Immunise your kids dammit

I have pretty strong opinions on alot of things. Immunisation is one of them. I came across this article that was written better than i could have ever done but says everything i would want to say on this topic....

http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/family/parenting/8608435/why-there-is-no-excuse-to-avoid-immunising-your-kids

Why there is NO excuse to avoid immunising your kids Zoe Arnold

The number of Australian kids who are not vaccinated is growing, putting all children at risk of potentially fatal diseases. Mum-of-two Zoe Arnold explains why there is no excuse not to immunise your kids.
Picture this: a screaming infant sitting in a trolley, with his stressed mother pushing him as quickly as possible through a supermarket checkout. It's busy and onlookers feel sorry for the woman, trying to collect her weekly groceries.
Then: a fountain of milky vomit erupts from the baby's mouth — splashing the floor and counter next to a shocked checkout worker. The baby continues screaming.
This sounds dramatic, but it's a true story of my little brother, still a baby when he contracted whooping cough. He was immunised, but another baby was not.
I remember that cough of my brother's. It sounded like the name suggests — "whoop, whoop" — often followed by a vomit, and a terrible scrambling for breath.
It was scary: he was small and helpless, and turned a frightening purple during each episode.
Science shows us that vaccinating our children is the most effective way to reduce the spread of dangerous, potentially deadly diseases like whooping cough.
Yet there are still an alarming number of people who formally refuse to immunise their children.
To be clear: I am not a doctor, or a trained medical professional. But I am a mother of two children and I do comprehend science. There is no need for our immunisation rate to be less than 100 percent — but it is.
While it stinks that anyone would want to put their own child's health at risk, what's even worse is that they're endangering the rest of us with their blasé attitude towards the vaccination process.
For four years now, Australia has been experiencing a whooping cough epidemic: with an estimated 38,500 Australians suffering through the disease in 2011.
Modern medicine means most of those who catch the disease will be okay in the end, but for little babies it is especially dangerous and difficult to treat.
It's not just whooping cough: last year, NSW Health issued multiple alerts about the dangers of measles in that state with the highest numbers of the disease recorded in 14 years.
"People with measles usually feel extremely unwell," Dr Jeremy McAnulty from NSW health says. "Symptoms include a high fever, tiredness, runny nose, cough and sore eyes before a blotchy red rash appears.
"Measles is incredibly contagious but is preventable through vaccination."
So why wouldn't you want to protect your children and yourself from these deadly diseases? Misinformation is usually to blame. So-called "conscientious objectors" run websites and issue brochures claiming that the vaccination process is dangerous.
It's not.
Decades of research shows that fully immunising our children gives them the best chance of avoiding diseases like measles and whooping cough. Yes, there's still a chance you can be infected, but nowhere near as seriously.
If you aren't convinced about the benefits of immunising, take a look at polio. Until a vaccine was developed in the 1950s, thousands of children were crippled by polio every year.
Many would die, or be left with devastating disabilities. Today, all but four countries in the world are polio-free, thanks to a handy little vaccine.
There are lots of things to think twice about when you have children: whether to breast or bottle feed them; which daycare is right for you; which method of parenting works in your house. But vaccinating your child isn't something to think about twice; as it's every child's right to have the healthiest start possible.
To find out more about immunisation, visit the Department of Health and Ageing.

If there's one thing i know - it's that my 3 year old isn't the only one to refuse to go to bed of a night.....

At 6 months old i took the dummy off my daughter because it got to the point where she wouldn't sleep without it. Mean mummy? Maybe, but within a matter of days sweet little angel was going to bed without so much as a whimper and dreaming of heaven in no time!

Bed times were a pretty smooth process. Bath normally occurred before daddy got home. Once daddy got home we would have dinner, maybe some yoghurt for afters then brush teeth, read books and go to bed.

When baby girl went from a cot to a bed at 18 months it took her a whole month to realise she could leave the bed without being lifted out. Once she discovered this, bed time became a little frustrating.

Tucking sweet child in was definitely not the last time you saw her that night. Often you'd just make it to the lounge to put your feet up and little but loud feet would creep up the hallway to delay sleep. Some nights you would make the trip down the hall a dozen times to put her back in bed before she would stay there and drift off to sleep.

The stage after delaying sleep was to get out of bed and lay down in the hall and fall asleep.
It was frustrating at the time but i'd happily go back to that stage because these days I cannot get said child to bed before 8pm and just because child is in bed at 8pm definitely does not mean she will go to sleep.

After saying "good night, have a nice sleep. love you and see you in the morning" said child will proceed to talk to her toys or read some books. When she gets bored with this she will creep up the hall to remind her dad or I that we've forgotten to do something. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that she had a list of "things i can do before bed" and intentionally doesn't say anything when we're putting her to bed so that she can pop out later to remind us of our mistake.

A couple of visits later and depending on who has had the worst day, mummy or daddy will get cross and warn clever child that next time we hear from her she will get put in her room and the door will get shut.
That is normally the last time we hear from her but it doesn't mean she goes off to sleep.
If we're lucky she'll sneak into our room and fall asleep in our bed.

By 10pm 2 weeks short of a 3 year old is asleep.

Could all this be avoided by shutting the door to begin with? Putting to bed earlier? Taking away toys and books? Maybe.
It frustrates me and can make me upset that my child can't go to bed and do the one thing she is meant to do but i'm not alone. I've googled it. Plenty of mums are in the same position and plenty of people have wonderful advice. Some of it obvious, some greatly appreciated. Others, well, chocolate milk and a muffin before bed is unnecessary - i won't go into why i think that piece of advice can be shelved.

We wont be changing bed routines and i will continue to complain. (It makes me feel much better!)
I just cross my fingers and toes that sweet child has her own baby girl who likes to push the boundaries as much as her mummy did!!!!

You need to understand that all babies are different...

I have a friend whose eldest is a year older than my daughter and it upset her when my daughter began talking in sentences long before her child did.
When i meet other mummies and we discuss toilet training, i try not to share that my daughter was out of undies and having no accidents by 15 months because it causes mums to raise their eye brows and question what they're doing wrong because their child isn't yet toilet trained.
My daughter had only taken a few independent steps by her 1st birthday, whereas her friend born the day before her, was walking the length of a room. Her other friend, who shares the same birthday, wasn't walking at all.

I got an email this week from a baby site, telling me facts about 7 month olds.
According to the email, some 7 month olds may be sitting unaided. Mine has been doing that for close to 3 months. He has 2 friends of similar age and one is very close to sitting unaided, the other is a fair way off.
According to the email, some 7 month olds are moving about (crawling). Mine has been doing that for close to a month now. One of his 2 friends has been moving around for roughly the same amount of time, the other is enjoying laying on their tummy and playing.
According to the email, some 7 month olds are babbling, saying words such as "baba" and "dada" and "mama". Mine isn't. He's never babbled any sort of word. One of his friends babbles all the time and has mastered "mama" and "dada". The other has babbled "mama" a couple of times but nothing regular.

My son has teeth, something which neither of his friends has. He can pull himself to standing and walk (shakily) around furniture, something neither of his friends can do yet but one of his friends can feed himself a bottle, something which my son can't do. His other friend sleeps right through the night. Something which my son has no interest in doing.

It upset me when my daughter was born and her playmates mummies were bragging about the things their child could do (and mine hadn't quite mastered), or the baby update email told me this month my daughter would achieve XYZ and she only achieved X and jumped straight to Z. But almost 3 years later, she got here by learning things in her own time and she's perfect! Just as my son is perfect, even if he hasn't said my name yet!

Second time around, i now understand that each child is different and learns in their own time. And whether they are walking at 7 months or 18 months, or talking at 5 months or 12 months, they're special and lovely and truly a gift from God that should be praised for every milestone they reach - no matter what age it occurs at.

First dress up party was a winner!

Until 2 weeks ago I had never heard of a Lalaloopsie. Turns out she's a doll with a head that is proportionally bigger than her body, has buttons for eyes, stitch mouth, rosy cheeks and is always wearing a flower or bow in her hair. Also turns out she's quite a popular toy for girls 2-8 years. My poor daughter, like her mummy, was unaware of her existence and really, life hasn't changed since our introduction via google.

To my daughter, Lalaloopsie is a doll printed on a piece of paper for reference when doing the makeup for the party. She is now and will probably always remain, a doll on a piece of paper because mummy can't justify spending $30 on a doll that is just that - a doll.

Today was the birthday party where it was optional to dress up as Lalaloopsie. 2 year old was guaranteed to wear her tutu anyway (It's all she wears since receiving it as a gift for Christmas) so all we needed to do was add a bit of makeup (eye liner, blush and lip gloss) and pull her hair back and add a giant flower.

She loved it! She looked adorable. She didn't wipe her eyes or touch her hair for hours at fear of wrecking her look!

Will tick introduce daughter to make up off the "to-do" list!

2 kids and a life leaves very little room for blogging

When i started this blog, it was in frustration. I saw it as a way to "air" my life that seemed complicated and fast paced thanks to my 2 beautiful children.
I had fantasies about "blogging" a couple of times a week to share my new finds, my frustrations and my happy stories.

It's now been over a month since my last post.
The reality is, by the time I've done what is needed of me as a mum of 2 and wife of 1, i really don't have time to write as often as i had hoped.

So. It turns out having 2 kids and dealing with the hype of Christmas doesn't give you a lot of time to do much else.
For me, i had finished my Christmas shopping by September. I thought that getting that out of the way early would free me up for other things. Turns out those other things were catch-ups with friends (both mine, and my kids).
Just as we were crossing one event of calendar we were adding another and before you know it, your diary is full of parties, play dates, morning teas, afternoon teas, early dinners, walk and talks and coffee dates. Life as a mum is hard!

So Christmas Eve arrived. For my son, who had just turned 6 months it was any old day. For my almost 3 daughter, it meant getting a treat from the stocking marked '1' which meant that Santa would be coming that night!
The week building up to Christmas was a nightmare. Well behaved (mostly) daughter had started getting frustrated and tantrums were back on our daily 'to-do' list. After lots of pondering i realised that it all revolved around Santa. Almost 3 year old was so frustrated that the days weren't passing by quick enough that she was taking it out on anything (and anyone) that didn't do what she wanted. If i had known that come Christmas Day, the tantrums would have stopped all together, Santa would have visited this household a week early!
Christmas morning, for the second time in her almost 3 years, i had to wake sleeping beauty. Santa had been kind enough to leave a small present at her bedroom door. In a melt your heart moment, almost 3 year old steps on the present Santa left at her door (he should have left something a little bigger that she would have seen), she shrieks "Santa's been" and cuddles and kisses the small present in her hand then with the shakiest of fingers, attempts to open her first present. Bless her cotton socks, she was shaking with so much excitement that she couldn't open the wrapping paper! Once the hair accessories were open she whispers "thank you Santa" then heads for the Christmas tree to see what else he may have left.

6 month old got to open a fisher price cement truck first and wasn't really interested in whatever else followed. Possibly too young to enjoy the packaging more??? Maybe too clever?? One can only hope!

Christmas Day was over by 9pm but according to almost 3 year old, Santa would be back that night to drop off some more presents....


Life as a mum is busy. It's hard work, its tiring, it's frustrating and sometimes upsetting but when you live by the saying "Always look on the bright side of life" its exciting and rewarding and there is nothing else i would rather be doing.

Will put a reminder on my calendar to write again soon, right next to the reminder to pay the electricity bill and giving myself 5 minutes of quiet time!

Hope your Christmas was happy, healthy and memorable!
 

Letter from Santa

Free letter from Santa.
Works a treat in curving terrible twos tantrums and compliments my "do i have to phone Santa and tell him you're misbehaving" spiel.


http://www.letterfromsanta.org/

My MUST HAVE item for teething

I don't disagree with western medicine, I think there are cases where it is absolutely necessary but if I can find a natural alternative then I am going to try that first. That's why the first teething product I tried for my daughter was Hylands Teething Tablets. I never tried anything else.

These little melt in your mouth teething tablets made the crying stop and made sleeping possible.
So imagine my disappointment when 5 teeth away from a full set of pearly whites, these little tablets were voluntarily recalled.

Good news is they're back! My son already has 2 chompers and will probably get his other 2 front teeth for Christmas but I'm not concerned about his teething gate crashing his first Christmas because I have just bought myself a bottle of these little beauties.

Goodbye concealer and welcome bright eyes!

As their website says - "they make the nights bearable and the days livable"

http://www.hylands.com/aboutmain.php