Vaccinations and 2 month stats

Today was Makena's 2 month check-up. It was the date we'd been dreading. Time to start vaccinations! We have been researching and figuring out what we wanted to do for a while, and got it all decided last night.

But first, her 2 month stats:

Weight- 13 pounds 3 oz.
Height- 24 1/4 inches

Doctor Wally says she is growing perfectly, she's a big strong baby! At the top of the percentiles but right in the middle proportionally. He said her recent fussiness could possibly be boredom, or early teething. Yikes! The red mark on the back of her head is the same as the one on her right eye lid, just something she was born with and it will go away in time. We mentioned that she took a shower and didn't mind the water in her face/eyes, and he said studies have shown that babies who don't mind water like that are more likely to be developmentally advanced. Once again, more proof that we have a super baby! :)

She gave him lots of smiles and when he checked her ears he asked us how we clean them. We said we've only once used a baby q-tip, and he said we should clean her ears with our elbow. lol! This guy is such a riot! So basically he means leave them alone. He ended the exam by saying we're doing a very good job with her.

And this was AFTER we had a long discussion about immunizations! He repeated that we chose him to be our baby's advocate, and it's his job to protect her and make sure we're informed. We explained that we've done our homework and told him our reasoning and ideal vaccination schedule. He said he is going to work with us to do it the way we feel comfortable doing it.

So. Here's what we are going to do:

2 months- DTaP (Daptacel brand) and Rotovirus (RotaTeq brand)
3 months- Pneumococcal (Prevnar brand) and HiB (we asked him to order ActHiB)
4 months- DTaP and Rotovirus (we aren't giving her the RotaTeq again after her reaction to it the first time)
5 months-Pneumococcal and HiB
6 months- DTaP and Rotovirus
7 months- Pneumococcal and HiB
15 months- Pneumococcal and HiB

At 1 year we will re-evaluate and possibly add the MMR, and Hep A...but I have a feeling we will be delaying those. As for Polio, Chickenpox and Hep B, I don't think we will even consider them until she is older. Same with the flu shot. We will continually research and make sure we are confident in our decision.

The current American Academy of Pediatrics Recommended Vaccine Schedule:


According to that chart, we were supposed to get 6 vaccines today. We got 2. How did we come to our decision? Choosing be selective about which vaccines to get and delaying the ones we are getting was a decision we came to after many hours of research.

Things we considered:

-Spacing out the shots to watch for adverse reactions to be better able to pinpoint which vaccine caused it. (This means we will be adding extra visits to the Dr. to catch up on shots, but we are more than willing to do it this way.)

-The aluminum content in each shot to spread them out and not overload her body with too much of this dangerous additive. (It's a proven fact aluminum is toxic in high levels and can cause neurological harm. The schedule that the FDA has approved includes aluminum levels that FAR exceed what is thought to be safe for babies and their immature kidneys.)

-Which diseases are the most dangerous and the probability of her being exposed to said disease. (The fact that she is exclusively breastfed and not attending daycare are reasons to relax a little on her risk factors. But we live in a very diverse and rich community, meaning lots of travel to other countries which adds to her risk of being exposed.)

-Which vaccines have the most severe side effects and the probability of that happening. ( 1 in 14,000 chance of seizure; 1 in 1,000 chance of nonstop crying for 3 or more hours; 1 in 50 chance of vomiting; 1 in 16,000 chance of fever over 105 degrees...the list goes on...)

-The different brands of each vaccine and the ingredients used to make it. (Each brand has a different aluminum content and ingredient list.)

And after weighing all the pros and cons, and using Dr. Sear's approach to a selective/delayed schedule as a guide, we feel we've made a plan that works for us.

It's scary though, no vaccine is 100% safe. There is always the possibility of a side effect, from mild (slight fever, redness and swelling at injection site) to severe (heart inflammation, seizures, bleeding disorders, allergic reactions, infections, paralysis.)

So today, we've protected Makena from Rotavirus and Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis. But we also made her swallow a live virus that contains monkey kidney cells and blood from cow fetuses. And we injected formaldehyde into her. :(

Instead of getting the Pentacel brand DTaP shot which our Dr usually uses, we asked for Daptacel. Pentacel is a combo shot and includes the DTaP, HiB and Polio. But since we want to delay the Polio vaccination, we opted to use the Daptacel which is just the DTaP. Also, the Daptacel doesn't include cow extract and contains less than 1/2 the Pertussis components than the other brand. Since the P component of the DTaP is the part which triggers the most side effects, in this case we feel less is better, even though Pertussis (whooping cough) is a severe and common disease and the risk of exposure is higher than either Diphtheria or Tetanus. Unfortunately there isn't a Pertussis only vaccination.

As for Rotavirus, nobody mentioned to us that it's a live virus and therefore will be in her system (and exiting her body in her poop) for up to 10 days. Because of my research I've found many accounts of family members catching Rotavirus from diaper changes after the baby has been vaccinated. So, armed with this info, we know to wash our hands especially well after changing her diapers. And also cloth diapering will be on hold for a while. The virus lives in poopy diapers for a long time, and can only be killed by bleach.

But again, no one told us any of that. No one said that Pam and I are now at risk of catching Rotavirus! No one suggested that we get the vaccine ourselves, and since it's a fairly new one, we surely haven't been immunized against it.

So when people ask me why we're nervous about vaccinations it has pretty much nothing to do with the pain of the needles or the fear of Autism like they assume. It's so much more than that, and all it takes is some reading to learn the reasons why we're being cautious.

And now that we have this beautifully wonderful miracle of a baby to care for, we know we're in for a lifetime of concerns and worries! But oh, it's so worth it already. :)

ETA: Just hours after posting this there was a news segment about how the FDA is suspending the use of RotaVix, the other Rotavirus vaccine. Thankfully that's not the one we gave Makena. But still, it gave us a small heart attack nonetheless to see "Vaccine Safety?" flash across the TV.

First trip!

On March 13th we took Makena for her first overnight trip! We drove the 2 hours to Fresno and stayed with Kimberly, Susan, and their 3 week old baby girl Kansas. Another friend, Brennon (who is only 9 days younger than Makena but was early and weighed just 5 something pounds at birth!), is in this photo-Makena did great on the drive, she mostly slept. We got to their house and had a nice visit, and then she started to cry round 7pm. And we couldn't calm her down. It was the first time she's ever cried and we couldn't soothe her. Then she started to really scream. And it turned to blood curdling wails that had both Pam and I in tears. We felt SO helpless, it was just awful. She even had real tears for the first time. Her face was so red and she was practically shaking from crying so hard. It was terrifying, to not know what was wrong and to see her so upset. It was definitely the worst moment in her little life so far. :( We asked Kim to bring us a thermometer because she felt warm to us, and we weren't sure if it was a fever or just from crying so much. So Kim opened up a brand new thermometer and it wouldn't work!!

I tried to keep reminding myself that we've just been spoiled with such a good easy baby. That sometimes babies cry and we are lucky she isn't like that every day. She smiles through diaper and clothes changes, she loves the bathtub, and sleeps when riding in the car. She sleeps through the night or wakes up only once. Usually she is very easy to soothe. Pick her up or give the pacifier. We truly are lucky!!

Eventually she calmed down and fell asleep in Pam's arms. Then Pam stood there rocking and bouncing her and patting her bottom for a very long time because we were so afraid she'd start screaming again. We transferred her to the bed and all fell asleep. And woke up in the morning after a great 7 hour sleep. Amazing.

We went out to brunch, home for a nap, and then out to the park with Brennon's mommies, and it was such a great day.Makena was all smiles! She's such a joy!

She was fine Sunday evening, but definitely fussier than normal. We've decided she's overstimulated in the evening, and we just need to start an earlier bedtime routine. Also, no visitors or hoopla after 7pm. She gets cranky and tired and fights her sleep.

On the way home we stopped at Casa de Fruta. We walked around there when I was still pregnant, and I remember looking at all the photo ops and thinking about bringing our baby someday!
When we got home we had some visitors and Shari Elmer gave Makena one of her famous hand knit sweaters. It's adorable, pink and white and yellow with little Beatrix Potter buttons.

Makena has been doing great with tummy time, she grunts and babbles the whole time until she's finally had enough "exercise," but it's working because she can lift her head and turn it to look around!

And she recently found her hands! I've caught her a few times sucking on her fingers and it's just adorable! I love the slurping sound she makes.

My mom came over with a bunch of green goodies for a little St. Patrick's Day photo shoot! Makena has a wee bit o' Irish in her!
Grandma (or Grandmo) made that awesomely adorable headband from a garter belt!!

Mommy's lucky charm!
Today we went for a walk to buy some bagels, and it was HOT outside! We both worked up a sweat, but Makena was a champ. And she didn't cry the whole time! When I took her out of the stroller she was soaked and even had a very full poopy diaper. Poor little baby butt!

In other news...
I left Makena at home with Pam for 5 hours while I went to SF to do a radio station focus group. It went well, Pam says she mostly slept and then she fed her a bottle of milk I had pumped. I'm trying to pump every morning, but I find it so frustrating because Makena pretty much empties my boobs and I hate when I only get 1 or 2 ounces out!! But I'm paranoid about an emergency situation where I can't get to Makena to feed her, so I want a "just in case" freezer supply. Also, it's nice for her Mama to get to feed her now and then. I feel lucky that Makena goes so easily from breast to bottle to pacifier. She's so good. :)

On March 3rd I was talking to Makena and saying "Hi sweetie!" and she clear as day said "I!" which I've decided means Hi. She can already talk! And then this weekend in Fresno I was about to feed her and in the frenzy of getting my nipple in her mouth she loudly yelled out "MAM!" and Kimberly looked over and said "She just said mom!!" lol! She really did! Everyone in the room heard it! Haha!



I've been trying to get her used to napping in the room by herself. So far it's just in her little sleep positioner on our bed. Soon I hope to transition her to the co-sleeper. And then, just maybe, Pam and I will have our bed back and we can get Makena to sleep in the co-sleeper all night long!! It's a slow process, because our routine now works for us so well. But we would like to get her in there eventually!

This morning after she fell asleep in my arms I put her on the bed and went into the livingroom to watch her on the video monitor. She did okay for about 30 minutes, but kept waking up and I'd go in there and fix her pacifier and after another 30 minutes of that I finally just picked her up and she slept while I held her. Normally she'd take a good solid 3 hour morning nap, and either I'd lay next to her and nap also, or she'd lay on the couch next to me. I just need to get us both used to it. Right now she's sleeping in her swing. So cute!

Well, Pam just got home, so I'm going to get some laundry done.

6 weeks old

I can't believe how infrequently I get around to updating on here. I actually do get lots of computer time, but I graze around and don't have too many long stretches to sit and write anything coherent.

Right now Makena is sleeping propped up in the Boppy on the couch. She's been a littler fussier than usual, within the last week she's started fighting sleep which makes nighttime a struggle. Naps are still okay, but that "witching hour" around 7pm-9pm is no joke. She also is begining to be less content to just be held. I think she's ready for more exciting stuff than just staring at my face for hours. lol. She spent a good 30 minutes on her activity mat this afternoon.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I go to babysit Ian and Colin. Their mom is home most of the time working in the upstairs office. It's been working out really well, all 3 kids are easygoing and a joy to be around! Ian will be 2 years old next month and Colin is 2 months older than Makena. Usually the two babies are sleeping, but they were both awake at the same time the other day so I put them on the floor together and snapped this photo-

So cute. They are both so smiley! Such good little ones. I know Makena's head looks huge, but really Colin's is so much bigger/heavier that he is sinking into the pillow. lol. We can't wait until they get older and can interact and play together! And Ian is great, he is content to play with his cars, trains, and trucks all day long. If Colin is sleeping or upstairs with his mom nursing, and Makena is awake and needs to be cuddled I've been wearing her in the Moby wrap I got for $20.

She really likes it sometimes, but other times I can't seem to get it right and she's uncomfortable. We're still learning!

Cloth diapering is going well, but since I can't do laundry as often as I like, I've decided that wearing disposables on T/W/Th and cloth the rest of the days works best for us. Then I do diaper laundry on Monday. She's already outgrowing most of the size small cloth diapers, which really bums me out because she has some great ones and now I need to get a whole new stash of mediums!

She's awake now, I just changed her diaper and left her naked on the changing table portion of the pack-n-play. I'm so glad we decided to buy that, she loves being in there!!

Pam will be home in about 3 hours. I feel like some days go by so quickly while others drag on for way too long. Today is a long day for sure. I would love to take a nice long shower. But, it's time to feed the wee one!

More sleep!

Another fabulous night! We went to bed (and when I say we, I mean that Makena and I went into the bedroom and Pam slept on the couch...it's still too hard for Pam to sleep well enough to be with us since Makena is so squirmy sometimes) at around 10:30, and at 11pm I turned off the TV and rolled over to sleep. Makena was still awake, but sleepy. She was wrapped up in a swaddle blanket and in her sleep positioner. At 4am I woke up and was just laying in bed and then I remembered I had a baby and freaked out and turned to look at her. She was still totally asleep, (and yes, I had to watch her chest rise and fall a few times to feel better!) so I fell asleep again. Then we both woke up at 6am. I'm in awe.

When we have baby #2 I'm afraid there is no way it can live up to the wonderfulness of this baby!! Can you get so lucky twice in a row?!

I guess we'll have to wait and see...

Sleep and 1 Month Stats

Makena slept through the night last night!! A full 7 hours!

We went to bed a little after midnight and Pam was going to get up with her for her middle of the night feeding around 3-4 am. A little after 7 am we woke up and Pam asked me why I didn't wake her up for the feeding. And I said "She never woke up!?" We looked at our little girl and she was still fast asleep. She looked a bit blue to me and I had a little panic attack even though we could see/hear she was breathing, but then we poked her and she stirred and was totally fine.

You know how everyone says babies are up all night and you get no sleep? Well we sure got lucky because this baby is a great sleeper! (And yes, we're knocking on wood continually!)

After we woke her up and I fed her, she fell back asleep. Then we went to her Pediatrician appt and she would have slept through the whole thing but I fed her again and her Dr. started examining her so she woke up. Afterwards we drove to SF to get her birth certificate and came back home and she had slept the whole time.

I fed her when we got home and she had some tummy time and lay on her activity mat for a bit and then she fell asleep again. It's crazy to me that she sleeps so well, and it makes me worry when I should just feel glad! She is really such a GOOD baby!!

Her 1 month stats-

Weight 11.4 lbs
Length 23.5 in

On the percentile charts she's doing great, she's a big baby but long and lean, not chubby. We need to figure out what we are doing for vaccinations because at her next appointment in a month we are suppose to give her the first round of shots. Dr. Wally wanted to give her the Hep B one today, since we declined it at birth, but we said we still wanted to hold off.

Sometimes I think researching and wanting to be fully informed is a curse, because there is just SO much conflicting information out there so it's hard to know what to do. I don't really know why, but I just don't feel comfortable following the recommended schedule. It's a gut feeling. As Jackie said, we need to follow our mommy instinct and luckily we get 2!! lol. Right now we are leaning towards spreading out the shots and getting the combo ones seperately, but we'll see what we finally decide.

We also asked her Dr. about what I was assuming was a sacral dimple on her lower back/ upper butt crack. He said it's so mild he wouldn't even consider it one. We noticed on a developmental chart on the wall that around 6 weeks-3 months babies should be starting to follow objects with their eyes...and we said she has been doing that since she was like 2 weeks old so we asked what that was about. She can also lift her head and turn it while holding it up. He said she is just precocious. :) We knew she was a super baby and he agrees!

1 month!

Makena is now 1 month old. She's outgrown the newborn sleepers from Carter's already. She outgrew newborn sized diapers 2 weeks ago. I can't believe she is getting so big! Granted, she was big to begin with, but I just finished doing the laundry and started a "hand-me-down" pile of clothes that no longer fit. It makes me so sad. It's hard to believe she is growing up, slowly but surely...wasn't I JUST waiting for her to be born?!


And now she's here. And I'm so in love with everything about her. I'm so nervous that I'll blink and she'll be crawling. Or heading off to kindergarten. Or walking down the aisle. I want to remember every little thing and never forget how warm and silky smooth her skin felt the first time I touched her.

So I take photos nonstop. One day we'll look back over them and marvel over how little she used to be. But I can't capture the way she feels when she snuggles up against me in the early morning. How she wiggles her way over to me and burries her face in my neck.

Pam woke up and found us like this the other morning. Makena had been sleeping on the blue cloud blanket, but she ended up smushed up next to me. In the photo it looks like she's on top of me, but the angle is funny. We're on the couch, and I was laying on my side facing her. I get so worried she'll suffocate but she just loves to be cuddled close. Even when we're in bed and I have her in the sleep positioner wedge thing she wiggles closer to me. And I love it.

She is hardly ever out of our arms and we wouldn't have it any other way! Pam keeps saying that some day she won't want us to hold her 24/7, so we're getting our fill now. :) Right now they are falling asleep together on the couch. Tonight Pam is going to take the night shift and feed Makena a bottle of milk I pumped this morning so I can get some sleep...but really I'll be waking up and pumping. lol.

I need to go get some snuggles now!

First entry of the new blog!

Today is Valentines Day, and it's Makena's first holiday!

Last night we went to bed around 10:30. At 3am Makena woke up and Pam gave her a bottle and stayed up with her for a bit and then they fell asleep together on the couch. This is how I found them when I woke up at 7am (covered in leaky milk, btw!)

So adorable! I can't believe I got over 8 hours of sleep last night. I feel great! In general I don't feel sleep deprived because our baby is amazing and usually sleeps for great 4 hour stretches and she doesn't keep us up all night with crying or anyting. Knock on wood...

For Valentines Day I gave Pam a mug with photos of our beautiful baby girl and "Makena loves her Mama!" written on it. She gave me some chocolates and socks, and Makena gave me a big box of nursing pads. lol! Exactly what I needed! Then we went to brunch at The Cheesecake Factory with Kimberly and Susan and a friend of theirs.

Makena was wearing a cute little outfit from her Aunt Diana and the new bib and hat she got as gifts! We walked around the mall for a bit and don't have any plans for the rest of the day. I'm not sure what else to write for now, I just really wanted to get this blog started because I can't believe she's almost a month old and I haven't written anything in 2 weeks! I ordered a copy of the pregnancy blog book, and can't wait to see it. And since I'm done writing in that blog, it was time to get this one up and running!