2 Days 'til D-Day - Alice and Autism

Today was an Alice in Wonderland-upside-down kind-of day.

I woke up around 4:30 and was unable to fall back asleep. So I spent the early hours reading, then made breakfast- which we sat down and ate like actual adults, then went back to sleep. I awoke around 11am and went to meet with a pediatrician to well, "interview" him. Listening to him answer my questions was a bit like listening to a wise professor.

• What are his views on vaccinations? This is a complex topic with a litany of concerns. He summarized it well with a fable of a man standing on a city street corner snapping his fingers. When a passerby asks why, he says "To keep the elephants away." When the questioner says, "But there are no elephants here!" He replies, "Then it must be working!" My summary on the morale of the story: elephants are dangerous and maybe the snapping helps... and perhaps the man's feet get sore from standing there, but an elephant sure would mess up the city.
  
• As a pediatrician, does he see harm in donating the cord blood after delivery? Without taking a stand-point on the issue, he said that our chances of benefiting from the stored cord-blood are slim to none, but that the baby is not robbed of any nutrients in doing so, (as I had incorrectly believed). We are still unsure about donating the blood for a variety of reasons.
  
• And my personal favorite, what on Earth is causing this increase in autism?? Reports says it isn't vaccines and even go so far as to state there is not an increase, just better methods of detection- but no one I knew had autism growing up and now everyone knows someone with autism, so I think that something is causing it and because boys are more likely to be diagnosed, I am more concerned. He said that something was obviously causing it and who knows what, but perhaps the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in proving that it isn't vaccines would have been better spent trying to find out what is causing the increase.

I am planning to meet another doctor for a similar round of questioning- but this guy seemed smart and my wonderful OB-Gyn recommended him - so he's aces in my book. (haha- someone please get that joke.. double meaning for Ace...)

Tonight, Kyle is organizing the big box of cables/wires and learning to use the new video camera, I am doing laundry and packing my bag to take when I deliver.