Giving Thanks

I hope that everyone is feeling thankful today. I am blessed to be a wife, mother, sister, aunt, cousin, friend and teacher. Am grateful that I have so many in my life who care and love me and are there for me. So to those of you in my life, that I get to learn and love from, thank you!

H1N1 Vaccine for Pregnant Women

A former student posted this to Facebook. It is food for thought. We must think and follow our guts, not just blindly go along with all that we are told to do.

From the Article:

Shocking H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine Miscarriage Stories From Pregnant Women – Tell Your Doctors That Vaccines And Pregnancy Do Not Mix!

Filed Under Big Pharma, Children's Health, Medical Maiming, Pandemic, Vaccines, Women's Health

preggers1U.S. health authorities have made pregnant women one of the highest priority groups for getting the H1N1 swine flu vaccine, but is it actually safe for pregnant women and their babies? Well, the truth is that miscarriage reports from pregnant women who have taken the H1N1 swine flu vaccine are starting to pour in from all over the nation. Vaccines and pregnancy simply do not mix safely. In fact, the package inserts for the swine flu vaccines actually say that the safety of these vaccines for pregnant women has not been established.

What you are about to read below should shock and anger you. If they are telling us that the swine flu vaccine is not safe for children under 6 months of age, then why in the world would it be safe for pregnant women and their babies? That doesn’t make an ounce of sense, does it?

The following H1N1 swine flu vaccine miscarriage horror stories are from a June 2010 birth club…..

EBWashington:

I am so upset. I was so excited to be pregnant after trying for a year. As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I joined this birth club and I was due June 25th. We have two healthy boys with no history of miscarriage. Everything was going great. Last Monday, I got the H1N1 vaccine thimerosal reduced (mercury reduced for pregnant women). On Tuesday morning, I started cramping and on Wednesday I started bleeding heavily. My hcg was 50 on Wednesday and I was almost 6 weeks along so it was low. They still thought that I might be pregnant but on Friday my hcg was down to 22. I am an emotional wreck. I feel like I had a healthy baby and I caused this by getting the H1N1 vaccine. My doctors pushed it. I researched online and there have been many miscarriages after the H1N1 vaccine but they haven’t been reported since it is hard to say what caused the miscarriages. I hope that I did not cause this. I wish everyone the best.

Marathon Man

Two weeks ago my husband completed his first marathon. He ran it better than what he thought he could 4hrs. 26min. I had no doubt he could do it after all, he rode his bicycle across the U.S., cycled 280 miles is 21 hrs., is a father of six and he is married to me! I loved seeing his smile when he first saw me at the finish line, that smile fills my soul.

I am blessed to me married to such a man.

http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=47648&BIB=3432&S=230&PWD=

Reclaim Your Birth Rite

Christiane Northrup has a new article out (thanks Michelle) about women trusting their own bodies to birth. Women have trusted their bodies for thousands of years and now we put our bodies into the hands of someone who thinks they know us better.

Northrup states:


Studies have repeatedly shown that in healthy mothers with no risk factors, home birth is as safe as hospital birth. Increasingly, savvy women who trust their ability to birth normally are opting to avoid the hospital altogether (or at least have the foresight to hire a midwife or doula). And who can blame them? One study in the Netherlands looked at almost 530,000 low-risk planned births and found that with the proper services in place (such as a well-trained midwife and good transportation), home births are just as safe as hospital births. [11] In fact, home birth may even be safer.

Sisters

Many things in life you have no control over. I may not have been blessed with the best family, but the greatest gift my parent's gave me besides my life, is my oldest sister.

As a young girl I always looked up to her. There were five of us girls; she had the only room to herself after we moved to Palmdale. I can remember she would sometimes ask "Would you like to sleep in my room tonight." She had a double bed and I can remember trying to not wiggle too much, as I wanted to be invited back. She seemed so perfect at the time (she wasn't, but to a 9 year old, she was). She would read her scriptures and say her prayers. I was in awe of her. When she married right out of high school to her high school sweetheart, she would sometimes invite me over to bake, I thought I was special.

Over the years we had our moments, as most sisters do. But her family and mine became close. We each had six children. She was always there for me if I ever needed her. When my brother-in-law suddenly died the night before my nephew got married, my heart just ached as I watched my sister and her children try to deal with things. She was strong once again, and put a smile on her face the next day for her son's wedding. Once again, I was in awe.

She stayed strong, though I know it was hard. She had her children and her grandchildren to think of. A surprise came when one of her husband's friends that they had remained close to, asked her out. Their relationship grew and she married him. It was nice to see her being loved as a woman again.

Then, not too long ago, my nephew called to say my sister had a brain tumor, my world shattered. But once again, I was in awe of my sister as she dealt with the situation. She had become the comforter. We were so lucky to be blessed with some wonderful doctors and nurses who removed the large tumor. It was benign and they got it all. As we took turns going into the ICU, I walked in with one of my nephews and she looked up and said "Hi, Dorene." She was so clear, so strong. Now that she is healing and trying to get back to normal, she still just amazes me. She just gives you peace when you are around her. I know that I have been blessed with the best sister and am so thankful.

Makayla’s Birth Story as told by Dad

This birth story was written by the father of a former couple of mine. Her middle name is after his mom who passed away shortly after the birth of their first child. Thanks, Justin and Jen for sharing.

By Sunday morning Jen was already 9 days overdue and had been experiencing periodic contractions the entire week. She when she woke me up at 12:30 am and said that she was in labor I was very surprised. We went to bed and everything was normal, then all of a sudden she “knows” she is in labor, how was this different from the contractions she had all week? Well it turns out she was in labor. She told me her contractions were 10 minutes apart since 12:00am, but by 12:40 they were 3-4 minutes apart and growing stronger. After an hour of this we headed to the hospital.
When we got there she was 5-6 cm dilated. Jen heard another woman in triage that was screaming and she was thinking “what a drama queen”….. well a few minutes later she was the one screaming. She didn’t use an epidural for pain, she did the whole thing a-natural. Her contractions were so strong at this point they were taking over her body and she was screaming! It was just like the TV shows, this was much different than her labor with Gavin where she was very quiet and calm. Our labor and delivery nurse wanted to go on break and the delivering doctor hung up on the triage nurse when she tried to get him to examine Jen so after an hour we finally got a room around 4 am.
Dr. Fu was covering for Dr. Kurian and we were not pleased with this news. At 7 cm Jen said that she felt she had to push, everyone was telling her not to but she wouldn’t listen. She pushed lightly for the next few minutes and she was soon dilated to 9.5 cmm. Jen was begging to start pushing the baby out so the nurse helped move the cervix over Makayla’s head and we were ready to start! We are not sure what happened to the bag of waters. The nurse said it was gone, there was only a little bit left that she helped to break at this point. Jen began to push a little after 6 am. She was in a “laid out” position that the nurse had placed her in. After 20 minutes of pushing I realized that this was a terrible position, and I had her move, two pushes later Makayla was born!
Although we were very unhappy with Dr. Fu we were very thankful that God provided us with a good nurse. She was pretty negative about Jen refusing pain medicine, pitocin etc, but she helped us communicate with Dr. Fu. She had read over our birth plan and she would tell the dr what we wanted or reminded us to tell him at the right time. In the end the nurse was very impressed with Jen’s labor and delivery!
After Makayla was born she was able to rest on Jen as the cord clamp was delayed. Once we gave the okay the cord was cut and the Dr allowed the placenta to birth naturally, this happened about 5 minutes later. Once she was weighted, 8lbs 15 oz, I was able to hold her, she was beautiful!
Being born at 6:31 am was the perfect time. Jen and I were able to get some sleep the night before and with a few cups of coffee we were able to make it through the day. Makayla was a good sleeper right away and she pretty much slept the first few days and nights which we were very happy about. We are grateful to have a beautiful healthy daughter, Makayla Roxanne is truly a blessing from God.

Blossom Grows Up

I just thought this was really cool, that a former childhood TV star, grew up went to school, had a family, and is now back at acting. She has home birthed, home schooled and has done many other ways of parenting. Here is a interview with her:

Anyone who watched TV in the early '90s knows Mayim Bialik as Blossom Russo, the lovable teen who lived with her two brothers and hung out with her best friend, Six. After making her mark as a Gen X TV icon, Mayim took nearly 15 years off to earn a doctorate degree and start a family. She now has two young sons (Milo and Fred) and has returned to TV in high-profile guest spots on "Bones" and "Saving Grace." On this episode of "Spotlight to Nightlight," host Ali Landry catches up with Mayim and talks about her non-traditional approach to parenting.