it was not that simple. I had to use PACKING tape, and lots of it, to get them to stick to the wall. Luckily my parents have yet to remodel their dining room so the walls weren't really a concern. I formed the number two on a bed and then moved it to the wall one balloon at a time. This way I didn't have to keep retaping the balloons to see how many I needed or to make it all even.

Those are my tips. Check out Many Little Blessings for more Top Ten Tuesday.

FaceBook to the Rescue

My whole world turned upside down when we decided to sell our house and leave the place we've called home for the first 11 years of our marriage. Then my computer turned upside down when it fell off the bed! The good news is it was under warranty, the bad news is I lost my entire hard drive. I have come a long way when it comes to making back ups, so all of my work related data and personal files were covered except for November and December because I slacked off in the middle of getting ready to move.

As I was getting ready for SJ's 2nd birthday I wanted to catch up on our family albums and her baby book, but I have no evidence of any family pictures that were downloaded November or December of 2012! That means I lost pictures of my sons graduation from the church nursery,

my kids in their adorable halloween costumes,

or our last Christmas before we left Texas.

That's when I went to Facebook. I knew I had uploaded all of these events to share with friends and family, but would they be printable?

What a lot of people don't realize is that web resolution and print resolution are two totally different things. When I worked for Now Magazine I would ALWAYS have people tell me we have lots of pictures on our web site, just pull them off there. And most of the time they were TOO small. Web size is 72 dpi and print is usually around 300 dpi. I know it's confusing, but just because it looks good online does not mean you can print it.
 

However, Facebook has an option when you upload photos to post them at high quality and I strongly recommended checking that box, because thanks to the photos I posted on Facebook I have been able to print out all the special memories that would have been lost otherwise.

Here's how to upload your photos.

1. Go to your photo albums and click the button that says add photos.

2. In the bottom left corner there is a box that says "high quality". Check that.

3.On the right there is a drop down menu that says "public" and when you click on it you can customize who you want to be able to see the photos. If you don't necessarily won't to post the photos to your home page then you can select "Only me" and no one else will be able to view your photos, but they are there if you ever had a computer crash like mine did.

After that you just select the photos you want to upload and publish your album.

I am not suggesting that you use Facebook as your primary storage device. First of all I can't guarantee they won't delete your whole account tomorrow, and I am not even sure what the maximum number of uploads is. You should always back up your images through discs or time machine, external hard drives, carbonate, etc., but it's nice to have multiple locations for your most treasured moments and in my case Facebook really saved the day. Thank you social networking!

To SJ on Her 2nd Birthday

From the moment you came into this world you were already proving to us that you were going to do things your own way. I had planned a home birth, which to some may seem a little unconventional, however I did NOT plan on you coming in the the middle of my bath time.

.

As I watched your daddy (assisted by a midwife, for the record) pull you out of the water and place you in my arms I knew our lives were about to change forever. You have brought so much joy to us in the past two years. Your smile multiplies into more and more smiles from everyone around you. Your squeals are a recipe of shear delight. You dance, dress up, and even fly, or at least you think you can when you jump off of furniture (we'd appreciate it if you would stop that). You are the softest cuddliest thing I've ever known. And girl, you are so very peculiar. There is no denying it.

As an infant you'd like to dangle your head upside down while you were being held. It scared the crap out of people. I think they thought your neck was broken, but you just liked viewing things a little differently.

When your teeth came in you got your lateral incisors (the ones on the side) before your front teeth. For the longest time you looked like you had fangs, which may be trendy at the height of the Twilight monomania, but we're glad you are NOT a vampire.

You've never reached out to be held like most children do, instead you just stick your elbows out like you are doing the chicken dance and expect that someone will scoop you up.

For almost a year now you have been able to color, brush your teeth, eat with a fork, drink from a cup, unscrew lids, and dress yourself. It's like you have the dexterity of someone twice your age, but you WILL. NOT. TALK. Oh, we've heard you say mama, brubu (brother), up, and bye bye in context, as clear as day, but the vast majority of the time you communicate verbally about as much as our family dog.

And while you may perplex your mother and the people around you, I wouldn't change a thing. In fact you inspire me to be an out of the box thinker. Every time you don't do something by the book I realize that there is more than one book, or maybe you are writing your own book. I love that about you. I hope and pray that you always break the mold. It would be a shame to stifle the unique, creative individual that God created you to be. The sky is the limits as far as what you can become. Don't let the world distract you from that. Stay beautiful. Stay true. Keep being you.