Infertility: The Club No One Wants to Join

Infertility.

A word that stings and brings up so many feelings for so many women.

I hate that so many women and couples struggle to grow their family. 

It's an awful feeling to desire children and for that to seem so out of reach.  I'm currently praying for a long list of friends, online friends, high school friends, acquaintances and blog buddies to be able to get pregnant and grow their families.  It's heartbreaking and can be such a lonely road filled with a crazy roller coaster of emotions. 

Did you know that it is National Infertility Week?  I didn't want to let the week go by without acknowledging it on the blog.

I first wrote about our infertility journey back in 2017:

Infertility: I Never Thought It Would Happen to Me

I shared our stories detailing the time, doctor's appointments and fertility medicine it would take to grow our family.

I realize that an infertility post might seem like a strange one for me to be writing this year as a mom of 3.  I am still wrapping my head around that fact this year.

We struggled to get pregnant for years (off and on since 2011) and then we were blessed with a sweet surprise baby #3.  We had nearly given up hope of ever getting pregnant on our own.  We are so thankful for Leo, Fletcher & Olive and, having gone down the road of infertility, we know we are very blessed to have them.  I'll always find joy in the day to day rhythms of motherhood because it was a long road for us to get here.

I want to encourage you if you're in the trenches of infertility and feeling down, the future is bright and blessings will come your way.  They might like very different from your own plans and milestones, but God is good, and blessings that are tailored just for you will come your way.  Our blessings included finally getting pregnant, wonderful doctors, modern medicine, God's timing not our timing, traveling, moving, surprises and a timeline that we never could have imagined.

If you're currently struggling with infertility, I'd LOVE to be a support and encouragement to you.  Send me an email (polkadottyplace@hotmail.com), leave a comment or reach out on social media.  I'd be honored to add you to my list of women to pray for and encourage through your journey to grow your family!

Fun @ Home

We're almost 40 days into our shelter in place and most days we can easily say we are having fun.  Sure, we are missing our regular routines, but, we are making the most of our time together.

We are keeping basic routines of getting ready every day, keeping the house tidy, learning, having fun and enjoying the sunshine any chance we can get.

I started doing something where I ask the kids each morning -  

What is ONE thing you want to do today?

Then they list one activity that they hope to get to do.  It'll be something like play outside, Play-Doh, an art project, Facetime with _________, bake cookies, etc.  I write their one thing on my daily to do list.  *If their one thing happens to be something that is not possible, we will talk through why it isn't an option for that day (ex: swimming wouldn't work today because it's only 50 degrees outside) and then they'll pick something different to do.  It's been a simple way for me to take into account their hopes for the day as I'm working through my own to do list.  I love asking for their input and letting them help me plan the day.

I'm excited to share some of our favorite FUN things to do at home from this month.

1. Fly a Kite

2. Build a blanket/pillow fort
This is perfect for a rainy day.  My kids love to build Blanket City.  Each blanket is a different type of city.  Our only rule this is that the kids have to help clean up if they want to build a fort.  Also, if they start fighting or arguing the fort gets put away.  They both really enjoy making forts so we rarely have any problems with this.

3. Zoom Meetings or Facetime
Say YES to any zoom meetings or try to Facetime with family and friends.  Olive has a weekly Zoom meeting with her class.  This was her face during their first Zoom call.  She was SO excited to connect with her friends and teacher again.

4. Climb / Play / Explore
Playing outside is probably their #1 favorite activity.

5. Use Your Imagination
I think this game had something to do with firefighters fighting fires.  It was chilly out so no actual water was shot out of these water guns.   I love seeing the games the kids come up with now that they've got much more than usual time at home together.

6. Sidewalk Chalk a Garden
My kids like a theme when we sidewalk chalk.  Some of our favorite themes - flowers, trace outlines of each other, giant pizza slices, rainbows, name art, hopscotch boards, etc.

7. Plan a Picnic (inside or outside!)
I packed the kid's Yumboxes with their favorite foods, let them stay in their pjs through lunch time and then invited them to an indoor picnic.  They loved it.

8. Movie Night
Olive completed another reading log so we celebrated with a movie night & popcorn.  We watched Richie Rich.  We all enjoyed it!  Find fun ways to celebrate your kid's learning milestones at home.  This celebration only required Netflix and a bag of microwave popcorn.  Super easy and Olive felt super special to stay up a little later than normal to watch a movie.

9. Bake
I've baked with the kids, tried new recipes and tried to enjoy having more time at home to cook.  I made cinnamon rolls for Kevin this week and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies before that.

10. Family Walks
We've taken a little break from bike riding as I'm recovering, but walks are still totally doable.  We try to squeeze in a walk any day that the weather is nice.  It's good for all of us to get out and stretch our legs.

What fun things are you doing with your family during this time??

Bringing Leo Home

I was thrilled to find out that I only had to stay in the hospital for 48 hours after I had Leo.  I am not the girl who loves the hospital stay portion of the baby delivery process.  I tolerate it, try to relax as much as possible, rely on my nurses for help and medicine and then am EAGER to go home.  It was no different this time other than the fact that I was moving much slower after having a csection. 

We got the all clear to head home on April 9th and then of course it took several hours to actually get discharged.  We were anxious to see Olive and Fletcher and for them to officially get to meet Leo. 

A Facetime introduction or two just isn't the same as holding a snuggly baby. 

I texted my mom to tell her we were on our way home and to have the kids wash their hands.  We (safely) zoomed home.

Kevin carried in Leo and I hurried in to see Olive and Fletcher.  I cried seeing them.  They both looked so big all of the sudden.  Especially Fletcher.  I guess that's par for the course when you're suddenly promoted to big brother.  Everyone got hugs and kisses and had lots to catch up on from the past couple of days.

The kids were SO excited to see Leo. 

The couldn't wait to hold him.  

They got situated on the couch and waited patiently.

Months of anticipation and talks of a baby brother were suddenly coming true.

They wanted to check him out ASAP.  Hat off to see his hair.  Check out his long fingers.  And then they had to see his toes.  They were SO curious about him.  It was hilarious and very sweet.

Fletcher's turn.  Lots of holding.  Lots of kisses.  The baby brother he's been asking to come out and play was finally here!

Our first picture as a family of FIVE.

 Olive wanted to help feed him.

 Introductions wear a guy out.

 Everything he did was cute to them.

My mom snapped this picture of Olive and it might be one of my favorite picture of her.  She was so good holding Leo and such a proud big sis.

She's already proven to be THE BEST helper.

Leo was very content to be home with his family.

These were such sweet moments!!  I was so thankful to be home and so thankful to be out of the hospital.  I was still in a fair amount of pain and discomfort, but being home was a great distraction.

Adventures with Mimi & Papaw

One of the most nerve wracking things for me when attempting to make plans for Leo's delivery was taking care of the big kids.  I wanted life to be as normal as possible for them and for them not to be too worried about mom and dad being gone.  Turns out with our life on pause like everyone else's it was easy to follow our routine of staying home.

I tried to play out all the scenarios - water breaking, middle of the night, scheduled delivery, etc.  We don't have any family in town so we would be relying on friends to help us out if Leo decided to pick his own birthday.  Thankfully, we ended up carrying out a scheduled plan to head to the hospital and my mom was able to come up the day before to get settled in to life at our house.

I know every family is different, but we never leave our kids overnight.

We have never had the luxury of having family in town.

We have always had to be the full time parents 24/7 for the last almost 7 years.  I'm not complaining, just sharing our family norm with you.  So leaving Olive and Fletcher felt sad.  I was really thankful my mom (Mimi) volunteered to come up and stay for the week.  I knew they'd have a great time with her, but I also knew that they are very used to our regular routines.  I did my best to prepare them for the timeline of things and they really did have a wonderful time!

My mom sent me tons of cute pictures of them while I was in the hospital.  I sent them lots of pictures and we tried to Facetime several times.

Everything went really smoothly and everyone enjoyed their time together.  My mom gave the kids a great report.  It was a fun week for everyone.  I'm super thankful to have had her help all week!  She took care of the kids, the house, the meals and all of us!!

My mom arrived with a car load of things.  We teased and asked if she was moving in with us.  She brought meals, groceries, crafts, toys, treats and activities to do with the kids all week.

Thanks for holding down the fort all week, Mimi!

Cute moments from the week:  Good morning, cuties!

Art time with Mimi!

The weather was gorgeous for most of the week.

Nothing makes a mom happier than seeing pics of her kids with HUGE smiles :)

Olive wrapped up the week by losing her front tooth.  I teased her that she better not lose it while I was at the hospital and then the night we got home she brought it to me in the middle of the night.  Ha!  Welcome home, Mom!

My mom was at our house Monday-Friday and then my Dad planned a super quick trip up to visit us on Easter Sunday.  He hadn't met Leo yet.

Leo Marvin meeting Marvin (AKA Papaw :)
Leo's birthday is April 7th and my dad's birthday is April 9th.
So in addition to sharing a name, they get to share a birthday week!

 

The big kids were excited for visitors after over a month of being home and going no where.

My parents are the only family members that have met Leo.  Everyone else has just gotten Facetime or social media introductions.  It's such a strange time to have a baby with all of the shelter in place orders right now.  We're thankful to stay home and keep everyone healthy BUT we're also very excited to introduce Leo to the rest of our families!

2 Part Art Project: DOTS

Since we're home 24/7 these days, I'm trying to come up with new ways to use our regular art and craft supplies.  I've got a plentiful stash so I'm trying to get creative with the supplies I already own.  I've been picking up supplies and stocking up over time for such a time as this :)

I got this original idea from @homegrownfriends on instagram.

I adapted it to work for my kids with the supplies I already have.

We used 3 things: white paper from a roll, dot markers and black markers/crayons.

And, in full disclosure, I enjoyed doing this art project just as much as the kids.

Part 1:
Give your kids a long piece of white paper.  Ask them to work together to fill up the paper with dots of various sizes and colors.  Encourage them to make large, medium and small dots and everything in between.  The Dauber Dawgs dot markers worked wonderfully for this project.  They make tiny circles if you just dot them and then can easily be used to paint larger circles.  They aren't messy and the colors are so vibrant.  My kids have used and loved these for at least a year.  Best art supply for dot pictures or for painting.   Let the dots dry from a couple of hours so that they are ready for the next part.

Part 2:
Once all the dots have dried for 1-2 hours, come back and turn all of the dots into faces, animals, foods, flowers and more.  Anything goes!  I pulled up some emoji faces and some simple animal faces from Pinterest to give us inspiration.  You could easily do part 1 in the morning and part 2 in the afternoon.  Or break the art project up into two different days.

I love how the finished project turned out and plan to hang it in our playroom on display.  It is such a fun piece of collaborative art to look at each day!  We worked on adding details to dots together and then we worked on some faces by ourselves.  Fletcher (age 4) loved making the dots and was super interested in that portion of the project.  He didn't love adding the details/faces as much.  He'd do a face or two and then go play.  Come back and do another one or two and be done.  Olive (age 6) worked on this part for at least an hour.
 

Would your kids enjoy this??

Here are my Amazon affiliate links to the supplies for this project:
Thanks for supporting PDP!

We have two different sets of these dot markers - Dauber Dawgs and the Do a Dot Art.  Both are wonderful!  They've lasted for at least a year, work great for kids of all ages, are fun for adults and are really durable.  This is probably our most requested art supply for the kids.

We have probably purchased this Melissa and Doug white art paper roll package 2-3 times.  It's great for art projects.  My kids love when their art easel is loaded with it and it lasts a long time.

Easter at Home 2020

I hope you had a wonderful Easter at home this year.  It felt strange and wonderful all at the same time to be hunkered down at home for the holiday.

I tried to keep up some of our same traditions and then just let all the other things slide for the year.  The kids wore cute Easter outfits, did an egg hunt at home, had Easter baskets, we ate festive food and I made our traditional Easter dinner.

The kids said Easter was different, but good.

We also spread out the festivities all weekend since I just had a baby on Tuesday.  I prepped Easter baskets & our menu ahead of time and Kevin filled our Easter eggs.  I tryied hard to simplify things and not over do it.  That's easier said than done for me :)

I've always wanted to make bunny cinnamon rolls.  It was so easy to do with a can of cinnamon rolls from Aldi.  Make sure to get the kind that unrolls.

The country club Easter bunny stopped by our house to leave treats for the kids instead of doing his usual egg hunt at the club.  I missed the tradition of getting the kid's pictures taken with the bunny and getting all dressed up for the bunny brunch.

We dyed eggs in our pjs.

We bundled up and headed outside for an egg hunt between the rain.

Our yellow Magnolia tree started blooming this week!!

Loads of eggs for these cuties.

Leo's 1st Easter!

Our 1st holiday as a family of 5.

His 1st Easter is one we will never forget!!
Our sweet neighbor sent over chocolate bunnies for the big kids and this stuffed bunny for Leo.
SO precious!!!

Real life: Baby is hungry, needy and Mama needs to eat.
Enter: Time to do everything with a baby in one arm :)
This combo doesn't feel nearly as stressful with baby #3 as it did with the first two.  

 We also ate loads of Easter candy!!!

While we enjoyed a quiet Easter at home this year, we can't wait to celebrate with our usual traditions next year.