Caffeine Addict?

Because I can't go cold turkey, I've been slowly weaning myself off of caffeine for the past 6 months. I was quite an addict for many years. When I was in my twenties I used to drink a can of coke before bed each night. I loved my Starbucks coffee, a hot macchiato or a mocha blend was my choice of beverage each day at around 3pm. But there's been much speculations about the effects of caffeine on fertility and pregnancy. But the effects are not widely known and I've only learned about it when a friend of mine became pregnant and told me that she was cutting out caffeine entirely during her pregnancy. I'll miss the coffee and the tiramisu during my pregnancy. Although I'm doing well on cutting out caffeinated soda and coffee, I'm still having my green tea daily. I drink a large cup of green tea at work each morning. There's a lot of benefit to drinking green tea and the amount of caffeine is small, within the recommended caffeine limit for a pregnant woman. I'm not sure if I'll give up my daily tea when I become pregnant. I'll probably consult my doctor. Here's a good chart on the quantity of caffeine in various drinks if you are curious about how much caffeine you are having each day.

Autism Epidemic?

Do we have an Autism epidemic in this country? This is up to debate. However, I personally know two boys diagnosed with Autism. There are also five other boys I know suffering from Autistic symptoms but it's still too early to say for sure since their age is still too young. Most of the boys I know that fall under this category are showing signs such as lack of speech/words, not responding to noise, and/or exhibiting obsessive behavior towards one activity. As a strange coincidence, most of the couples we know that have recently given birth (within the past several years) have all had boys.

There has been a lot of debates over whether immunization shots have triggered Autism. However, there's strong data showing that Autism has a genetic component to it. Namely, if one sibling from a set of identical twins have Autism, the probability that the other twin also has Autism is high. That probability drops to much lower values for non-twin siblings. This is strong evidence that Autism has a genetic component. Since Autism affects boys 4 times as often as girls, this points to some defect with the X chromosome. Since the father's sperm determines the sex of the baby, does that mean that perhaps the health of the sperm has something to do with Autism? Recent studies have focused on the age of fathers as a possible cause of Autism. So does this mean that men now have a "high risk" age to reproduction too? Research points to a mutation of older sperms as a possible cause of Autism in children with parents who have no history of Autism.

The scary part of this is that scientists still don't know the cause of Autism. It is unknown whether it is just a genetic component, environmental effects, or both contributing to the rise of Autistic boys in recent years. As I am looking at having a baby soon, these are scary times.

Baby Cliparts

Aren't these African animals adorable? I found these clip arts on the web. I would like to give credit to the artist but the site I found it on did not have a reference. But when I saw these cute guys, my mind went racing. I'm picturing these guys as iron-ons on baby onesies, on wallpapers, on bedding, baby socks, etc!! As you can see, I used them on my blog header.

I've been looking at our spare bedroom these days with an eye on baby theme. I want to do something gender neutral so that we wouldn't have to change it if we have two kids with different gender. Animals are always good, these guys would be adorable. My husband likes Classic Pooh. We have a dog so I may even decide to use pictures of our dog as a theme.

High Risk

I've always been aware of the term High Risk as it relates to pregnancy. But didn't think it would be me. But the reality is, women are delaying marriage these days and the magic 35 will hit sooner than we know it. How did we go from being an adult at 18 to not acting like adults until 30? I blame it on my insatiable desire to learn. I spent all of my twenties in school. I gain an enormous amount of knowledge, but none can reverse the aging of my reproductive system. I have officially ended my pregnancy prevention method. Now it's up to statistics. According to a medical site, 30% of women get pregnant within 6 months of stopping oral contraceptives. That number jumps to 90% within one year. So my chances are good. Fingers crossed!