Eden's 2nd Birthday

Eden's second birthday is very quickly approaching. Last year, I embraced my sadness, and I was able to mourn and celebrate my daughter in the days leading up to and on her birthday, but this year I feel like I've tried not to think about it, and I have realized that I've been avoiding my own feelings about it, because things are different this year. Last year I was pregnant. I was around 15 weeks or so along, and I was mostly assured that we were expecting a healthy baby, but I don't think the reality that we'd have a baby in the end kicked in until much later. This year I have that healthy baby. She's a beautiful, and wonderful 6 month old who gives me so much joy that I feel like my heart will burst when I look at her. She fits into our family so perfectly that I can't imagine a life without her in it, but I know that if Eden had been healthy, we probably wouldn't have our little Rosalie, and that reality tears at my emotions.

Eden is a Big Sister!

I should have posted an update about Rosalie sooner, I know this, and I apologize to those who've been wondering about us. Thank you to the people who have reached out asking for an update! The reason for the delay is I've been struggling with how exactly to announce Rosalie's birth on this blog, because I know that many of my readers (especially new readers who come across our blog) are moms or dads who've recently been given a diagnosis of anencephaly or other fatal birth defect in their precious child. I want to be sensitive to that, and not have the first post they see on my blog to be this huge birth announcement announcing a healthy baby when they are expecting to find a story similar to their own. At the same time though, I want to give hope to those parents. Because there is hope - I was so afraid of never having another healthy baby after we lost Eden, but our precious rainbow baby was born absolutely perfect and is completely healthy. She is truly a blessing.

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day and October Update

Today is October 15th, Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. Eden's been on my mind a lot lately anyway, because of my current pregnancy, but we are getting closer to her first birthday, and so I've been thinking about her more and more. I've also been thinking about my Mema a lot lately. We are only a few days away from her being gone an entire year...it doesn't seem possible. I miss them both so much, and I can only take comfort in the fact that Mema is up in Heaven holding my baby girl for me.

September Update

Thing had been seeming very down lately. James had lost his job a couple months ago, bills were piling up, and it seemed like my body wasn't planning on regulating itself anytime soon, but last week suddenly everything changed. A couple weeks ago James found an ad for a job online and submitted his resume. Within minutes he got a call for a same-day interview! The interview went great and then we waited. After not hearing back for several days, James called the company back, and they had him come in for a meeting with the owner of the company - the next day he was working his new job for more than his old job paid and closer to home than his old job! Praise God! 

It's been a while...

It's been a while since I've updated. I mean to do it, and then get busy and it doesn't happen. Over 8 months has passed now, and we are coming up on Eden's first birthday...I'm not sure what we are going to do, but I think we will have family over to release balloons, like we did at her memorial.

I'm still here...

I know I haven't updated in a while. I kept meaning to, and then I start doing something else, or my thoughts get interrupted, and I just never get through an entire post without scraping it. I can't believe Eden would be going on 5 months already. Time goes by so incredibly fast. They said it goes by faster as you age, but I guess I never believed it when I was a kid.

What's Missing From Folic Acid Awareness Week

As I got on Facebook yesterday and scrolled down my newsfeed, something caught my attention. Somebody posted that Folic Acid Awareness Week is January 6-12 this year. They posted some information from the National Counsel on Folic Acid. I went onto the NCFA website and started reading some things, and the site talked about supplementing folic acid, and eating folic acid fortified foods (like cereal, pasta, bread, etc.) to get enough folic acid and prevent neural tube defects. It seems like a great website, and a great cause. And I mean, it sort of is, don't get me wrong - the research clearly shows that supplementing folic acid has reduced neutral tube defects by a significant percentage... but at the same time, I took the recommended 800mcg of folic acid my entire adult life religiously, every. single. night. I ate TONS of "fortified" cereal, bread, and pasta from the time I was a small child, into adulthood (and unfortunately, I'm sure it's part of what helped me pack on the pounds I'm fighting to lose now). I should have had plenty of folic acid in my system, and that would mean that I should never have had a child with a neural tube defect...right? Except I have a gene mutation, a compound, heterozygous MTHFR (aka, Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase) gene mutation to be exact. I could take hours to try to explain all that I've learned about what this means in regards to your health, pregnancies, etc., but I will try to keep it simple and to the point - this post is about MTHFR and folic acid.