The Very Unlucky 1%

It's been a few weeks, but I wanted to update and share that we received the results from our genetic testing after our most recent miscarriage.

We learned that this baby, too, was a little girl.
Three pregnancies. Three girls. Two in heaven. What are the odds?I asked Josh what he thought the odds of us having ANOTHER baby girl if and when we're lucky enough to get pregnant again. His response? "ONE HUNDRED PERCENT!" He's pretty convinced he's destined to be a daddy to a whole bunch of little girls. And that would be okay. He does the job well.

Speaking of odds, the even crazier thing is that we also learned that this baby, like Mya, had Down syndrome. Trisomy 21. Again, what are the odds?Well, actually..the odds are quite low. Obviously Google can yield a ton of different findings, but when doing research, I consistently found it quoted that the odds of having two consecutive miscarriages as a result of Down syndrome (given that I'm not "advanced maternal age") are about 1 percent.

1%.
The very unlucky 1%.
My RE was actually pretty stunned. Josh, however, was not. He pointed out that this pregnancy was so incredibly similar to Mya's, so he wasn't surprised. I guess I'm not either.

We decided upon a name for this baby girl.
She means so much to us and we felt she deserved a name, just like Mya.

Nora Anjolie.Nora means "honor" and "light."
Anjolie means "happy angel."

Pretty fitting for our second angel.
I'm glad Mya has a playdate, but we sure would have loved Nora to pieces here on Earth.

Below are a few videos from my YT channel where I talk more in depth about the miscarriage, the genetic screening, her name, etc. Plus there is some amazingly adorable Wren footage in one of them, so you'll enjoy that!

We are doing well. Currently, the plan is to wait until AF arrives officially (which I hope to have happen in the next week or two) and then we're back on track with TTC'ing. I am hopeful that, like after losing Mya, we will conceive pretty quickly. (Remember, we conceived Wren the first cycle trying after the miscarriage.) I'm hopeful and thankful to have Wren to keep us smiling.

Pinspired Playtime

I've discovered that Wren is a *much* happier girl if we are able to do an activity of some sort...anything creative...to entertain her throughout the day. She adores spending time in her playroom and she is becoming quite the little craftaholic, which, as you can imagine, just makes my whole being smile.

She's really into anything having to do with painting, drawing, coloring, etc. We had several unexpected hours of free time this afternoon so I did what any self-proclaimed copycat crafter would do.

I consulted Pinterest. Of course.

It's seriously amazing to see how cranky and unhappy she is when we're downstairs, versus the little girl you see in these pictures, and the one that stayed the entire rest of the day...so happy and engaged. I'm convinced she just needs a little bit of creative stimulation every day, which, I'll be honest-tickles me to no end.

Check out that little tongue! This girl is serious about her art.

First up, we tackled something so simple that I would never have thought of on my own. I can't, for the life of me, figure out where I pinned it, but I know for a fact that I saw this on Pinterest. I have a "Smartsy Artsy Baby Stuff" Board and a "Smartsy Artsy Kid Stuff" Board, so I'm certain it's on one of them...within a link, somewhere!

There's nothing like a quick, easy and FREE way to entertain your kid, right?
All you need are a few paintbrushes and/or sponges in varying sizes, a chalkboard (or piece of cardboard, or paper, or a driveway...you get the point) and a bowl of water.
Wren absolutely loved this activity. She did pretty well with keeping the water on the chalkboard, but she did venture over to one of her Little People sets once, and she decided to "paint" the wall and the large roll of paper that is on the back of her chalkboard.

The great thing is that it's JUST water, so no big deal if she's painting the walls. And to top it off, clean-up's a breeze. She did get kind of wet, but that's because I was encouraging her to dip her fingers in and make handprints on the chalkboard.

~~~~~

After a quick change of sweatshirts, we headed downstairs to prepare our next activity.
While downstairs for just a few minutes, we had no less than 2 meltdowns and one boo-boo.
Like I said--she prefers to be upstairs!

But I quickly gathered the supplies for our next project, which were some colored balls (I found these in the $1 section at Target many months ago), a couple of food containers from the tupperware cabinet. I cut holes of different sizes in the top and we were ready to go. 

This activity occupied Wren for probably 30 minutes, maybe more.
*I will say that close supervision IS needed for this one. Wren still likes to "taste" anything she has, so she didn't ever keep anything in her mouth, but I had to tell her a few times that it wasn't for her to eat. I wouldn't let her do this without being right there with her.*

She would pop them in all the different holes, then pick it up and shake-shake-shake-it, 

then we'd dump it out and start over... 

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat...
You can see how much she loved it: 

I also like that there is a learning component to this one. We're really trying to work on colors, so this was a great activity for that. As we do it more, we'll work harder at separating the colors out. But it was also good for having her put the larger pieces in the larger holes, and vice versa.

My silly lady loved her little activity so much that she needed to rock with it. She has this quirky little habit of wanting to "hoard" any small items that she really likes. She'll shove them behind her while in a chair, so I knew she loved this activity when she decided that it was "hoard-worthy."  

The final activity didn't go over quite so well: 

The plan was to lace pipe cleaners through the colander, but not only was Wren disinterested because she was busy hoarding her colored balls, but I also think this was a little bit advanced for her. I couldn't find my colored pipe cleaners,so maybe that would have made it more interesting. They're not hard to get in the holes, but Wren just wasn't catching on to the concept of putting them IN the holes. She was great about taking them OUT of the holes! So I think we'll hold off for a few weeks/months and revisit this one.

All in all, Pinterest wins again.
Happy Kid=Happy Mommy.

My First Sewing Project {Quiet Book Picnic Page}

I am so excited {and proud} to share my very first EVER sewing project with you guys!!

No, literally. I had never turned my sewing machine on before Monday night. I hadn't threaded a bobbin since 8th grade Home Ec. I had no idea how to thread the machine. I was clueless.

So between Monday night and tonight (Friday), this is what I have accomplished:

Pin It


Actually, scratch that. Yes, I accomplished that one page.

But I also completed 9 ADDITIONAL PAGES!!

Ten pages total. Holy Smokes!

That's right, folks. I just dove right the heck in!

Last month, I saw a blog post on Better Life Bags' Blog and it was calling for people interested in taking part in a Quiet Book Page Swap.

For those who haven't been introduced to quiet books, they're all the rage on Pinterest, but they're basically handmade books that are great for keeping toddlers and young kids occupied and happy during church, at restaurants, during long car rides, etc.

So I saw the call for participants, and decided to just go for it. Sure, I knew it would be a challenge, but I felt like this was the way I had to do it! It would force me to learn to use my sewing machine, plus it felt like the only possible way that Wren was ever going to receive an entire quiet book. I'll be honest-it is time consuming! And the thought of making 10 or more different pages--well, that's just out of my realm of possibility right now!

But one page, done 10 times? That, I thought I could do!

SO I searched and searched trying to decide what to make. I found some great blogs, but nothing was jumping out at me. After searching Pinterest and tons of blogs for a few days, I decided to go with a picnic scene.

I'm really proud of my sandwich complete with lettuce and tomato!

Here's the basket all full.

It contains a sandwich, a banana, an apple, a bottle of milk and 2 napkins. 

I definitely would have loved to have added some ants, bumblebees, ladybugs, etc., and I'm not thrilled with the flowers. (I'm not a big fan of mixing pastels with primary colors, but I had the flowers and just had to get over it.) I would've liked to have had a few additional food pieces, but the basket got kind of full.

So there are definitely things I wish I had done better/in more detail.

Overall, I'm really super proud of myself. I know it's silly, but this makes me feel really domesticated.

I will definitely show you all what the final completed book looks like.

I can't wait to see everyone's ideas!

Become a Voyeur {A Weekend in the Life}

Day in the Life videos are really popular among YouTubers. It's fun to see how people spend their time, how they interact, how stay at home moms fill their days and how working moms fill their days. It's funny to see how similar things are with toddlers in the house, and how very different things can be from family to family.

I am never organized enough to film a Day in the Life during a weekday. I'm always running late in the mornings and it's all I can do to get myself out the door to work, so though I'd like to do one someday, I decided to start off with a Weekend in the Life.

Ther eare 2 parts and though they are pretty long, you will see lots of super cute Wren clips, so that makes it worth it!

This Just *PINNED*

Have you all been pinning away? I feel like I haven't spent as much time on Pinterest here recently, but I wanted to remind you that my Pinterest Challenge is coming to a close!!

Don't forgte to link up your completed Pinterest projects by THIS SATURDAY, the 25th, at Midnight! There aren't too many entries just yet, so your chances of winning one of the giftcards is really good!
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ENTRY POST!

Speaking of Pinterest, I thought I'd share a few things I've been recently pinning. I have been a bit out of the crafting loop with the miscarriage and other things, so I'm itching to get some things done!

One thing I *have* been focused on is FOOD. And lots of it.
Today is Day 1 of starting my Low Amylose diet again. (WOOT.) I'm actually really excited to get back on track, start an exercise routine of some sort, and get back to eating what I know my body needs. Or, should I say, NOT eating what I know my body DOESN'T need. Which is carbs and sugar, for the most part.

I recently pinned this delicious looking dinner to my PCOS-Friendly Recipes Board.

The board is full of great recipes that are helping to inspire me to keep on track and also helping me to get creative about what I can eat on this diet. 

{ORIGINAL CREDIT}

Another focus recently has been homemade cleaning supplies challenge. I have yet to get started, but I've been prepping myself. In part, the frugal girl in me feels like we need to use up what we've got. But I recently found this link to the motherload of all homemade cleaning supplies from Young House Love.

I have pinned it to my Make It Yourself board, along with some other great "recipes" for cheap/green cleaning!

{ORIGINAL CREDIT}

The one crafty thing I actually *have* been working on is a quiet book page.

Yep, you read that right.
I'm not working on a whole book...just a page!
I'm taking part in a Quiet Book Page Swap, which has me super excited.
It also has me learning how to....you know, turn my sewing maching ON. Let alone, thread it and actually SEW. Oy! I might be in a bit over my head, but I'm super excited!!
I'll reveal everything when it's done, but here's one cute page that helped inspire me.
I have this pinned on my Smartsy Artsy Kid Stuff Board.

{ORIGINAL CREDIT}

Speaking of learning to sew, I have an entire board devoted to When I Learn to Sew!

Here are a few projects that have me giddy...for me:

{ORIGINAL CREDIT}

And for my little Bird (OMG. I die.):

{ORIGINAL CREDIT}

Finally, I have really enjoyed making different wreaths for the seasons. See HERE and HERE for examples.

I wanted to do the heart shaped one for Valentine's Day but I couldn't find a heart shaped wreath to save my life.

I'm embarrassed to admit that the Christmas one still hangs on the door. I guess my thought was that it was red and cream, so it would be fine through Valentine's Day.

Which...was yesterday. Sooo.
I think this might be my next inspiration for St. Patty's Day. I also think I can make it springy enough to last a while longer. You can find this on my (pretty bare) St. Patty's Day Board.

{ORIGINAL CREDIT}

So. There you have it. A little Pinterest Roundup, if you will.
I have some fun projects to share with you when I get the time, too!
What are YOU working on? Feel free to leave your Pinterest link below and I'd love to follow along!
And most importantly, don't forget to link up your projects on my Pinterest Challenge!!

D&C

We had the D&C on Thursday. It was tough, but we made it through and I am looking forward to moving forward, healing emotionally, finding out the results of the genetic testing and most of all, hopefully experiencing another healthy pregnancy that ends in another perfect and healthy baby.

I was so touched to receive these gorgeous flowers at my door just after returning home from surgery.

 They're from my dear blog buddy, to remain nameless, who blogs over at In Due Time. They actually came from my most favorite florist in town! I didn't get a great picture, but you can see the sweet little bird in there, and they came in a basket that looks like a nest. Thanks again, girl!! I was so touched.
*If you haven't found her yet, go check her out. A lot of people ask me lots of questions about my Low Amylose diet, and she is also doing the diet and does a lot more research and posts a lot of great recipes and tips for the diet.*

I won't go into details about the procedure, because I did vlog about it. I thought it would just be easier to post the vlogs. The first is the one I made the night before the procedure. I'll warn you, I get a bit emotional. :( But I do hope it will help someone else that has to experience this at some point.

This is the vlog I made the day after the procedure. I was in a better space, and not nearly as emotional. I also talk a bit about where we go from here.

As always, I'm open to any questions you might have.
Thanks for the love, friends.

Tabletop Play

I never got Christmas cards out for this past year.
I also never got out the fall-back New Year's cards that I thought I'd do.

So...what's better than a Valentine's Card with this sugary sweet little face?!:

I fell in love when I saw Tara post a little photo shoot with her litle girl and I decided I needed to recreate it for us. I'm planning on getting pics printed and makin Valentine's Day cards for friends & family who didn't get their normal Christmas card in the mail this year.

Seriously? Is she not perfect? 

Painted little piggies in the sugar and flour... 

Such a little sweetie. 

(For the record, she doesn't really get sugar. Like, ever. Needless to say, she got reeeaaallly sleepy at lunchtime after 1 1/2 cupcakes!)

In other tabletop news, we have been enjoying arts and crafts lately. Wren loves fingerpainting and we find it easier to do on top of the table so the dogs don't interfere. I think I'm going to frame the masterpiece in the back. 

Don't worry. No cow print diapers were harmed in the making of this artwork.

How can you not smile with this little ray of sunshine?
I'm so happy I have her to keep me busy and active and smiling.