Posts Tagged ‘obgyn’
Babies, Hormones, and Life
*** 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.
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Okay, haven’t died yet :)
I am still pretty sick though. I am on 500 mg of dicloxacillin every 6 hours and 1000 mg of Tylenol every six hours. I am still running a fever and now the pain has spread. I now have the pain in my left breast too! I am pumping every 2 – 3 hours, and it is doing nothing. My milk supply has gone done since this all started. I am dizzy, lightheaded, and nauseous. All my muscles ache. I have to call my OBGYN back this afternoon if I still don’t feel better, and they most likely will get me in for an appointment at the end of the day.
Right now, I just want to climb into bed and sleep. However, the three year old here doesn’t want to do that.
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The Story Of Will
Since everyone keeps asking me what happened, I thought I would post the events leading up to Will’s birth.
Surprise!
I went to the doctor last Tuesday for my 37 week checkup. I went with a list of my pregnancy complaints. I generally was feeling like, well for lack of a better word, shit. Most I knew were from being pregnant, but I still wanted to complain. He checked Will’s heartbeat and then checked me. I was 1 – 2 cm dilated and had dropped. However, you can be that and still go for another 3 weeks, so I thought nothing of it. We went home and ate supper (it was around 7 pm by then). Around 11 pm, I went to the bathroom and noticed that I was spotting. I also was contracting, but it was not regular. You are not suppose to go to the hospital until your contractions are 5 minutes apart for about an hour. I woke Bill up and told him what was going on. I stayed up till midnight and then decided to go to bed. Bill woke me up about 6 am the next morning to see if he should go to work. I was like “sure”. I wasn’t contracting. However, I was still spotting. That I did not think was right. However, my obgyn’s office did not open until 9, so I just sat around and waited.
I ended up getting a phone call and did not get a chance to call until 9:30 that morning. They told me that I had to head over to labor and delivery right away. Of course, I blew this off. I figured they would monitor me for a bit and then send me home. Little did I know what was about to come. First, Bill was not going to leave work. He wanted me to call once I got to the hospital and let him know what was going on. I then called Bill’s mom and told her I needed a ride to the hospital. While we were waiting, I started packing a bag for Madison. Since we had 3 weeks, I had not done that yet. Heck, I didn’t have a bag packed for me either. When I called Bill back and told him his mom was on the way, he told me that he was leaving work and meeting me at the hospital.
The Hospital
Once I got to the hospital, they hooked me up to the monitors. I was only there about 30 minutes before Bill got there. They then did an exam and that was the beginning on it. After the exam, I started contracting about every 2 – 3 minutes. I was still only dilated 1 – 2 cm. They said they were going to watch me for about an hour and then decide what to do. Well, one hour went by and nobody came back. We ended up sitting there about 3 hours. They checked me again and I was 2 -3 cm, and most likely I was just in the early stages of labor and would be sent home. This was about 4 in the afternoon. I was starving, so we were discussing where we should go get dinner when the nurse came back in with a hospital bracelet. We were like “what??!!??” That’s how we found out we were staying. They hooked an IV up and a pitocin drip. At this point, I asked for my epidural.
The Epidural
After asking, it did not take too long to get my drugs. Unfortunately, it took them 2 tries to get it in. Let me tell you, that hurt. While they were doing their second try, the nurses started asking Bill if he was okay. Ummm, am I not the one contracting and having a baby here? Nobody asked how I was doing. Looking back, it is kinda funny, but it annoyed the hell out of me at the time. Once they got it working, I felt great. It was weird though. When I had my epidural with Madison, I could not feel anything from the waist down. With Will, I could move my legs and feet. They were a bit heavy but still movable.
My blood pressure also went pretty low, so the kept pumping me full of ephiderine (at least, that’s what I think it was).
The Birth
Around 7 pm, a birthing room opened up, and I was moved out of my labor room. At 8 pm, they came in and broke my water and hooked him up to an internal fetal monitor. Before they broke my water, I think I was still sitting at 3 cm. Around 11 pm, half of my epidural quit working. Yes, only half. Extreme pain on my left side; nothing on the right. It was weird. Amazingly, all they had to do was move the cathider in my back around a little, and it worked again. At midnight, I was up to 9 cm. I guess that is remarkably fast dilation. At midnight, they had me start pushing even though I was only 9 cm (they had me do the same with Madison too).
At 12:58 am, Will was born. I remember laying there waiting for him to cry. Even though it was only 30 seconds, it seemed like an eternity. He was 18 inches long. He also was 6 lbs 12 oz. I am afraid to see what he would have been if I wouldn’t have been 3 weeks early!!
If you just made it through all that, here are some pics.
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5 Days Left 