Merry Christmas

We are having a wonderful Christmas and hope you and your family are doing the same! We attended Christmas Eve church service, put reindeer food in the yard for Santa's reindeer, made homemade popcorn out of non-GMO corn kernels, and watched Polar Express. When the kids woke up this morning they were overcome with excitement. I made gfcfef pancakes with honey and then the kids opened up their gifts. They spent the morning playing and we plan on staying in our pajamas all day and watching Christmas movies. Our Christmas dinner is going to consist of baked ham, gfcfef mac and cheese (this is a first so I'll have to let you know how it turns out), roasted potatoes, and broccoli.

Why Mason Is Healthier

It is almost embarrassing to say but I feel like I finally did things the right way with Mason. By the time I was pregnant with Mason, I was fitting all the pieces together with Haiden and Ella. So instead of typing a long story about all the things I did differently, I thought I'd make a list. Here it goes:
1. Only drank water
2. Didn't take any medicines (not even Tylenol)
3. Ate very well (So maybe the cookies at Marsh bakery don't count, but that was the worse thing I ate.)
4. Didn't vaccinate (Educate yourself people!)
5. Breastfed until he self weaned at 14 months (I never thought I'd be one of "those" people, but I totally am!)
6. Made all my own organic baby food
That's it! Here are the differences:
1. No colic
2. No jaundice
3. No major illness until two weeks ago (had a 24 hour bug).
4. Has met all developmental milestones
He lights up my life!

Saving Ella

Now that we have Haiden in a good place, it is time to focus on our little princess, Ella. I've mentioned it before and I'll say it again, I believe Ella was also damaged by vaccines. By the time Ella was born, we thought Haiden was damaged by having too many vaccines at once, not realizing that I didn't make strong babies, and that my kids couldn't handle ANY vaccines. I remember the day I went into the hospital to have Ella and the nurse asking me if I wanted her to have the Hep B vaccine. I had an unsettling feeling about it and told the nurse my fears. She said, "If you get the Hep B now, then that will be one less at her 6 week appointment." I thought, "Yea, that's true" and signed the consent form. A signature I'll regret for the rest of my life.

By 48 hours of age, jaundice had set in and she had to stay in the hospital an extra day and was sent home with a billy blanket. By 2 weeks of age she had RSV. By 4 weeks of age she had her first ear infection and was on her first round of antibiotics. By 8 weeks of age she had her second ear infection and had her second round of antibiotics. At her well baby visit I agreed to one, just one, vaccine. Two days later she stopped breathing twice, was in the hospital, and sent home with an apnea monitor. (If this would of happened in her sleep instead of my arms, she could of died and it would of been called SIDS.) I still hadn't put it all together and didn't realize the vaccines were causing all these traumatic illnesses so at her 3 month visit I agreed to one, just one more, vaccine. Four days later, Christmas Eve, she was throwing up all day, and we spent Christmas Eve in the hospital because she was dehydrated. Oh, and she had another ear infection. At four months of age she had her fourth ear infection and was put on more antibiotics. At five months of age she had her fifth ear infection and at six months of age she had her sixth ear infection. She also had a constant runny nose and "colds". I finally realized that her little immune system had been destroyed and felt that vaccines contributed to that so I stopped after 4 vaccines and I am forever grateful that I did. After a constant runny nose and colds for six months, Ella was no longer sick but the damage was done.

By now she had been diagnosed with hypotonia (low muscle tone) and still couldn't roll over. (The same girl that was holding her head up on her own at two weeks, all of a sudden had low muscle tone.) I contacted First Steps and physical therapy was started within two weeks. She started to make huge improvements but once we started "real" food, she would throw up or gag. I contacted First Step again and occupational therapy was started within two weeks. Soon we started Craniosacral Therapy and Ella stopped gagging and throwing up. By now she was dismissed from Physical Therapy too. At 18 months of age, when speech was not progressing, I had a speech evaluation and speech therapy was started shortly after. We also put Ella on a gluten/casein free diet. Within a month her language skyrocketed and she hasn't stopped talking since.

Like I said, the damage was done. Being born with a weak immune system, then having vaccines destroy it, not breastfeeding (which I regret giving that up), then antibiotics that strip all good bacteria away from your gut (which 80% of your immune system is in your belly) equals a huge yeast problem also known as leaky gut. A lot of "doctors" won't recognize leaky gut or yeast overgrowth as a real illness but my real homeopathy doctors do. Having yeast overgrowth and leaky gut can lead to a lot of emotional problems which is were we are at with Ella.

She is so smart, loving, helpful, independent, and has the best sense of humor but also so unpredictable. She can be happy one minute and the smallest issue can make her little world fall apart. It is also not easy being the middle child and only girl in the family so we've really been working on behavior modification. She gets a ton of one on one time with mommy or daddy and when she starts to break down we now remove ourselves from the situation instead of removing her. After almost a year of behavior issues with her, last week, was the best week ever! The only change I made was her breakfast and I can't figure out if that has something to do with it or not. Instead of gfcf/egg free waffles or pancakes with honey or real maple syrup, we had organic sausage or bacon with fruit. The change was awesome! The entire household felt less tense and more relaxed. (My husband actually wanted to be home.) Well, I haven't been able to go to the store to get more sausage and fruit so yesterday and today she had waffles with honey. Yesterday was totally exhausting and I felt like we took 10 steps backwards. After an amazing week last week, what in the world happened?! Could it be the food? I guess we will see.

Below is a picture from this past weekend playing out in the snow. She had so much fun!

Haiden's PT Conference

In November we had Haiden's parent/teacher conference and I am so proud to share it with you! On the conference form Haiden's teacher, Mrs. Beard (whom I love), wrote "Haiden just lights up the room. He has such a neat personality. He has a lot to offer!"
She went on to add that "he begins work promptly, stays on task, is willing to ask for help, takes pride in his independent work, demonstrates good handwriting (thank you hours and hours of O.T.), follows directions promptly, demonstrates good self control, assumes responsibility between school and home, gets along well with others, is courteous and has a positive attitude, and cooperates with supervising adults." The only negative comment was that "Haiden will sometimes talk off subject." This comment didn't surprise me at all. That boy is able to turn any conversation into a conversation about football! I am so proud of my little man! He has always been such a fighter and he has fought his way out of autism! Never give up hope!