Saturday, December 27, 2014

Picture Day at Target

  I had to wait a bit before I could most thing because I wanted to use the new pictures we got from Target.

I belong to a group of high order multiple (HOM) moms.  We do a Christmas card exchange.  I LOVE the participating!  I have NEVER gotten SO many Christmas cards at one time! Ever!  Plus it so fun to see all the other families with multiples.

With members overseas we have to get the Christmas pictures done early.  We went and got some pictures done at the end of October.  It was still too hot in Phoenix and the pictures did not feel like Christmas pictures to me.

As I was checking my inbox I found a coupon for pictures at Target for the kids birthday. It was the week of Christmas so I made the appointment with the studio the day after Christmas.

We went to the portrait studio and the kids were in a good mood.  Just to show you how long I hold on to things... the sweater that Joseph is wearing is was Jerrin's, my oldest son who is now 22, and the blue velvet dress Margaret is wearing was Caitlin's (20 years old). I remember when they wore those pieces of clothing.  It brought back so many memories for me. I remember, in particular, the sweater and fitting it over Jerrin's hear when he was four.  The sweater is a 4T but when I put it on Joseph (who is 7 now) it fit great.   Jerrin had a large head at 4 and I remember having to pull the sweater over his head.  It was so tight he hated wearing it but he looked so nice!





The pictures, overall, came out so nice!  Margaret was a bit apprehensive at first but quickly warmed up.

 Sadly, I had showed her some pictures we had done at Portrait Innovations when she was three.  I showed her these pictures.  I asked her if she looked happy or sad.  She said sad.  So I asked her what was wrong.  I did not expect an answer.  This was four years ago at this point and I was not sure she remembered.  She told me that there were too many people.  Wow!  I was floored!  There were a TON of  people there and I looking back in retrospect I know she was experiencing a sensory meltdown.  I mean she was SCREAMING, pulling her hair, pinching and just in overall disarray.  I did not know why at the time.  I just thought she was tired.  Little did I know it was because there were too many people and noise.  I know now Margaret is very sensitive to noise and she can be pushed over the line with too much noise.






Here are our pictures from Target....


Friday, December 26, 2014

Moldy, Musty Day after Christmas!


The day after Christmas turned out to not be so much fun for mom and dad. I washed some clothes the day before Christmas Eve and went to put them in my drier and found it was not working. I bought the drier used about two years ago and it never seemed like a good drier but I was in need. I don't think this drier is repairable. We will need to get another drier. For right now I can wash clothes and John has been running to them to the laundry mat. It really helps to keep the cost down. Then the day after Christmas I went into the storage closet in the playroom to tidy stuff up and clean out some boxes.



The first thing I noticed was the door to the storage closet was stuck. When I wedged it open a moldy, musty smell hit my nose. I knew this was going to be bad. :( After opening the door all the way I could see mold growing on some of the items in the room. It was AWFUL! That storage room not only had a bunch of things in there including clothes I was storing for Joseph, baby items, some of the children's toys, and the kids costumes. There were about 30 plastic bins in there along with a bunch of cardboard boxes full of things. I filled up our trash can throwing things out. It made me said. I will admit I do have hoarding tendencies. I come by it honestly since my mother and her mother have major hoarding tendencies too. I got rid of several bags of children's clothes along with a lot of other things I have been hanging around. It's good to pare down though. It's just hard on me.




On the upside I found a box of some of the small children's clothes from my older children. This included a beautiful blue velvet dress with tulle and lovely sliver stitching that was Caitlin's when she was little. I also found a cute, soft sweater that Jerrin used to wear that was mostly red and looked very Christmas-like. I had set another appointment to get more photos taken for Christmas. We took some pictures early to put on Christmas cards. We participated in the Christmas card exchange for a high order multiple mom group. We had over 50 cards arrive with such lovely families. It is fun to see the cards! So I hired an amateur photographer to take our pictures. We got a few nice pictures from that but I wanted something that looked more Christmas like so I booked an appointment at Target on the Saturday after Christmas. I can't wait to get the pictures done!

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Christmas 2014

The Christmas holidays were a lot of fun. Santa was so good to the children this year. Santa's gifts were in special blue paper, with special tags, and had a jingle bell on them. Santa's gifts were awesome! Christmas was a group effort. With the presents John and I got along with money from my in-laws, my parents, a friend who brought over gifts, and the help of MOST (a group of high order multiple moms) the children had the best Christmas they have had in YEARS! Santa was very good and on target with the gifts he brought. One of the best gifts was an iPad mini. I am excited to get apps to help with therapy stuff for the children.

James was happy to get some great gifts including Snap Circuits and a furby. He is having fun with those. He is also enjoying the games he got from Santa like Life and Clue Jr. Margaret got several gifts that she loves including a furby, new bedspread, a pop-up playhouse, balance board and clothes. Joseph got several gifts he loves too. He got a piano that he is having a blast playing! He got a bubble timer. Visually Joseph is having a blast with it! He also loves his new backpack. It fits his little frame just right.



John and I did not get anything for ourselves. We figured we could get something later with tax refund money.  ALL money went to buying new toys and toys to be used for
therapy for the children. The poor kids were so starved for new toys and more age/developmental appropriate toys that the children kept forgetting to open their Christmas presents to open Christmas morning. It took us TWO hours for them to open all their gifts! They would open a gift and then they would get excited about the toy and would ask for us to open it. We would open the present and then they would start playing with it. I would have to remind them to come back to open another present. James and Margaret would literally say, "Oh yea, I forgot!" LOL It was VERY cute!




Christmas day and the next few days after that was nice because no one asked me for my phone. They were too busy to playing with their new toys. :)


Saturday, December 13, 2014

Happy 7th Birthday My Babies!

On Saturday my pumpkin s celebrated their 7th birthday.  I wanted to celebrate their birthday in a big way this year.  At least that was my intent.  Life has another way of working things out though.

I ordered a bouncy house for the children this year as a  surprise.  I had ordered the bouncy house right before Joseph broke his clavicle.  I thought I would be okay because his shoulder should heal right before their birthday.  Then, of course, poor Joseph falls again and hurts his should more on Thanksgiving Day but I was still holding out hope he would be okay for his birthday.

Two weeks before their birthday I placed an open invitation to people to attend the children;s birthday party.  This is a HUGE deal for me since I am always worried about Joseph catching some sort of respiratory illness and getting extremely ill.  I wanted the children to have a birthday they would remember this year.

I had several people tell me that they would come over.  The day before there was talk of a lot of rain.  I cancelled the bouncy house.  I reminded people online about the party the next day.  I was planning to make homemade play dough and we made two cakes to make sure we would have enough.  We made a chocolate cake for the children.  It was what they requested.  We also make a spice cake to make sure plenty of cake was on hand.

I started to get people saying they would not be able to come.  They had plans that changed, their kids were sick (which I did appreciate they did not come over!), and some never got back to me.  On the day of their birthday no one showed up.  We had the respite worker come over.  She brought her son.  They has a nice time playing with her son.  John and I decided to leave and head to a Goodwill across town where they are suppose to have nice clothes.

We took off and one of the moms asked about coming over but we had left the house all ready.  We ran into a HUGE storm heading to the Goodwill.  While there we found clothes to be on sale.  They did have nice clothes.  Not much in the way of pants but I found shirts for James, shirts, leggings and dresses for Margaret and Joseph did not really need anything since he wears James's hand-me-downs.  We also got some board games and books.  We used the clothes, books, and games as a new tradition this year.  Normally they get stuff for wither their birthday or Christmas since they are so close together.  This year we decided to give them each a small present every night between their birthday to Christmas.  They either got some clothes, a book or a game.  The kids are loving the new tradition of our version of the 12 days of Christmas!






Sunday, December 7, 2014

Kidisms and a Christmas Craft



My children are often a source of amusement for me.  Margaret is particularly funny because of how she interprets things. A few examples are...
Croutons she calls toast bites,
A comb has teeth and therefore bites the knots in her hair when I comb it,
and her stuffed animals become real things that need help, care and comfort.

Margaret lines up her Hello Kitties and tells me they are having a party....LOL! 



Joseph complains to me his Spiderman WON'T stop working! ROFL. We told him, "Then stop pressing the buttons!"


James came over and asked use my bathroom to go poop since John had just cleaned the hall bathroom. When we asked him why he said he did not want to mess up the toilet. LOL. At least he was trying to be courteous!

James went into my bathroom today because someone was in the hall bathroom.  He comes back out and exclaimed in a puzzled voice, "Your bathroom smells like pickles!"  LOL   Little did he know I had sprayed my bathroom down earlier with white vinegar to combat the hard water stains in my shower.  ROFL

Then Margaret grabs Spiderman and uses him to save Hello Kitty. At least she is flexible in her play! LOL


Today we did our weekend craft.  It was fun!  We did Ribbon Paper Trees.  I cut out some tree forms from cardboard.  It would have been too hard for the children to do that.  They all have poor hand strength.  MY hand was hurting after a bit.  I couldn't have imagined them doing it!  I had to enlist John to help me cut out tree forms.

We had some scrapbook paper all ready on hand.  I picked out come color coordinating paper in mostly green and blues.  John used a paint stick, since we had on hand, as a straight edge to draw lines across the scrapbook paper.  I initially thought the kids could cut the paper into strips but that proved to be too hard.  James was able to cut half a sheet before he was complaining his hand was hurting.  No problem, John and I cut the paper into strips.

All the different colored strips of paper were placed in separate piles.  I poured a thin layer of glue on the cardboard tree form and then asked the children what colors/order they wanted the paper strips.  I placed them on the form.  That part of the craft went quick and it made the children happy.  Any paper hanging off the sides of the form I trimmed off with scissors as soon as the glue had set some.  I think these came out quite cute.  Some of the trees have tree trunks.  I'm not sure which way I like better.  Picture of the finished craft is above.  Give it a try!  : )

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Hand Print Reindeer Craft: Fun Use for Toilet Paper Rolls!


I love Christmas time with the children.  Since they are homeschooled they still believe in Santa.  Besides Christmas the month of December is also the children's birthday.  So I want to fill the month of December with all the fun I can!  Today they children were so good!  They helped me clean the house and do laundry with little complaint.  Since they were so good I wanted to do some sort of craft with them.


I found the picture of my craft project from Pinterest.  It looked like fun and fairly simple.  We started with toilet paper rolls.  I also found some Trader Joe's shopping bags, black card stock paper, silver pen, and some oil pastels.  We also needed scissors and glue.


  • First we took the toilet paper rolls and I decided to cover them.  You could have pointed them or left them alone.  I cut one paper bag up and glued the print side of the bag to the cylinder.  This left me a  nice blank side to work with for decoration.  You can see on Margaret's reindeer I put the paper on backwards.  Whoops!  Mom had applied glue to the wrong side!
  • After we let the glue dry for a bit we took the oil pastels and drew on the eyes and nose.  I let the children pick the eye color.  Some of the colors were too light to see so I went back in and darkened in some of the eyes.  You could use small bits of paper or whatever you have handy. 
  • Next I sat with each child and traced each of their hands onto the black card stock paper.  Then I cut the hand prints out.  Since the children have poor fine motor skills  and the paper was a heavier weight I knew they would struggle.  I didn't want craft time to turn into a frustrating experience so I cut the shapes out but I left time for each of the children to practice on what was left of the paper bag.  
  • Finally I took the handprints and arranged them in a way so they resembled antlers.  I'm sure there are at least a dozen ways to attach the antlers to the reindeer but I used tape.  It seemed to be the easiest way to go about it.  
As an after though I had an idea to seal off the bottom of the toilet paper roll so I could have filled it with some dry beans or rice.  This would have been nice to help weigh things down since the antlers can topple the reindeer over. Next time I will know!
Now maybe you can make your own reindeer!  Have fun!

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving!

joscountryjunction.com
Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving!  It has been a rough couple of months financially because I have been squeezing our budget to the limit.  I have been trying to purchase presents for the children's upcoming birthday and Christmas. It's a lot to cover!  We don't have everything we want in the house for Thanksgiving but we have more than enough!  Especially with a turkey given to us by a kind friend. The turkey is 21 pounds!  It's HUGE!

We had sausage balls for breakfast.  It's a Thanksgiving tradition in our family.  I LOVE sausage balls and we did not have any Bisquick.  We did have flour and other things in the house (I try hard to keep basics handy).   I found a Bisquick cheat recipe online.  So I made the Bisquick from scratch and I have to say I was impressed with recipe.  I did make a modification from the original I found online which was to cut the amount of shortening down and use some butter instead.  Using the butter made for a MUCH better final product!  I made a new recipes page.  You can find the recipe for the DIY Bisquick along with the recipe for Sausage Balls.

We had a great breakfast of hot sausage balls with sharp cheddar.  John got the turkey into the oven and things were going well.  I had taken the wrap off Joseph's should for a bit so his skin could breathe.  I told him he could use his arm lightly but if ANYTHING started to hurt then he was to let me know.  He said okay and went off.  For a little while he was fine.  I saw him heading to the playroom out of the corner of my eye and then the next thing I know I hear him crying and sitting on the floor. He was crying pretty hard!

He said his shoulder hurt and I took him back to my bathroom.  I stripped his shirt off and I could see the swelling at his shoulder.  Sigh, I think he re-broke his clavicle.  I called his doctor and had a talk with the nurse on-call.  She agreed with me that there was not much we would gain by going to the hospital again.  She said it would be riskier to go to the hospital because of the high chance of catching some respiratory disease so we should stay home. We were instructed to call the doctor's office the next day and see about getting an appointment.

First I gave Joseph a dose of his pain medication.  I got him to the shower to relax his muscles and to clean his body. He was feeling MUCH better after we got out of the shower!  The look on his face was quite different after the pain meds kicked in!

So we finished up our preparations for Thanksgiving dinner.  Dinner itself was delicious! The turkey was beautiful!  John brought the turkey to the table all ready sliced for serving.  This made serving the children much easier!  Joseph was in heaven.  This is his kind of food!  It is soft and requires minimal chewing. LOL  The children basically ate until they were ready to pop except James.  For some reason he did not eat much but he was happy to have a piece of cake at the end of dinner. We had, overall, a really nice Thanksgiving.  I hope you did too!



Thursday, November 20, 2014

Barfing and Broken Bones

This is Joseph's sad face. If he is looking
at you like this then he is either faking
or he is in SERIOUS PAIN!
Catchy title isn't it?  LOL  Be glad you have not been in my house the last 48 hours! Yesterday all the strength and time I had to post went into yesterday's post on No Shave November.  So you can tell I wasn't up for much!  LOL

After spending some time outside on the back porch with my husband I hear what I first thought was a cat howling in the distance.  John said he thought it was one of the children and went inside to check it out. He came back out a bit later to tell me that James had barfed all over his bed.  He cleaned out the bed and changed James's clothes.

We went into the house for the evening and went to bed.  A few hours later Margaret was screaming.  She had also barfed in her bed. So she was cleaned up and sent back to bed.  Joseph did not want to sleep by himself at that time so he came into my bed.  We all went back to sleep.   I woke late the next morning to head to work.  I had no idea what was going to happen next.

John had made breakfast.  It was delicious. Right as I was finishing up and thinking about running out the door Joseph falls out of his chair and on to the tile floor.  He smacked his left should and the left side of his head on the tile.  My poor baby was crying.  I picked him off the floor.  Daddy takes a look at him and asks where he hurts.  Even though I felt a HUGE (half dollar sized) goose egg on the back of his head that was not where he complained he was hurting.  He said his left should hurt.

This concerned me since this was the same side that he broke when he was two.  I swear I was gone for THREE minutes at best! I had to go to the bathroom.  The children were busy watching PBS so I thought I could make a run to the bathroom.  It is about the only time I have to myself...IF I'm lucky!  While finishing up in the bathroom I hear a LOUD thud and a sharp cry out of pain.  I rush out of the bathroom and into the living room to see all the children calmly laying in the floor watching TV.  I had NO idea what happened but I figured it could not have been too serious or I would have seen someone crying.

That night, when Joseph went to bed, he whined and and could not get comfortable on his left side.  I thought it was strange but then thought nothing more of it. The next morning we got up and he went to physical therapy.  Even the physical therapist thought he was only "off" and seemed to be whining a bit that day.  She had NO idea either!

I took Joseph home from PT and pulled off his fuzzy PJ jumper (he had been in for the last 24 hours; since I heard the fall) to see a HUGE bruise on his left upper chest by his clavicle.  I was HORRIFIED! I carefully bathed him and got him ready to head to a pediatric urgent care.  We got there and where immediately seen.  They took x-rays. He had a MAJOR break!  The doctor said a grown man would have been in tears if he had to crawl around on a broken clavicle like Joseph did.  She was AMAZED at his pain tolerance!  She gave us a script for narcotic pain medicine for him.

Now fast forward to my experience at the local children's hospital.  I took Joseph in and we had to wait in the the waiting room for about 75 minutes after being triaged.  I saw the other people come in after us.  They basically all had respiratory illnesses. I was worried we would pick that up while we were there.  I made sure we limited the amount of contact we had with surfaces and then used lots of hand sanitizer!

We made it back to the room.  The nurse and then the doctor made Joseph move his arm in various positions and watched his reaction.  At best he winced when he moved his arm.  The doctor and nurse were convinced that Joseph was not seriously injured.  I explained to them that Joseph had a high pain tolerance and they were not convinced. I'm not even sure they were going to send us for x-rays until I mentioned Joseph had broken his clavicle before and crawled on it without crying.

So we get sent back for x-rays.  They take FIVE films!  I had not seen so may taken before.  I had a feeling it was broken.  We head back to our room and sit in there for another hour waiting for the doctor to come in. Instead the doctor from the floor comes and and says Joseph's clavicle is broken. I told that doctor I had said it (the clavicle) would be broken to the first doctor that was treating us.  He quickly left the room.  Not ONCE did ANYONE offer to give Joseph pain medicine!

The first doctor came into the room and asked if I had heard the news.  I said yes, that the bone was broken.  I also pointed out I said I was worried it his clavicle was broken earlier and he needed to make a note in his chart about Joseph's VERY high pain tolerance.  He just looked at me.  I mentioned that I have told other doctors of Joseph's high pain tolerance before and they do not believe me because I am "just" the mom. So it would be nice to have documented proof.

Joseph all splinted up.
He rushes out the room as he mentions a tech will be in to help splint Joseph's arm. After some wrangling and me having to convince the tech to use the smallest sling and bandages available we got Joseph taken care of! I wanted to see the x-ray so I could see if the break happened at the site of the old break or it was somewhere new.  Plus I wanted to see the severity of the break.  His last clavicle break was very severe.  It did not help that he was crawling on it last time.  So I asked the nurse to see the x-rays.

Then something VERY interesting happened at Phoenix Children's.  I was told by the nurse I could not see the x-rays because of patient privacy. I said I wanted to see it and I wanted to take a pic of the x-ray on my phone on the light board in our room.  This way I could show his doctor a picture of the x-ray since I knew the records would not be ready for several days.  The head nurse was citing patient privacy too. Really? Um, no!  I am his mother, he is a minor so there is no patient privacy. If I am looking at the x-ray in our room then we are in a private setting.  This was a LOT of BS but I didn't want to fight about it.  From my earlier post on complex medical kids the first rule of hospital visits is to get back out the door as quick as possible!  I already had to ask twice for a copy of the Patient Rights pamphlet.  Now I just wanted to leave.

Out the door we went with the only medical advice given was to immobilize Joseph's arm to his side for the next three to four weeks and give him some over-the-counter motrin for the pain. Poor Joseph was hurting that night.  The next day I called his regular doctor for some pain medication.  She did not want to prescribe it (it has gotten RIDICULOUS in trying to get pain meds from ANY doctor, EVER, for ANY reason!) but in the end I won.  We got three whole days worth of Tylenol with codeine for him.  We are giving it to him only at night so he can sleep more comfortably.  He loves to sleep on his side so it pains him to sleep in the position he is most comfortable.  Now he can finally rest easy!

The good news in the story... We should be able to stop splinting his arm just in time for his birthday.  This is good because I ordered a bouncy house for their birthday!  Hopefully we will have NO more accidents!!!






Wednesday, November 19, 2014

No Shave November

So this is what happened when my husband announced he had been participating in No Shave November...

Monday, November 17, 2014

World Prematurity Day 2014


Today is world prematurity day.  Having quadruplets born 13 weeks premature, I am well aware of the trials, hardships and heartbreaks that can come from prematurity.  Being pregnant with quadruplets, I knew there was a high risk of having the children prematurely.  When I found out I was pregnant with quadruplets, my fetal maternal specialist (like an OB/GYN) pressured us HARD to undergo a "selective reduction."  I left that appointment in tears.

When I initially started the follicle stimulating drugs, my husband and I knew there was a risk of multiples.  We were reassured over and over again that between my age and PCOS there was little chance I would have triplets of more (7% chance or less) and the odds of quadruplets of more was even less (3% chance or less).  When we went in for the IUI, we were excited.  When I got my positive on a pregnancy test, I was shocked!  Not only had the first round of IUI worked (I had on RE tell me he was doubtful IVF would work for me and even if it did, he doubted I would stay pregnant since I was obese and had other health issues) but John and I had been SO sick with something like a severe week long stomach flu.  We were so desperately ill at the time I never thought the IUI would work!

I watched as the beta numbers went up.  Thirteen days past IUI, my beta was 194 and 15 days past it was 374.  I looked on BetaBase and my beta times were lining up with twins.  I was SO happy!  The idea of twins was exciting.  I felt confident I could carry the pregnancy.  It was only a couple of weeks later we went back (into the RE's office that did the IUI) and found not 1, not 2 but THREE sacs that look like it would develop into a baby.  We saw six sacs in all!  My husband and I were FLOORED!  The RE office said not to worry since it was super early.  "It is not uncommon to lose one or more of the babies at this early stage," the nurses said to pacify us. The nurses went on to explain most people do not even know they are pregnant at his early (6 week-ish) stage, so if they lose a baby they would not even notice. Those words just slid off my brain as I was still in awe I could be pregnant with up to six babies!

Another two weeks had to pass before we could do another ultrasound. We arrived and went in for our last visit to the RE before moving over to see the fetal maternal specialist.  All ultrasounds are done transvaginally and there is only so much that can be seen at that angle when the uterus is crowded with a bunch of growing embryos. At this ultrasound we could see three little babies line up in a row from the top to the bottom of the uterus. Each baby showed one tiny pixel flicking.  It was a tiny heat beating in each little body.  It was in love at first flicker!

You can see the babies lined up in a row.

At 12 weeks my husband and I arrived at a very respected fetal maternal specialist for bloodwork and an ultrasound to see if anything had changed since our last unexpected finding of three little babies.  We went into that ultrasound first with a tech.  She said she was going to look at each baby and I said that was fine.  She started to run the ultrasound transabdominally.  She ran the ultrasound wand one slow pass counting softly to herself. I could hear her say one, two, three, and then silence as she stared at another baby.  I might be pregnant, but the kids had not sapped me of my brains yet!  I caught that too!  Then she made another pass.  I counted too and counted to four before I stopped seeing tiny little bodies. I was stunned as much as the tech.  She told me she needed to go and get the doctor.  She would be back in a minute.  John was sitting next to me watching the large TV screen of the ultrasound machine.  I turned to look at him and asked on simple question... Did you just see what I did?  He paused for only a moment before replying... You saw four, right?  Yes...I said in a stunned voice.  Then came in the doctor.  She barreled in full force to confirm that we were not expect one, two, or three babies but FOUR!  As John and I were just trying to digest that information the doctor barreled on, with callous disregard that we were in shock, about the need to undergo selective reduction.



You can call it selective reduction, but I call it what it is... murder of one of our children.  As strange as it sounds, I support abortion as an option women should have, but I also adamantly disagree with calling a six week old baby a mass of tissue.  I don't buy it!  If you allow the "mass of tissue" to grow, it will become a baby.  I left that doctor appointment in tears and I don't think John was in any better shape.  We stopped at the closet place we could find to sit, think and eat... Sizzler.  We went in and got the buffet.  We each did not discuss anything.  We ordered, got out plates, got food, sat and ate before we even tried to broach the subject.  Through steak, fried mushrooms, and a side of salad we talked about the fate of our babies.  The babies that were suggest we "terminate" would be the one closest to the cervix (Baby A - Margaret) or one of the large babies in the middle (Baby B - James or Baby C- Martha).  We cried because it really was love at first flicker.  We knew if we decided on selective reduction then we would be losing one of the first babies we saw and fell in love with so what was the other choice?  After more tears and anguish, we decided we would leave it to God (or fate if you wish to call it that).  We knew we had a bit of help with me releasing eggs but how many eggs fertilized, implanted and grew was up to God.  So we were going to stick with that plan.

I can't tell you how relieved I was that we were on the same page.  That we were going to try and carry them all.  I knew it would be tough but I was determined to make it happen. We moved to Alabama (which I NEVER should have done) the doctor there was awful.  Thank God the day before I had seen a doctor in town that agreed to take me as a patient.  That night, Baby A's (Margaret) water broke at 26 weeks.  I knew enough to know they might be viable but it was too early to have the babies yet.  We quickly got dressed and sped down into Huntsville.  I was checked into the hospital and the doctor I had just seen the day before was called.  He ordered magnesium for me and it stopped the contractions.  I was able to hold off having more contractions, developing an infection, or having any other problems for six days.  By day six I was having pain in my back.  This is not entirely unusual since I had injured my back as a teenager.  When I begin to notice the pain in my back was coming in waves at a regular interval of five minutes I was really worried.  I had back labor with my two oldest children and I thought I was having back labor again.  The nurses did not believe me since it was not reading on the contraction monitor.  I knew my contractions were not reading on the machine with my oldest children either until I was rather far along in labor.

The nurses finally called the doctor when they noticed regular contractions on the print out.  When they finally checked I was five centimeters dilated!  Margaret had started moving down into the birth canal.  I was prepped for an emergency C-Section.  At first I was told my husband would not be able to be in the room because there were so many people in the OR that there would be no room for him. I told the doctor there was NO way they were wheeling me into the room without him!  They took me in first and got me the epidural.  John joined me too near my head.  Soon I was slit open and out came one baby per minute... 1:17pm, 1:18pm, 1:19pm and 1:20pm.  In four short minutes I was the mom to four new lives precariously hanging in the balance between life and death.

Baby A - Margaret
Little did I realize how the specter of death hung over one of my children as I was wheeled off to my room to recover.  John ran to look at all the children and took a quick picture to show me they were all okay.  Those are the pictures on the left. That was the first sign I got to see that my babies had made it.

Several hours later a nurse comes into my room saying that one of the babies was having a problem and that she was told to bring us to the NICU right away.  There was a slight debate on how I would get to the NICU since I had just had a C-section but I said I would get up and get into the wheel chair so I could go to the NICU.

Baby B - James
What happens next I don't think I can share in detail again.  Even after all most 7 years it is still so very painful.  To recount what happened as Martha died in my arms is still like living her death all over again. You can read more on Martha's story at My angel, Martha Renee.

I know all too painfully well the complications of prematurity.  I have three surviving children who have a multitude of disabilities and a set of siblings missing their sister. I miss my daughter and there is an ache in my heart that I think will never go away.  I know my husband also feels the pain of her passing which is why we rarely talk about her.

Baby C - My Angel Martha
There is no winning in having children prematurely.  It is important to continue finding ways to stop premature delivery and how to help those children who are unfortunately born too early.  Due to the research conducted by the March of Dimes my children were able to breathe. I will forever be thankful to their research!

If you are looking for a worthwhile charity to support please consider supporting the end of prematurity and the research done by the March of Dimes!

Baby D - Joseph
Thank you for reading this and bringing awareness to the real dangers and unexpected consequences of prematurity!

Thursday, November 13, 2014

DNA Results from WES Have Arrived!

www.mylifeiguess.com

In the typical anal retentive mode that I function I got the test results early from the doctor.  I mean I can basically read the results as well as the doctor.  Interpreting the results are harder for me but it allows me time to read the results, digest the information and then formulate questions to ask the doctor when we meet on Monday.  The results were what I feared... Joseph once again leaves a BIG FAT QUESTION MARK behind in his wake!



We started this test on May 6th.  All of us went to get our blood drawn.  This would allow more samples to be available to be compared to Joseph's. I waited for SIX months to get the results back from the whole exome sequencing.  So here is what the results page of the test reads. Keep in mind that 97% of Joseph's DNA was analyzed to determine these results...

  1. No definitive explanation for the cause of the phenotype in this patient was identified by this analysis.
  2. Variants in genes possibly associated with the reported phenotype: Heterozygous for the R854Q mutation in the vWD gene. (I looked this one up. It's von Willebrand disease.)
  3. www.philly.com
  4. Variants in the candidate genes with a potential association to the phenotype: 
  • Heterozygous for the V759M and E826K variants of unknown significance in cis in the MICALL2 gene 
  • Compound heterozygous fit D3110N and W3598X variants of unknown significance in the SPTBN5 gene.
ACMG incidental findings: none identified



The good news is that the ACMG was clear.  That looked for known genetic markers that are a danger to your health.  Most of these genes are cancer related.  That's really good news for all of us because we elected to know if any of us were a carrier.



The interesting news is that Joseph and I have a genetic variation for von Willebrand disease. This genetic mutation (R854Q) is a common mutation found in Italy. Also found in a population in Wales. As far as our family tree goes we do have known family ties to Scotland.

The other gene mutations the report said that V759M is pretty unknown. The E826K has been linked with a significant reduction in the cAMP-induced chloride current in cystic fibrosis patients. It does not sound good. I found a BRAND new research article discussing cAMP chloride transport and the neurites of brain cells. I know one of the mutations mentioned discussed how neurites are under active. From what I can tell neurites are the pokey parts of cells. Then the other mutation reduces the cAMP pump. What if this is why Joseph is so mentally slow? The neurons in his brain do not have the neurites as long as they should be while the cAMP pumps are not pushing out the signal from the neuron. Maybe the neuron's signal is getting lost from one cell to the next?

The D3110 gene was associated with squamous cell cancer of the lung. My grandfather on my mother's side died of lung cancer when I was 18 or 19. He was a smoker but I know he did not die of any kind of lung cancer that is typically associated with smoking cigarettes. I will have to follow up with my mother and try to get more information.

The W3598X has no information on it to compare. I will have to look for more information.

The SPTBN5 has an paralog gene called ACTN4. ACTN4 is associated with a couple of rare diseases. One of these is Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FGS). A lot of the problems Joseph has are symptoms of this disease such as intellectual delay, hypotonia, constipation, undescended testes, and hernia.

Interesting stuff and I will be interested to see what the doctor says. Even more interesting will be me presenting him with the research I have found so far and the questions I will have for the appointment!

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Kids Today...I'm Confused

So my children always fascinate me.  I never really know what they are thinking.  I believe having older children before I had the surviving quadruplets gave me lots of insight into raising children and what I was doing wrong (sorry older kids, I truly mean it!).  I think my oldest children, even though I mostly only let them watch educational programming, still saw a LOT of commercials.

The little kids do not really see any commercials.  We got rid of cable before they were a year old and got a ROKU to stream TV. We got an antenna to pick up local stations and the only channel they watched was PBS. Since PBS has no real commercials I was fine with them watching TV.


Over the years I LOVED I could take the children to McDonalds and the children were not begging to go all the time and they weren't even asking to eat the food.  They called McDonalds the "place where the kids play" or "Old McDonalds".  It was SO cute!  Most important is that there was no begging for the toys, food, or anything associated with the fast food giant except the play place.  LOL

Now fast forward to present day.  Since the children do not watch commercials they have no idea what's popular or trendy.  There is not a drive in them to buy toys or stuff.  I have been trying to figure out what to get James for Christmas that is NOT electronic and can hopefully be played by himself.  Joseph and Margaret are fairly easy to shop for but James is difficult.  So last night I sat down with James and the Chromebook and we went looking on Amazon for toys.  We were scrolling through pages of toys on the internet.  After about five minutes James asked me if we were done.  I said we had only been looking for five minutes. Do you like anything you see?  James hesitated and said he only wanted a Nerf Gun and a Kindle.  That was ALL he wanted!  I was proud that he does not want a lot of stuff, but dang, it makes it SO hard to buy things for him!

I remember when I was a kid and I couldn't wait until the Sears Toy Catalog came out!  I would scour that thing and mark all sorts of stuff that I wanted. Even my older children, Jerrin and Caitlin, would love to look over the ads from the newspaper on Thanksgiving and find stuff they would love to have. Now, I can't get the kids to tell me much of anything they want.  Margaret wants a Fuby and by default so do the boys.  Joseph wants musical things and so do the others. James wants a NERF gun along with a Kindle.  I know Margaret and Joseph would enjoy those too.  So I think that will be our Christmas.  I am going to see about getting an iPad Mini instead of a Kindle so we can take advantage of the educational and therapy apps available in the Apple store.




Sunday, November 9, 2014

Kid Craft Ideas for Thanksgiving

http://happyhomefairy.com/2011/11/05/turkey-lunch-sack/




Thanksgiving is coming and I have been thinking about craft ideas to do with the children.  Having children with multiple difficulties (ADHD, intellectual delay, sensory processing problems, and autism) craft time can be interesting!  Here was a picture I came across on the internet and I thought the children and I could manage this craft activity.  I will trace out the shapes and then let them practice cutting.  Then with some help I think we can get all the pieces glued onto the bag without too much mess!  LOL










http://www.messforless.net/2011/11/paper-roll-turkey.html
I have been saving up toilet paper rolls for awhile now and I have been waiting for a good craft idea.  I found this idea on Pinterest.  Toilet paper roll turkeys.  Again, with a little work in advance I think I could have a fun craft project for all the children and not frustrate anyone.  Often James is too impatient for crafts.  Margaret likes the idea of crafts but can't pay attention or stay still long enough to complete something. Joseph enjoys doing crafts but he is really slow.  Being intellectually delayed he will get it and I don't want to rush him so I think you can see why we have problems with craft time...  everyone operates at a VERY different pace!





Here is the last idea I found on Pinterest.  Sorry but there is only an image and no instructions.  I think by the image we get the idea of what to do.  Another variation and something I have been wanting to try is salt dough.  By clicking here you will be taken to a recipe for salt dough.  I know the recipe says its for ornaments but I think it would work well taking a handprint.  You can also google salt dough recipes and find lots of options!  I think this craft could come out SO cute!  It would be me doing most of the work so I don't think this is really a craft for the kids but it looks fun and they would love helping to make the dough!






Hopefully we will get around to making at least one or two of these crafts.  If we do I will post pictures on how it turned out!   If any one tries one of the crafts please send pictures!  I would love to see how they turn out!

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Joseph Loses His First Tooth - Finally!

Joseph FINALLY lost his first tooth!  The boy is all most seven and FINALLY lost his FIRST tooth! His top teeth were pulled because he had fallen so much he had killed the root in those teeth plus cracked them.  His bottom left tooth is the first tooth he lost on his own.  The bad news... we think he swallowed it!  :(   Then to compound matters and make it worse... my husband and I forget to pick up his note explaining why is tooth was gone.  So no visit from the tooth fairy.  We are SO BAD!

We told Joseph that the tooth fairy was busy.  I feel AWFUL!  The good news? The tooth on the left is loose too.  We will try and make sure he does not swallow this tooth too.  Then John and I will have shot to get the tooth fairy to visit again.  I think the tooth fairy has a lot to make sure for!  I am sure she will leave money and a toy this time

Friday, October 31, 2014

Happy Halloween!

We had a good time for Halloween even though it was SO hot in Phoenix!  It was 93 for the high!  John carved out a GIANT pumpkin!  He did a really good job and carved out the pumpkin from the bottom (it is the pumpkin on the far left in the picture). I thought he did a really great job! That pumpkin was so large we were able to place a pillar candle in it and not burn the top!  The other two pumpkins were some cheap plastic light up pumpkins I got from WalMart.  That is the way to go out here in the crazy desert heat!


Here is a picture of the children dressed to go trick-or-treating.  They looked SO cute.  Joseph was still small enough to wear his costume from last year. It was a bit short but not too small size-wise which is crazy since the costume is a size 2T/3T!  The children will be turning 7 in the middle of December!  James wanted to be Batman.  So I went and got him a new costume.  The rule, NEVER any more than $20 on a costume!  I was able to pick James's costume under my price point so that made us all happy!  James had a ton of fun wearing his costume.  He and Joseph were having a great time play fighting!  Margaret, being autistic, has been fixated on Elsa from the movie Frozen.  There were several memes going around about a drinking game involving seeing a girl in an Elsa costume on Halloween.  We are glad we could help you out if you were participating!  LOL  I really got this costume originally for her to have for her Birthday but I was able to get it in time for Halloween so we let her wear it.  She was SO proud!  Sadly, I have all ready had to take it away from her because she started to pick the sequins off the dress.  This is just an issue Margaret has with any fabric item. She has to pull ANYTHING loose off... thread, details, or other items.  It makes getting her cute and nice things difficult!



So we went trick-or-treating.  I am SO proud of the children tonight. We went through one whole large neighborhood (both sides of the street) and we did not have a ton of candy by the time we got back to the car. Their bags were only 1/5 of the way full. I told them they should be grateful for the candy they had because people did not have to give out candy (I told them to remember all the houses we saw that were dark), they did not NEED the candy and it was not good for them, and we were all hot and sweating (it was 92 or so today!). I said we could go home, tell daddy about all the fun and interesting thing they saw, hand out candy to anyone else that showed up, and they could eat all the candy they wanted within reason. They said they wanted to go home! I was really proud of them! I thought they would have fought it because I got a lot of initial whining they needed more candy! I think this is the first year we have gone trick-or-treating and not ended up with a crazy amount of candy! I'm happy the kids learned about being grateful and realizing they had more than enough candy.  Since we had such a small amount of candy I let them keep it so the Halloween Fairy did not need to make a stop at our house.  


James and Joseph having fun play fighting as their superhero characters.  It was a battle of Batman versus Captain America!  Captain America fell down and I ended the video.  It turned out I shouldn't have because it was a bluff by Captain America to beat Batman.  That sneaky Joseph!  Er, I mean Captain America!

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Halloween Is Coming!

Ugh, sorry I have been MIA again but there was good reason!  I have been sick, better, working on my thesis (which I am not finishing), kids sick, John and I SUPER sick, and now we are FINALLY recovering!  We've been so sick for the last 3 1/2 weeks and we are both still dealing with the lingering effects of the flu but I am glad we are recovering!  Recovering just in time to participate in Halloween.

The kids have been eagerly waiting for Halloween.  I am excited for them for a couple of reasons.  One reason is that they finally realize that there is a Halloween and they know Halloween involves....dressing up in costomes and CANDY!  LOL  Now I purposely try and keep them from eating a bunch of junk food and in particular sugar. I saw the BEST idea online...the Halloween Fairy.  (Do you have ANY idea how long it took to find a decent picture that was not trampy? This pic by Annie Msson is beautiful!)

Why have I not heard of this before?  I have no problem really with letting the kids indulge in candy a couple of times a year.  James becomes a SPAZZZZ with a lot of sugar. I love and hate their birthday because James will bounce off the WALLS after eating cake and ice cream!  I got smarter in the last few years because I make the cake from scratch and reducing the sugar along with using cool whip as icing.  It greatly reduces the sugar load.

Ok, back to Halloween.  Kids go trick-or-treating.  They come back with a load of candy.  We do an inspection and leave them a lot of candy to choose from.  The kids get to indulge and eat all the candy they want (within reason...I don't want them to be sick or anything).  After eating what they want the kids go to bed and leave the rest of their candy outside their door.  Mom and Dad come by and collect the candy and swap out the candy for a small toy.

What a great idea, right?  Why had I not heard of this before??? Sugar has such negative health effects and there is diabetes on both side of the family for the children.  I know I am addicted to sugar and I try SUPER hard to avoid or  limit it.  I don't want the kids to be addicted too so I never really give them sugar to trigger that "need" in the brain.

It looks like the Halloween Fairy will be visiting our house this year!  Will she be showing up at your house too?

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Autism: In the Major Media News and Not!

Boy is autism a MAJOR buzz word in the media this week! Well, it is sort of a buzz word in the media I should say. First, let's start with the good news! California has now been forced to cover therapy services for autistic children on the state's low income medicaid program. The Center for Medcaid and Medicare Services has ordered the state insurance programs to cover ABA therapy. Help should be on the way. This coverage should apply to anyone 21 years of age and younger. For more information on the story click HERE.

The next story has been suppressed, denied, and covered up this week.   I'm not sure I can write a post to cover everything that has happened.  Honestly, I don't have the time!  I will point to some good sources. Basically the story is that a scientist at the CDC, Dr.William Thompson, had conversations with Dr. Brain Hooker.  Hooker regularly submits FOIA requests to the CDC for information related to vaccine safety and autism.  So Hooker somehow got to speak to Thompson over the phone.  Hooker secretly recorded the phone calls.  In the call Thompson admits to covering up data that African American babies were 236% more likely to develop autism if they received the MMR vaccination before 36 months. The autism community has been discussing this information for at least a week.  They have been tweeting and haring the story all over Facebook.  Interestingly enough, not one work from the mainstream media news outlets.  Someone then writes an excellent article with reference and posts it to CNN's iReport.  What happens?  Within a day of the article being posted it was taken down as fraud.  That is the suppression.

Then another report was submitted and it was removed even faster.  That article was later re-posted with CNN's caveat that the news media was waiting for a statement from the CDC.  Really?  Does CNN really think the CDC would admit to possible fraud???  So this is the denial.

Thompson would not come out publicly himself.  He was outed by Hooker. In the meantime I think Thompson panicked.  Who wouldn't! He was risking life, home, job, and family so he went to find himself a layer.  The lawyer released a public statement for Thompson.  You an find that information HERE and HERE. In the statement he both confirms the information was left out of the study but then denies by saying he thinks everyone should be vaccinated.   Notice that the lawyer specializes in whistleblower retaliation

Now that the story is getting more press the peer reviewed, medical journal Translational Neurodegeneration, the people that published Hooker's study, has pulled the paper.  You can find a copy of it HERE. This is the coverup.

Gianelloni's blog has a good general post about the story.  You can read it HERE.

Now the diversion is coming.  The magic show to make the story disappear.  It looks like Time is the first major news outlet that is covering the story and they are working at discrediting it. You can read the story HERE. As I read the story I was yelling and muttering at my computer screen because of the distortion of the truth.

Here is her story and I am going to interject my comments I was thinking to myself when I read it...


Whistleblower Claims CDC Covered Up Data Showing Vaccine-Autism Link

The claim, however, may just be more unsubstantiated fuel from the anti-vaccination movement

If you haven’t noticed, there’s a war going on between those who believe in the health benefits of vaccines – that they can prevent deadly infectious diseases such as measles and polio – and those that believe that the immunizations do more harm than good. Now one of the authors of a 2004 government study that found similar vaccination rates among children with and without autism says the study omitted some important data.



The vaccine war is being fought on social media, in social circles and increasingly in doctor’s offices, as physicians are faced with doubts and questions from parents who find themselves being recruited onto the side of skepticism (The reason parents are being recruited is because they are smart enough to ask questions and realize that the CDC is not giving them the information.  Just as the CDC is not giving information to Congress as they have requested). Skepticism is healthy, and the sign of curious minds, but not when it flies in the face of evidence (Even in peer reviewed medical journal articles there are studies that raise concerns.  Don't worry yourself about it though because the press has told you so). Especially gold standard, rigorous scientific evidence that has been accumulating for decades and shows that vaccines are not linked with an increased risk of the developmental disorder.  (This story is listed below with my comments.)


William Thompson, a senior scientist at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and one of the authors of a 2004 study published in the journal Pediatrics, spoke with Brain Hooker, who serves on the board of Focus Autism (which was founded to “put an end to the needless harm of children by vaccination and other environmental factors”), about the data that was not included in the final report. The study looked at both healthy children and those with autism, to see if there were any differences in their rates of being vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), and found none. That suggested that childhood immunizations likely were not contributing to an increased risk of autism. Hooker and Thompson, however, discussed a subset of the 624 children with autism and 1824 without the condition who were studied and Thompson admitted that among African-American boys, the incidence of autism was higher among those who were vaccinated than among those who weren’t. But that information was not part of the paper. Thompson claims he was not aware that the discussion was being recorded (if he was do you think he would have ever said anything?), and his statements appeared in a video released on YouTube on August 22 entitled “CDC Whistleblower Revealed.”


Did the CDC cover up the data, as Hooker claims? A couple of things to keep in mind, both about the people behind the video and about how epidemiological studies like the one published in Pediatrics work (and explained in more detail in this article from Science-Based Medicine)(The Science-Based Medicine group are VERY pro-vaccine. I would not call them an unbiased source either). For starters, the video was narrated by Andrew Wakefield, the British researcher responsible for seeding the questions about vaccines and autism in the first place. In 2010, the General Medical Council in the UK revoked his license to practice medicine and a year later, the journal that published his paper concluded that his findings were fraudulent. (To me it all most seems that the author went out of her way to to bias the audience. Wakefield is not as bad as people make him out to be. Just click HERE to see his side of the story. Wakefield also had a point.  There is a high chance that the gut microbiome is involved in at least some types of autism.  More and more information is being published in medical journals discussing the gut microbiome. Just head over to Google Scholar and do a search for "gut microbiome autism" yourself.)
Next, any time scientists take the original population of participants in a study, however large, and drill down to analyze trends in a subgroup – in this case the African-American boys – the power of the associations they find dwindles. That’s because the numbers get smaller, and in order to be statistically relevant – something known as statistical significance to statisticians – certain threshold numbers and confidence intervals for the connection have to be reached. In the 2004 study, the scientists looked at a smaller set of 355 children with autism and 1020 without for whom they had Georgia state birth certificates, which included additional information that might be relevant for any associations, such as birth weight, gestational age, and mother’s age, race and education. “This information was not available for the children without birth certificates; hence the CDC study did not present data by race on black, white or other race children form the whole study sample. It presented the results on black and white/other race children from the group with birth certificates,” the CDC notes in a statement responding to the video. Thompson claims that the findings were statistically significant, but results from smaller numbers of subjects still don’t hold as much weight as correlations found in the larger group. (I disagree with this assessment and apparently so does Thompson who admitted the data left out was statistically relevant.)

In addition, it’s important to note that the study simply correlated age at vaccination and reports of autism, which says nothing about the direction of the connection. For example, the authors of the 2004 study note that “Case children, especially those 3 to 5 years of age, were more likely than control children to have been vaccinated before 36 months of age.” The association between vaccination and symptoms, however, was more likely due to the fact that the children had to be immunized in order to register in preschool (You can't really get vaccinated much before 36 months for the MMR because doctors don't want to do it for state compliance.  I know.  I lived in Alabama.  My oldest daughter (now 20) was vaccinated two months before she was suppose to and I had to get her the vaccine again before she went to school. Most doctors are care NOT to give the vaccines early!  Also, why are case children going to preschool at a greater rate then control children.  That does not make sense to me.), and doesn’t necessarily indicate that the shots contributed to the autism.

In a statement issued through his attorneys (yes, his attorney specializes in whistleblower retaliation!), Thompson says “Reasonable scientists can and do differ in their interpretation of information.” He calls for transparency in the data collecting and reporting process, but says that the way that the 2004 study was presented does not negate the importance of vaccination. “I want to be absolutely clear that I believe vaccines have saved and continue to save countless lives. I would never suggest that any parent avoid vaccinating children of any race. Vaccines prevent serious diseases, and the risks associated with their administration are vastly outweighed by their individual and societal benefits.” (I'm sure Thompson wouldn't have any incentive to say that when he may want to keep his job with the CDC and not be labeled a quack.  I'm sorry Thompson it might be too late for that.  You have spoken and many have listened.  Now if the main stream media will only listen too!)

The latest in-depth review of immunizations shows that they aren’t linked to higher risk of autism or cancer




It’s been three years since the Institute of Medicine (IOM) came out with its comprehensive look at vaccine safety. That’s enough time to generate dozens more studies investigating side effects and risk of conditions such as autism and cancer that keep some parents from vaccinating their children against potentially lethal diseases like mumps, measles and pertussis(First lets get this straight.  The link to the article being sited says "Vaccine Safety: New Report Finds Few Adverse Events Linked to Immunizations."  I added the emphasis. In my blog I explain why being one of the "few" (how many is a few anyways?) is a horrible thing.  Also the IOM is a bunch of doctors that have been brainwashed into thinking vaccines are good. Look at the O'Leary et al. I posted on my page under the measles section.  The abstract left ALL the information out of the results section of the study.  There was a reason for that. Most doctors recommend a risky vaccine because it was recommended by major medical associations like the AAP. Rather shameful in my opinion!



Since 2011, when the IOM issued its report, 67 new studies that included proper follow up periods and control groups have emerged. So the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality requested an updated review of the data on vaccine safety, this time including data on previously unstudied immunizations against pneumococcus, rotavirus, Hib and inactivated polio virus vaccines in addition to the well-studied ones.


Overall, the researchers, led by Margaret Maglione at the RAND Corporation, (I looked the RAND Corp up.  I noticed they are a non-profit. Someone donates money to pay the bills.  Where is that money coming from?  I did not see anywhere the sponsors/contributors/donators of the company.) report in the journal Pediatrics that most of the childhood immunizations are safe, with only a few (again, how many is few and if YOUR child is one of the"few: I don't think you will feel it is that rare of an event!) associated with rare adverse effects. The group found that the MMR vaccine, which some parents believe raise the risk of autism, does not increase the risk of the developmental disorder. They did find moderate evidence that rotavirus vaccination can cause twisting of the bowels in a small number of children, but the condition can be treated (The first version of this vaccine was pulled from the market because of all the damage it did.  As for treating the twisted bowel; yes, it's done through surgery. Do you want that for YOUR child?  This does not even cover that Paul Offit is the inventor of that vaccine and made MILLIONS off the sell of the patent and now he works for the CDC recommending the vaccine schedule.).
“We need to keep doing this,” says Dr. Carol Baker, executive director of the center for vaccine awareness and research at Texas Children’s Hospital, of the study updates. “We can’t just sit still and rest on prior information.”

Increasingly, she says, pediatricians are spending more time discussing vaccines and vaccine safety with confused or hesitant parents. (That's because people are getting smarter and refuse to just vaccinate their children. Studies are not always transparent, the CDC is not transparent at all and refuses to hand over information to Congress after being requested. Why should I worry...NOT!) That’s a different scenario from the days of the polio epidemic, when parents were lining their children up to get them vaccinated against the paralyzing disease. “The major reason the safety of vaccines has become more of an issue recently is that many of the diseases they prevent have pretty much disappeared,” says Baker, who also served as chair of the Centers for Disease Control’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which makes recommendations about which vaccines children should get, and when. (I am going to state here that we have prevented disease two ways.  One is vaccinations.  They do work some. They can decrease the number of cases of a disease.  One the other hand the vaccines are dangerous for some people including those who are genetically predispositioned with autoimmune problems.  In that case it may be better for them to catch the disease.  Also most of the infectious disease cases were winding down in number anyways before vaccines were introduced. This is because of an increase in nutrition, sanitation and better medical practices.)  “So this is a very needed report.”

It’s especially helpful as more parents are either skeptical about vaccines, and need reassurance that getting their children is the safe, and responsible thing to do, or are adamantly convinced that vaccines do more harm than good. (Again, I will point out that I am not a true Anti-Vaxxer.  I think vaccinations are fine if your child is healthy.  On the other hand I FIRMLY believe we are vaccinating our children incorrectly.  We should not be administering vaccines until children are about two and have had a chance to fully develop their immune system.  The United States requires the most vaccines before the age of six than any other country. Amazing huh? Also there is not mention of aluminum adjuvants used in vaccines, that the medical professionals have no idea how the aluminum adjuvants excite the immune system, and the dose of aluminum given to babies during their multiple injections surpasses the toxic threshold. You can read more on aluminum adjuvants on my page.) Many pediatricians have alerted their patients that they won’t see children whose parents won’t get them vaccinated since they could pose a risk of passing on disease to their other patients, including infants under six months old who can’t get vaccinated because their immune systems are still too undeveloped to respond properly to the shots, and children whose immune systems are compromised because of cancer or other conditions. The American Academy of Pediatrics doesn’t advise that its members refuse patients, but some pediatricians believe it’s the only way to protect the children they see. (Lucky for those of us that vaccinate on an alternative schedule or not at all we can still find doctors to see. Plus many of us are blessed to have healthy children so rarely need to see a doctor in the first place.) “Pediatricians have to have a conversation about risks and benefits of vaccines,” says Baker. “So we need to keep looking at the studies and the data. Vaccines are good, and disease is bad, and the risk-benefit ratio is favorable for all vaccines. This new study gives reassurance that that’s true.