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our busy weekend (and a random personal question)Submitted by mommymash on Mon, 06/09/2008 - 4:50pm.
hola, mamas! i hope you all had an amazing weekend. monkeygirl and i stayed crazy busy: we went to the currier museum of fine arts in manchester on saturday morning (we had a great time, and she actually paid attention to some of the artwork!), went to a local farm saturday afternoon to get some ice cream and visit the baby lambs (spanky and buckwheat are both 8 wks old, so cute...), and finished off saturday evening with a walk at the park where we fed the ducks and played a little kickball. then yesterday we went to the beach for the day and monkeygirl had an awesome time tumbling around in the waves. she's fearless, because she was getting thrown around like you wouldn't believe, and she had a smile on her face the whole time (even when she came up with a mouthful of saltwater!). whew! that was a mouthful. it was so nice to do spend time with my girl relaxing after the long week i had at work. her dad actually spent some time with us, too, but that's a whole other story.... anyway, the whole reason i'm posting is because i'm curious about what everyone does for birth control. i have a mirena iud (which is pointless as i'm currently not even gettin' busy with anyone) but lately am alarmed that i haven't had my period since february 2006. is that even healthy?? so, what does everyone use to avoid makin' more babies? do you like it? are there any side effects? what else have you tried? I had a copper IUD until 2 months ago. It ended up getting lodged in my cervix and causing all kinds of nasty problems (bleeding for 12 days straight, etc), so now I am using the timing method. My friend is a doula and I'm borrowing a great book from her. Mostly, I am stoked that I am learning so much more about my body than I ever knew. I use my ical to chart everything out, and I've only been doing the temperatures and whatnot for a month -- so I'm no pro at this, but it's just kind of a fantastic thing to pay attention to, since I've never done it before. I've just ordered one of these: because the estrogen causes your saliva to form a crystalline pattern on these slides right before you ovulate, so it's something that you can use to check whether or not you are getting this whole thing right. Obviously, if you had sex and the next day, your saliva was crystallizing, it's too late -- so it's not a method in and of itself, but just something to add to what you already know about your own cycle. I use the pill. I'm pretty good at remembering, and it regulates my period and lightens the flow. After my first two boys, I had Norplant. It gets put just under the skin in your upper arm. It sucked!! I had 2 miscarriages with this method. Not to mention the little black hairs that grew on my belly! I'll stick to the pill. I don't mind getting my period. It sort of resets and cleanses everything. yup, i kind of feel like i'm missing out on the cleansing and resetting thing. the human body is pretty efficient, and usually doesn't undergo processes that are wasteful. so maybe there's some important purpose of menstruation that is necessary for some sort of bodily balance. um, the more i think about it....the more i want to get rid of this iud. I had a tubal ligation ("tubes tied"). The wise poet Rumi tells us-- i imagine that would be a tough decision to make, but i bet it feels good to know that you're in total control of your reproductive choice! good for you! I use the pill. I'm fairly good about remembering it and I don't seem to be hit by the side effects too much like some women can be. It does also help with my period, I used to have extremely heavy and sometimes very long and irregular periods. Now they are much more consistent and lighter. Sounds like you guys had a great weekend! BleuRoo Handcrafted Sweetness i never used to remember my pills. i actually got pregnant because i forgot to start a new pack one month and we kept having sex anyway, thinking "eh, nothing will happen." don't use 'wishful thinking' as birth control, people!! so that's why i got an iud. now i'm wondering if i should get rid of it, though, if i don't really need it. and like i said, i'm a little weirded about by the 28-month lack of a period. i wish our bodies just had a fertility switch: "on" for the times we're hoping to get knocked up, "off" for the times we're not in the mood to add to the brood. but that would take away from all the fun, right? so maybe a "surprise me" option just for those times when we need a little excitement! I'd love no Aunt Flo for 2 years, ha! But yeah, I'm sure I'd eventually be concerned, too. Have you seen your Dr. about it? BleuRoo Handcrafted Sweetness growing up i had a friend who used that method for, like, 5 years with her boyfriend; when they broke and she started seeing someone new she was pregnant within a couple of months! so i guess it all depends on what's going on with your body at the time (or maybe her first boyfriend just had a low sperm count?). i didn't even make BD pull out! i was all "just go, it'll be fine, don't stop!" i don't regret it, since my little lady came from those moments of (irresponsible) unbridled passion. i talked to my doc about the period thing when i stopped breastfeeding and i still wasn't menstruating a couple months later. he said it was normal with an iud, and some people never get their periods back at all while they have one. it's just a weird paranoia that i have about these new BCs that stop you from menstruating at all.... it seemed like a good idea when i got the iud, but now i'm not so sure. We use condoms. I am just not with it enough to remember to take a pill everyday. And the other ways just sound unappealing to me. Condoms are easy, they're right there in the drawer, and it's easy to stop using them if we ever want another kid! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
Yo, Mash.
The minute you think you don't need it anymore, then you do. Make sure you have good back-up.
I was technically using condoms when I got pregnant with H. I.e., I hate condoms. I just do. Probably from watching too much porn.
I don't think I'd take the pill daily (although I take my vitamins and my anti-D's just fine.)
I kinda like not having my period right now. I was dilated to a three before my contractions felt stronger than my period. Except during my period, it wasn't a minute on and a minute off or whatever, it was twenty minutes on and an hour off for five days. KILL ME. I figure I'd be medicated at this point for it anyway, so having a Mirena seems to kill two birds with one stone. I don't mind.
24/MN. Queer, veg, AP mama to DD1.