living life abundantly in spite of PCOS
The infertility community is full of incredible and supportive women with so many different stories. Whether trying for a first, second, third, etc. child, there is someone who everyone can relate to. However, it gets tricky when you’re in a position like me…
Throughout the last decade of my journey with PCOS and infertility, I’ve had more dreams than I can count that are related to pregnancy and childbirth. While going through fertility treatments, I can remember dreaming about getting two pink lines on a pregnancy test. I remember dreaming about those sweet little kicks and what they would feel like. Each pregnancy dream gave me so much hope and I felt like each one was a sign… a gift… a glimpse of what was to come. I would wake up from those dreams feeling so happy.
Recently, I picked up some kind of cooties for the first time in a very long time. It came with major body aches (my rib cage felt like I had been beaten up), a sore throat, and I was freezing. I never had a fever. I never had enough drainage to warrant taking medication. It wasn’t the flu. It felt like an early onset of strep, and yet it went away without antibiotics. I understand that strep comes in viral form and bacterial form, and sometimes (heck, most of the time) it needs antibiotics. I’m not tossing out the idea that it was strep and I am not claiming that I cured strep naturally, but whatever it was, it went away as quickly as it came. I wanted to share what helped me survive the sickness and manage symptoms without pharmaceutics. I keep these items on hand at all times just in case we get sick, that way we’re never without! I will also add that if I didn’t start to feel better so quickly, I would have gone to a doctor. Thankfully, I never needed to. 🙂
In the past, we took the over-the-counter brand Sambucus Immune
After spending a lot of time in various infertility support groups over the last decade of my adulthood, I’ve learned just how deep the roots of social media anxiety goes when it comes to the holidays and pregnancy announcements. Everyone who struggles knows they are coming. It’s like a ticking time bomb we’re all just waiting to go off.
The quintessential pregnancy announcement: piggybacking on a holiday as a way to announce a pregnancy.
We started planning our first Disney vacation in 2014 (went for the first time in 2015) as a way to have something exciting to focus on in the midst of our struggles with infertility. We had no idea we’d get addicted to the most magical place on earth like we did, and no idea that it would save our sanity after our miscarriage last year. While we haven’t become a “Disney every year” family, we do go every other year, and we’re currently planning our third Disney vacation for May 2019!
Quite often people tell me “I want to plan a Disney vacation but have no idea where to start”, so that is what this post is going to focus on today! Disney vacations are not like any other trip you plan. I spend fewer hours planning to go to the beach or the mountains. There is a lot of detail involved with Disney, and while it can look overwhelming from the outside, once you’re in it you understand why there is so much to plan. From dining to FastPasses, to touring plans so you can avoid long lines, there is just a lot to figure out. But the good news is there are so many free resources available to not only making planning more fun but to also take the hard work out of it. Whether or not you have children to take to Disney, there is something at the parks for everyone.
Before you get started on planning your Disney vacation, check out my posts on How to Afford a Trip to Disney World and How to Earn FREE Money for Vacations, then come back here for your free planning resources.
September is PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) Awareness Month. I heard someone say recently that they feel like there is an “awareness” day, week, or month for everything these days and it feels like we’re in this vortex of over-saturation of “awareness”. This made me cringe.
I mean, I get it. But here’s the thing: there is still a major deficit of awareness of so many things. If we keep quiet and don’t speak up, we can’t expect people to understand what we’re going through. It leaves us feeling isolated, alone, and left behind while other ailments receive attention from the medical community.
I’m so excited to announce that I have partnered up with Logan over at With Great Expectation to do a fantastic giveaway for PCOS Awareness Month. The giveaway is hosted on Instagram this year, and today I wanted to share what we’re giving away, why, and how to enter to win:
Logan and I are EACH giving away a set of 3 essential oils that we use for PCOS symptoms, valued at $129 retail per person. Yes, there will be TWO winners! The oils we’re giving away are Progessence Plus, Endoflex, and SclarEssence. I’ve shared some details on how I use these oils on my Instagram stories (you can view it on my highlights), but Logan and I are each going LIVE on Instagram to share more information about why we chose these oils and what they have done for us, and we’ll be sure to save those live videos on our highlights so you can go back and watch them if you miss it.
This summer was hard. I found myself unable to write for my Restoration series throughout June, July, and mostly into August. I was unable to because I went through a season of not feeling restored. After my May post where I felt so free, so healed, and so… happy… it’s like I went into the complete opposite direction. The anniversary of my miscarriage came and went, and there were days that I felt like life was being squeezed right out of me. I became bitter and angry all over again, and my pursuit of restoration felt like a failure. I would be lying if I didn’t share this part of my restoration journey. It’s not always going to be perfect. There isn’t always a rainbow at the end of a storm. Sometimes it’s just a flood. Sometimes, I feel like I am barely keeping my head above water because I’m so anxious about everything.
Last summer, after 5.5 years of waiting, we caught a glimmer of hope that the blue room was going to become a nursery. I couldn’t believe it! Finally, after all these years of waiting and my daughter begging for a sibling, I was pregnant. All of those Pinterest nursery ideas I had saved on “what to do with a bedroom with two closets” were finally going to be put to use. It was finally going to happen!
But then, it didn’t…
Photo by Xavier Sotomayor on Unsplash
“Never give up!”
“Don’t stop the fight!”
“If you’re done trying, are you going to adopt?”
“When are you starting treatment again?”
How about never…
What happens when you’re just tired? Tired of fighting. Tired of waiting. Tired of hoping. Tired of disappointment. What happens when you’ve reached the max number of years you’re willing to hold on to the wait for babies?