The Mom Crowd

I researched flying with a baby a few months ago and enjoyed reading the stories of other parents’ experiences. So I decided to write my story about my first experience flying with a baby.

In August of last year I had to decide if I my baby and me were going to the Philippines with my husband and 10 other people in December. Part of my concern was traveling with a 7 month old. I researched flying with an infant and spoke to many parents. They all agreed that this would be a great time to travel with Ace, because she would not be crawling yet. So we bought the tickets and in December we left to travel to the other side of the world.

Security

Getting through security would have been a bigger challenge if I had to do it by myself. Luckily my husband was with me to help Ace and I get through the lines. Between the three of us we had five items: a car seat, a car seat frame stroller, a diaper bag, my backpack, and Daniel’s bag with a laptop computer. Almost each time we had to put everything through the security ex-ray machine, including breaking down the stroller. In addition, we had to take off all our shoes, even Ace’s little knock-off Robeez. The first time we went through the line my husband thought he lost his mobile phone. He found his phone, but we agreed to get through the line slower next time and not care about the people behind us. Going slow through the line may not have made the people behind us very happy, but we were much more relaxed and less stressed.

In the Los Angeles airport there was a special line for strollers and wheelchairs. We zipped right through the line while we waited over thirty minutes for our friends to get through the regular security line. In the Hong Kong airport before Daniel and I went through the security line a nice security man with clean white gloves held up his hands and asked for my baby. I handed him my baby thinking, he just wanted to see her. Then, on the other side of security we saw three security personnel crowded around my baby trying to get her to smile. They had sat her sitting up in her car seat. I wasn’t sure what to think about all of it, I was tired and just glad that my baby was okay after passing her off to a security guard.

Finally On The Plane

My husband, baby, and I did not always have our three seats assigned together. Imagine if I had left my baby in the row behind me next to two unassuming passengers! Every time we would not completely settle into our seats until we made sure that the seat next to us was empty or until after we asked someone to exchange seats with us. Everyone we asked politely obliged to move seats even though they did not have to.

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***SPOILER WARNING*** If you plan on seeing the movie ‘Juno’ and don’t want any spoilers – Don’t read this blog post! Come back and read it after you have seen the movie.

I got a chance to go out and see the movie ‘Juno’ tonight with my friend Melia after I laid Annabelle to bed. The movie is about a precocious sixteen-year-old named Juno and her journey through pregnancy.

As far as pregnancies in the movies go, I thought it portrayed pregnancy pretty close to the real thing. Except that I noticed some of her symptoms were out of order in the movie, but I could overlook that detail. It is a movie. “And if it is any consolation I have heartburn that is radiating in my knee caps.” So true!

We see Juno attempt to get an abortion, but decide not to because “the baby has fingernails.” I thought the protest and abortion scene was interesting, because I like to see how conservative hot button topics are portrayed in television and film. I always thought that protesters in front of abortion clinics weren’t very effective, but in this movie it was. Thank God that Su-Chin was one brave girl giving her time and speaking truth and yelling “Babies want to get borned! Babies want to get borned!” Su-Chin was not portrayed with excessive mocking or in a heavy sarcastic tone. It was somewhat mocking, but not as bad as it could have been.

Juno is quite verbal throughout the movie that she is giving the child up for adoption, but we see her struggle with the decision. We see her grow attached to the child inside of her when the baby kicks and she is playing with a car on her belly. In the end, she gives the child away. The scene pans to her and Bleeker crying in the hospital bed. Of course, I was balling! I don’t know if I could ever do what she did. I am glad that she did have some emotion over her baby, after she was very casual in the beginning of the film about the baby.

At the end of the film Vanessa brings the baby home, because “she was born to be a mom.” During the film I kept waiting to see if Vanessa would turn out to be fake or a horrible person, but she never did. She genuinely wanted to be a mom. When you see her holding the baby, you are happy for her. In the back of my head, I was wondering how she is going to care for a newborn all by herself. I couldn’t imagine. I was upset about her husband. My friend said that Mark leaving Vanessa made the movie more realistic.

The ending is bittersweet, but I am somehow happy with the way things turned out. I enjoy funky indie films and the verbal banter in the movie. My most favorite character was “Dwight”, “That ain’t no etch-a-sketch. This is one doodle that can’t be un-did, homeskillet.”

Have you seen the movie? Did it remind you of ‘Saved!’ or ‘Little Miss Sunshine’? What are your thoughts on the portrayal of pregnancy in the movie?

As the mother of two children with congenital heart defects, I pay extra close attention to changes with the American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines. At my children’s last cardiology visit, our cardiologist informed me of a huge change the AHA has made. Many (not all) cardiac patients have been advised until recently to take a special antibiotic prior to dental work or surgery of any kind due to the risk of endocarditis. Endocarditis is an infection in the heart’s valves or lining and is spread through the bloodstream. This is a very serious and life-threatening infection. Dental work or medical procedures are a very common way this bacteria is spread. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been enough research to prove that the prophylaxis antibiotic is effective in preventing this infection and antibiotics have their own set of risks. The AHA has now changed their guidelines and does not recommend prophylaxis antibiotics prior to procedures except for a very small number of cardiac patients.

My children’s cardiology practice is saying “no thank you” to the AHA’s new guidelines. While unnecessary use of antibiotics can cause allergic reactions and antibiotic resistance, some people feel that a one time dose of antibiotic prior to a procedure does not contribute to the antibiotic resistance issue. It is also feared that this is the AHA’s way of getting the necessary research done to know for sure whether the antibiotic is effective in stopping the spread of endocarditis. It was impossible to ethical perform research studies under the previous guidelines.

This is a huge controversy among many families and the medical community and a very important issue. I am curious to see how this all plays out. I am curious to see how many cardiologists agree with the AHA and how many disagree and continue to prescribe antibiotics for their patients prior to procedures. My children will continue to receive the antibiotic prior to procedures and dental work until I and their cardiologist feel more confident in this new change, however please check with your cardiologist to see what precautions from endocarditis he or she recommends.

The AHA’s current information and guidelines on endocarditis can be found here.

• A Wild Ride Writing Contest

AWildRide.net is celebrating its first year anniversary with a writing contest. The theme is “What to Expect When Parenting isn’t What You Expected.” There are many prizes to win. The deadline for entries is Jan.15th. I am still working on my entry!

• Regretting your Baby’s Name on CNN.com

CNN has an interesting article on what happens when you regret your child’s name.

• ‘Web Playgrounds of the Very Young’ on NYTimes.com

Our kids may be asking to be part of virtual worlds like Webkindz and “Pixie Hollow” soon. A quote from the article ” ‘Get ready for total inundation,’ said Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at the research firm eMarketer, who estimates that 20 million children will be members of a virtual world by 2011, up from 8.2 million today.” Here is another quote from the article discussing Neopets, “ ‘Parents know they can trust our brand to protect kids,’ said Steve Youngwood, executive vice president for digital media at Nickelodeon.” I am a huge fan of the web and technology, but I would never rely on a website to protect my child. That is my job.

• 4 Part Cloth Diaper Tutorial on BreastfeedingSymbol.org

I read through all four tutorials and found them really helpful. It actually made cloth diapering less scary. She actually throws all the poop in the washer with the diapers. I wonder if anyone else does that.

I just read an interesting article in Mothering Magazine about aluminum in our children’s vaccines. In the past 10 years there has been a lot of discussion about the additive of thimerosal in vaccines. Thimerosal is a form of mercury and there was a lot of speculation about whether the mercury in vaccines was a contributing factor of the increase of autism in children. There have since been several studies showing that there isn’t a connection between the two but as a precaution thimerosal has been removed from most vaccines. In the article I read it mentioned that Merck (pharmaceutical company) was aware that the mercury in vaccines was well above the recommended amount (87 times!) and that a research doctor sent a memo to the president of his division stating his concerns.

Now there is a new concern about aluminum in vaccines. Aluminum can be toxic in large amounts. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that toxicity can cause neurologic damage and can be harmful for those with kidney disease. The shocking thing to me is that vaccine makers have done no studies to show that the amount of aluminum given to infants is safe or harmful. It is alarming to me that aluminum (a known potential toxin) is considered safe until proven harmful rather than the other way around.

30 mcg of aluminum per day for a 12 pound 2 month old baby is considered a safe amount. Some vaccines have 7 to 25 times the recommended amount. For example, the Hepatitis B vaccine has 250 mcg of aluminum. The Pediarix vaccine, which is a combination vaccine of DTap, Hepatitis B, and Polio, has 850 mcg of aluminum. It is a little scary to me that my baby could get that much aluminum at one time when it is unknown how babies process an abundance of aluminum.

What can you do about it? You can ask your pediatrician to use the vaccines that have a smaller amount of aluminum in it. There is a Hib vaccine that does not have aluminum in it but you would need to find out what kind your doctor uses. You can also ask your doctor how much aluminum is in the DTaP vaccine. There are several choices that contain different amounts. Another alternative would be to limit the number of vaccines your child receives per visit and go back for a special “shot only” visit. You may want to find a copy of this article and print it off for your doctor to read and get his/her input.

I have chosen to do delay vaccines with Graham for different reasons. I decided to wait to give him the Hepatitis B vaccine until we are done with all our other shots. Hepatitis B is contracted through sexual contact, IV drug use, and the mother. I know I don’t have it and I seriously doubt that Graham will be doing any sexual activities or drug use anytime soon. I decided to space out vaccines to allow his immune system not to get overloaded. One of my concerns about the doubling, tripling, and quadrupling of vaccines is that if my baby does have a bad reaction I wouldn’t know which one was the culprit. After reading this article though, I am going to show it to our pediatrician and continue to space out the vaccines.

The pediatrician who wrote the article, Dr. Robert Sears has written a book called The Vaccine Book which recommends a delayed vaccine schedule.