Elias' New "Big Boy" Room

I had my ob appointment this week and my doctor asked if I had everything ready for our new baby. I obviously said no as we haven't done anything to get Gertrude's nursery ready since Elias was still in it. So, she nicley reminded me that I have about 6 weeks until the time when Elias was born at 38 weeks. I have been thinking this time around I will be late, so I have been in no hurry. Well, after this conversation I felt the urgency and told Todd that we needed to move Elias and get the nursery started asap in case she would happen to come early. I would hate for her to have to come home to a green and blue nursery. :)

So, with that said today we moved Elias into his new "Big Boy" room for his nap and he seems to be transitioning just fine. Yeah!! ELias loved bringing all of his things into into his new room and helping move his crib. It is definitely a little sad to think his days are over in his nursery, but it is time to move on. Thankfully the excitement of getting her room ready is making it not seem so sad to change his nursery. Hopefully in the next week or two we will get her room painted. Bring on the Pink!! What a crazy thought....


old nursery....

New room....

Hepatitis B Vaccine and my Newborn

Does my Newborn need the Hep. B vaccine, vitamin K shot, and silver nitrate shortly after birth?

If you are like me with my first child I had no idea these items were being administered to my precious newborn within the first 48 hours of life. It was never discussed before or during our stay at the hospital. It was given to my child without any of my knowledge. Pretty scarey! With my second child I am faced with the decision to choose to have this given to them. As I share my findings I want to use this blog to help other parents become educated in case you are unaware as I was. I highly encourage each parent(s) to make an educated decision as you do have the right to choose. In this post I am going to discuss the Hep. B Vaccine. I will discuss Vitamin K and silver nitrate in the next post.

What is Hep. B?
Hepatitis B is a viral infection which can cause chronic inflammation of the liver leading to cirrhosis, liver cancer, and possibly death.

When you read about Hepatitis B it doesn't sound good and you most certainly don't want your child to contact it, but you cannot let that alone scare you into going ahead without knowing all of the background. You must find the facts about the actual chance of your infant/child contacting the disease vs. the risks of recieving the vaccine.

Before we move on read this article which goes into great detail about the real risks of the disease vs. the vaccine: Facts About Hepatitis B -- The Disease and the Vaccine After you have read this I do not think I need to go into much more detail about the risks vs. benefits. Here are two quotes from Vaccination Liberation that I found to help paint a clear picture for me.

"Although young children are in the lowest risk category for contracting hepatitis, they are given three doses of hepatitis B vaccine by the age of 18 months, and then a fourth booster shot around 11-12 years of age. Birthing hospitals routinely inject all newborns with their first hepatitis B vaccination before they leave the hospital. The only way a newborn is at risk for hepatitis is if it is born to a mother with an active hepatitis B infection."

"The liver in a newborn baby does not begin to function until after the first 48 to 72 hours of life. The enzymes in mother's milk assist the liver in beginning to function. Receiving a hepatitis B vaccine within the first few hours of life does nothing to protect the newborn. Rather, the opposite is true, since the vaccine may compromise proper development of the immune system."

Why is this given to infants?
Please read this article by Sherry Tenpenny. She has spent her life researching vaccinations and great information on this topic.


What are the Ingredients in the Hep. B Vaccine (Recombivax)?You will have to check with the company your hospital or doctor uses, but here is an example:
recombinant hepatitis B Merck & Co., Inc.
800.672.6372 genetic sequence of the hepatitis B virus that codes for the surface antigen (HbSAg), cloned into GMO yeast, aluminum hydroxide, and thimerosal (mercury)

This article discusses each of the ingredients that are in vaccines to help you understand the risks of the vaccine.

Just because you vaccinate it does not mean your child will not get it. I know of a few people in my circle of friends that have had their child vaccinated, but still gotten some of the illnesses.

I want to add another link that discusses vaccinations as "big money." This is a very big issue in the vaccine industry that I wanted to pass along as it hidden to most people. http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/vaccination.htm

There is so much more I could go into, but for tonight this is all I am going to put together. I hope this is helpful.

Valentine's Day

What is the history of V-day? How did this holiday come about? Is it just a made up hallmark holiday? I thought about looking it up and sharing my findings on here, but realized in the process that I honestly don't care. If anyone would like to share in the comments I would love to hear. :) From what I have learned is that it seems that on this day you are "suppose" to spend time with your "sweetheart" and do things to show your love and appreciation for them. Others that do not have a "sweetheart" call it the black holiday and hate it. Whatever it is suppose to be Todd and I decided this year we would take advantage of this holiday to go on a nice date. Last year we had the flu in our house and obvioulsy did nothing, so that made it even more special to get out this year! :) We enjoyed a wonderful romantic four course meal at my favorite resturaunt Traders Point Creamery. As many of you know with adding kids into your family it is vitally imporant to make time to get out with your spouse and still "date". With another child coming soon we realize this importance even more to make sure and do this. So, we decided from this point on we will try and go on a date every week until our little Gertrude arrives. Even though V-day was extra special as we went on a more high end date we still love thinking up fun, cheap, and creative dates to go on. So, now that we plan to do this for the next several weeks we are really excited of trying to think up fun things to do together. If our date only consists of going to Wendy's or McD's and eating off the dollar menu and then walking around a store that is a treat for us! :) As this lovely V-day, Hallmark Holiday, love sharing, gift giving, and calling your loved one a "sweetheart" comes to an end may it be a reminder to make it a top priority to "date" no matter where we are in our stage of life. :)

Baby Bump

So, I have to admit this time around I am doing a horrible job of taking pictures of my baby bump. I realized this is the first picture I have posted on here with baby Gertrude and I don't want her to be left out. I laugh as this is the only picture of my bump in 15 weeks and it has a shadow on my face and Elias trying to get in the closet behind me. Oh well. :)

I had aimed to take pictures weekly as I did with Elias, but that sure has not happened. This picture is at 29 weeks and I realized the last picture I took was at 14 weeks! Although, I think Todd has actually enjoyed not being asked to take pictures each week this pregnancy. So, hopefully I will do a better job in my last trimester of documenting her growth. I had a doctors appointment this past week and everyting continues to be going well. I am now going to the doctor every 2 weeks. With Baby Gertrude I have been measuring a week ahead (big) and with Elias I was always 1 or 2 weeks behind (small). So I am wondering if a bigger baby is on the way this time. Not sure if that is a good thing! ;) I still feel great, but I can definitely tell the second time around is taking much more of a toll on my body. This past week I believe the nesting has started. I have felt the urgency to move Elias into his new room so we can get the nursery all ready for a girl! We plan to do this at the end of the month. I have put it off for a while because I love Elias' "boy nursery" and the thought of changing the room we put together for him has made me sad (yes, I know that is probably silly). But, anyway now I am ready and excited to transform his room into a "girl nursery"! What a difference blue to pink will be! We continue to daily be in awe of the miracle of pregnancy and are getting more and more excited each day to meet our precious daughter in a few months! :)

Oh, and thanks for all of the votes for what to name our little Gertrude! It has been fun to see your votes! Todd thought of a new name that maybe I should add to the list. He warned me that the name would be very unique, which I like and....drum role.... He said Lalabelle and go by Belle. It was the name of a Christian city in Ethipoia that he had been teaching about in his social studies class. I think we both realize this will be best kept off of the voting list! :) Anyway, we still have not decided on a name yet, but hopefully we will by the time we meet her! :)

My Journey Through Childhood Vaccinations

Over the last few months I have had several people ask me to write about childhood vaccinations. This is a topic that many of you know I am very passionate about. I knew when I decided to start sharing my thoughts and research about such a controversial topic that it would take a lot of time and I kept putting it off. Since I am pregnant and due with my second child in a few months I am starting to research and get up to date again. I decided this would be a great time to share my journey and thoughts as I seek to make my decisions regarding vaccinating my second child.

My next post will be about the first decision a parent is faced with when their newborn is in the hospital, but right now I want take the time to share a little bit about my background with vaccinations and my first son. When my son was born I had thought about vaccinations, but had not done thorough research until he was a few months old. I encourage anyone that is expecting to do all of your research before your baby is born. When you have a newborn it isn't the easiest to be motivated to research and make such a big decision. Also, you have to be ready from the beginning as I learned the hard way. For example while we were in the hospital when my son had just been born I had no idea they had taken him to get a Hep. B vaccination! I thought I had time to decide and was later very disappointed that he had already had a vaccination and I didn't even know about it! So, obviously my son had his first shot in the hospital and then a select few at the first appointment it was offered at the Pediatricians office. From that point on because of much thought and research my husband and I made a decision to decline the rest of the vaccinations and revisit the idea when he was older. Our son is currently almost 2 years old and we are still not interested in giving him any vaccinations anytime soon. Why have we made this decision? I will begin sharing my thoughts and research in the next post.

Sword fighting and basketball game...

Last week Todd ended up having 3 days off and a 5 day "vacation" because of the snow. So, we had a fun week together. At one point I came downstairs to find my boys (and bear) wearing capes and sword fighting. It was pretty funny. Now whenever we get the swords out Elias wants his cape. I also found it very humorous that bear had to be apart of this fighting. Bear is definitely Elias' best friend and must be apart of everything! Then on Saturday Todd had a basketball tourney close by with his middle school team, so Elias and I decided to go. Elias was very mesmerized for the first half, but then wanted to play all over the bleachers the second half. He enjoyed saying "basketball" after the game. Unfortunately Todd's season came to an end this week, but we are glad to have him home more now! Then as we were leaving he was so excited to go up close and see the school bus. Elias loves to see buses when we are out and about. I guess he is ready for school already. It is a little ways away, but I cannot believe he will be 2 in just a little over a month!