It's been a while since I've posted. New babies will do that. I swear, Flynn caught every virus that went through town this winter. They were all hand delivered by the older kids, despite our best efforts. I think we're through the worst of it now. He's been healthy for weeks!

Flynn's doing really well. He's strong and healthy. He's rolling over and sitting up.  almost 6 months old. He's growing like his daddy, and about to move into 24 month size clothes. I tried to breastfeed, but ran dry after a few months. So, after discovering he can't tolerate cow's milk or soy, he's thriving on Dr Sears recipe for homemade goats milk formula. He drinks half a gallon a day! He drank that much of the other stuff, too. He was just sick, and covered in wicked eczema.

Our 15 yr old cat had to be put down last week. She's been going senile for a while, but just finally snapped and started doing a variety of irrational and dangerous things... Including attacking the kids out of the blue. She's been with us since she was a baby. We had to bottle feed her when we first took her in. Rehoming her would have just been cruel. Her body has been shutting down too. The vet said she might be able to prolong her life a little but we'd have been offering her a slow and miserable death that way. Instead, she fell asleep being petted and loved by her family, with her head in my hand like she always liked to sleep....and never woke up.

Our other cat is handling it well. He's so relaxed and playful. I think watching her suffer the last year or so was worse for him than losing her. He's always been Flynn's buddy, but has stepped it up recently. Sometimes when I'm holding Flynn, Aslan will ask up into my arms, so he can snuggle with Flynn. He doesn't try to snuggle with the baby unless he's in my arms, but he's always nearby. It's really sweet.

Who's to blame for the measles and whooping cough outbreaks? You are!

OK, apparently this isn't obvious enough for most people to understand it on their own. So let's see if I can break it down into simple enough ideas.

1) There aren't nearly enough unvaccinated kids in America for their parents decision to have weakened our herd immunity. 

2) Most of the adult population of America is unvaccinated.

3) Herd immunity is only a theory, anyway. It's not proven, and it's not the only theory with strong scientific support.

Still needs explaining?

First, a theory is an idea - not a fact. Herd immunity is a popular theory. That means a lot of people think that's probably how things work. Popular opinion is not the same as truth. Personally, I think herd immunity makes a lot of sense. That does not make it true. I also think theories about the effect of modern sanitation on illness make a lot of sense. Until we prove one or more theories, we can't be entirely certain which, if any, are actually how things work.

Let's just assume that the herd immunity theory is accurate. You probably already assumed that anyway. Estimates vary, but somewhere between 80 percent and 90 percent of the population needs to be vaccinated for herd immunity to be established. 

According to the CDC, less than 10 percent of children are not fully vaccinated. The number that are completely unvaccinated is estimated to be less than one percent of the childhood population. The CDC offers a wide variety of charts, tables, articles, and data for you to read about this subject, on their website.

According to the CDC, over 99% of the adult population is not fully vaccinated. The vaccinations adults are most likely to use are influenza, and shingles. The vaccinations adults are least likely to use are the ones that cover whooping cough, and measles. 

Still not clear? 99 percent of adults are not vaccinated for the illnesses we are having outbreaks of. Less than ten percent of children are not vaccinated for the illness as we are having outbreaks of. It is not the fault of the non vaccinating parents. It is the fault of every adult who has failed to get vaccinated for whooping cough in the last three years, or measles in the last 7 years. Statistically, that probably means you.

Even if 100 percent of children were fully vaccinated, it would be not be enough to make any difference at all in our herd immunity. Until our adult population takes responsibility for their part in our community health it's simply doesn't matter how many children are vaccinated.

In case you are one of the very few who would like to be fully vaccinated and contribute to our communities herd immunity, this is what it takes;

- MMR every 3-5 years (that's how long the rubella portion lasts)

- dTap every 3 years (thats how long it offers any protection against whooping cough)

- HepB every 10 years

- Varicella (chicken pox) every 5 years

- HepA every 15 years

- Meningococcal (meningitis) every 5 years

- Pneunococcal (pneumonia) every 5 years

You'll notice the CDC's schedule isn't even aggressive enough to support herd immunity. It would have us spend 7 out of every 10 years completely unprotected against whooping cough, for example. As a society, we are simply setting ourselves up for a continual rise in outbreaks of vaccine preventable illnesses... And all this fuss over unvaccinated children is one of the biggest obstacles between us and a solution.

To sum up;

These outbreaks are the fault of two groups.

1) Unvaccinated adults

2) People blaming unvaccinated children

A Picture of Love

This may seem like an odd picture but it's really so full of love I can hardly bare it.

From the top;

 The tapestry isn't really my cup of tea, I admit. Jason's dad had it on the wall as long as he can remember. Last winter, it was passed to Jason. It has great sentimental value and he wanted nothing more than to display it prominently in our home. We couldn't decide where to put it until Flynn was born. We initially put it over the changing table just to give him something to look at. He was enthralled. He loves the thing! Now that we have it over the basinet instead, he'll happily spend 5-10 min at a time, several times per day, just looking at it. Sometimes he'll even fall asleep looking at it and nap.

The blanket over the back of the basinet is there to cut down on drafts. It comes of every day so Flynn can lay on it for naked and tummy time. It's so super soft, who wouldn't enjoy laying on it? It was a gift from great grandma Shepherd.

The basinet itself was a gift from my mom. She found the antique wicker basinet at a yard sale. She cleaned it up, built rockers, and painted it. She made everything that isn't wicker, including the sheets.

My aunt made the blanket in the basinet. Flynn loves the feel of crochet. This is the smallest and lightest of his crocheted blankets. It's perfect for throwing over his legs for a nap. He hates sleeping with his legs uncovered. Even if he wears pants he needs at least a receiving blanket over his legs.

And, of course, there's his guard cat. Aslan is always in the same room as Flynn. If Flynn is on the changing table, or on his blanket on the floor, Aslan is on the bed watching. If Flynn is having a bath, Aslan is on the back of the toilet. If Flynn's in his basinet, Aslan is right next to it. Every night when we go to bed, Aslan checks on Flynn, purring loudly. He wants nothing more than to snuggle with Flynn, but has a very strong instinct to stay away from the baby's head. Instead, he begs us for pets and sometimes, if he just can't resist, he'll curl up below Flynn's feet while I'm feeding him. I can't wait until Flynn is big enough to interact with Aslan. He already makes a kind of clicking noise when he sees the cat. They're going to be the best of friends, I think.