My heart is so heavy that writing here is a bit difficult to do. A dear friend contacted me yesterday with the most devastating news. She gave birth in January to her 3rd son- absolutely beautiful baby. His life was lost to SIDs on this Monday. We are attending his memorial service tomorrow and will be continuing to provide prayer and support to my friend and her family.

I’ve been looking for some helpful links to try to come to some point of peace before seeing them tomorrow so I can try to be supportive and found several resources online:

How to Help When Someone Loses a Child
Sids Alliance Grieving Support (including 24 hour crisis hotline 1-800-221-7437)
Support for Siblings

My heart grieves so much for this mother and father who lost their precious child. If you have a moment to keep this family in your prayers or thoughts I would greatly appreciate it.

Nice giveaways this week-
Free Taco Tuesday February 24, 2009 at Jack in the Box: coupon here

Free Victoria’s Secret Pink Lotion (organic!): coupon here

A dear friend and I took our kids to see a very neat exhibit at a local nature museum. Dinosaurs featured life sized dinosaurs equipped with robotic motion and sound (they didn’t chase the kids, just head and arm movement). I wasn’t sure about what the boys would think of the dinosaurs but they wound up absolutely loving running from dino to dino along a forest trail.

I calmly waddled along with my friend and tried desperately to catch pictures of our lightening fast children. They slowed down to look at the above Dilophosaurus. We didn’t realize until we caught up with them that this dinosaur had the added realistic effect of spitting water out on the kids. EBoy thought this was incredibly neat- not because of the simulated poison- but for an entirely different reason. He walked up to me and excitedly(and very loudly) exclaimed- “Mommy, Mommy- that dinosaur is spitting!!! It’s like its going to have a baby or something!”

My pregnancy ptyalism hasn’t exactly gotten any better, but I thought I was at least discretely handling things by spitting into a cup day in and day out. EBoy seemed very impressed by the Dilophosaurus projectory, but I promise I do not have a 6 foot range even at my worst points of the day.

I had my visit with my doctor this week. Baby and I are growing great, the baby decided to karate chop my doctor every time she tried to measure me or get a heartbeat. I truly adore my doctor this go round and was careful to choose someone who is supportive of my 2nd VBAC. I’m not terribly thrilled about my weight gain- since I officially weigh more than I’ve ever weighed before (I typically put on 15 pounds or so for the entire pregnancy and have already surpassed that by a couple of pounds)but my doctor has confidence that I’m doing just fine. I’m no where near as active as I typically am since heading outside flares up my allergy response and sinus drainage (including a great dry hacking cough), but I’m hoping to try to incorporate some walking into my routine in the immediate future.

My 1 hour glucose test was also performed this visit and while I don’t know my results yet I’m hoping I did well. I was very happy that my doctor told me that it was fine to eat before I came in- but since my appointment was early and I wasn’t in the mood to eat much of anything that might affect my glycemic levels (bananas, oranges, etc. are my favorite in the morning) I decided to wait and eat later, instead drinking milk and then a bottle of water before arriving.

I’ve also been taking fish oil daily as well as flaxseed oil (which is not recommended in pregnancy because it causes estrogen issues in some women, but thankfully has never been an issue in any of my pregnancies) because they provide more stabilization to my blood sugar and hunger levels. I add both to my green smoothie which ETot still loves to share with me.

Now I realize might be a good time to really focus on the things I need to get together for the baby- like a nursery, sling, monitor, breastpump, and other baby accoutrements I’ve been in denial about needing. I’m hoping to get some roundups accomplished in the immediate future as I complete my search for the perfect products for our newest ebony baby, I’ll definitely be asking for the input of my readers since so much has changed since our last baby 4 years ago.

I spent Friday celebrating Valentine’s Day with ETot’s preschool class. I absolutely love his school this year- his teachers are wonderful and the parents are the most friendly and interactive that I have experienced yet. Click below to see more pictures from our day.

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