Baby Spanglish

Vivi has a tremendous vocabulary and isn't afraid to use it. She talks and talks to you until you're exhausted, and she expects a reply every time or she'll say "Mommy? Mommy? Mommy?!" Every so often our nanny Vilma will tell me in her so-so English "She talk alotta," or "She repite (repeats) me all the time." It's true, she's like a parrot sometimes in that she'll repeat what you say to her verbatim, like "only color on the paper please." The other day when I came to pick her up, Vilma said "Good, now she talk to you." It cracks me up that clearly we are not the only ones exhausted by her! Vilma's been a nanny for almost 30 years, so when she points something out, I know it must be unique. I was reading up about the 2 year check-up (she's 21 months), and the guidelines say she should have 50 words by then. 50??? She must have 300, no joke. Every day she'll say stuff like "garbage" or "basement" that I didn't even know she knew.

It's harder for me to pick up on her Spanish, but Vilma speaks only Spanish to the kids so I know she knows more than I give her credit for. At this age it can be so hard to tell what she's saying even in English (especially since she has a lisp, so words like "thanks" come out as "thhanxth"). But I have noticed a few command words like "a ver" (let's see) and "mira" (look). Occasionally she'll just say the same thing 4 or 5 times, but I never understand so just end up saying "Ah, I see, ok." Of course I'm biased on this one, but we've also noticed she's very smart. Yesterday Nate was reading to her and asked "where's the moon?" She pointed to it, and then she found another one and said "2 moons!" and then saw more in a drawing and said "more moons!"

A muppet named "Burp" and other joys of toddlerdom

I admittedly have been lax about sharing videos since Nate has been back from Iraq. But I just had to share this one, where I finally caught it on tape that she calls Bert (of Sesame Street) "Burp" and Cookie Monster "Cookie's Water." Ok, so it's probably much funnier to me, but I've been waiting since she was born for the hilarious toddler word mix-ups, such as my little sister's "Skinny Pig" (i.e. Guinea pig) and "Baby Soup" (as in "bathing suit"). Guinea pig must just be one of those hard words to understand...Vivi calls them "Piggy pigs."

And of course, the main theme of the video is the "clean-up" game. If you're wondering, no I do not suggest this as a game. She just grabs whatever napkin she can find and starts cleaning off her doll's mouth...or, like in this video, the walls and floor. It's really amazing how quickly children pick up their gender roles. Yes, I did buy her a doll with a stroller and a shopping cart, but this is only after she started putting her stuffed animals in a box and pushing them around the house. Clearly, I did not precipitate this game.




I can't quite explain how thrilled I am that family and friends are finally slowly jumping on board with having children! I was beginning to wonder if we would be the only Gen X parents under 35. What's in store for us this spring? We're contemplating selling the house in case DC is experiencing a mini-bubble related to the $8k refund. Plus, when we have basement water issues, it doesn't exactly leave us feeling warm and fuzzy. But then again we are finally content, and Nate is adjusting to the neighborhood. Having said that, I just got an advertisement on our front door by a major company that is ONLY written in SPANISH. Really???

Genevieve's 2nd dose of H1N1 vaccine

Vivi and I are going to stand in line again on Thursday afternoon to get her second H1N1 vaccine dose. I wanted to do a follow-up to my post about the vaccine debate, as I did not spend much time on my background and feelings about immunization of my daughter. When I was pregnant, I was finishing up my master's in public health, and much of my time was spent learning about infectious diseases and vaccines. I began researching what vaccines would be required for her, and I was astounded at the number and frequency of the schedule, particularly when she was under 1 year old. 2 months, then 4 months, then 6 months, then 9 months, then 1 year. Really??? After reading several books (among them, The Vaccine Book by Dr. Robert Sears), I made the personal decision to slow that schedule down and give her only the vaccines our pediatrician said were the MOST important in her first year of life. I did so because the sheer number of vaccines given to children has increased tremendously since I received my own vaccinations beginning in 1979, and I didn't see a lot of discussion about this jump in professional health sources of information besides "vaccines are safe." Our pediatrician was not happy with me and gave me several eye-rolls and disapproving pursed lips (among the many reasons we recently switched pediatricians), but I stuck to my guns despite this thinly veiled criticism.

You may not be as interested in the specifics of my vaccination schedule with Genevieve, but I'm adding the info for moms who might care. Between 0 and 6 months, I allowed Vivi to have the non-injection rotateq (for rotavirus, a serious diarrheal illness), and the 2 most important "stabs," as they say in Britain:
1) Hib, or Haemophilus Influenzae type b, the most frequent cause of bacterial meningitis, and
2) PCV, or pneumococcal congugate vaccine, the cause of pneumonia (incidentally, I got a serious case of pneumonia as an infant and had to be hospitalized for several days--very scary for my parents, who were originally told by their pediatrician that I had a minor cold).

Much to my dismay, I soon learned that my slowed schedule would be thrown out the window if I wanted to start a full-time job. In order to put Vivi in day care at 6 months old, she was required to have the exact schedule given by the state, and there was no variation allowed except for religious beliefs. I reluctantly agreed to the new schedule, with one caveat: I would take Vivi back more times to the pediatrician rather than allow them to give her multiple vaccines on the same day. I did this through her first birthday but eventually gave in when I realized she got a high fever nearly every time she got a shot, so it seemed like a wiser decision to get them over with at once rather than subject her to multiple fevers. From then until now, she has gotten DTAP (diptheria, tetanus, and pertussis), inactivated poliovirus, hepatitis A & B, influenza, MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella), and varicella (chickenpox). You can view the entire schedule on the CDC website.

So knowing my initial reluctance to follow the vaccine schedule exactly as outlaid, you might ask why I would voluntarily give her H1N1, an additional, not state-required vaccine. With the exception of a high fever, Vivi has never had another negative reaction to any vaccine. Because of my current position at work, I know the complications she could get if she contracted H1N1, among them pneumonia, coma, and death. When I weigh these terrible health issues with a temporary fever and no known long-term side effects, I must push aside my own reservations as a parent and take the lesser of two evils, so to speak.

Like I said in my previous message, I will not jump on the "vaccines cause autism" bandwagon. I received an anonymous comment to my last message to read the Fourteen Studies website. This group seeks to ask what they call "the right questions" about vaccines, namely whether they cause autism. There are various reasons given why the 14 existing studies that do not show a connection between the two are insufficient. After reading their reasons, I am still as skeptical as I was previously about the connection. They blame public health professionals and CDC for the push to keep the current vaccination schedule and for the lack of studies. However, they then go on to show that some of the 14 existing studies were funded by CDC, which is no small contradiction. As a public health professional who works with the CDC, I can report that they are very focused and dedicated to quantitative evaluation and evidence-based results. I do agree with one aspect of the 14 studies' point of view, which is that testing should continue to be done on the number of vaccines given and whether these vaccines have any long-term adverse reactions, not just specifically autism.

Here's one last thought for you. Imagine you are a college student about to plan a study-abroad trip to Africa, and you have been told by the nurse in the student travel office that you should receive vaccines such as yellow fever, typhoid, tetanus, hepatitis B,and varicella, among others, as well as take malaria pills while you were there. What would you do? If I were a betting girl, I would say you would get the vaccines. Almost 10 years ago, I was such a girl going to Kenya, and you can be sure I got all of mine. My point here is this: In our daily lives, we put ourselves in a certain amount of danger that we push aside or take for granted. This is a normal part of life, and there are psychological reasons for doing so. Anyone more afraid of flying than driving or more afraid of public speaking than death knows what I am talking about. So might we be putting our children more at risk by denying them the vaccines than by allowing them? I think so. I hope this look into my own psyche will help you see that even as a health professional I have personal reservations. However, I try not to let my emotional reaction overtake the logical one. In the end, I will say a prayer when I get in my car more often than when I get on an airplane.

Yay holidays!

Vivi turned 19 months old yesterday, and I know it's cliche, but I can't believe how fast she's growing. One of the best things about parenthood is definitely starting new traditions. We are teaching her about Christmas, which makes me realize how strange some of our traditions are when you are explaining it to someone who is not only hearing it for the first time but is a toddler. We've been telling her about a lot of different things, like Jesus and Christmas trees and snowmen and Santa; after all of that, I have to say probably what we tell her the most is "no Vivi, don't touch it, just look at it." Poor thing, it must be so confusing! One of the most fun new traditions I started with her is setting up the nativity scene. As a child, my aunt Marcia would let us help her set up the manger (which belonged to my great-grandma), and then on Christmas Eve she would read to us from the Bible about Jesus' birth and we would put baby Jesus in the manger. This year she passed along the nativity scene to us!

I am so excited about coming home for Christmas so we can see family and friends and she can play with her cousins. It gets harder every year to live away from everyone. But the good news is that I love my new job and am looking forward to the months to come. I am going on many site visits at the beginning of the year at local health departments around the country, which will be my first time actually visiting the places I work with from DC.

Vaccine Debate

It's been over a month since I posted anything! Time has flown by while Nate is in Iraq. I'm balancing a lot of plates in the air and learning a new job, so I will probably drop off the face of blogging for a while again...but I thought it was worth coming back for a quick post. Suddenly the air is full of rumors about the H1N1 vaccine, and I wanted to provide some good information for those of you who are concerned. I have been chatting with family about the issue and thought I'd share my thoughts with you guys too.

I'll start by saying I share some reservations about vaccines, particularly in the number of doses of vaccine given to children at the same time. So while I am not against vaccines in general, I would prefer to use my own schedule. However, I question anyone who is avidly against ALL vaccines. The people who are fervently anti-vaccine rarely will discuss the great public health benefits vaccines have provided the world, such as eradicating polio (which my grandmother's sister died of as a child, imagine if that were still a problem!). Many of the anti-vaccine groups (such as Jenny McCarthy's team and National Vacccine Information Center) are run by mothers of children who died or were diagnosed with autism. It is important to note that no peer-reviewed scientific article has ever noted a connection between vaccines and autism. I certainly feel for these parents who lost children. Speaking as a mother who's child has had bad reactions to vaccines (once she had a fever of 103 for 3 days, it was scary), I can understand the fear and reservation to trusting doctors or government organizations with blind faith. Researching, reading, and doing your own due diligence are essential.

If there's one piece of true information I can pass along that I hope you take note of, it is that pregnant women are both more likely to contract flu and suffer complications because of it. A pregnant woman's immune system is weakened as the body's way to ensure it does not reject the fetus, which is the reason they are more likely to contract it. Once they have flu, they are 3-5 times more likely to have secondary infections, the worst of which is pneumonia. This is due to multiple reasons, one of which is that their lung capacity is reduced, another is that doctors are less likely to prescribe medications that would treat the problem but could harm the baby. A pregnant woman should get the flu shot (not a live virus) as opposed to flu mist (live virus). I did get my flu shot when I was 20 weeks pregnant.

A second piece of information is that the vast majority of H1N1 vaccines DO NOT contain mercury. This is an absolute fact. With mercury being the reason most moms are worried about vaccine, you would think this would assuage the fears of most, but the problem is that correct information is being blasted tenfold by misinformation, half-truths, or lies. I am sure you are careful about what you read and take note of, but just to reiterate, please think seriously about the credentials of the person speaking and the motivation for talking. There is a YouTube video I've seen from the organization above (NVIC) that has taken comments and spliced them into pieces, so you can't even tell if the person started by saying "vaccines are very controversial" but then followed it with "but I recommend them wholeheartedly to my patients." Also, NVIC is a private company with its own agenda; I am skeptical of any company that pays doctors to make a statement.

The last thing I'll say about the vaccine controversy is that many people believe pharmaceutical companies are behind the push to vaccinate the US against H1N1. This couldn't be further from the truth. In actual fact, vaccine manufacturers will probably barely break even...there has been talk that this could be a problem in the future. Because we rely on for-profit companies to make vaccine, we will be in serious danger if they stop making it, which they could do at any time if they stop making some kind of profit.

I congratulate you if you have already gotten the vaccine. Especially if you're like my cousin Jonna in Georgia--I've heard from my mom that everyone and their brother has an opinion there (including people around her in the grocery line) , and many people there appear to be against getting the vaccine. Kind of ironic being that CDC is there, but they haven't always gotten their messages out well to Atlantans for some reason.

Questions? Comments? I would really love to hear what you have to say. If you've heard something that contradicts anything I've said, please let me know WHERE you heard it when you reply. I will pass the information along at work.

Good luck and stay healthy and safe! Wash your hands, cover your cough, stay home if you're sick, and stay informed: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/vaccination/

Triathlete!

I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted! Needless to say, it was difficult to keep up with everything during my last month of training. But I had fun doing the practice open water swims and long bike rides, all of which culminated in the Nation's Triathlon last Sunday. It went VERY well. You can see my results online. I was surprised that I barely felt sore the next day, so I was more prepared than I thought.
My day started at 4:00am, when I woke and drove to DC. I arrived in the transition area at 5am and had to wait over two hours for the swim to begin. I was jumping out of my skin to have so much time to think (not to mention rearrange my transition space, relace my shoes, count my goo and "chomps", etc.). 2.5 hours and lots of stretching and pee breaks later, I was lining up to do the swim. Luckily I ran into a coworker who was in my swim wave, so we chatted a lot, which relaxed me a lot. For those who live in DC, the swim course entrace was between the tidal basin and Memorial bridge, and then we swam under the bridge past the Lincoln Memorial and back again. Yes, in the Potomac River...it wasn't actually as gross as I thought it would be. It took me about 45 minutes to swim a mile in practice, but when I jumped in the water at the race, my right goggle filled up with water. As if I wasn't already panicked enough! So I had to tread water while dodging swimmers to fix them, and it ended up taking me 49 minutes in the race. Once I was out of the water, I was ecstatic because I knew I could relax for the remaining events. Most of the 40k bike course was on the Clara Barton Parkway, and it was beautiful and cool out. It took a little over 1.5 hours to complete the bike, which was long--but it was the most fun event because it was my biggest training achievement. I was tired when I got to the run, but I was able to keep up a 10:00/mi split for the 10k distance. I felt like I was moving so slowly compared to my usual pace, but I was passing people left and right, which gave me a great energy boost. Because I was wearing my Team in Training uniform, people cheered me on during the whole race. So even though Nate couldn't be there to watch, I still had a huge audience!
My final thoughts...I would encourage anyone who is thinking of taking up cycling to do it now! I am one of the most clumsy people I know, so if I can do it so can you. Hell, I even broke my elbow while training, but I still managed to do the race. I am now confident enough to bike-commute to DC and back in the same day, which is an ego boost, great way to get in lots of exercise, and so pleasant to spend so much time outdoors instead of on a train or in a car stuck in traffic. As for the swim, if you are able to move forward in the water, I think you can train for a triathlon swim. The coaches for Team in Training are very patient and good at what they do. It takes a lot of practice, but you'll be amazed at the results. I'm still not a great swimmer, but I go at my own slow pace doing my imperfect strokes and somehow manage to get there.
Will I do another triathlon? Probably, but maybe not very soon. My immediate thought as I was finishing the run was that the event was kind of like natural childbirth--it was an empowering and gratifying experience, but I could definitely go another 2 years without doing it again.

Video: Playing on the stairs