The vaccine debate

Micah's 2 week doctor appointment is coming up next week, and that means round 1 of the dreaded vaccines! I have always been real skeptical of vaccines in America because of all the talk of their connection to autism. But now that my decision of whether or not to vaccinate Micah is right around the corner, I am cramming in the research on both sides of the topic.

The anti-vaccinators argue that despite what the FDA and other agencies say, there is a strong correlation between vaccines and occurrences of autism, due to the mercury-containing compound called themirosal that is in some of the vaccines, particularly the MMR vaccine. 

On the pro-vaccination side, it is of course a necessity to protect our children from dangerous diseases. When we vaccinate, we are helping our children's immune system build the necessary defenses to fight anything that may come our way.

And in the very middle is where I find myself. I am definitely not thinking that not vaccinating Micah is an option. But I am also thinking that if anything would have a chance of harming my baby, I do not want to even take the risk! So what do I do? There has to be some middle ground...like spreading out vaccinations, and breaking up bundled vaccines such as MMR.....I just don't know.

I am starting to worry about this issue, and was wondering if anyone else has done any research on the subject. Here are some resources I have found:
Anti-Vaccines: http://www.thegreenparent.com/2009/02/05/the-vaccination-decision-vaccines-and-autism/
Pro-Vaccines: http://www.thegreenparent.com/2009/02/17/court-rules-no-link-between-vaccines-and-autism/
Jenny McCarthy's organization: http://www.generationrescue.org/vaccines/vaccines
Jenny McCarthy's Story: http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Mothers-Battle-Autism/

But I just wanted to know if anyone else had any wisdom to share before I take the vaccine plunge....

A Balancing Act

Why is it always so hard to manage our time? Whether it is school, work, family, friends, or all of the above, there are always challenges when it comes to finding balance. For me, it has been a struggle for a while, but throwing a child in the mix just makes it that much harder to achieve the highly sought-after luxury of balance!

I would love to be one of those mothers who doesn't have to work, and who has a maid, a nanny, and a personal assistant. That would definitely help achieve balance in my life. But the fact is, everything that needs to be done needs to be done by me, and there really is not a thing in my life that can suffer right now. I have to take care of Micah, that's a given. I have to get my work done so we can buy food. I now need to worry about working off this baby weight, and eat right, so skipping a workout or ordering a pizza when I don't feel like cooking really isn't an option anymore. I need to make sure the house stays clean for my own sanity. I need to still be a wife to Leon, and I definitely need to spend some time with God at some point during my day. Why does this all seem so overwhelming and impossible to achieve?

I don't have the answer. I wish I did. But I do know that in the Bible it says "Write the vision and make it plain..." (Habakkuk 2:2). So I have started writing down the plan for my day. I list what I need to accomplish, and when. It is helping, though everything still seems overwhelming. But I am sure that with enough practice, we can all achieve the balance we are looking for in our lives. At least I hope so.

Any advice on how balance has been achieved in your life when things seem overwhelming? Are there any super-mom pills out there? Just kidding.

Our Crazy Little Family

I have a few new videos of our family from Micah's first few weeks of life. The more recent ones are coming soon, but if you are interested, check out the videos below....

Video catch up

So I am a little late on the video positing, but here is our next vlog video of us coming home from the hospital. I am working on being better about my video posting, so we are in the middle of a little bit of catch up until then!

Sleeping patterns

Helping a newborn sleep through the night is always a topic of conversation among parents. Babies are all different, so it is hard to say when they should start sleeping through the night or how we can help them do that. But I know Micah has it in him to sleep at least 5 hours at night. He did it the second day he was home from the hospital, it just happened to be at 2:00 in the afternoon. So in an effort to re-arrange his schedule to where he sleeps those 5 hours at night, we have been making sure we wake him up every 3 hours during the day so he gets all his feedings in and will hopefully sleep more at night. It is working, but it is definitely not the easiest thing to do! Sometimes the little man just doesn't want to wake up....it does provide good entertainment, but it does not make things easy on us! Check out this adorable video of our little man.... 

 


Any tips out there from you parents will be welcomed with open arms. But until then, we will keep doing what we are doing, because it seems to be working! Now he is going between 4-5 hours every night...yay!!! Now if we could just get to 8 hours, I might get myself a good night's sleep!

A month feels like a day...

How can it be possible that our baby boy is already a month old?! Even he can't believe it!

 

It seems like only yesterday that we were in the hospital just getting to know our little man, and on the 4th of July, he had his 1 month birthday! I am completely dumbfounded at how fast time has flown, but have been loving every minute!

Leon and I recently reconnected with an old friend who loves deep, personal conversations as much as we do. After she recovered from the initial shock of seeing us with a baby, she asked us a great question that I think bears repeating...what was the most surprising thing about having a baby for us?

Leon's response was that he was surprised at how close it was bringing the two of us together. We always hear how marriage gets strained with children, and I think we were expecting that to happen from the very beginning, but in our case, at least so far, it has done nothing but bring us closer together. Not only do we have this amazing child to care for, but watching each other become parents has only increased our love for one another. We are still focused on our marriage first and foremost, and then being parents to Micah. And the fact that Micah wasn't an instant wedge in between us, surprised Leon....even to the point where he coined my new favorite saying of all time: "I'd sell a kid on eBay before I let it ruin my marriage!" :)

My answer to the question was that I was most surprised by how much I loved it. I felt like everyone had only told me the downsides to having a newborn..."get ready to be exhausted," "plan on staying home for 3 months," "expect your marriage to be strained," etc.... I heard it all, from bad personal experiences, to warnings about colic, fussiness, marital problems, sleepless nights and more. Because of what everyone was telling me, I was expecting it to be completely draining, and while I am tired, and even leaving the house is more difficult than it used to be, I think that I over-prepared for the worst, and am now surprised at how amazing it is!

**So I was just curious...for all you parents out there, think back to when you first had a baby (some may have to think back further than others!). What was the most surprising thing for you? I am always interested in hearing other people's thoughts, so if you have time, comment on this post and tell us what was most surprising for you!

Change in perspective

It's amazing how much a baby changes things! Before Micah came into our lives, Leon and I were looking at change as a bad thing. We loved our life, we loved each other, and we didn't want a baby ruining any of that. 


But now that the little man has come, and we have learned that loving him while still loving each other is easier than we thought, we have come to embrace a little bit of change, both in our relationship and in our personal lives. One of the biggest changes that Micah has brought to my life is my perspective on God.

Leon and I have been through a lot of ups and downs during our first year of marriage, and a lot of the downs had to do with negative experiences in church, and with pastors in our lives. I will spare everyone the details of these negative experiences, but suffice it to say that our experiences left us a little sour on church and church leaders. Ok, "a little sour" is an understatement....we were hurt, and we were pissed, even to the point where we didn't want anything to do with church people. (Sorry, but I made a commitment to be honest, no matter how terrible my thoughts were).

Getting over those feelings toward church has proven to be a trick for us. We just want to see more people who are authentically living life for Jesus, instead of people who just talk a good talk from principles they learned in Seminary, and they are not living a life like Christ modeled for us at all. 

I had thought until now that I was just frustrated with the church. But as I dig deeper into those feelings, I am starting to realize that I wasn't just upset with the church, but with God too. I felt like we had been abandoned by Him, that He was missing, and that He shouldn't have allowed certain things to happen to us when we were trying to serve Him with our whole hearts. 

I let those feelings go on a lot longer than I should have, and it is just now, when I look at my baby boy, and I cannot help but see the beauty and glory of God's everyday miracles in His sweet little face, and small little fingers and toes, that I am starting to see God for who He truly is again. When Micah's eyes start focusing on us more and more each day. When he smiles, even though he doesn't know what he is doing yet. When he stops crying when he hears my voice or Leon's voice....All these sweet little precious moments in time that I will treasure forever would never have been possible if God hadn't randomly decided to bless us with this incredible baby boy. He was formed out of 2 cells, and grew to this amazing, perfectly healthy boy that we now get to hold and cuddle. God was not absent in our lives, instead, He was preparing the way for us to be able to love and provide for this amazing baby boy who deserves the whole world, and He was making us into the kinds of parents He knew we needed to be for Micah.


I would like to say I am completely over my recent lapse in judgment when it comes to God, but I am not out of the woodwork just yet. But with every passing day, and every little glance from my almost 1 month old, my heart melts more and more, and God shows Himself to me over and over again in the eyes of His precious creation Micah. And I am starting to fall in love with my Father again because of my baby boy! What an awesome God we have who will not give up on us but who will bless us and bless us and relentlessly pursue us until we simply cannot resist His ultimate love!