Vaccines: Are they doing more harm than good?!

New information (well, new to us) regarding the vaccines we are giving our children has recently come to our attention and has, quite frankly, terrified us. This is a controversial issue but one we feel needs to come to the attention of everyone, especially those with kids or having kids. As many of my friends are expecting babies right now, I feel a sense of responsibility to make you all aware of some of the things we have discovered while researching and trying to decide whether or not to vaccinate Luke and allow Kate to continue to be vaccinated.
If you are like me you have never thought to question what your doctor recommends for you or your loved ones. Why should I? I go see them because they are the experts, they are supposed to know what is right. Right? Yes, BUT they can't always be right. Just 40 years ago no one could have imagined that smoking might be bad for you. Pregnant women used to smoke and drink without a second thought. Who knows what we are doing these days without a second thought that our children and grandchildren will be appalled at. So we put our trust in our doctors. Our doctors put their trust in organizations like the CDC (Center for Disease Control), the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), and WHO (World Health Org.) who are supposed to do the research and tell us what is safe. And these organizations are putting a lot of their trust in the pharmacutical companies who are making >8 billion dollars a year putting out the vaccines we are told our children HAVE to have. So perhaps the production and distribution of these "necessary" vaccines isn't just about trying to protect our children.
This post would be way too long if I went into all of the details but here are a couple thoughts, just to get you started...
1.) As new parents, we are sooo careful to protect our little angels from germs. We are careful to keep them covered when we go out in public; we don't let other children or those who have been sick come around; we require hand washing before contact with the baby. Then at 2 months old we take them to the doctor and allow up to 7 man-made viruses to be injected directly into their bloodstream.
2.) The preservatives for these vaccines include aluminum and formaldehyde.
3.) Chicken pox, measles, mumps, rubella...I bet you know at least one person who has had one or more of these diseases and now have a lifetime immunity to them- they'll never need a booster shot. (Note: vaccination does not equal immunity)
With all of this said, we encourage you to do your own research so you can make an informed decision about what is best for your child or future children.

Resources: http://www.thinktwice.com/ http://www.nmaseminars.com/vaccineinfohome.html
"The Sanctity of Human Blood" by Dr. Tim O'Shea

Luke's pictures

http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/gallery.jsp?gid=768a5498ce7d777407c0

Here is the link to the pictures from Luke's photo shoot with Melissa (Cape) Bench. She did a great job! Check out her website http://www.melissabenchphotography.blogspot.com/ for more examples of her work and for contact information.
We love the pictures and can't wait to have her do our first set of family pictures in a few months.

Mommy's Little Helper...

This is the view I have several times a day accompanied with, "Come on Mommy! Going to church." =) As you can see, she handles 3 1/2 inch heels with no problems (probably better than most grown women wearing shoes that actually fit them).

Yesterday we ventured out for our first grocery shopping trip just the 3 of us. Luke slept happily in his sling and Kate pushed her own Kate-sized grocery cart. It was an extremely successful trip thanks to the box guy's help to the car. Kate mimimicked my every move including filling her cart, although sometimes with items we didn't need. I managed to get home with only one unintended item (a vanilla yogurt- Kate ate it last night). I have to say I'm very proud of our grocery trip and of my little helper who was so cooperative and pleasant. Now if I can just teach her how to fold laundry...

Pictures of kids...

Well, amazingly Kate was very cooperative at her Target photo shoot for her 2 year pictures. It did take a never before attempted but extremely successful bribe with a piece of gum. Yes, yes, I bribed my child to smile for the camera by promising her gum! I'm not proud of it but we have some cute pictures to show for it. =) Luke, our usually easy going little guy, was not so cooperative. We got one decent picture of him by himself and a few cute ones of the two of them together. He was tired so he mostly fussed, although, he was most cooperative when in big sis' lap.

I have recently been in contact with a girl we went to high school with who has become a photographer. She came over today and took some (250+!) pictures of Luke and is going to do our announcements for us. He was happy and Mr. Top Model, smiling and posing like crazy. They are going to be soooo cute. I can't wait to get them. So we will soon send out his announcements and I will post some more pictures.

A couple new pictures...

My digital camera isn't working right now so we've been taking pictures with our old film camera. How did we ever survive without digital?! I hate using film now. No instant gratification and you end up with so many bad pictures. Oh well. Hopefully I can get my camera fixed soon and we can post some cute pictures. Here are just a couple that actually came out okay...

John is so happy that Luke is cuddly.

Big sister just can't stay away.

I've got another roll that we are finishing up. Cross your fingers, hopefully those will turn out okay.

Just to catch up...

I thought I would start off our updates with a big one to catch up on the last month in the Jacobs household. You all know that the biggest event in the last month was the birth of Luke Tyler. So, needless to say, we have all had some adjustments to make in the last 5 1/2 weeks. I am proud to say that I have actually become a little more flexible. Not by choice but by necessity. =) Anyone who knows me knows that I thrive on being able to schedule and plan ahead but for my own sanity's sake I'm having to bend a little.
Kate is adjusting pretty well. She certainly loves her little brother- sometimes a bit too much. We're not sure if she really just can't get enough of him or if she smart enough to disguise her abuse in what looks like love. You know like those kisses that are just a little too hard or the cuddles that end up on top of him. Hmmmm...I'm sure she just loves him that much. (wink, wink) So I try to always keep one eye on our super affectionate big sister. We were shocked and a little horrified yesterday when John turned around and found her standing next to Luke's swing HOLDING HIM!! I didn't see her but John says she was holding him in a perfect cradle -fortunately he was swaddled so pretty secure. Even though John very calmly walked over to her (not wanting to scare her into dropping him or running with him) she realized she may be in trouble and plopped him back into the swing. Everyone is fine but lesson learned...I will never leave him unbuckled again even when we are in the room with them.
We just finished 2 weeks of swimming lessons with Kate in a friend's pool with about 5 or 6 other kids her age. She loved it and learned a lot of new skills. By the end of the 2 weeks she could jump off the side and swim to us. Now she can't get enough. All she wants to do is dunk herself and look around under the water. The swim lessons were in the morning so John was able to go in the water with her all but 2 of the days. And I have to say, 2 days of having to get in a bathing suit just 3 weeks postpartum is plenty for me.
John is back to work. He was able to take 2 weeks off when Luke was born which was a huge help, especially with Kate. They spent a lot of time together and had a lot of fun swimming over at Grammie and Pop Pop's house and going for bike rides. It was so nice having him home - I've never seen him more relaxed without being on vacation. =)
Luke is a great baby! He does just what he is supposed to do...eats, sleeps, and poops. It may be too early to tell but so far he has been way easier than Kate ever was. I've heard that the second child is easier and I've heard that boys are easier so we may have hit the jackpot! Time will tell. He is starting to smile a lot and loves watching Kate. He's a big time cuddler and actually has chubby cheeks and a double chin. I love it! It is so nice to not have to worry about weight gain as we did with Kate. Luke gained a whole pound by his 2 week check up! yea!
So there is our catch up update. We're having the kids' pictures taken today so I'm sure there will be more stories soon.

Welcome to the world of blogging...

I credit my dear friend, Lauren Schatzel, for introducing me to the blogging world and convincing me to start one. I always enjoy reading hers and it helps me feel so much more connected to her even though she is all the way out in Oklahoma. So...I'm hoping to stay even more connected to more people near and far by sending out some updates on us. Obviously since Luke was born I'm finding myself with even less free time to keep up with emailing and calling with updates so I hope this blogging thing will be helpful. We'll see.

I'll try to post at least once a week and will add pictures of the babes as often a I can. I hope you all will enjoy reading our blog and we'll look forward to your comments.