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Ongoing Alaskan mama chat..

54K views 2K replies 84 participants last post by  BusyMommy 
#1 ·
Since there are so few of us that check here.. I thought we should open up an ongoing Alaskan mama chat.. just stop in, and post whatever is on your mind..

I will start..

My kids are on the habitat for humanity webpage!

www.hfhanchorage.org

two pics down is A... drawing with chalk on the wall in his wool longies..

check out the photo gallery and you will see more of my family! (really cute pic of O and dh in the groundbreaking gallery!)
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#577 ·
I am happy to announce that for now we've decided that the best arrangement is for me to take a break. I'm flying into seattle in a few days and gonna tool around there and around Oregon.
8 days of missing my kids, and now really missing my husband as he admitted to being a douche about the things that made me want to leave...

But a bathtub! And water we don't have to haul! And art museums, The Market, operas, new (to me) restaurants, and oh yes, Powell's!


Still debating within myself about taking the baby or not. I was adamant that she go with me, but now I'm wondering how much I'll relax (think of going to Powell's with a very energetic 13mo who doesn't walk yet but crawls like lighting and likes to pull books off shelves...or the art museum thing...)...

So I'm still debating, but I'm going to start expressing milk for her so she will get that while I'm gone if she stays here. We don't do cow milk (except one daughter who likes it, and stepdd who drinks a TON of it), so milk isn't an option, and I'm not sure I want to try something new like goat formula or soy milk while I'm gone.

So many decisions. Husband already booked the ticket, rented the car, and is even going to try to upgrade me to first class. Oh, my.

I am so happy not to be where I was this morning.

love, penelope
 
#578 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by unfrozncavegrl View Post
I might be there with you. We are walking a fine line right now between making it and breaking it.
I am so so so so sorry. Marriage can make you so
:. We've never been this close to ending it...it scared (and still does scare) the holy hannah out of me.

I don't know your situation, but if you want to talk, you can PM me or email me at penelope AT alaska DOT net any time.



And here's some
to help you relax.


love, penelope
 
#579 ·
*hugs* to P and Unfrozncavegirl! Partnerships are soo difficult. . There are certainly times when I want to throw in the towel. *sigh* I hope you have a wonderful, reinvigorating trip P!

About LLL: Is it this Wed, the 10th? I got confused for some reason. THinking about going. It would be fun for my kiddos to get to play with other kiddos as we've been cooped up a bit.
 
#580 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by BusyMommy View Post
The Alaska Club bugs me!
: They must have some new nasty policy going on. Yesterday at the East club, we walked in with our 2 little boys. We have 2 little boys on our family membership. So, she quizzes me: are they your children? What are their names? So I said, nope, we found these 2 kids wandering in the parking lot and since we left our kids in the car, we thought we'd bring these in." Yeah, childish and immature.
But, come on...why would I sneak in 2 very young boys instead of my own 2 very young boys. For crying out loud, give me cards for them so I can just scan as we walk by then.

And, again today at South: the same drill....


OTOH SNOW


Ugh, I am sorry. We never have a problem like that. (Fairbanks)

But the hair all over the floor in the shower rooms grosses me out!
:
 
#583 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by spruce View Post
I am so so so so sorry. Marriage can make you so
:. We've never been this close to ending it...it scared (and still does scare) the holy hannah out of me.

I don't know your situation, but if you want to talk, you can PM me or email me at penelope AT alaska DOT net any time.



And here's some
to help you relax.


love, penelope

Thanks! I hear you on never being so close to ending it. It's weird how fast things can change. Lightning speed really.

Funny thing is I too am taking a break. My boys and I are flying back east for almost a month. your trip sounds more fun. I would love to be all alone for a week. Even still, this will be real good for me. Seeing old friends, having dinners made for me, checking out my old town, staying in a really big house with a nice bath tub. I leave January 20.

I will PM you sometime. The more support and talking the better. Thanks Penelope!
 
#584 ·
I am glad that things are working out for ya P. I hope you have lots of fun in Seattle I love that city. I wish I could go down to Oregon I have a good friend that lives there and I miss her something feirce. Umm bathtub, sounds like fun. Dh says that if we head down to Anch we can stay a night in the Diamond and 'swim' in their tub. That is such a beautiful hotel and its only $100 a night, which is really good for a hotel like them, they have a self serve belgin waffle breakfast bar that is so worth an early wake up.

B had his 6mo WBV with Dr. Foote. I think he is a great pedi, especially when I read forums that are ranting about how horrible some pedis are. We talked about vaxing and what was important. He didnt press the issue, said he vaxed all his kids, agreed that the autism threat was scairy but that its hard to know what it what since there are studies disproving it. But he did have a case of one of his many autism kids who the parents said that dc had started the symptoms after dc's MMR, Dr. Foote said it freaked him out. He said that the meningitis vax was important here in AK because there is a problem with it and he just had a case that day with wooping cough and they a have been seeing a bit of it lately. I asked if giving one vax at a time was okay and he said it was fine but that they dont do the MMR individually (not until 1 yr) and that their vaxes dont have mercury in them anyways. So I am relieved now its just a personal decision. I dont want my ds getting any deases that are preventable.
 
#585 ·
P are you familiar w/that area? I did a similar trip a few years ago and stayed at the 5th Ave Suites in downtown Portland. Fabulous location, awesome hotel and free cocktail hour every night.


Roads were beyond awful in Anch yesterday and due to be bad again this weekend. Looking good today, though.
Riki--enjoy your stay
 
#586 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by unfrozncavegrl View Post
Thanks! I hear you on never being so close to ending it. It's weird how fast things can change. Lightning speed really.

Funny thing is I too am taking a break. My boys and I are flying back east for almost a month. your trip sounds more fun. I would love to be all alone for a week. Even still, this will be real good for me. Seeing old friends, having dinners made for me, checking out my old town, staying in a really big house with a nice bath tub. I leave January 20.

I will PM you sometime. The more support and talking the better. Thanks Penelope!
I hope you have a great time, and enjoy that bathtub!

Riki, The Dimond Center hotel ROCKS. Their tubs are gorgeous and their beds are SOOO comfy. We only had one bad experience there, someone (a driver) tried to key my room as I was alone and very pregnant and IN THE TUB. Luckily I had the little burglar bar thing on so he only got the door open a crack...but he didn't even knock. It freaked me out unbelievably.

Other than that!!!


I hope you get to go...Between the DCHotel and Title Wave Books...I always have a blast when I'm down there. I try to see my brother but he works in a strip club as a bartender, and every time I've visited him there it's just been a huge embarrassment to me. Nothing like sitting at the bar (well, because he's a bartender and I can't talk to him if i don't go there) with your back to the entire room and hearing someone slap their own ass. Yipes.

BusyMommy, I've been to both states a lot but I'm pretty much only familiar w/ the kid's attraction, like the Pacific Science Center, OMSI (well, ok, that's for me, too), etc. I can use all the suggestions I can get as usually hubby deals with hotels and this time I have to.


Love, Penelope
 
#587 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by rikiamber View Post
I asked if giving one vax at a time was okay and he said it was fine but that they dont do the MMR individually (not until 1 yr) and that their vaxes dont have mercury in them anyways. So I am relieved now its just a personal decision. I dont want my ds getting any deases that are preventable.
Just an FYI, there are quite a few children's vax's that do have mercury in them, just in ammts so small that the mfr can claim that they are trimerasol (sp?) free. Its sorta like all those companies are allowed to claim that their foods are trans fat free but if you read the ingredients list you'll see partially hydrogenated oil listed. The one vax that does have full strength trimerosol (at least when I researched this it did) is the flu shot, not sure if this is still the case though.

I too have a hard time with vax's. With my dd1 I started the reccomended program but stopped after she ran a 104 fever with her 4 mo round of shots. I tried again at 6 mo with just two shots and the same thing. After that we waited a year and did the rest of her vax's one shot at a time and this seems to be OK.
 
#588 ·
Spruce,
Seatle sounds like tons of fun. I've never been there for more than a night but I've always wanted to hit the Hanna Anderson outlet store
. Not sure what to suggest on leaving or keeping your littlest one, that's hard...my dd2 is at that same needing 24/7 individed attention stage, it's exausting.

Karen,
Have you seen this site www.recipezaar.com ? Might be helpful in finding recipies for your dd.
 
#589 ·
Ohh! I want to go to Seattle! They have some real teacher supply stores there! Last time I was down there I also found some great shoes, and the bookstores! Oh and the wharf!

My sisterinlaw and several nephews (with wives and kids) all live in Renton (used to live in Federal Way) now.. everytime I go, I am always in awe of how GREEN everything is.

Am I the only one that notices that stuff?
 
#590 ·
Oh P... I'm soooooooooo very happy for you! My heart was breaking at the thought of your kids being taken from you. You are one of the most phenominal mothers I have ever met! ((huge hugs!))

I hope you really enjoy yourself and get a much needed rest! I think you forget what an enormous job you take on every day. EVERYONE deserves a break to recharge!
 
#592 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by rikiamber View Post
He didnt press the issue, said he vaxed all his kids, agreed that the autism threat was scairy but that its hard to know what it what since there are studies disproving it. But he did have a case of one of his many autism kids who the parents said that dc had started the symptoms after dc's MMR, Dr. Foote said it freaked him out. He said that the meningitis vax was important here in AK because there is a problem with it and he just had a case that day with wooping cough and they a have been seeing a bit of it lately.
His language was a bit misleading. There are no studies DISproving it, only no study can prove it inconclusivly. In other words when the child is damaged from the vaccinations they can't prove it was that and not some other factor. Since it is normally not an immediate reaction but a slow decay of abilities, they can say, well the kid drank some water that could have been tainted and maybe THAT was the cause of it.

And just because the vaccinations may not have thimerosol doesn't mean that the other preservatives they use are not just as bad. *shrug*

*Disclaimer: Not meant to start a vax debate, just pointing out the doctors language whether purposeful or not, was a bit misleading.
 
#593 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by natashaccat View Post
Just an FYI, there are quite a few children's vax's that do have mercury in them, just in ammts so small that the mfr can claim that they are trimerasol (sp?) free. Its sorta like all those companies are allowed to claim that their foods are trans fat free but if you read the ingredients list you'll see partially hydrogenated oil listed. The one vax that does have full strength trimerosol (at least when I researched this it did) is the flu shot, not sure if this is still the case though.

I too have a hard time with vax's. With my dd1 I started the reccomended program but stopped after she ran a 104 fever with her 4 mo round of shots. I tried again at 6 mo with just two shots and the same thing. After that we waited a year and did the rest of her vax's one shot at a time and this seems to be OK.

Wow, Simone, I didn't know any of that about the allowable amounts of thimerosol.
When I was preg w/ E (he's now 5.5), I took the Mothering issue about mercury in vaccines to the birth center. Dana (the head midwife) read it and told me they threw out all their thimerosol-filled RhoGam that day. That day. I was so excited to see progress (and I have to have RhoGam w/ each baby, so knowing it wasn't going to be tainted with thimerosol was a plus,
). Now I wonder WTF are the vaccine companies thinking.

And is it true that most vax mixtures have substituted aluminum for thimerosol as a preservative? If so, how awful.

Making those parenting choices is so hard...I didn't have this info when W was born, and bawled like a baby just during the PKU, you can imagine how I felt (and how she felt) during the routine shots for the years she underwent them. My dad was a PA and when she was 6 months he gave her her round of shots and polio vax and said it was the worst part of his job, because he hates to see babies scream.
He never forgot that memory, although as a polio survivor he was a staunch supporter of vaccinations.

I think that in the future we will probably go with the polio vax and maybe (maybe) diptheria. But not tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps, or rubella. Or of course chicken pox.

Talking with one HCP I know well she told me that boys are so much more likely to be adversely affected by vaccinations that she's scared to vaccinate boys at all.
I know another HSing mom whose son was truly vaccine damaged by the DTP...it's a very sad thing to see, knowing it was totally preventable.


Sorry to continue on the vax discussion, if anyone is uncomfortable with this, they can request to have my post moved or deleted.


love, p
 
#594 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Icequeen_in_ak View Post
Oh P... I'm soooooooooo very happy for you! My heart was breaking at the thought of your kids being taken from you. You are one of the most phenominal mothers I have ever met! ((huge hugs!))

I hope you really enjoy yourself and get a much needed rest! I think you forget what an enormous job you take on every day. EVERYONE deserves a break to recharge!
Thank you, Karen. You are a sweetie.

You know what? It wasn't me that made the vacation happen. It was him. HE told me I needed a break. When I argued (I am *really* bad at both flying and at leaving my kids) he said, and I am quoting here: "You never blink when I take my time away, and I always come back knowing the kids are well cared for and I feel better for the down time. I've taken quite a few breaks in the last two years, and you haven't taken any. It's time you just got away and did stuff for you." Then he went on about how I could (drool warning) spend hours and hours at Powell's, meander through Pike Place Market for as long as I liked, eat at quiet little bistros, go see an opera or a play, visit a museum that doesn't involve fingerpainting or dinosaurs...

Oh, man, I was so back in love with that man.


He would never have *taken* them from me, btw, please don't think he'd do that. It just would have been what had to happen that the youngers stay with him and I have the older ones...He also never mentioned the word divorce except to say he didn't want one. But we were both unbending in our demands (the stupid fight was about homeschooling) and once we saw that, it sort of all fell into a better perspective. (I can be a real biatch at times, and I felt threatened and that made me even biatchier, yk?)

1sttimestar, my hubby calls it a mental health break, too!


I'm very psyched. Freaked about the plane ride, but I'll hopefully make it through that,
.

And I have to add that leaving the FD really is probably the right thing for me now. I am just pulled in so many directions, and don't feel *accomplished* in any one of them. So even though being an EMT (and a FF) has been such a huge boost for me as a person, I know I have to give it up for now in order to care for myself and my kids...and my marriage. I never thought I'd ever, ever, ever even contemplate life without Brad, and this last week has really opened my eyes to how much I've been trying to handle, and how it can stress me out to have that much going on.

love, penelope
 
#596 ·
how wonderful Spruce. Ack your description makes me want to go visit Seattle too. Dh's family lives there in Silverdale area. Gawd if I had to move out of Alaska there is no way I would go anyfurther than the Oregon/cali border and I would have to be in visiting distance to Seattle. Take lots of pics to share and make us all drool.

Okay so vaxing heeermmm...its so damn confusing!! I am terrified to take the chance of my baby getting the deseases that the vax protect against. Dh and I discussed this and well pretty much the MMr is out of the picture, meseals and mumps are not that terrible and rubella well this is a boy so we arnt worried about that. The Hib, prev., and DTaP yes and Polio, these are scairy and the most harmful for baby. We plan on doing them one at a time and I know that it will piss ds off but I can get them done at Public health and/or WIC (after checking out their vax supply) so that he dosent hate the Dr.'s. I am secure with this decision, as its one we came to together since the no vax was out of the question. But we also weigh the risk of eather side and since, other than Polio the other deseases are a real threat here in the US we will get those.

(I will post this in Vaxing Forum too just wanted an AK momma view)
Okay so candid question about vaxing. Since most mommas here mostly selective vaxed or non vaxed, what happens if your child suddenly gets wooping cough or menigitius? Knowing that there was a way to prevent it, but is there a way to treat it after the fact? Can the vax be given at the ER? Would you take it or want a different method of treatment? Cause weighing this into the decision is important too. If I choose not to vax my kid than can he be treated if he does get the desease? How do you keep him from infecting other kids, especially here in AK where non/select vax is about normal, before you know what dc has? Just asking cause this dosent seem to get discussed as much as the results of vaxes etc.
 
#597 ·
Our ped is really cool. She has told me a few loopholes since we selective vax; ie. if you wait until they're 4, there's a couple you can skip, etc. & has suggested which ones are more or less important. She recommended HiB b/c of our area.
Like Spruce's dh, I've had close contact w/active polio (per work) so that is one I pursue.

DTaP and MMR are the tough ones for me to figure out.

Spruce--yep, ITA w/your hubby. I see some of my friends get swallowed into the Mommy Syndrome whereas we are ALL so much healthier if we get to remember who we really are as a person. I'm psyched for you guys--you'll have a blast. (My trip isn't for a couple months.
)

Re: Portland, I do recommend staying downtown and bussing everywhere. It's super easy. Do check out the 5th Ave Sts. Powell's BOoks is fabulous, of course. But, watch out for ice. We have snow here. Seattle has rain. Portland has ice. Really debilitating. So, if you drive to the Coast, be wary--this is an awesome trip, btw.
And, if you drive btw Sea and PDX really check the weather and roads cond. I've had to chain up a lot going over the Pass and sometimes it's just impassible no matter what and you get stuck. If I were you, I'd fly to Sea for a couple of days and then fly down to PDX and maybe rent a car for a day trip.
 
#598 ·
Does anyone want to come swim over at the AK club? I've got ten free guest passes that are about to expire.

All these vax descisions are sooo hard...I don't think the even Dr. Foote who is probably the crunchiest ped in town is really being consistant in what he tells people. He told a friend of mine that his one reccomended "must have" vax is hep A, not meningitis.

As for what happens if your child does get sick, I wonder that also. I think you can just get a tetnus vax as needed if you child gets a cut or puncture with a metal object.

I'm stumped on multi-vs single disease shots also, the multis seem like a better deal because of less exposure to preservative but that's assuming the preservatives are the real problem. I dunno, but something is clearly not right, I just read that the latest autism stats are something like on in 166 kids, doesn't that qualify as an epidemic? I'm curious how that breaks down between boys and girls. Of the four autistic kids that I know or know of all are boys.
 
#600 ·
Seattle, ...........

Awesome city. Be sure to do Pike's Place Market while you are there. I have never stayed in Seattle cause we have realitives near there. But it is awesome for day trips. Have fun!!!

Anchorage.........

Roads were actually fine. I am not sure what all the fuse was about. once we got here the roads have been fine too. I guess I am just used to cold and snow. No big deal. Drive slow and pay attention, you know?
Anyway, I am gonna totally brag and tell you all it is 15 here today! He he he! Nice to be away from the cold for a few days.

Hotels in Anchorage.............
Well, if we can we stay on base. If you have base/post privleges it is sooo worth it. We got a 3 bedroom townhouse for next to nothing. But when the base if full (summer) we stay at the Royal Suites Inn. We have 4 kids and it is nice to get a bit of seperation after 6 hours in the truck. They have 2 bedroom places with full kitchen for just over $100 a night. Even in the summer it is only $150.

Great to hear everything it still normal in Fairbanks.
 
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