The Strength of a Community

Julie's kids and their friends passed out fliers inviting tornado victims to a free meal at Lakeside Baptist Church.

I have lived in Granbury for ten years and have loved our community with its small town charm and historic downtown square that attracts visitors from everywhere.

It wasn’t until the tornado hit our town last week that I truly began to understand just how tight-knit our community really is.

From the moment the tornado left the area, people began giving, collecting, working to help their neighbors and showing God’s love during a time of crisis.  The outpouring of love in this community and to this community has been amazing.  To see such a positive impact in a negative situation has stirred the hearts of people around the country. 

The Struggle to Breastfeed

After many attempts of IUI, I finally got pregnant in 2011.  As a neonatal nurse, each week that went was one step closer to the magical “viability” stage of 24 weeks, then 37 weeks when the chances were good that my baby wouldn’t have to visit my friends in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.  My son was born 10 days before his due date and was healthy and beautiful!

As my pregnancy progressed, I was always asked the question, “Are you going to breastfeed?”  “Of course I’m going to breastfeed my baby,” I would say!  After ALL of the education we have received as nurses to encourage our mothers to breastfeed, I knew that the best thing I could do for my son was for him to receive my breast milk.   In fact, four days prior to my delivery, I attended a two-hour class, required for all neonatal nurses that emphasized the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding, as well as steering mothers away from using formula (in a nice way).  I took this knowledge with me knowing that in a few short weeks, I would be in the same position as the Moms we teach.

Ten ways to go Greek!

Need some new ways to enjoy Greek yogurt? Read on for 10 healthy and unique ways to use and substitute this nutritional powerhouse:

1.) Use a dollop of Greek yogurt instead of sour cream on baked potatoes, chili, or Mexican food.

2.) At-home FroYo – combine 1-5.3 oz container Greek yogurt with cut up or frozen fruit & freeze for at least an hour for a no sugar added frozen treat.

3.) Substitute Greek yogurt for mayo 1:1 in tuna/egg/chicken/potato salad recipes.

4.) DIY Ranch Dressing – mix 1 Tbsp Ranch seasoning with 1-5.3 oz container Greek yogurt to make a salad dressing for veggies or spread for sandwiches or burgers. Add 1 tbsp taco seasoning for a spicy version.

Isn’t it about time for a second child?

Truth be told, Lauren and I probably get too much credit from our relatives and close friends for being excellent planners. When we first got married, we had no real plan about when or if we wanted to start a family.  After we had been married five years, lived in several places and worked at different jobs, we found ourselves able to take advantage of the housing market downturn and buy a home right in the middle of “kid central.”

It appeared to any casual observer that we were meticulously planning to start a family. In actuality it wasn’t anything near that well planned. It just so happened that one day I jokingly said, “We should move,” and Lauren said, “Ok.” Three weeks later we had a new home. Furthermore, our decision to start a family had nothing to do with our living situation – Lauren and I just felt that the time was right for us to try to have a child, and we were blessed with one.

Big impact for little hearts

Recently, I read about two Texas Moms who are campaigning for a test to be performed that detects heart defects in newborns. Unfortunately, the mothers lost their newborns unexpectedly – but their passion has propelled them to convince the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to officially recommend the test to states.

This year, the Texas House passed a bill requiring hospitals to test newborns, and the Senate will consider it next.

My reason for drawing attention to this is simple: my children were each diagnosed with heart murmurs during routine examinations by their pediatrician. It is a benefit to our community and our families that these tests are a standard screening at Texas Health hospitals and are done on every baby prior to discharge.

Are car seat accessories safe?

I have a confession. My biggest fear of having a baby isn’t childbirth, or sleepless nights, or making breastfeeding work or even leaving my baby to return to work after maternity leave. It’s the car seat. Why am I so terrified of what is basically a glorified piece of plastic? No clue. But I am.

Whenever I think of car seats I just want to curl up in a ball and ignore the reality that come October I will need to know how to install one, or even worse before then I’ll have to sort out which model to buy. Perhaps I’m most scared because I know from my job at Texas Health Resources that in the Dallas-Fort Worth area 80 percent of individuals who come get their car seats checked actually have install the car seats incorrectly. I spend so much time in my car it terrifies me that I might do something so important wrong.

And with the age of Pinterest if you even begin looking at car seats there are even more options for how you can supposedly make your baby more comfortable. But then I start wondering as I look at the cute accessories: is that needed? Is it safe? The one comfort to me in the whole car seat process is that I know that all car seats must adhere to the safety standards put in place by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and have specific manufacturer instructions that need to be followed. And I’ve also learned that most manufacturers warn against using unregulated products because they were not crash-tested with their seats.

With all that said I turned to Melissa Smart, a certified child passenger safety technician at Texas Health, to ask her to give me the lowdown on all those products I see floating around regarding car seats.

Here’s her take on the most common items:

What the BRCA gene mutation means for my family

“Mommy, when I’m a mommy will I have to get cancer, too?”

My 5-year-old daughter asked me this a few months ago. I was hoping she wouldn’t remember that I ever went through cancer. But something jogged her memory of the days that mommy lay sick in bed for days after each round of chemo.

How’s a mommy supposed to answer this – especially knowing that, like Angelina Jolie, I have a BRCA gene mutation that I passed on to my daughter?