Dr. Jeckyl and Ms. Charlotte

Topsy turvey week. Let's start by telling you dad yet again argued with the pediatrician. Hard to believe. It was Charlottes 4 month follow up visit. Shots were due. Dad of course thinks they are nuts to give her immunization for things such as Polio (the last polio case in the US was in 1979). Any cases of polio since then have come from kids contracting the disease from the vaccine. Seems dumb to me. Oh and then there is the DTaP shot. Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis. Dad was reading Parenting magazine and there was an ad for it and all the wonderful benefits of the shot. Then dad read the back side of the ad, you know, the side affect side, etc that no one reads? We he read it. The side effects didn't look too bad...the usual...death, shock, seizures, and brain damage. What really got dad was one of the ingredients was formaldehyde. Hello?? One of the WORST substances you could put in your body.

So dad expressed his concerns with the doc. I am not against inoculation. Im against doing so much at once. Why not spread it out? Let her little body deal with one shot at a time?? Of course the doc talked about the benefits of inoculation. Dad kept on him about how we can't possibly know all of the effects of putting this crap in kids all at once. Finally the doc broke down and explained to dad it was more "work" for him to separate out the shots. And get this...the insurance company RATES the doctor by the number of children he inoculates. He could get a bad rating by them if he didn't give the shots. Truth at last!! Not only was it more work but it made him look bad. Needless to say we spread out the shots and actually refused one of them that we didn't think we needed. Damn insurance companies controlling our doctors. This is an issue.

Moving on.

Upon return from our vacation we decided to put Charlotte in her own room. Such a wonderful idea:
Night 1 - Charlotte unswaddled.In her crib. Flailed all night. Cried nonstop. Total sleep roughly 2 hours for mom, dad, and baby.
Night 2 - Charlotte unswaddled. In her bassinet in her crib. Same as above. Only difference is she was so exhausted during the day that she was miserable at night and at day.
Night 3 - Charlotte swaddled. In bassinet in her crib. Slept all night.
Night 4- to be determined tonight. We think night 3 was a fluke.

Children are exhausting. Our Saturday was spent being half awake. Our Sunday so far we have been great since Charlotte slept from 7pm to 5:30am, then went back to sleep until 8:30. Mom's bags under her eyes are now gone.