My View on Vaccines

Both of my girls are current on vaccines. Halie got her first shot minutes after she was born, and Katelynn, about 4 months after she was born. Why did I wait the second time around? There is just so so so much controversy over the whole vaccine ordeal that I wasn't really aware of until I became pregnant with Katelynn, that I kept flip flopping on my decision to get her the shots I feared, or not.

I did a lot of research supporting both sides, and decided I needed to make a decision and stick to it. Should I take the risk of my child becoming infected with meningitis or whooping cough at a young age where in that case, one of those diseases could be potentially deadly if I chose not to vaccinate? Or should I vaccinate knowing that there is a small percent of a reaction and possible injury or death occurring from those shots? Those are two heavy things to think about. Especially when it involves your children.

After going back and forth with my fears and concerns, I knew that the right thing was to get the shots done because ultimately, the benefits of those shots outweigh the risks tenfold. Considering how people died from these terrible diseases (polio, pertussis, tetanus, hep b etc) not even a hundred years ago, and now...there have hardly been any cases of those diseases in America since vaccines became available to protect against them.

It took me awhile to figure things out, but I got it right, and now I can rest easy knowing I did the right thing for my children in making the choice to get them vaccinated. They are both happy, healthy girls and I don't regret my decision at all to vaccinate.

Trying New Things

I've discovered in having my second child, that it can be quite the hindrance at times when it comes to bed times, dinner and one-on-one time with my hubby and 3 year old. Don't get me wrong, I love Katelynn so much and wouldn't do anything to change things, but I just feel like I get nowhere sometimes because she requires so much extra of me. That sounds so bad, I know, but it's not like that at all. I guess I can't describe how I truly feel without sounding like a terrible, unappreciative mother. Halie was my easy baby, and I always find myself comparing Katelynn to her, and going back to the same parenting techniques I used before. I have to constantly remind myself that Katelynn is not Baby Halie so therefore, needs to be brought up differently to suite hers and our needs. She's not a bad baby, she's just different and has a bit more of a 'kick' to her. She keeps me on my toes and then some.

Bedtime, I dread putting little Katelynn down for the night because it usually doesn't happen how I want. Every time I nurse and comfort her to sleep, creep slowly to her crib and ever so gently set her down, she awakes, frantic and screaming for me to pick her up again. Aye! This goes on for typically 2 hours or so until I'm so frustrated and drained I just let her scream and I go in my room and stick a pillow over top my head. She'll scream (bless her) for HOURS sometimes.

Last night, I decided something had to change. My whole family is stressed out because of her little cry-fests, so we decided to set her a bedtime, and make a routine that we can stick to for every night of the week until she is able to fall asleep without mommy right there for hours. I was thinking, Halie goes to bed around 8ish so I would start putting Katelynn down around 7 so I could have some time with Halie before she hit the hay. Sounds good, right? Here we go!

Tonight, I gave Katelynn her dinner, we walked around outside and watched Halie ride her bike until about 6:30. Then we went in for a bath while Halie stayed out with Daddy and splashed around in there for about 15 minutes. I dried her little baby bod off, rubbed her down with lotion and put her p.j.'s on. Then we nursed and I sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star thinking that if I started singing that song every night, she would soon start to realize that we were close to bedtime and it would be easier for her to get to bed once I set her down in her crib...awake. She decided she was done nursing after about 5 minutes, so I gave her a kiss and a cuddle, set her in her crib and told her 'night night, I love you' before walking out of the room. Feeling confident about the night, I decided to go outside and have some one-on-one time with God. It was great. I got to enjoy his presence undisturbed and tell Him all about the night and how much I needed his support and love through this whole routine thing. Although Katelynn cried for a good 45 minutes, I feel things will improve if I press on with what I started (something I'm terrible at).