Cuts, bumps and bleeds..

Just when you think you can sit back and relax a little, your little one face plants, falls off a chair, cuts himself or in my case does all 3 in 1 day!

I spent my life watching my mom fret over my brother without it ever really affecting me. She would infuse him in front of me, help ice his bruises, yell at him when he would hurt himself carelessly, and yet, I would go on with my day to day not bothered by it much.

Now, I have my own children, myself a mother to a child with Hemophilia and I a total and utter mess! Each time Gabriel falls, I panic, each time he has a bruise, I pick up the phone and, with dread, I call the hospital to know if I should bring him in or not.

9 times out of 10, I pack him and off we go to the hospital. He cries the whole way there, he cries the whole time at the hospital and he stops crying when he gets his chocolate milk/ice cream/toy car - whatever I can get for him quick enough to stop the crying.

When I first started bebeccino, my quest was to find the best safety items out there for Gabriel. I wanted to buy everything I could get my hands on to not only protect him but to also show other moms that these products were available.

I bought him a helmet, the Thudguard that he would wear as we wheeled him around on the vacuum cleaner. He would wear his knee pads when playing on my mom's deck. I bought him the cutest Nemo and Cars ice packs to make the bumps a little less painful.

I realized some time ago that the products were not only for him, but also for me. To make myself feel better.

They are great products and they work well but at the end of the day, you cannot put your child in a bubble. He is going to get hurt no matter what you do. You need to know and accept that as hard as it may be.

Being the parent of a child with a bleeding disorder is without the doubt a truly difficult thing. It's not a disorder that can be seen right away, it's not a mental handicap and it's not one that people know much about. You are constantly having to explain to others what it is exactly. But all that is ok, it's great, because the more you talk about it the more people start to understand it. The more you say Hemophilia, the less foreign and scary it sounds. The more you discuss it with your family, your friends and your co-workers, the more you will see that you are a strong parent helping yourself and your child overcome a disorder.

A Psychologist once told me that I had to look at it like this - this is how his body works and we have to work with it.

It sounded so simple and it's taken me a year to fully understand it and use it as my philosophy.

I am a proud mother to 2 wonderful boys, one with Hemophilia and one without. My challenge now is to figure out how to treat them both the same.

Do I put the Thudguard on the little one too? I think I will.

I write this blog to help me rationalize my thoughts and to also let other moms and dads out there know that if they are struggling with a child that has a disorder, they are not the only ones.

Bebeccino.com was created to help people find safety products. I hope that you will spread the word about this blog and the website.

Tomorrow is Easter and Sunday, and I pray that there will not be any falls, bumps or bleeds during the egg hunt!

Happy Easter to all...

Au revoir Adiri...

Adiri is no more!

Bebeccino will no longer stock this great and innovative baby bottle. The manufacturer went out of business a little while ago!

Like you, I am perplexed as to what happened. I first discovered Adiri in Los Angeles, in a great store called The Right Start.
At the time, Gabriel was 10 months old and I was trying to get him to take a bottle.

I loved the look and Gabriel took to it right away. When I decided to launch bebeccino, Adiri was the first product I purchased. It was a great seller from the beginning. I was overjoyed. It gave me that extra push that I needed to expand the products I had and get into bebeccino full time. As full time as I could be with a child that has a bleeding disorder.

No matter what, I could always rely on Adiri. We sold stock after stock and I never thought that we would stop selling it. Until one day, I got an email from the manufacturer saying they were ceasing production on the bottles and that they would close.

Within a day they were gone, a terrible victim of the US financial fiasco that is happening at the moment.

We sold our last few bottles this week and it was sad to box up my last bottle and ship it off.

I would like to thank all the wonderful clients that bought the bottles and that supported bebeccino over the last year and a half.

I am grateful to you all for helping me as I continue to work from home and support my son.

So, I say Au revoir to Adiri and a BIG thank you to you all for all the continuous encouragement that you give when you read my blog and surf bebeccino.

HOWEVER, I say a BIG bonjour to all our other great products, such as Think Baby bottles, Organic Kidz stainless steel baby bottles, Born Free and other wonderful sippy cups.

Check them out when you have a chance, you will not be disappointed.

Enjoy!

things learned over the last couple of years...

I have an audience! I would like to thank my audience of one for supporting me and not being porn spam!
It made me happy to know that there is actually someone out there reading what I have to say! So, again, my heartfelt thanks!
Whether you have kids with disabilities or not, you still go through the regular hustle and bustle of having a family.
The disability is a just a little added bonus to enhance your already action filled life!
In this blog, you’ll see what I have learned over the last couple of years as a mom and as a mom of a child with a bleeding disorder!
Here goes…

• It now takes me an hour and a half to get out of the house and that does not include me brushing my hair or my teeth!!

• Not everyone takes pleasure out of seeing all 500 pictures of your children…damn those digital cameras!

• Dishes and laundry don’t do themselves.

• Apparently if your husband is holding the baby, he is unable to do anything else, because he is holding the baby and THAT is doing something! I, on the other hand, can, make dinner, pay bills, fold laundry, pack the diaper bag AND hold the baby…but I digress..

• If something smells funny around you, it’s probably you because you haven’t showered in days!

• Going to the bathroom is now referred to as ‘making poopies’

• Most people babyproof their homes by adding locks to their cupboards and cover their outlets, I, on the other hand, being the mom of a child with a bleeding disorder, get rid of my coffee tables, pad most of my floors, drill all my furniture into the walls and put bumper pads on the remaining furniture.

• You now take a shower with the curtain open and sing kiddie songs to your screaming kids as you soak up the bathroom floor

• Going to the pharmacy to pick up diapers and other baby items is considered an evening out

• As soon as the baby starts to crawl, I put knee pads and a helmet on him. Is that going overboard?

• Your husband can never pack the diaper bag properly

• While other children play with rubber duckies in the tub, my kids play use syringes as squirt guns to desensitize them to needles

• No matter how well you baby proof the house, your baby will always find something dangerous to play with!

• Getting 4 hours of sleep in a row makes you feel refreshed and alive!

• Guilt and fear become your greatest emotions

• Your house seems to always look like a tornado hit it

• Complete strangers don’t have a problem asking personal questions especially about breastfeeding!

• Making dinner takes a minimum of 2 hours to make as you have to stop every 2 minutes to either yell at your child, get your child out from the cupboard/under the table/closet or nurse a bump!

• You have lost all people skills and now talk to everyone in a baby’s voice

• You’re known as Gabriel and Robert’s mommy and you introduce yourself as such!

• You wonder how many times you can watch Finding Nemo before you are put off fish forever

• You spend more time than you would like at the hospital due to your son’s hemophilia

• Your child’s favorite words are ‘No’ and ‘Mine’

• You now have to deal with kicking, biting, screaming and tantrums, usually done in public places

• You’ve lost your sanity somewhere between the time the first one was born and when he started eating solids

• You realize that you are always doing laundry!

• Quality time with your husband is paying bills together, folding laundry together and falling asleep early

• Christmas gifts in my household (again with the bleeding disorders!) include medical kits and band aids!

• My freezer overflows with a variety of ice packs for my son’s bumps and bruises

• You can’t remember your life before them and can’t imagine your life without them

I would not be where I am today, had Gabriel not been diagnosed with Hemophilia.
As I sit here writing, Gabriel is giving his plush monkey a treatment. According to my son, the monkey hurt himself and needs to be treated. The toy medical kit is out, the syringe is out and the band aids are out. I am smiling to myself and well, maybe the thing I learned the most over the last couple of years is that in the eyes of a child, even a treatment can be made into a game.

kids, helmets and, well, neurosis!

Can you sell your children on E-Bay? Sometimes you feel like you want to do that. Especially in the morning, when you are trying to get out of the house.

Nothing says losing your mind like leaving the house and realizing that you forgot to put trousers on! That happened to me last week. I had the kids all ready to go. Grabbed my bag and went to put my boots on when I realized I forgot to put my jeans on!

You know you need a break or a drink when…

There are days when you want to fling yourself from your balcony and then there are other days when your heart just bursts from all the love that you feel for your kids.

I know that I am blessed, I feel so lucky to have my kids. They are both so wonderful. I feel divided at times, like I give Gabriel more attention because he has Hemophilia. The other day, Robert bumped his head and I did not panic as I would have for Gabriel. I automatically felt guilty for not doing so.

Will I make him wear knee pads? Will I make him wear the Thudguard helmet when the time comes? I don’t think I will.

Speaking of the Thudguard, most of my sales are not from parents with kids who have disabilities but from parents who have healthy kids with no ‘issues’ if you will.

Would you make your child wear a helmet as they learn to walk?

Birthday parties are coming up and I can feel my stress level rise. Gabriel chances of getting hurt are about 99% when he goes to birthday parties. I can’t risk that and so we decline most of the birthday parties. I feel like I am depriving him of fun, but at the same time, there is no fun in heading to the ER on a weekend.

Are people understanding? I hope so. Would you understand?