*sigh* period gripes...

i ALWAYS start my period in the middle of the night. this would already be inconvenient, and NOW there's the added difficulty of co-sleeping with an infant who is a light sleeper. so, in the middle of the night, i'm starting to bleed, i get up, baby wakes up, cries, wakes up the four year old in her seperate (by 12") bed, which wakes up my husband, haul the baby around the room with me while my baby cries and get a new pair of panties, go into the bathroom, attempt a cleanup while baby crawls around and gets into EVERYTHING, go back to bed with a baby who wants to play in the middle of the night. start the morning with a lack of sleep and cramps so bad they make me wanna puke. awesome.

 

I'm sorry babe. Wish I had a solution.

I just get backaches so bad that I can't say in the same position for more than five minutes. It's kind of ridiculous. And pms, oh pms, I never used to get it but now I do. Psycho woman on the loose.

 

and my breasts hurt so much I can barely walk.


lets all rant about our periods!

 

When I know that I'm getting my period in the next couple of days, I start wearing panty liners.

 

the problem is that since i had my baby and have been breastfeeding, my periods are completely out of whack. they used to be like clockwork. now they come with such randomness that there's no planning ahead.

 

yea i am intruding into a female thread , but anyway how can you have periods while breastfeeding?! Isn't it physiologically impossible?

 

Are you sure you're not confusing breastfeeding with pregnant?

 

No i am not, but I could be wrong, it was a curious question... from what I have heard in my physiology class, the mothers do not menstruate while they are breast feeding their baby. Ofcourse again I can be wrong... hopefully not for the test

 

This is sort of a myth. While breastfeeding *can* delay ovulation, and thus menstruation, every woman is different, with different chemical triggers, and some are more sensitive to the levels of hormones that trigger menstruation. So while some women can actually not have periods for over a year after birth, some women even exclusively breastfeeding can get their periods.

 

i started my period exactly one month to the day i gave birth. same with my previous pregnancy. with my elder daughter, she actually had periods with me for 3 months. we thought she had an infection or something. come to find out it's rare, but sometimes mom's hormones can cause a sort of period in their daughters. she's fine now. but my periods come at random intervals now. at first it was every 28 days. not it's anywhere from 2 weeks to 5 weeks. no telling.

 

ok, a little girl/baby having periods is very strange indeed, I didn't know it can happen, oh well thanks , i will ask my professor about it, maybe she can shed some light on this issue, this is very interesting.

 

yeah. it was freaky. we had her checked three months in a row. turned out she'd only show blood when i got my period. they did absolutely everything, unfortunately, we had to leave the room for the application of the catheter on a poor tiny baby. i just couldn't look. they were confounded. no infection, no problems, and it went away after about 3 months.

 

No, of course not. Many mamas will go a year or more without a period, but some mamas get them earilier.

"Ecological Breastfeeding" will often help ovulation from occuring for a year or more, but the more estrogen a womyn has, the earlier she gets her period. Some very thin womyn, and older moms can go 2 or 3 years, if they are breastfeeding extensively, especially at night. But, by a year or so, most babies are on solids and mom makes enough estrogen to start menstruating and ovulating again. Younger womyn, and womyn with some, uh, meat on them, often will only have 4 or 5 months period free, even if they are breastfeeding round the clock, due to higher estrogen levels. It is not an exact science.

Once a mama has gotten a period, the first few months are usually periods in which the luteal phase is too short to maintain pregnancy, or even ovulate, but, I always tell mamas to "Consider themselves fertile" when they get a period. Some womyn actually concieve BEFORE they get the first after baby period, even when they are breastfeeding.

 

Jedi, about 50% of baby girls will have what is called "pseudomenstruation" within a few days of birth. They get a "period" due to the sudden freedom of pregnancy hormones, just like thier mama does. Three months of "pseudomenstruation" is rare, but it does happen. KC is an Estrogen Machine!

 

Here is an article from Dr. Sears, and his wife Martha Sears, RN, IBCLC's site about breastfeeding and menstruation, fertility and ovuation ect.

Jedi, what kind of Professor are you talking to? Just out of curiosity. Are you taking a Lactation Class? Damn it, I'd be proud.

 

And from Medela, with reference, Dr. Sears is sometimes a bit too informal for all purposes.

 

leave it to maggie_sugar to find an opportunity in a gripe to create an educationally valid topic. you amaze me. i bow before you.

 

I knight you "Lady Estrogen." Now get off yer knees, wench!

 

lol. hey, i wanted to ask you, i've also frequently been shown to have an excess of testosterone in my system. how are those two able to coexist? i thought, due to lack of education, that the two are not supposed to be able to circulate simulataneously. i dunno. i'm confused.

 

Could you possibly have PCOS? It throws things out of whack differently in every woman!