Swine Flu VS. Swine Flu Vaccination While Pregnant

Oh the dreaded H1N1 also known as Swine Flu.  I managed to contract it at 19 weeks of pregnancy.  Let me tell you it was no picnic.  I flew to Belfast, Northern Ireland and I got it there.  I’m not blaming Northern Ireland, but the hotel is where I believe I contracted it.  The back ache was terrible, and that cough oh my!  I think what scared me the most was the rattling in my chest that I had from the secondary chest infection.  A lovely complication of my brush with Swine Flu.

It was so terrible because I was hearing all kinds of statistics, “One in 25 pregnant women die from Swine Flu.” I was so scared I was going to be that “one”.   I went to the ER twice, they really wouldn’t do anything for me because I am pregnant.  My OB understandably wouldn’t let me near his office.

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I was terribly frightened.  My son who was 16 months old at the time, the day my symptoms started we had shared a water bottle along with a bowl of cereal with me.  He surprisingly never was infected with H1N1.  He is a completely unvaccinated child.  Coincidence?

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About a week and a half into the swine flu, I developed the secondary chest infection.  When I would breathe, all you could hear was rattling.  I went to my family doctor, who was much more helpful than my OBGYN and he prescribed me antibiotics.  That cleared up the chest infection right away.  I felt secure with my family doctor since he was an “OB Gynie” as he puts it in the Philipines.

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The swine flu (brace yourselves for this one) was not really all that bad!  What is worse is the H1N1 Vaccine.  The Vaccination is full of Thermosol.   The reason the vaccinations contain Thermosol is to keep it from getting contaminated from each injection.  Thermosol or no Thermosol the vaccination still is not proven safe for pregnant women.  Read the ominous warning label on the vaccine itself.

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HERE is a link to Organic Health Magazine with many horror stories of women having miscarriages due to H1N1 Vaccination.  I never want anyone to blindly take my advice, I prefer you to research it for yourself.  But, I have had the Swine Flu while pregnant and I’m here to tell you it’s not that bad. What makes it bad is when you are first vaccinated and then contract it.  The reason for this is because the way vaccinations work is they infect you with a sickness or disease.  That infection compromises your otherwise healthy immune system while it is fighting the invasion.  If you contract something with your compromised immune system you are not as capable of fighting off the disease as you would have been had you not been vaccinated.

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The most important thing we Mothers have in our lives is our children.  Please research all of your options fully.

Dealing With a Miscarriage, Naturally

When a woman is pregnant it’s customary to keep it a secret until you have past the first trimester. The reason for this is because many pregnancies don’t make it that far, and it’s difficult to tell someone that you are no longer pregnant.  Trust me on that one.

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I  have a problem keeping my mouth shut when something is such good news. I was pregnant two years ago and then at 11 weeks I suffered a miscarriage.  At the time of the pregnancy I never expected that I would lose the baby.  I told everyone the day after I got a positive reading on my pregnancy test.  I told everyone for two reasons, one I was so excited, and two with the way I suffer from morning sickness and teaching children, it’s just easier to tell the truth.  No, it’s not contagious, yes I only FEEL like I’m dying but I’m really not.  So after the entire world knew I was pregnant, I had to then retract my story and tell them the baby had died.  That was rough, but was it really any worse than suffering in silence would have been?

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Not only does it feel horrible to experience the death of your child, and all the hopes and dreams that go along with being pregnant, but it’s scary to know that the fetus is still inside of you. I actually do not mind telling this story anymore.  I’m still a little sad at the life that was lost, but I marvel at the miracle that is the human body.

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I went in for a routine ultrasound at 12 weeks of pregnancy. I believe the ultrasound was scheduled at that time to date the pregnancy.  I remember being so excited, my husband came along to the appointment and we brought along our daughter.  I laid on the table with my bare belly exposed.  As the ultrasound tech put the gel on my belly I could hardly contain my excitement.  Then she kept moving the transducer around to find the heart beat.  My smile turned to horror.  She wouldn’t tell me anything!  I had to wait for the doctor to come in and have a look for himself.

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The doctor came in the room, checked my belly and in exactly 30 seconds said five words I never expected to hear, “You have had a miscarriage.” I broke down in tears, I was devastated.  Every question I could think of went through my head “How could this happen?  Why me?  What have I done to cause this?  Is this real?”

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Next, the doctor said I needed to decide on a plan for evacuation. Evacuation!  Evacuation! The only plan I was prepared to deal with was writing my birth plan!  He told me I could take the evening to think about it and give him a call in the morning with my decision.  So my two choices were either I could have the doctor remove the fetus or I could allow my body to deal with it.  The most discomforting thought was that the baby had passed away inside me a week prior.  I thought, “How could I be so out of tune with my body that my baby has been dead for one week and I had no earthly idea!  What kind of Mother was I?”  Of course these were the most irrational thoughts of a grieving Mother.

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I stopped over at my Midwife’s office to tell her the sad news. She consoled me and my husband, and then we went home to let the news sink in of what just happened.  I decided on the car ride home that I didn’t want to let anyone poke around inside me and to trust my body to take care of the miscarriage on it’s own.  Never did I make a better medical decision in my life.

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Three days later I was lying in bed around 11:30 at night. I began to feel contractions.  I had started bleeding earlier in the day so I knew something was going to be happening soon.  No one had prepared me for what would happen if I let my body take care of the evacuation on it’s own.  So my instinct kicked in, and I decided to listen as closely as I could to my body.  When the contractions began, they weren’t terribly painful, they came in waves and felt like I remembered labor to feel only on a much smaller scale.  I decided I didn’t want to wake my husband because I felt I was not alone.  I was with an expert, my body.  It was like my body took on a life of it’s own, it was driven by some other force and it was not my own.  I was in awe of what was happening.  It was the first time throughout this ordeal that I had not felt emotion.  I was too much in awe of the process to be sad.  As time progressed the contractions became stronger, I was rocking back in forth in pain.  At one point the pain became so strong I fell out of the bed and onto my knees on the floor.  I still did not wish to wake my husband because I felt like I was the strongest most amazing woman.  It really wasn’t me, but it was my body that had taken charge.  All of a sudden, I instinctively went to the bathroom to sit on the toilet.  Within about two minutes of that, I passed the baby.  I couldn’t see the fetus, it was just a ball of dark matter.

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The most amazing thing to come out of this whole horrible situation was that I learned to trust my body. My body was not defective, I did nothing wrong, sometimes these things just happen and it’s OK.

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After everything was over, I woke up my husband to tell him what had happened. I don’t know that he ever grasped the magnitude of the event, but he was relieved that for the first time since we had gotten the bad news I was just fine.  I would not have felt the same way about the miscarriage if a doctor had done the procedure.  I would have continued to feel like a failure as opposed to feeling like a super woman.

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I called my midwives the next morning, and they then told me, it is a lot better for your body to not have a D and C or a D and E. That those procedures were invasive and it is much better to deal with it naturally.  I couldn’t help but wonder, “Why didn’t they tell me that in the first place?”.   When you find out you’ve had a miscarriage, you certainly cannot think clearly.  I believe my God given intuition led me down the correct path.

I went back four weeks after that and they told me that I was in such great shape I could immediately begin trying for another baby. We got pregnant on the first try, and the rest is history.

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So if any of you super women out there end up with a miscarriage, and I hope to God that you don’t.  Try and allow your body to do it’s job instead of the doctors.  I truly believe that helped me with the grieving process.  It also helped me trust my body during the next pregnancy.  It’s difficult not to be afraid of losing a baby after suffering a miscarriage.  It wasn’t your fault, or your body’s.  Your body is a super human elite piece of machinery.

Booty Caller – Modern Ovulation Predictor

BabyCenter will send alerts directly to your phone when you are ovulating.  How’s that for bringing technology into the bedroom?  You can get up to three messages per menstrual cycle.  It may also be a way to tell when to be extra careful to not get pregnant.  This is a free service you can try it out HERE!  Standard text messaging rates may apply.

Dollar Store Pregnancy Tests

For any of you out there wondering if the Dollar Tree $1 Pregnancy Tests are accurate, I have a friend who is a nurse and says they are very accurate.  I was on a forum, and one poster said, “If I take one $18 test, or 18 $1 tests, I think the 18 tests will be more accurate.”

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If you are trying to conceive those tests can really add up each month why not buy them on the cheap?  You can buy a case of 72 for $72 on the website.

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I used one of these tests to test if I was pregnant with my son.  It read positive, and I was indeed pregnant.  From what I have researched, you may be able to have a false negative, but it’s not likely that you will have a false positive reading.

Why is Pregnancy Such a Bad Thing?

I am currently nine months pregnant. OK, pregnancy is difficult, but I love it! I can hardly wait to see my baby. The problem I am having however is that my joy and excitement is often quelled by the dirty looks I receive from people. Yesterday my husband was taking me for a walk, trying to get my labor moving and an older couple drive by us, I go to smile and the woman looks at me like I am filthy. This happens each time I am out in public.

I am in the best relationship of my life, married to the man of my dreams and at the end of a planned pregnancy. When I told people I was pregnant, even my family they said “Are you happy about it? I didn’t know if I should say congratulations or not.” What! It is a planned pregnancy, and even if it was not planned, it’s a baby what is not to be happy about? I think congratulations should always be in order. This pregnancy was a second attempt after a very disappointing miscarriage so it is an especially happy time for us.

The funny thing is, I am in my mid thirties, over the moon happy about the pending birth of my child and I get treated like a teenage unwed mother. Even if I were a teenage unwed mother, why look at a woman like she is dirty for bringing a child into this world? Babies are innocent and pregnancy is a beautiful thing. Of course in a perfect world teenagers would abstain from sex, but we all know our world isn’t perfect.  Why would anyone want to place undue stress on a pregnant woman when it’s after the fact anyway?

Underarm Sensitivity From Deodorant While Pregnant

Being pregnant, I am subject to all kinds of new sensitivities. I have been meaning to get away from commercial deodorants because of the aluminum they contain. It was something I was feeling guilty about using even before I became pregnant.

I tried the deodorant stone, and other natural deodorants on the market. I even tried a deodorant from Lush.  They worked about three days until my body built up an immunity to them.  I don’t mind perspiration, I just don’t want to have an odor. The funny thing is, I don’t eat meat or really any animal products. No refined to minimal refined sugar and I still have an odor. Being pregnant with those raging hormones the odor was worse than ever. I was showering twice daily trying to get clean. I was only applying my commercial deodorant in the mornings, but this specific brand would last until the next morning. Which, you’d think would be a good thing right? Well, I started getting really itchy from it. At night before bed, it was the worst. This is really embarrassing to tell the world but when did that stop me before? I would take both my hands and scratch under my arms vigorously like a monkey. Ahhhh, some relief.

One night my husband caught me scratching my underarms in this way and said, “Oh sweetie, you are so funny and so cute trying to make me laugh by acting like a chimpanzee!”

I forced a laugh, and said, “I thought you would like that.” Only problem was, I wasn’t trying to be cute!

The next morning I did a search on the internet for “natural deodorants” I didn’t really come up with much. Then this idea popped into my head to use baking soda. I thought, well, it’s safe to brush your teeth right? There is no aluminum in baking soda, and people eat it in their food all the time. I wasn’t going to eat it, just apply it to my body. I searched the internet again, and saw many people raving about it’s use as a deodorant. I grabbed my trusty box of Arm & Hammer put a little water under each arm, put on a small amount of the baking soda under each arm it worked better than any deodorant I ever used! It’s been a few months now and my body has not built up a resistance to it. I have no odor, or annoying itching anymore.

Stretch Marks, What Your Mother May Not Have Told You

You don’t have to get horrible stretch marks just because you are having a baby.  Everyones skin is different of course.  But you can lessen the scars by taking care of your bodies largest organ, your skin.

What can you do to help prevent marks?

• Don’t Scratch!  Scratching damages the skin, and creates the scars.  Please don’t rub a brush on your tummy either.  I know women who have done that during pregnancy, and it caused thick deep scars.
• Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize! This cannot be stressed enough.  Layer on the moisturizer, cocoa butter, shea butter, mango butter, whatever you can daily throughout your pregnancy.  Dry skin is itchy skin, and you know what we want to do when we are itchy!
• Eat lots of fresh raw fruits and vegetables.  Nourish your skin from the inside out.
• Water, drink lots of pure filtered drinking water.  Hydrate your body and skin.

Take care of that dermis, and you can later be proud of your baby and your streak free belly.

Before you pack those bras away…

This is something that is a real back and money saver. During pregnancy, everything grows. In order not to have to continueously be buying new bras you can start out with a simple bra extender.

Bra Extenders are on the top of my list when it comes to must have items for pregnancy. They are available at Motherhood Maternity in black, white, and nude in two and three hook varieties.

Christina Aguilera’s Greatest Song

Christina Aguilera has gone from pot tart, to beautiful pregnant woman, to a sweet Mommy.

Saturday January 12, 2008 she and her husband Jordan Bratman welcomed their first child into the world. They named him Max Liron Bratman. Perez Hilton the name “Max” means “The Greatest” and the name “Liron” in Hebrew translates to “My Song”. Christina aptly named her son, her greatest song. Her husband’s religion obviously has had a profound effect on her.

“A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches…” Proverbs 22:1

For all you Christina fans, she has posted a message on her website in honor of the birth of her son Max. Below is the video posted with that message. The song is “Save Me From Myself” from Christina’s “Back to Basics” album. The video is complete with some footage from her actual wedding.

Click Here to Watch the Video

Enjoy!