A new baby

So it turned out there was a baby in my belly during my brief reacquaintance with the Baha'i fast. I lasted four days, after which I felt just bad enough to be suspicious. And so I took a little test and discovered I actually was not as independent, certainly not as autonomous, as I thought I was. Then I ate breakfast. And lunch. And raw liver and fish eggs and high vitamin fermented cod liver oil and raw yogurt and cheese and meat and fish and lacto-fermented stuff and butter and pastured eggs and this multivitamin...basically this diet:

Diet for Pregnant and Nursing Mothers

• Cod Liver Oil to supply 20,000 IU vitamin A and 2000 IU vitamin D per day
• 1 quart (or 32 ounces) whole milk daily, preferably raw (www.realmilk.com)
• 4 tablespoons butter daily, preferably from pasture-fed cows
• 2 or more eggs daily, preferably from pastured chickens
• Additional egg yolks daily, added to smoothies, salad dressings, scrambled eggs, etc.
• 3-4 ounces fresh liver, once or twice per week (If you have been told to avoid liver for fear of getting “too much Vitamin A,” be sure to read Vitamin A Saga fromwww.WestonAPrice.org)
• Fresh seafood, 2-4 times per week, particularly wild salmon, shellfish and fish eggs
• Fresh beef or lamb daily, always consumed with the fat
• Oily fish or organic lard daily, for vitamin D
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil daily, used in cooking or smoothies, etc.
• Lacto-fermented condiments and beverages
• Bone broths used in soups, stews and sauces
• Soaked whole grains
• Fresh vegetables and fruits

Minus the soaked whole grains. The girls and I have been on the GAPS diet for the past 9 months for various health reasons (namely systemic candida and ridiculous fatigue.) Basically this means we've been grain-free, potato-free, and sugar-free. It also means probiotic supplements and foods and it's supposed to mean lots of bone and meat broth, but we've certainly fallen off the wagon with this one in recent months.

The lovely part about all this is that I'm in better health than I've been in for a long time and I was already eating most of the foods in the list above. So though I may not have been prepared for those two little lines at 5:30 in the morning, my body had certainly been preparing itself. (Virtually no morning sickness!) For this and the fact that Violet will be nearly three-years-old when the baby is born (early November), I am eternally grateful. (I am equally grateful that Samaya and Violet are 20 months apart, especially now that they are each other's best friends, but I never EVER want to do that again.)

Enough about food and more about this baby:

-Immediately after finding out, Samaya repeatedly asked if she could pee on a stick.

'Why?' I asked her. 'I'm pretty sure you're not pregnant.'

 'I know, Mom. I just want to see ONE line.'

-Samaya and I have enjoyed pouring over the book, A Child is Born, which is most definitely not the updated version and is certainly the 1970s version. Basically this means the amazing photographs of life inside the womb are timeless and beautiful and the text and bizarre photographs of pregnant women at one with nature and couples cuddling is wildly amusing. And luckily completely over Samaya's head.

-We heard the baby's heartbeat last week. It was amazing.

-Samaya announced a while back out of the clear blue that if it's a girl, we should name her Solana. I don't know where she came up with that, but we're all sold.

-A boy's name is proving to be trickier. And if I don't come up with something in the next six months, I'm terribly afraid Sisay will name him Toby. He's been taunting me with this name since Samaya. -There's nothing horrible about it. In fact, I like Tobias. The problem is, who is going to actually call him Tobias? And Toby sounds too much like a dog's name to me.

(Please please please forgive me if you or your child or your loved one is named Toby.)

So Toby has been the only circulating name, until yesterday when Samaya declares her choice to be 'Mac.' This one she says comes from Clifford (the children's TV show.) I text this to Sisay at work. The conversation goes like this:

'That is nice. Mac Taylor Sabera.'

'How about Mac Donald Sabera,' I counter.

'No.'

We just can't settle on anything. I guess that means the perfect boy's name is still out there waiting for us.

-After we heard the heartbeat, Violet decided she was going to pretend she totally knows what's going on. At least a couple times a day she asks to see my belly, then emphatically proclaims my giant outie belly button to be, 'CUTE!' She's also fond of telling complete strangers in the grocery store that, 'Mommy, baby, belly!' (Not always in that order.)

-We told my dad the news about 10 minutes after we found out when he came upstairs to steal coffee. His response:

"Ooooohhhhhh, no!"

(His excuse was that 1) it was 6 AM and 2) that he was looking at it purely from a babysitting point of view. I'm not sure how this makes it better.)