My Thoughts, Ideas and Ramblings

*** Warning — womenly things discussed in this post. Not for the quesy ***

I have been debating writing this post for over a month now. Since I have not been able to find a lot of information that I can actually understand regarding what happens to a woman’s body after having a baby, I thought I would write about my personal experience. The debate comes from that fact that I am not 100% sure I have my problem fixed yet. Mr. Fab’s wife really made me feel like I should talk about this. She works for an OBGYN’s office and told me that this is one of the most common reasons women call. I am not alone yet I had no idea I wasn’t alone in my problem.

What is the problem? Well, everyone should know that having a baby completely messes up your hormones. While you are pregnant, you are a hormonal mess. After your pregnant, you still are a hormonal mess. I’ll be honest, I didn’t feel back to myself till Madison was about 18 months old. Let me tell you what happened after having Madison and then after having Will. I’ll let you know what I have tried so far. If you also have gone through this, let me know. I would love to do a follow up post on ideas for new moms of things to try. Most of all, they need to know they aren’t alone.

I don’t think I ever suffered from Post partnum depression. That being said, there shouldn’t be a stigma still attached to those three words. However, when you have people like Tom Cruise coming out and stating that you should just take a couple a vitamins to cure this, you know you are fighting a losing battle against society. That is where a lot of my hesitation came about writing this post. I have a hormonal issue that I can’t help, but I know somebody out there is going to tell me its all in my head.

After having Madison, I chose to go the route of not being on any birth control (I was also nursing). This allowed my hormones free reign on my body and that they did. Even though I was nursing, my menstrual cycle started up again about 3 weeks after giving birth to her. My first menstrual cycle last about a month. This should have been my first tip off that something was out of wack. However, first baby and you really don’t know what your body is doing. What started as a month menstrual cycle quickly turned into a huge mess for my life. It slowly turned into me getting my cycle every two weeks and lasting a week. By the time it was at its worst, I was having my menstrual cycle for three weeks out of the month, having a week break, and then three weeks of fun again. At this point, I went to the doctor. In hindsight, I should have went way sooner. I had to be put back onto birth control. My mood swings were also so out of control revolving around my cycle that I was put on PMDD medication. I ended up only staying on it for a couple months due to the cost. It did help though.

I thought this was an over and done with situation. When I went off my birth control to get pregnant again, my hormonal issues had cleared up. Our first try at getting pregnant ended in a miscarriage. However, last October, I got pregnant again and had a son in June. Little did I know, this was all going to start again. Again, even though I was nursing and on the minipill, I got my menstrual cycle back 3 weeks after having Will. I then proceeded to have it every two weeks. I saw the writing on the wall right away this time. I contacted my doctor, and we started trying to fix this before it got out of control again. We started with the minipill and then tried Ortho Tri Cyclen Low. That was the worse thing for me. Not only did it not stop my menstrual cycle from happening every two weeks, it made me more moody than I already was. I wanted to be anywhere than here — Outer Banks, space, Mars. Anything was better than here. I have to thank Kat and Elizabeth for getting me through that. I told them what was going on and how desperate I was feeling. I knew what was causing it, but that sure does not make you feel better. I got into contact with my doctor and now I am on Yaz. It seems to be doing the trick for now. I have been on it almost a month. My monthly cycle is not occurring every two weeks. The only time I felt the hormonal mood swings was the day I forgot to take my pill. Other than that, it has been good.

What did I learn that I think needs to be passed on? If you are having these issues or post partnum depression symptoms, please see your doctor. That is what they are there for (plus until we get this figured out, my doctor is giving me free samples, so it isn’t costing me $30 each time we make a change). A hormonal imbalance is not going to correct itself without a little help. Don’t wait till it is out of control. Also, instead of dealing with it on your own, make sure your support system knows what is going on. If you can’t tell your support system, let a few trusted friends know what is happening. The main thing to remember is that you are not alone.