Every year the CDC releases the National Vital Statistics Report the end of last year.  It is quite astonishing!  There was a 3% increase in births from 2005 to 2006, the highest growth since 1989.  There were 4,265,996 births in 2006 which is the highest number since 1961!  Teenage pregnancy started to rise in 2006 for the first time since 1991.  The total fertility rate was 2,101births per 1,000 women which is the highest rate since 1971.  The birth rate rose by 7% for unmarried women which equaled 50.6 births per 1,000 women.

WOW!  We are having babies!  The one that surprised me the most was the unmarried women.  Half of the women giving birth are unmarried.  i wonder how many account for women choosing to have children without a partner and how many were like my first (very unexpected blessings).

What are your thoughts on these numbers and what they mean?

Babyrazzi is a fun blog i subscribe to.  It’s all about celebrities and their babies.  They just posted an article i find somewhat disturbing (as seen by my comment on it).  i am just like the next guy (or gal) who wants my children to be unique.  Finding that place begins with the name our parents choose for us.   We have gotten away from the traditional names and now anything goes (check out 2007 popular names).  Actress Busy Philipps with husband Marc Silverstein just had a baby girl and named her Birdie.  Recently General Hospital Star, Ingo Rademacher had a baby boy and named him Peanut.  Really?  Don’t they realize these kids will have this name until they die (or at least go down to the courthouse and have it changed)?  Chris Martin (Gwyneth Paltrow’s hubby) said, ““There’s nothing weird about calling your baby Chewbacca if that’s what you want to call your baby,…”   This just seems a little selfish to me.  Isn’t parenthood about giving your child the best you are able to and being unselfish?  Would you want to walk around in life with the name Peanut?

There is a commercial (as always i have no idea what it’s even for) where the woman says “Holy Mackerel”.  An angel mackerel drops down playing his harp.  He looks at whatever it is she is reading and says “That’s Bananas!”.  In walks a bunch of bananas.

i am having one of those moments where i am saying “Holy cow!!”, half expecting a cow with wings to come floating down.  Not sure if a huge bovine can float in air..hhhmmm.  Anyways, i just read an article i cannot believe.  A person involved with the negotiations for the first Jolie-Pitt twin pictures opened his mouth about the price.  It is reported they are going to be getting (or rather giving to their foundation) $14 million for pics of lil’ Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon!!  Can you believe it??!!  Yes, i said $14 million!  i think Jenny from the block may be a little upset because that is over twice as much as she got..a measly $6 mil.

What happens when a woman can’t bear her own children (i can’t even imagine that pain)? She either adopts or goes through a surrogate.    i am mixed on the issue of surrogacy.  While i admire the women who offer their lives to help another couple, there are also many children who are waiting in poor conditions to be included in a family.  There have been a few articles put out recently about the rise in military women stepping up to offer their bodies and lives.  Some may argue it is about the money.  i believe that is may be a small aspect, however, i am sure these have to have their heart in it too.  Money is good but if you don’t like what you do, it becomes a chore to do it.  Military wives are seen as a good fit because they receive Tricare. 

Here is a great discussion of the Tricare system and how it pertains to surrogacy by A Soldier’s Mind:

In the military, while the service member pays a small monthly premium for their family’s health care, as long as that family member receives their health care on a military installation, there are no deductibles or co-pays. It’s apparent that surrogacy groups are taking advantage of that and putting other military families at risk of having their monthly premiums increased or even causing them to have to begin paying deductibles and co-pays. By using a military wife as a surrogate mother, surrogacy groups avoid paying about $20,000 for a standard surrogacy medical policy. They also don’t have to pay the deductibles and co-payments. Because of this advantage, some surrogacy groups will pay an additional $5,000 premium to military wives. After reading this article, I spoke to several military wives, wives of retirees, as well as Soldiers and military retirees. To a person, they all said that this angers them, because things like this drive the costs up for everyone else and they felt it was unfair that a military wife would take advantageof the Tricare medical insurance, in order to put some extra money in their pocket. I tend to agree with them. Tricare for retirees and their families doesrequire the retiree to pay deductibles and co-pays, as well as a much higher premium each month. We’ve all seen the news reports about retiree Tricare being on the rise. Things like this just make those rates continue to increase. Then you also have the issue that the military wives who are surrogates are committing fraud at the expense of American taxpayers.

Check out the piece ABC News had recently done.  One of the comments made me go..hhmm.  Someone mentioned the fact that our tax dollars cover the expenses of illegal immigrants. 

What do you think about this subject?

This is yet another reason why prenatal care is so incredibly important.  Did you know “Breast-feeding remains a leading route of HIV transmission in the developing world”?  This is according to an article in Science Daily.  Most babies are infected by mothers who have no idea they have the virus.  In a six year study of more than 2,000 infants by three teams at The John Hopkins University along with teams in Ethiopia, India, and Uganda, showed that a drug can prevent HIV transmission to an uninfected baby through the infected mother’s breast milk.  Check out the article for the full scoop.

Another articletalks about vaccinating the infants with probiotic lactobacilli from the human mouth which can block HIV transmission via breastfeeding.  This study was conducted by the University of Illinois and presented at the 86th General Session of the International Association for Dental Research.  Check out this article too.  This sounds like a huge step in creating a vaccine for transmitting HIV through at least one avenue.

Isn’t science and what the brain can figure out amazing?

If you had a crying toddler for 3 days, would you go crazy? Ok, so maybe just raising a toddler can make you crazy. They are like mini teenagers with the “i do myself mommy!”, the screaming when they don’t get their way, and the forever struggle of picking up. On the upside, they still willingly give kisses and want to play with you. Sasha went crazy at the end of the 3 days.  The mommy said the baby was easy.  Easy??  The kid cried all the time ( or at least that’s how they portrayed him).  One night it took 3 hours of him crying before he passed out.  EKS!  i don’t blame her for breaking down (you know its a rough day when you have to lock yourself in the bathroom and there is no peeing). i am convinced all mommies have a great poop story or two, moments they lock themselves in a room, a little bit of guilt, and a heart bursting with love.

“It’s my party and I can cry if I want to, cry if I want to…” Didn’t you watch the birthday party and wish you were there too? Wasn’t it just sooo exciting you were jealous? My personal opinion, those two just need to head for the hills and not look back. Daton and Morgan should remain childless for a few more years. She didn’t even wipe the little one’s bottom after he had a dirty diaper. YIKES! i felt so bad for the little one!

Although Austin and Kelly got in some trouble by the nanny, i still think they would make a great couple and parents.

My favorite moment was when Isaiah was talking to Alicea about missing their mommies. i was incredibly touched! i wanted to crawl into the t.v and give him a big ol’ squeeze. He reminds me so much of my Chandlur, super sweet and sensitive, and very active. Toddlers can be so perceptive!

This is why we love our kids so much. Aside from the craziness of it all, they can be so amazing our hearts just melt.  What do your kids do that just make you mush?

Here’s the 2 minute recap……..

This post makes me chuckle.  Is there someone up there laughing at me?  i was going to talk about how Kelsey didn’t want Seanto go to work because she wasn’t feeling good and didn’t want to take care of baby Etta.  Guess what. Yesterday, i wish i could just curl up in bed and stay there because i wasn’t feeling well at ALL.  Hence, this post is a little late….sorry to all of you who may have been waiting.  i wish Kevin could have stayed home!  Unfortunately, we like to eat and have a place to call home (call us crazy).  With Kelsey and Sean i was surprised at how they changed.  i expected Kelsey to give it a good effort and was surprised at how fast she caved.  On the opposite end i was shocked that the guy who kept calling Etta “it” ended up staying home and was amazing with her.  Etta’s mommy gave Kelsey some great advice all of us mommies need to take to heart on those days we feel like failures.  When we fail, we can’t just ask someone to take our kids away (i guess you COULD however, i don’t think foster care needs anymore kids.  Not to mention how scared they would be forever.).  All we can do is sincerely say “I am so sorry and I will do better next time”.

Another amazing turn around was Kelly.  i know she is young, however, i really think motherhood suites her.  Scary thought i know!!  It goes back to the debate of young and poor or older and more stable (i opted for young and dumb.  does that count??).  She jumped in and did spectacular!  She even had dinner made when Austin came home.  For the girl who didn’t want to wear the pregnancy suit because it was heavy and made her look fat, to being June Cleaver, all i can say is WOW!

i thought it was great that some of the “daddies” decided to stay home while the “mommies” worked.  What a way to break the stereotype!  There are some amazing SAHD who don’t get the respect they deserve.  It goes back to that other argument women have been having for many years now.  SAHM versus working mama.  i just say, can’t we all get along?  Some of the mommies i have talked to express guilt.  If you are one of those mommies i say stop it!  If you are a SAHM who looks down on those working mamas, stop it!  We are all women doing the best we can.  Ok, i will get off my soap box now:)

Cheers to all you mommies out there who put in long nights and still get up and go about your day.  To all you who have had your head in a toilet (if it’s because you partied to hard, weeellll….haha)while your children look on asking when lunch is.  Once when i was pregnant, i heard my at the time 2 1/2 year old mimicking me in the living room.  It’s hard to throw up and laugh at the same time.  They take some serious work and sacrifice, BUT well worth every moment!!

Here’s a quick 2 minute catch-up if you missed this last week.

If they thought babies were hard………