As a hippie-dippie but also non-stupid mom, I struggle with many of the baby-related choices I have to make on a daily basis. The most difficult choices, for me, are those related to vaccines and vitamins. Other choices I refused to spend time on are diapers (I was set on cloth, yes, but are PVCs in diaper covers bad? they sure make the diapers not leak--yay BumGenius! so screw it-I'll try to keep the babies from chewing on their diapers), food (I was resigned to use formula if I had to, but luckily the boys are good suckers and I make puh-lenty of milk), and circumcision (you want to do WHAT to my sons' penises? i don't think so).
Vaccines. I just received this book in the mail last week, and I have been hungrily reading it ever since. I feel instinctively suspicious of all the new vaccines we are encouraged (bullied) into giving our kids. In fact, the culture at the pediatrician's office is, "These are the vaccines we are giving your children this visit," rather than "These are the vaccines we have to offer, along with information about them, and a proposed schedule we have devised. Please consider it and let us know your decision." At the hospital the boys were given the first dose of Hepatitis B vaccine, which struck me as weird because Hep B is a sexually transmitted disease, and, um, they are newborns. Is this really the first vaccine they need to get? At their two-month visit they got their first shot of Pentacel, the vaccine for polio, tetanus, diptheria, pertussis, and HiB. That's a no-brainer, in my opinion. They were "supposed" to also get three more: the first Rotavirus, pneumococcal, and the next Hep B shot. I agreed to the Rotavirus because our ped really pushed it, and made an appointment for 4 weeks later to get the other two.
Now that I've read the book, I canceled the next appointment. I'm going to delay the Hep B series until they are older (probably at least 10), skip the pneumococcal (Prevnar) altogether and instead have them get the adult pneumococcal vaccine after they are 2, and skip the rest of the rotavirus series. The adult pneumococcal vaccine is protective against 23 strains, whereas Prevnar, the infant pneumococcal vaccine, is protective against only 13.The thing no one really talks about is how much less likely breastfed babies are to get both respiratory and digestive problems. Kelly, the woman I walk with regularly, put it this way: "I wish they'd push breastfeeding at the beginning like they push the vaccines later on!" True that. The thing with rotavirus is that all children are exposed to it by the time they are 5, and most cases result in diarrhea that lasts a few days. But the vaccine itself causes diarrhea in an alarmingly high number of cases, which is stupid. And as Kelly pointed out, breastfed babies are at less risk of the dehydration that often comes with diarrhea, because they will nurse for comfort even if they do not want to eat.
When I called the pediatrician's office to cancel our vaccination appointment, I spoke to a nurse who was disapproving but didn't know the answers to the questions I had--like whether there was any danger (besides being at risk for getting the diseases) in not continuing the vaccinations of which they had received one dose. I then got a call from our pediatrician herself, questioning why I had decided not to vaccinate, and what other vaccinations I was going to choose not to get. I still think I will catch some hell at our next visit, at 4 months in October, but for now I think I convinced her that I have done my homework and that I am aware of the risks and benefits of vaccinations. She suggested the websites for the Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania and the CDC to get more information. Before our next visit I'm going to need to find out what vaccinations are required for elementary school, because I know they are different depending on the district and I want to devise a schedule that accommodates whatever vaccines are required.
Vitamins. At our first office visit, the pediatrician gave us a sample of Enfamil D-Vi-Sol, which is a vitamin D supplement for breastfed infants. I was skeptical that a company that makes formula would make a supposedly essential supplement for breastfed babies but the pediatrician endorsed it and we have been giving it to the boys since they were born. I had wondered about whether maternal supplementation could somehow obviate the need for giving the boys a vitamin supplement. I read this article yesterday because I am intrigued by the idea that I can take enough vitamin D that I don't have to give the boys a supplement. It sounds like there is still a possibility that maternal supplementation could lead to toxicity, and it's unclear how much I would have to take to give enough to each of my babies, but I will keep looking into it. For now I have switched to this instead of the Enfamil stuff, because I only have to put a drop on a pacifier or nipple for them to get enough, rather than a huge mouthful of yucky brown syrupy stuff. My mom never gave me any vitamins, either as an infant or a child, and I don't think I ever had any deficiencies. OR, as I told her, imagine how much better a person I would be today had I had vitamins.
If anyone else has additional vaccine or vitamin resources they would like to share or suggest, I would love to hear them!
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Winning!
Saturday morning the little ones and I spent a lovely morning walking along the lakefront at Onondaga Lake Park and watching Daddy run the Second Chances 5k. Unfortunately this picture cannot capture the smell (think body odor) of the polluted lake. But look who won his age group!
Monday I took a walk through our neighborhood park like I do almost every day, feeling very lucky to be home with these guys during this gorgeous summer.
Tuesday we had a nice unexpected visit from Grandma and Grandpa Leibowitz. We all had fun watching Theo and Beckett try out the Bumbo seat. Beck wanted nothing to do with it but Theo holds his head up well and seemed to enjoy it.
Tonight we enjoyed a nice dinner together while Beck smiled away at us and Theo took a ride in the swing. It's starting to be more reliable that we can have a dinner together at the dining room table without too much interference from the babies, since they have been napping around dinnertime lately. The rest of the day is a crapshoot but generally they take a nap for an hour or so around 6 or 7, which allows us to prepare a meal and eat in relative peace, and then they are up again for an hour or two before they go to sleep somewhere between 8:30 and 10pm. Depending on how deeply they nap in the evening and how late we put them down, sometimes they don't wake up any more than necessary to nurse before going to bed. We know there's no use in trying to wake them up when they sleep through the change to the night diaper (aka "double stuf") and wrapping up in nightclothes.
Tonight I woke Theo up from his nap at 8pm but he was not interested in really waking up, so he nursed and I changed him and then wrapped him up for bedtime. Beck hung out with Daddy after dinner.
Monday I took a walk through our neighborhood park like I do almost every day, feeling very lucky to be home with these guys during this gorgeous summer.
Tuesday we had a nice unexpected visit from Grandma and Grandpa Leibowitz. We all had fun watching Theo and Beckett try out the Bumbo seat. Beck wanted nothing to do with it but Theo holds his head up well and seemed to enjoy it.
Tonight we enjoyed a nice dinner together while Beck smiled away at us and Theo took a ride in the swing. It's starting to be more reliable that we can have a dinner together at the dining room table without too much interference from the babies, since they have been napping around dinnertime lately. The rest of the day is a crapshoot but generally they take a nap for an hour or so around 6 or 7, which allows us to prepare a meal and eat in relative peace, and then they are up again for an hour or two before they go to sleep somewhere between 8:30 and 10pm. Depending on how deeply they nap in the evening and how late we put them down, sometimes they don't wake up any more than necessary to nurse before going to bed. We know there's no use in trying to wake them up when they sleep through the change to the night diaper (aka "double stuf") and wrapping up in nightclothes.
Tonight I woke Theo up from his nap at 8pm but he was not interested in really waking up, so he nursed and I changed him and then wrapped him up for bedtime. Beck hung out with Daddy after dinner.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Jen's visit!
Jen, one of my very best friends, visited for a very brief three days. We enjoyed lots of great food, a 1.5 hour outing to the DeWitt Wegman's (AKA the holy land), and a trip to the Great New York State Fair. All with Theo and Beckett!
This outfit scored Jen a catcall from one of those "guess your weight" guys at the Fair. You go, Moms Cowgirl!
Check out the book, a gift from our friend Claire. The book is pictures of hot men cleaning, taking care of babies, and doing kind things for the mothers of their children.
Postpartum life
I've been wanting to post for a while about what it's like to go from this
(taken May 17, 2011)
to this
(taken August 27, 2011)
The dreaded beginning of hair loss that I had heard foretold from other moms began in earnest last week. I had forgotten what it was like to lose hair like a normal person, since I have not lost significant hair (in the shower, on the brush, etc.) since the early months of my pregnancy. I had forgotten what it was like to have to clean out the drain after showering or empty the brush. And I had been enjoying having so much hair! But now it looks like my hair is resuming its pre-pregnancy state, and I am losing all the hair I had not lost since becoming pregnant.
About three weeks ago I packed up all my maternity clothes and put them up in the attic. My mother tried her best to get rid of them but I think that's a bigger decision that Jeff and I will have to make at some point in the future. I also brought down all my pre-pregnancy pants and shorts that had been boxed up, and it was like Christmas to go through all those clothes that I used to love! I found my linen pants and some great jeans that I have been wearing ever since. The only maternity pants I did not box up are the Old Navy maternity workout capris I have had for several years. To be fair, I bought them thinking they were regular workout capris with a great foldover top. Turns out they were not meant to fold over but rather to stretch over a big pregnant belly. I figure, since I bought them and wore them before I was pregnant, I can keep them in my wardrobe now.
One weird thing about the c-section that I hadn't anticipated or been warned about was the numbness around the incision site. The incision itself is numb and a little tender, which I guess I expected, though I did not expect it to last this long. But along my bikini line on the right side of my leg I have a lot of numbness over a large area. It's weird to me that around the incision there is a lot of numbness as well. I notice it more than I would have before I had babies because when they are on my lap sometimes they kick at my gut or their bellies rub against mine while they are nursing and it feels strange. I don't think that I had another option besides the c-section and I am so grateful the babies are here and healthy and that their birth was as non-traumatic as possible but my body is most definitely scarred for life as a result. Not to mention....
The blood blister from hell is (mostly) gone. If you recall, I developed a blood blister on my shoulder blade while I was hospitalized in New York on February 28-March 1. There was no reason for me to have gotten it in the hospital, but I did. It got bigger and bigger and bled a lot over the next seven or eight weeks and my dermatologist cut it out and stitched up the artery when I was about 33 weeks pregnant. It took about two weeks, but it came back with a vengeance. About two weeks after I had Theo and Beck the dermatologist went in again and carved out a big chunk of my back and promised that this time, it was gone for good. It is true that the blister has not returned, but he did a pretty crap job of the stitching and it scarred pretty badly. It also bleeds now and again and I still have dermatitis (itchiness) around the scar from the months of having bandages on it. So there's another scar I will have for life to remind me of this pregnancy.
Now, just because I can fit into my pre-pregnancy pants, do not go thinking that I have regained my pre-pregnancy shape. I may even have lost all my baby weight (even with these gigantic milk sacks I have on my chest) but do not confuse that with looking like my pre-pregnancy self. My belly is one giant squishy stretch-marked mass. I don't know where I lost that weight from, because it doesn't seem like any part of my body looks like it used to, but I think that's because I lost so much muscle tone when I was on bedrest and am just regaining it. I do enough standing up from a seated position while carrying a baby, and pushing our giant stroller up hills in our neighborhood, that I am beginning to get back in shape, but I think it will take a while if I ever get back to where I was. The truth is, I don't care even a single bit. I just want my clothes to fit because I hate shopping and am cheap and don't want to have to buy a new wardrobe. These guys are the best thing that has ever happened to me, and the fact that my body will never be the same just underlines that my life will never be the same. And for that, I am thrilled!
(taken May 17, 2011)
to this
(taken August 27, 2011)
The dreaded beginning of hair loss that I had heard foretold from other moms began in earnest last week. I had forgotten what it was like to lose hair like a normal person, since I have not lost significant hair (in the shower, on the brush, etc.) since the early months of my pregnancy. I had forgotten what it was like to have to clean out the drain after showering or empty the brush. And I had been enjoying having so much hair! But now it looks like my hair is resuming its pre-pregnancy state, and I am losing all the hair I had not lost since becoming pregnant.
About three weeks ago I packed up all my maternity clothes and put them up in the attic. My mother tried her best to get rid of them but I think that's a bigger decision that Jeff and I will have to make at some point in the future. I also brought down all my pre-pregnancy pants and shorts that had been boxed up, and it was like Christmas to go through all those clothes that I used to love! I found my linen pants and some great jeans that I have been wearing ever since. The only maternity pants I did not box up are the Old Navy maternity workout capris I have had for several years. To be fair, I bought them thinking they were regular workout capris with a great foldover top. Turns out they were not meant to fold over but rather to stretch over a big pregnant belly. I figure, since I bought them and wore them before I was pregnant, I can keep them in my wardrobe now.
One weird thing about the c-section that I hadn't anticipated or been warned about was the numbness around the incision site. The incision itself is numb and a little tender, which I guess I expected, though I did not expect it to last this long. But along my bikini line on the right side of my leg I have a lot of numbness over a large area. It's weird to me that around the incision there is a lot of numbness as well. I notice it more than I would have before I had babies because when they are on my lap sometimes they kick at my gut or their bellies rub against mine while they are nursing and it feels strange. I don't think that I had another option besides the c-section and I am so grateful the babies are here and healthy and that their birth was as non-traumatic as possible but my body is most definitely scarred for life as a result. Not to mention....
The blood blister from hell is (mostly) gone. If you recall, I developed a blood blister on my shoulder blade while I was hospitalized in New York on February 28-March 1. There was no reason for me to have gotten it in the hospital, but I did. It got bigger and bigger and bled a lot over the next seven or eight weeks and my dermatologist cut it out and stitched up the artery when I was about 33 weeks pregnant. It took about two weeks, but it came back with a vengeance. About two weeks after I had Theo and Beck the dermatologist went in again and carved out a big chunk of my back and promised that this time, it was gone for good. It is true that the blister has not returned, but he did a pretty crap job of the stitching and it scarred pretty badly. It also bleeds now and again and I still have dermatitis (itchiness) around the scar from the months of having bandages on it. So there's another scar I will have for life to remind me of this pregnancy.
Now, just because I can fit into my pre-pregnancy pants, do not go thinking that I have regained my pre-pregnancy shape. I may even have lost all my baby weight (even with these gigantic milk sacks I have on my chest) but do not confuse that with looking like my pre-pregnancy self. My belly is one giant squishy stretch-marked mass. I don't know where I lost that weight from, because it doesn't seem like any part of my body looks like it used to, but I think that's because I lost so much muscle tone when I was on bedrest and am just regaining it. I do enough standing up from a seated position while carrying a baby, and pushing our giant stroller up hills in our neighborhood, that I am beginning to get back in shape, but I think it will take a while if I ever get back to where I was. The truth is, I don't care even a single bit. I just want my clothes to fit because I hate shopping and am cheap and don't want to have to buy a new wardrobe. These guys are the best thing that has ever happened to me, and the fact that my body will never be the same just underlines that my life will never be the same. And for that, I am thrilled!
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Just as we move them to separate cribs...
Thanks to friend Faye (a twin) for passing on this picture and accompanying articles.
Of course, we never saw rescuing hugs, only flailing arms and legs, heads repeatedly banged up against the rails of the crib, and crying. Are girls different than boys? I have to wonder if after the littler twin in the story got bigger and healthier if the other one didn't take the gloves off and really rip into her.... But maybe it is boys v. girls. The couple with the twins down the street said that their fraternal twin boys started beating the hell out of each other at 6 months, but the sister of our friend Robert had her twin girls together until they were 8 months old, where they slept with their legs intertwined.
Of course, we never saw rescuing hugs, only flailing arms and legs, heads repeatedly banged up against the rails of the crib, and crying. Are girls different than boys? I have to wonder if after the littler twin in the story got bigger and healthier if the other one didn't take the gloves off and really rip into her.... But maybe it is boys v. girls. The couple with the twins down the street said that their fraternal twin boys started beating the hell out of each other at 6 months, but the sister of our friend Robert had her twin girls together until they were 8 months old, where they slept with their legs intertwined.
The durn mail
I just want to say, for what it's worth and to the three people who ever read this blog, that I am really sorry about the fact that I didn't realize that some of the thank you cards I sent required extra postage and so a few of them came back to me but because my handwriting is so illegible and my return address was unreadable, my guess is that many more did not get delivered and couldn't even get sent back because the post office couldn't read where they came from. Unfortunately I didn't note which cards I sent to which people (for obvious reasons) so I don't know which thank you cards got to their intended recipients and which did not. I also ran out of baby announcements because I ordered too few (who knew we would send out 125?) so some random people did not get baby announcements because I did not count intended recipients before sending. Now we have a stamp with our address on it that we can put on the back of envelopes when we send them out, AND I know the square cards require $0.61 in postage, but that doesn't help those people who are wondering if I ever got their packages! Thank you!
Three months!
Sunday the boys turned three months old! They can do lots of amazing stuff, like... well, they can smile and giggle. We think that's pretty great.
Grandma Joanie and I had a great swim Saturday but was it the last of the summer? The pool in the park is empty and there is a definite chill in the air. But we can still take great walks in the neighborhood and here's to hoping we still have a few more weeks of good weather before fall hits.
We had a great dinner out on the porch Friday night in continued celebration of my birthday. The food was all fantastic and the babies were friendly and well-mannered, for the most part. Here are friends Stacey and Joe, who are expecting their first baby, a little girl, in November.
Saturday we spent a great day at the lake with Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Stu (or Grandpa Joanie and Grandpa Stu, if you are in the know).
What's up, Grandpa Stu?
Sunday the Parkes family visited and I got to see Baby Whisperer 1.0 (Pete) and Baby Whisperer 2.0 (Benji, AKA Goof) work their magic on the babies. I wish that Benji lived closer because these guys could not get enough of him!
Theo and Beckett chillin on the couch at the lake.
Karen with Theo.
Pete with Beckett.
Benji with Beckett.
Mornings are pretty much always great times with the boys. They are in a good mood, smiling and laughing, and it's usually the best time to talk to them both and for them to interact with each other.
Check out these two heartbreakers!
So after more than a week of sleeping 6+ hours at a time, simultaneously, including some bouts of 8+ hours of sleep, the boys have switched it up and I am exhausted. They were reliably sleeping from 10-6, with Theo sometimes waking up once but Beck often sleeping straight through. Now, 6am is early, but when I've gotten six or more consecutive hours of sleep I can't complain about waking at 6. The last few nights they've been going to sleep at 8pm and then each waking up at least once during the night. Last night they both ate around 10 after being asleep since 8 or before, and then Theo woke up at 2am to eat, Beckett at 3am. Then Theo was up again at 6:30 to eat again before going back to sleep while Beckett ate. The night before was worse--Beckett was up and ready for the day at 5am. We had him in our bed for a short time before I put him in the swing and he fell back to sleep. I'm not really sure if we should be doing something different or what we in fact did differently (if anything) to change up their routine. I don't mind the 8pm sleep time, because it means we can have a quiet grownup dinner, and they seem a lot less cranky in the evening when they just sleep earlier. But multiple wakeups are exhausting!
Grandma Joanie and I had a great swim Saturday but was it the last of the summer? The pool in the park is empty and there is a definite chill in the air. But we can still take great walks in the neighborhood and here's to hoping we still have a few more weeks of good weather before fall hits.
We had a great dinner out on the porch Friday night in continued celebration of my birthday. The food was all fantastic and the babies were friendly and well-mannered, for the most part. Here are friends Stacey and Joe, who are expecting their first baby, a little girl, in November.
Saturday we spent a great day at the lake with Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Stu (or Grandpa Joanie and Grandpa Stu, if you are in the know).
What's up, Grandpa Stu?
Sunday the Parkes family visited and I got to see Baby Whisperer 1.0 (Pete) and Baby Whisperer 2.0 (Benji, AKA Goof) work their magic on the babies. I wish that Benji lived closer because these guys could not get enough of him!
Theo and Beckett chillin on the couch at the lake.
Karen with Theo.
Pete with Beckett.
Benji with Beckett.
Mornings are pretty much always great times with the boys. They are in a good mood, smiling and laughing, and it's usually the best time to talk to them both and for them to interact with each other.
Check out these two heartbreakers!
So after more than a week of sleeping 6+ hours at a time, simultaneously, including some bouts of 8+ hours of sleep, the boys have switched it up and I am exhausted. They were reliably sleeping from 10-6, with Theo sometimes waking up once but Beck often sleeping straight through. Now, 6am is early, but when I've gotten six or more consecutive hours of sleep I can't complain about waking at 6. The last few nights they've been going to sleep at 8pm and then each waking up at least once during the night. Last night they both ate around 10 after being asleep since 8 or before, and then Theo woke up at 2am to eat, Beckett at 3am. Then Theo was up again at 6:30 to eat again before going back to sleep while Beckett ate. The night before was worse--Beckett was up and ready for the day at 5am. We had him in our bed for a short time before I put him in the swing and he fell back to sleep. I'm not really sure if we should be doing something different or what we in fact did differently (if anything) to change up their routine. I don't mind the 8pm sleep time, because it means we can have a quiet grownup dinner, and they seem a lot less cranky in the evening when they just sleep earlier. But multiple wakeups are exhausting!
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