Apologies for worrying a few people... suffice to say I have not been dealing with Cami's loss very well at all and have been in quite a mood. It wasn't improved by a minor (but yech) infection, another flu which of course Laurent caught as well and then Nic, obnoxious amounts of contractions that amp up for 3-4 hours before going no-where and not sleeping more than an hour or two a night for the past few weeks courtesy of all of the above while attempting to keep pace and being majorly unimpressed with myself for not keeping up with training.

By this week things have leveled out and I had Sif, Jayne and Jen over along with their little people and an impromptu blessing way which was cheering. For those not familiar it's sort of like a baby shower but more to celebrate transition from one stage to another and represent support from the women around you. Also a bit different is that gifts are more symbolic than material which is nice given we've still got everything from Laurent's babyhood - ie everyone has a candle lit at the blessing way to take home to light once labor begins, everyone gets a bracelet to wear until the baby arrives safely or everyone brings a bead to contribute for a necklace to wear in labor representing their well wishes. So now I have a lovely lotus henna design on my bump, a red bracelet (left hand) and a jade lotus bracelet (right hand) which you can see here...

as well as the beads that will be a necklace once I find my crimp beads.

La was also very impressed with the whole event as A.) people were visiting, B.) there was a lovely banana cake and C.) Sienna was one of those people. I may be forgiven for this baby being human instead of canine yet given it heralded three things high on his awesome list in one day.

Other than that the pregnancy has continued to be boringly normal. Last MW's visit was Thurs. BP 120/80, bubs is happy, position is good, everything is ready to go. La having got the procedures down pat fished out the equipment and A had a "helpful helper" who 'took my blood pressure', used the Doppler to find bubs heartbeat and the placenta sounds after bossing her to 'put the cream on it' to make it work and turn the volume up.

In the meantime, time in the evenings that's too uncomfortable to do much is being invested in sketching and attempting to better my knitting. I'm still far from 'good' - just simple stuff which is dressed up a bit with embellishments but it's nice and rhythmic and doesn't require too much thought.

Last but not least... the last few days of La being an only child...