The importance of knowledge.

As I continue on this fertility journey, I find myself extremely grateful for my Catholic faith and Young Living Essential Oils. Let me explain. I have come to truly believe that knowledge is power. When you know your body, supplements, herbs, and oils, and your diagnosis, you can truly take charge of your own health. Now its pretty obvious that being a part of Young Living Essential Oils has given me some knowledge of oils and supplements, but what does my Catholic faith have to do with any of this. Well, if it weren't for my desire to get married in the Catholic Church, I never would have learned about charting my cycles. Through my frustrations with Natural Family Planning (NFP), I was actually able to identify that there was something going on with my body before I ever got pregnant or started trying for a baby. Since I was using Natural Family Planning, I looked for an NFP doctor and found a wonderful woman named April Lind (she's at the Maple Grove Park Nicollet Clinic and only takes new NFP patients). Through working with her, I was able to look at my chart and identify that I likely did have PCOS. Unfortunately, the Park Nicollet system was working against her and we could only go so far with natural treatments. However, Dr. Lind did recommend a few books that I have found extremely helpful in learning more about my body and how to treat my issues naturally.
I quickly read through Making Babies by Sami David and Taking Charge of your Fertility by Toni Weschler. These books have become go to resources for me along with Fertility, Cycles, and Nutrition which was published by the Couple to Couple League. These books have taught me about the types of food I need to be eating and the supplements I should be taking to aid in fertility. I have also learned from these books all the important obvious signs and the more subtle signs of ovulation. This knowledge empowers me to not only help myself through the process of trying to conceive, but also to help others find what they need to do as well. Knowledge really is power and without my Catholic Faith and Young Living Essential Oils, I would not have the knowledge I have now.

My cousin's baby.

Today has been an eventful day. I have been sticking to the Paleo diet for about 2 weeks now and have lost 4lbs as of Friday night's weigh in. At work today, a lovely volunteer brought me lunch. A pasta dish... Pasta is full of gluten. Not wanting to be rude, I ate about half of it before I had a class come in for a lesson. I brought the remainder home for my husband to eat. What would you have done in that situation?

After work, I got a call from my sister who totalled her car after someone pulled out on her. Both drivers involved were fine, but confused on what to do about the accident so I helped my sister through the process. Then I got a call from my mom. My closest cousin (in age and relationship) had her baby today. A beautiful little girl. On one hand, I am very excited to see my cousin happy and blessed with this little bundle of joy. I can't wait to meet this little girl. I am sure she will be a blessing in my life too. On the other hand, I feel like I lost one of my friends. It's really rather ridiculous, but now my cousin has a baby and I don't her life is going to change to fit that little baby's needs while mine remains relatively the same. My cousin is starting a family while I am getting out of debt and building a business. I am sad to think about how this might change our relationship. We can no longer make last minute plan to do crazy fun things. We can no longer be as spontaneous and crazy. And we have something that we cannot share. Maybe I am over thinking things. I am sure that things will be fine... Do you have any advice for getting through all of your friends having babies while you wait for your blessing?