Focus is everything

I sit here, trying to get some work done this Monday morning, after having been awakened by a crying baby at 5am, with no relief until he just went back to sleep at 8. I am tired, I am frustrated, and I am wishing I had the luxury of going back to sleep for a while. But unfortunately, I don't.

As I stumble my way through this enigma called parenting, I am starting to realize that focus is everything. When I stumble my tired body into Micah's room in the middle of the night, I have a choice...I can choose to be focused on how ridiculous it is that my sleeping-through-the-night 2 1/2 month old is waking up, or I can choose to use this as an opportunity to hug and cuddle my super-active-baby-who-never-wants-to-be-cuddled.

I think that also applies to all aspects of our lives. Do we see rush-hour traffic, or a chance to be quiet in our own thoughts? Financial struggles, or a lesson in how to better manage money? Fighting with our spouse, or an opportunity for greater closeness?


As I learned this lesson myself this morning, I encourage everyone to focus on the positive of our lives.

Cord Drama Documented

Most of you know that we had some crazy drama with Micah's umbilical cord. If not, you can read all about it here...

I realized I never did a follow up to that, but we do have a video of the day Micah's cord finally came off, so here it is:

Never too early to learn to swim!

Last weekend, we had a little "Meet Micah" pool party at my parents' house in Austin and had a ton of fun seeing old friends and swimming with the little guy. He absolutely loved the water and did a great job swimming and splashing around with everyone. Here is a picture of Micah with his Yaya in the water.

Unfortunately, not every water experience has been this favorable. Back on Micah's one month birthday, which was the 4th of July, we decided to try him in the water. Of course, the one weekend we are in Austin, it turns out to be overcast and rainy the whole time, so the water in my parents' pool was freezing cold! Needless to say, it was not Micah's favorite thing...but we had to video tape his first water experience...so here it is:

Leon's Baby Tricks

One of the great things about Leon having been a baby photographer is all the things he has learned about how to handle infants. For instance, if you are trying to get a baby to look at you and just can't get them to turn their head toward you, block the vision of what they are looking at with your hand on the side of their head, and they are forced to follow the view to your face. Pretty cool, right?

His photographer tricks are not really to comfort a child or parent any better, but instead they are more for getting the baby to do what we want. One such trick is when the baby cries, you are supposed to make a noise louder than the baby's cry, and he will become distracted and forget to keep crying. It works to get a good picture. But Leon does it a little more often. Here is one such example...

Let's celebrate Micah's 2 month birthday with some shots!

Today is the day our baby boy turns 2 months! Oh my gosh, how is it possible that I am the mother of a 2 month old! However old I feel right now, will only exponentially increase I am afraid, as this blog hears such things as: I am the mother of a 2 year old.....a 5 year old...a 13 year old....ahhhh!!! My mind is completely racing right now, but I have to remind myself to stay in the moment so I don't pre-stress to much! 

So in this moment, I will talk about one of our major accomplishments today. Today was the much-dreaded shot day. The day I have been hoping wouldn't get here. The day I have been stressing about, researching, picking people's brains, and having nightmares about. Should I skip vaccinations altogether and take our chances on diseases? Should I just bite the bullet, vaccinate, and take my chances that everything will be ok? What exactly are the chemicals that will be entering my son's body? What will the side effects be? ......the list goes on. 

In this midst of my research on the subject, one of the most surprising things I found out is just how combative of a subject this actually is. Parents of autistic children say across the board that it is the fault of a vaccine, doctors across the board say there is no link, and each side pretty much hates the other. That left me completely in the middle, not knowing what the true story is, and putting me in a position, once again, where I had to completely trust God and my own instincts on the subject.

After much anticipation and dread of today's appointment, Leon and I talked to Micah's doctor. We picked his brain on vaccines, and wanted to get all our facts straight as best we could. Instead of doing all the vaccines altogether like many people typically do, we proposed to our doctor an alternative vaccine plan from Dr. Sears' Vaccine Book. Part of the problem in my mind had been the fact that vaccines were starting so early, while their bodies are still trying to form. And here they were about to pump my baby boy full of 4 different viruses so to speak. Not cool for me! What Dr. Sears proposes is a more spread out vaccine schedule, where babies are actually given more shots, but more spread out, and not bundled together like shots tend to be done. This cuts down on unnecessary ingredients in the bundled together shots, and more evenly distributes the shots, so babies' little bodies can handle it better, and with less side-effects. This was the only thing I had found in all my research that I was really at peace about, so this is what I had my heart set on. And to our surprise, our doctor was fine with it! We will have to go back more often than the standard schedule, but to us it is worth it if for no other reason than peace of mind for Leon and me. 

So here is the Dr. Sears schedule of vaccines that we are going to follow with Micah, with a few changes:

• 2 months: DTaP, Rotavirus
• 3 months: Pc, HIB
• 4 months: DTaP, Rotavirus
• 5 months: Pc, HIB
• 6 months: DTaP, Rotavirus
• 7 months: Pc, HIB
• 9 months: Polio (IPV)
• 12 months: Mumps, Polio (IPV)
• 15 months: Pc, HIB
• 18 months: DTaP, Chickenpox
• 2 years: Rubella, Polio (IPV)
• 2 1/2 years: Hep B, Hep A (start Hep B at birth if any close relatives or caregivers have Hep B)
• 3 years: Hep B, Measles
• 3 1/2 years: Hep B, Hep A
• 4 years: DTaP, Polio (IPV)
• 5 years: MMR
• 6 years: Chickenpox
• 12 years: Tdap, HPV
• 12 years, 2 months: HPV
• 13 years: HPV, Meningococcal

The only thing vaccine that is still controversial is MMR, which is no longer allowed to be broken up into 3 separate shots. So we will have to determine when we are ready to get that one...I just know that day is not today, so we will deal with that another time!

I was telling Leon today on our way home from the doctor, that it's amazing how little you know of just how much stress you are carrying until that stress is gone. Did that make any sense? In other words, when you no longer have a particular stress in your life...in my case, the stress of vaccine decisions...you start to realize just how much it was occupying your thoughts. So now I can relax and take a breath, knowing that we made the right decision for our family. And that is what I encourage every parent out there to do...what is best for YOUR family and no one else! Do not be bullied by anyone to do something you are not comfortable with. In fact, there is a great parenting blog I stumbled upon called Anti-Sheephood which encourages people to not be "sheep" and follow the crowd when it comes to parenting. It definitely helped comfort me when it came to our decision about Micah's vaccinations.

**And on a more positive note...Micah not only turned 2 months old today, but he also turned from his stomach to his back!! Isn't he just the most talented baby in America?! :)~ Here is a new picture with his sister Coco cuddling up next to him in honor of his 2 month birthday...

Vote for Micah's Nursery!

Some of you have seen our video of how we decorated Micah's room:




We wanted to create something abstract, artsy, and just not your standard baby blue nursery. Our fabric choice has been criticized, colors made fun of, and no one really pictured it like we did until they saw the finished product.

We recently emailed our nursery to the webmaster of a baby decor website, and they decided to put us up on their site for parents to look at and get ideas from. There is also a contest as to who gets the highest ratings. I am not sure what the prize is, but of course I want to win just for bragging rights :) ...so visit our page on the site at http://www.unique-baby-gear-ideas.com/abstract-modern-nursery-design.html and add a comment and give us a good rating!