Welcome to Friday Favorites! If you’re new to the blog, here’s how to play along. Every Friday I devote my post to showcasing awesome blog posts by other bloggers that I’ve read over the past week or two. Then, I invite you to do the same and link up. This is any easy way to share the love and find great new blogs.

Today I’ve got a lot of favorite posts! So, in no particular order…

Jenn runs the blog The Connected Mom. I came across her post What You Need to Know if You’re Going to Breastfeed and ladies, it’s awesome advice. I highly recommend it to anyone who is pregnant. I wish I’d known about some of this before I’d had M., like that lots of IV fluids can artificially inflate a baby’s birth weight. It’s not harmful to the baby, but can cause medical professionals to worry about their feeding unnecessarily (“Oh, baby has lost too much weight; there must be something wrong with your milk coming in, better supplement!”). Go, go read it!

Next up is Elizabeth of Spilt Milk, an Australian blogger I met through Twitter (like how I’ve found most fabulous bloggers). She’s written a couple posts this week that I loved. The Right to Bear is about the comfort objects that so many of us had in childhood (mine were Shamu the killer whale and Pink Blankey, the pink blanket), that we may even still have (Shamu’s on my dresser, PB is in the nursery), and how adults’ impressions of these objects can shape our coping. Second, The Wrong Prescription? covers a proposition in Australia to make infant formula available by prescription only. Elizabeth delves into the many reasons this idea may not be such a great one. Both pieces are extremely thoughtful.

Finally, Liz’s posts really resonated with me. I only just came across her blog, thanks to a link up post by Arwyn of Raising My BoyChick, but Liz has chronic pain and uses a wheelchair. Although our situations are not the same, I could really relate to the concerns she voices in Pain, Disability, and Parenting. I worry how my illness will affect my kids and whether they will focus on the “Mommy can’ts” instead of “Mommy cans.” There’s something comforting in knowing I’m not alone in that. Kids and Wheelchair Manners is just awesome (any post that uses the phrase “gleeful zombie” is bound to be). It contains great guidelines for parents (especially able-bodied parents, who may not be so used to wheelchairs themselves) in helping their children learn about disabilities. I hope that when M. begins to have questions about these sorts of things that I’ll be able to guide him towards people like Liz, who are open discussing disability.

Also, please don’t forget about the Winter Crafts Carnival Linky! It closes late tonight/early tomorrow morning.