Mother of the Year

You know when everything goes wrong at once and you feel like the worst parent in the world because you can't seem to do anything right? Yeah, that's me right now. Kirk's rash is fading slowly, but he's still shooting snot rockets and feels downright miserable (or at least that's how he's acting). He wants held 24/7, but prefers to be held while the holder is walking around. My 6-month pregnant belly is NOT putting up with that. Shiphrah woke up this morning with a 101.8 fever. Did I mention she had just gotten over the cold she's had for two weeks? I think she probably had the fever yesterday too but I didn't think to check her. Her appetite was awful though...she ate a bowl of cereal, 1/2 a tortilla, a tiny donut, and a few teddy grahams and goldfish crackers all day long. This morning she didn't want breakfast and all she wanted to do was curl up in her little chair with her dog, elephant, and blanket. Then when I went to put Kirk down for his nap (which he is currently fighting) she followed me into the room and wanted to go back to bed too. Poor thing must feel awful.

So yeah, why can't I keep my kids healthy??? I try so hard to get them to eat well...yogurt most mornings, fresh fruit every day, C-boost to drink every day, gummy vitamins, you name it and I've tried it! Short of trying to re-lactate and give them breastmilk (which I don't think would work) I'm not sure what to do anymore.

Needless to say, I'm not feeling like Mother of the Year right now. Shiphrah has been watching too many movies (she's averaging 2 hours a day lately) just because I can't deal with her when Kirk is being fussy and clingy. I also haven't figured out how to teach her to be quiet while he naps...so the TV turns on again then too. I need to just start doing a little learning time with her during his morning nap but I've been so exhausted from all the sickness that I just haven't felt like it.

Thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law and a couple of sisters-in-law, I was able to get some uninterrupted time to clean and do laundry last weekend. So at least the house isn't falling apart at the moment. That's my one accomplishment. Oh, and since Avery has switched back to B-shift at work, our relationship has greatly improved. Night shift sucked, y'all, I have the greatest respect for anyone who can do that long-term.

Thanks to everyone who commented on my finance poll post. Avery and I talked about it again and decided to use all but $1K to pay off the debt (leaving that for an emergency fund). Our Discover card balance is now wiped clean and we should be able to pay the rest of the Mastercard balance within the month. It's so exciting to be almost debt-free again! (Well, other than the mortgage. ) Unfortunately some of the savings had to go towards four new sets of uniforms for Avery...those things are expensive. But the city does pay him a monthly uniform allowance of $50, so I shouldn't complain too much.

Well, I'm off to organize my grocery list. Whenever my husband gets back from running his errands, I need to head out to do mine. Have a great Thursday everybody!

In defense of selective vaccination...a comment.

With the news of the vaccines-autism study being discredited all over the place lately, I knew it was only a matter of time before someone I knew and respected came out and said something that frustrated me. Now, I'm not going to argue whether or not the study should have been discredited or whether it was a good study to begin with (for those who don't know, it was discredited for a possible conflict of interests, although science could never replicate the results anyway), but I am going to take offense at the suggestion that parents who do not follow the government-sanctioned vaccination schedules are idiots who buy into sensationalist theories by celebrities like Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey. Here is the comment I left on this person's blog:

Avery and I had a childhood friend who developed seizures after her 2-year-old vaccines. Those seizures eventually killed her when she was 13. Just the fact that things like that CAN happen (the doctors agreed that she did happen to have an adverse reaction to the shots) gives me pause before I say yes unconditionally to all vaccines. I know vaccines have a purpose and I know some are necessary. My kids have had the DPT shots (primarily for the pertussis vaccine), pneumococcal, and meningitis vaccines. However, we have decided that the others are merely superfluous. The MMR vaccine is created using aborted fetuses and none of those three diseases is dangerous for an otherwise healthy child. Chicken pox is also harmless to children (although if my kids haven't had it by their teenage years I will probably suggest they get the shot) and I see no need for my babies to get the Hepatitis B vaccine when they will not be sexually active for many years (and it's efficacy wears off after 6-10 years anyway). We also don't follow the prescribed timing for vaccines either and feel more comfortable spacing them out so the child isn't getting large doses of chemicals injected into their tiny bodies at one time.

I do NOT believe that autism is directly caused by vaccines. I do, however, believe that many childhood ailments, such as autism, ADD, ADHD, extreme allergies, mental illnesses, etc. are caused partly by a combination of several factors: lack of a healthy diet (including overuse of artificial infant formulas), overexposure to chemicals and unnatural substances (through vaccines, hormones additives in foods, hormones in our water, hormonal birth control, etc.), artificial and chemically engineered foods (artificial sweeteners, preservatives, over-processed foods, etc.), and the overall weakness of the body's immune system. For example, some autistic children have found their symptoms drastically reduced when they changed to all-natural diets.

(I'm going to interject here and say that my point in talking about my theories of the causes of childhood ailments was not to say that it's a parent's fault if their child is diagnosed with autism or bi-polar disorder [obviously random genetics have something to do with it too], but to point out that there are quite possibly external factors that might have contributed to those ailments and we as parents shouldn't throw up our hands and say "oh well, so sad.")

Anyway, my point is to say that I (and many others like me) are not believers in the "all vaccines are EVIL" theory. However, every time a doctor tells me I should give my child a measles vaccine, I must consider this: am I willing to to inject my child with harsh chemicals (mercury or aluminum [which has been proven to increase the risk for Alzheimer's btw], and formaldehyde), antibiotics, and a killed measles virus that will lower their immune system for several days making them susceptible to any disease-bearing germ they may come in contact with...all to protect them against a disease that has a 1 in 10,000 chance of killing them IF they contract it?

Please tell me my thought process AT LEAST makes sense to you. Of all people, you should be sympathetic to what it's like to be a concerned parent who wants to do best by their children. You don't believe in being brainwashed by the government or anyone else in telling us what's right for our kids.

(Forgive any typos...it's late and past my bedtime.)

I know we've been over this issue time and time again, but I wish more people (parents and non-parents alike) would be understanding towards views different from their own. I may disagree with you over a certain issue, but I'm not going to call you a moron behind your back and think you're an awful parent for believing what you do! If you have weighed the risks of vaccinating versus not vaccinating and made the decision to get all the vaccines, more power to you, at least you made an informed decision. But telling me I am "willfully ignorant" and following sensationalized myths is liable to get me a little ticked off.