HAPPY THANKSGIVING November 27, 2008

Off to friends house today to celebrate thanksgiving and feast. It is a beautiful fall day here in Portland. NO RAIN! Ryan is off playing football and Anna and I are making pies and green beans for later.

We are thankful for all our friends and family–especially Anna–our miracle baby.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I am not sure who this quote is by, I got it from a cousin of mine who is 32 years old and currently fighting breast cancer.

‘Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets,
so love the people who treat you right,
forget about the ones who don’t,
and believe that everything
happens for a reason. If you get a
chance, take it. If it changes
your life, let it. Nobody said
life would be easy, they just
promised it would be worth it.’

melamine in infant formula? November 26, 2008

Trace amounts of melamine found in 1 formula sample

• Story Highlights
• Sample was one of 77 tested, Food and Drug Administration says
• FDA spokeswoman declines to name maker of formula
• International Formula Council: Level considered safe for infants by several nations
• Test comes after contaminated formula in China linked to infant deaths

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A single sample of infant formula has tested positive for trace amounts of the toxic contaminant melamine, the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday.

Of 77 samples tested, one contained melamine, FDA spokeswoman Judy Leon told CNN. A trace amount is defined as less than 250 parts per billion, she said.

Last month, the FDA set the safety threshold for melamine at 2,500 parts per billion for foods other than infant formula. The agency said it did not have enough data to set a safety threshold for infants.

Leon on Tuesday would not disclose the maker of the formula that had trace melamine amounts.

The testing program was initiated after contaminated infant formula in China was linked to thousands of illnesses and a number of deaths among infants.

The FDA said it checked with all manufacturers licensed to distribute baby formula in the United States and determined that none of the components in U.S.-sold infant formula are from China.

Leon said the sample that tested positive most likely became contaminated through the manufacturing process or through contact with can liners. Learn more about melamine »

A spokeswoman for the Atlanta-based International Formula Council, a trade group, said she had not seen the data, but was encouraged that the quantity found was below levels deemed safe in infants by the governments of China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Canada and New Zealand.

“Apparently these trace levels can be found in lots of food,” said spokeswoman Mardi Mountford.

The FDA also found trace levels of melamine in several samples of medical formula supplements for the elderly, but the amounts posed no health risk to adults, Leon said.

Though U.S.-based companies can import ingredients from China for nutritional supplements for adults, there is an import ban on dairy products and components, she said.

Melamine is an industrial chemical used in the manufacture of can liners, flame retardant, cleaning products, fertilizers and pesticides.

It does not occur naturally in food.

Because it contains nitrogen, its addition to food products can wrongly suggest an inflated protein content. Ingesting melamine in large doses over an extended period of time could cause kidney stones and other illnesses, though small amounts pose no such danger for adults, agriculture and health experts say.

Its presence in Chinese infant formula has led to the hospitalization of more than 12,000 children and the deaths of several in China, according to the FDA, which said it is not aware of any such illnesses in the United States.

This month, the FDA announced it was limiting the import of all dairy products from China until they have been proved free of melamine.

sleep update..from sleepless in Oregon. November 23, 2008

Update to previous post about getting Anna to sleep through the night.

So far, our new method of getting Anna to sleep has worked! Each night her waking and crying in the night decreased to where on the 4th night, she didnt even wake up! It is glorious! She also goes to bed much easier on her own. I have to say it was hard the first night but it got easier every night and in the end it worked. She now sleeps for like 10-11 hours at night now. My only regret is that we didn’t do it sooner.

In the morning sometimes we still will bring her into bed with us for a little bit to snuggle and play. We have too much fun doing that to give that up.

charlie bit me… too funny November 21, 2008

You all have probably already seen this but it is so funny I had to post it.

Halloween pics November 20, 2008

Anna the banana

sleepless in Oregon November 20, 2008

Okay, so it has been awhile since I lasted posted anything.

I totally put my foot in my mouth when I wrote a few months ago about how Anna ( who is now 8 mos old today!) miraculously started sleeping through the night. Life was so great for about 4 nights and then it all went south. The ear infection she got definetly through us off course but we’ve never gotten back on track. She always wakes up at least once a night and will not go back to bed without being nursed. Now, I don’t totally mind getting up once at night to nurse her and put her back to bed. All in all, it usually only takes about 10 minutes and then we are all back to sleep. It is the nights when she wakes up again an hour later or 3-4 times in a night and cannot put herself back to sleep. Ryan and I had also started bringing her into our bed to sleep. It is nice sometimes, but we all do not sleep well when we do that.  Things got a lot harder when last week when Ryan was out of town and it was just Anna and I. I had no back up person to help me, to give me a break or relief. It was hard and I was exhausted.

So, I emailed and called a number of friends who have all had kids in the past 3 years. I wanted to see what they did with their little ones to get them to sleep better. There are these 2 main schools of thought regarding this. I believe no one way is better, it is whatever works for you personally. The one philosophy is the “cry it method” and this can take on various shapes and forms in and of it itself.  The idea here is that once your kids are fed, changed, tired and ready for bed, it is okay to put them to their crib and let them cry a bit. They need to learn to self soothe and to fall asleep on their own. The other school of thought is the attachment parenting/Dr. Sears/Co-sleeping philosophy. Here,  the idea is that by responding to your kids cries all the time you further develop their trust and that eventually they do figure out how to get themselves to sleep on their own I guess.  Again, there is no right way other than the way that feels best for you and your family.  I guess I was for the attachment parenting/on-demand feeding theory for awhile but in the end it got too exhausting and I really wanted to get some consistent sleep.

Of all my friends that I asked, all but 2 of them did the cry it out method (and one of them has a 3 year old that still won’t sleep through the night! ) Now that I just cannot handle.

I went to Powell’s bookstore to do some research of my own and you should see all the books written about kids and sleep.

So, I got the the Dr. Feber book, read it and decided we would try that method. Last night was the first night of our new routine.  It actually went better than expected. At 8pm after she had a bath, nursed and was definitely tired when we put her into her bed. She cried for about 7 minutes and then was fast asleep. At 11 o’clock she awoke again. We let her cry for about 5 minutes, then went in to let her know we were here but didn’t pick her up. (Just gave a kiss and told her she was fine and left the room. ) She continued to cry and we continued checking on her every 10 minutes for about a half and hour. At that point, we just let her cry for about a good 25 minutes and she then fell asleep on her own and slept until 7 am!  It was hard listening to her cry but I knew she was fine. I guess my belief now is that as parents we are going to have to teach our children a lot of things. Teaching them to sleep on their one is one of those things and in the end I think it is going to make us all happier in our household!

( my only regret is that we didn’t start sooner–maybe around 6 mos old)

We will see how tonight goes!

If you have any personal thoughts regarding either philosophy or techniques you did that worked, please feel free to leave a comment.