Welcome to Parenthood

There are so many decisions to make in anticipation of our baby - so many more than I ever thought ...and this is just the beginning!! A few that we've made or struggled with:

Breastfeed or Formula? Really not much of a decision for us. We're going to breastfeed as long as it works for us. The benefits: bonding, helps protect baby from sickness & a money saver.

Disposable or Cloth Diapers? We're going cloth people!! It will no doubt take some getting use to - but since we won't know any different I imagine it will become second nature for us eventually. We're going with BumGenius 3.0 One Size. The benefits: environmentally friendly (one disposable diaper takes 500 years to decompose in a landfill!), money saver.

To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? There has been a lot of speculation on the link between autism and vaccines. We bought The Vaccine Book, & have done some research on the topic. A topic by the way I had no idea about before....some of the ingredients that make up vaccines is frightening!! As of now we'll be going with a modified vaccination schedule that the book mapped out for us. Baby will still get all the vaccinations that are pertinent, just in a different order. The benefits: Baby will only receive 2 shots at any given time, max. Baby will only receive one shot at a time that contains aluminum. Baby will not receive vaccines that are not pertinent to his age (ie: the vaccine for sexually transmitted disease that is normally given at birth will be delayed until age 12). Makes sense.

Seasonal Flu & Swine Flu Vaccine? Ugggh my least favorite question. If I weren't pregnant it would be a no brainer - I wouldn't be getting either. I've never received either. This is where I struggle cause it's not just Kevin & I anymore. I feel our midwife is in such a disconnect from the world & has no opinion on the subject other than to shrug her shoulders and say 'eh, love I wouldn't worry about getting either'. ummmm not a good enough answer. We hope to get some more thoughts on it from our doctors in Newcastle. The benefits: helping to protect baby after birth through breastfeeding. Undecided as of now.

Home birth, Water birth or Hospital, gimme the drugs birth? Ideally we would like to try a water birth. However, I fear when we get back to the states we might run into a few complications when trying to accomplish this. For one, we will be visiting our doctor for the first time in the states at 30 weeks, might be too late to make such arrangements. Secondly, with baby having ventriculomeagly will they consider him to be a higher risk birth and want to keep monitors on him? If so, monitoring baby throughout the birth is not possible when doing a water birth. So our back up plan is a Hospital, gimme the drugs birth. Although recently I've been having dreams that I go into labor in the most inconvenient places. Just last night I had a dream there was a blizzard and Kevin couldn't get home in time to get me to the hospital so I was on the phone with 911 while they tried to help me deliver the baby by myself - when my phone died! LOL. So we'll see.

Whew! and these are just a few of the decisions. Hopefully this mamma jamma of a post will satisfy our few readers until we're able to post our 25 week picture on Tuesday when we return from Paris :)