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During my second trimester I received the recommended flu shot and didn't question the dangers. I didn't eat as well during this pregnancy as I did during my first and made all kinds of excuses as to why. I felt great, no nausea or morning sickness, I was busy, etc.
Kate and I consumed too many processed foods and starches and not enough fruits and vegetables. In fact, my biggest craving during my pregnancy and after Kate's birth was bread and butter.
As my due date drew near, Kate and I communicated about how we wanted her birth to be. She blessed me with another drug-free, intervention-free, natural birth. It was slow, steady, and painless. When she was born she was subjected to all the routine hospital tests and vaccinations.
Did The Trouble Begin With The Flu Shot or The Hep B Vaccine?
is almost impossible to tell. I did not know at the time that the flut shot contains 25 micrograms of thimerosal. I didn't know that thimerosal causes neurological damage to developing fetuses. I did not know that the risk of a serious vaccine reaction may be 100 times greater than the risk of Hepatitis B. I did not know that Hepatitis B is a disease that is almost exclusively spread among IV drug users and those who engage in promiscuous sexual activity. 
It is important to mention here that only approximately 10% of adverse reactions ever get reported to VAERS in the first place. Wonder why?
I am an avid reader and researcher and read all that I could find about pregnancy, childbirth and having a newborn. Nowhere did I read that the Hepatitis B vaccine may be related to the "mystery" syndrome named SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), and in fact, it's correlation has not been ruled out.
I kept doing what I thought was right though, and had Kate routinely vaccinated up until she was six months old.
Not only was Kate routinely vaccinated as a newborn, she was also subjected to mercury
through dental work I had done when she was a breastfeeding newborn. The dentist I used at the time did not seem concerned about the fact that she was removing four dental amalgams from my mouth while I was nursing my baby. I did not know there were dangers.
I was worried about the novacaine passing through to my breastmilk, but the dental staff assured me that it would be localized and that they would use only the bare minimum.
I trusted them and went back for two visits over a two month period to have a total of five amalgams removed. I did not know at the time, that there are dentists who take the removal
of amalgams seriously. So seriously, in fact, that they've formed their own organization to educate and spread the word about just how dangerous this practice can be, even under proper protocol.
Proper protocol you say? There's a proper way to remove amalgams?
Indeed there is. That's just how risky this practice is, particularly if you're a pregnant or nursing mom. Not only are there risks to yourself, of course, but the risks to developing fetuses or breastfeeding babies are greater.
How Did We Know Something Was Wrong?
People ask me this all the time. I give them the usual answers about Kate's symptoms (which I'll get into in a moment), but really, the bigger answer is that I was guided. I was blessed, guided, followed my intuition, whatever you'd like to call it, I was led.
That is why I now feel led to bring this information out of the darkness, compile it all in one place and give it some light.
Our daughter was not "sick". Meaning, no doctor or nurse or other healthcare provider would have recognized her as being any different from any other newborn baby. Yet she was different.
We were generally dismissed by medical professionals, and even told outright that we had a healthy, normal baby on our hands. That is until we were led to some of the wonderful Spirit-sent people you'll read about on the Practitioners page.
The Practical Information
Latch & Skin
These two things were the first things I noticed about Kate after she was born, except for her adorable and pronounced dimple in her left cheek.Unlike her sister, Kate's skin was ruddy and mottled and she just didn't look well. I noticed this about her as soon as they returned her from her routine vaxes and tests. One nurse mentioned jaundice, but said the test turned out fine. Nothing was said about her skin tone after that.
Also unlike her sister, Kate had difficulty latching on to my breast. She did not seem to have the voracious appetite known to newborns. The gals at my La Leche League meeting called it "lazy latch" and taught me tips on how to help her.
I had to help Kate latch on by literally "forcing" my nipple into her mouth for two solid months. After that she was able to do it on her own.
Sleep
Kate did not sleep. This was perhaps her biggest "issue", and the one that was the hardest for us, as a family, to deal with.
There are scores of books written about how to help your baby sleep and I've read most of them. Kate's troubles with sleep went far beyond helping her adjust to a bedtime routine, letting her cry it out in a crib, using gentle massage and aromatherapy or whatever method happened to look the best at the time. We tried almost everything you can imagine to get our baby to sleep.
Even as a newborn, less than 24 hours old, I noticed that Kate's sleep patterns were different. She did not "crash" like most babies do after birth. She simply stayed awake. When we first brought her home she'd average about eight hours out of a day sleeping - - and no sleep stretch was longer than two hours.
Now that we know the cause, we understand why her poor sleeping did not get better, but only got worse. Right after my amalgam removal, Kate couldn't sleep longer than 45 minutes at a time. Many times she'd awaken with a sudden scream as if someone were stabbing her with a knife.
Kate's sleep issues began to improve when we were blessed to have found her current doctor when she was 18 months old.
I could write a book about the devastating effects of sleep deprivation but it is not my intent to turn this story into one about me. Perhaps one day I will, since there is little information out there about the effects of prolonged sleep deprivation, other than controlled studies in a lab setting. I wonder how many other mothers have suffered in silence the way I did? I wonder how many other families are shell-shocked just as we were?
Gastro Problems
Not only did Kate have trouble latching on to my breast, she also had trouble keeping the breastmilk down. She spit up constantly. It was not "normal" baby spit up either. It was chunky, partially digested milk with a foul smell. I knew that something was going on with her digestion despite all the attempts by her pediatrician to tell me that it was perfectly normal.
Kate's bowel movements were green and frothy. Not at all the mustard-like quality of an exclusively breastfed baby. Again, our pediatrician dismissed this as probably being from some sort of virus.
My first daughter was sensitive to dairy in my diet and reacted with similar bowel movements so I knew that Kate's gastro problems had something to do with what I was eating.
Thus began my vigilant and exhaustive search for the culprit. I tried eliminating dairy, soy, caffeine, sugar, wheat, and more. All with no result. I kept meticulously detailed food logs about what I was eating and how Kate reacted. After she began solid foods, I kept detailed logs for both of us.
I spent countless hours pouring over these looking for a pattern. I suspected wheat, but saw no change after having eliminated it for almost five weeks so I went back to eating it. Turns out, Kate is highly allergic to wheat/gluten but it later took a solid eight weeks to get out of her system.
Stimming
This stands for self-stimulation and is any repetitive behavior such as head banging, rocking or spinning. Kate would bang the side of her head with the heel of her hand over and over and over as if she were trying to "fix" something inside. She'd also bang her head side to side violently while sitting in her high chair or car seat.
I think I have a vague memory of her banging her head against the wall one day and recently asked my husband about this but he, too, has lost some of his mental faculties due to sleep deprivation.
Other Signs
Kate often had what I can only describe as a "checked out" look. Her eyes were sometimes vacant. She was, and looked, exhausted. She had dark circles under her eyes, her eyes were often red and puffy and there were tiny little red bumps underneath them (particularly under her right eye.)
Some of these symptoms were from her allergy to wheat. Some were signs of her own sleep deprivation.
Kate was often aggressive. Out of the blue, she'd scratch me or bite me. Sometimes she'd laugh as she was doing it.
Our daughter was way ahead of the curve when it came to developmental milestones. She was sitting up at four months, crawling at six and walking at ten.
She was ahead on the growth charts despite the fact that she refluxed almost everything she ate. This was often the "evidence" we were pointed to whenever we questioned her pediatrician about what was wrong with her.
Despite all this, our baby was a happy one. She did not fuss much and remained peaceful, calm and content. She was remarkably independent even as a baby.
Kate continues to be cognitively ahead as
well. At 22 months she knows some letters, all of her colors, can
count to 13, can sing the entire ABC song and many others and has an
ever-growing vocabulary. She also has a remarkable sense of humor
which I know she gets from her daddy.
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