My period is back…
So is the bloating, cramping and lack of energy and the overall feeling of Blah….
For 10 years now, on and off, I have been following my cycle, charting days and taking temps, or I have been pregnant or in the limbo of the post partum phase…. this next phase feels like the close to all of that.
We knew that Wilhelmina would be our last child and last year decided to finalize that decision with Simon getting the big V… I went through the slight tang of wondering if we were doing the right thing but having my period back now makes me realize that it is done. I am now out of my last limbo phase after the birth of my last child and I am now leaving the “maternity” phase completely.
There will be no more pregnancies, no more babies, no more little kick and sweet smelling newborn heads… Each phase that Wilhelmina is going through will be the last time I see one one my own children pass though the same. There will be no more breaks until my body decides to stop on its own.
There are no regrets in these words… just realization…
My family is done expanding, now the focus is on maturing.
Working through that myself…though my period has been back for a while, LOL! Big Hugs
Ohhh. Some days the ‘maternity’ days seem to have been so long gone, other days, I can vividly remember the sensation of little in-utero kicks. Dickens comes to mind when I think back “twas the best of times, twas the worst of times…”
Enjoy the new phase of maturing and nurturing. I appreciate your perspective.
As for the period woes….I am sorry for you. I also struggle, every month I miss 2 days of work, mood swings, intense irritation, heavy bleeding, nasty cramping, and the urgent need to sleep for 5 hours a day. Ghastly, wretched curse! I’m considering drastic action.
I went through that myself as Xavier reached 1yo and my period came back. I hope you find something (chiro? osteopath? TCM? acupuncture? naturopath?) to take the icky energy-sapping aspects of Aunt Flow away. For us, the next celebration of the feminine will be when our daughters get their first period… a few years away still!
I just love the photo that matches so well with your text. your baby growing, running away from you towards it’s own destiny!
what’s great is that you will never have any regrets of not having seen your kids grow up, you savour all there is by being there, every day!
one thing that has helped me SOOO MUCH and totaly stopped menstrual pain is to drink rasberry leaf tea very frequently (with nettle works great) and also, if that’s not enough, some tincture of crampbark (pimbina in french or viburnum in latin) see this excellent description http://www.herbs2000.com/herbs/herbs_crampbark.htm
You say you have been taking your temperature for years. I was wondering if you also observe other “symptoms” as the cervix and the “glaire cervicale” (no idea what that’s in english). If you (or probably other readers as now it’s not relevant for your contraception anymore), want more info about the “sympto-thermic” method, there is some on my blog, in french, here: http://matteovoyage.canalblog.com/archives/2010/06/09/18214539.html
I think this is such a fantastic way to know our body and “controle” our fertility and it’s so great to be the person understanding it, not having to use any hormones.
I wish it were more known!
Hope you’ll be better soon,
take care of yourself!
Joanna
ps: i don’t know if you’ve recieved my last comment on your post about 100 things about you… if you are interested in meeting each other, i would love to! i live in Mtl and can come over to your place if you want (i love to get out of town and get a bit into countryside)
Joanna, yes that is exactly the method that I used… “glaire cervicale” is “cervical mucous” and that is exactly what gave me a warning that everything was gearing up two weeks ago as I realized I was ovulating. I do have a friend that would love to read more about it but can’t read the book that I have because it is in english… I will definitely send her your blog link.
I have been drinking my pregnancy tea mix (raspberry, nettle, Oatstraw and Dandilion root) http://paxye.com/blog/pregnancy-tea/ and it seems to be helping slighly but the crampbark sounds great, I would just need to find some…
Yes, I did get your message and I have had an e-mail open since yesterday that I had not sent yet…. I would love to get together 🙂 I’ll get on that e-mail.
Loved this! I am still having a hard time with this and this really spoke to me!
There are no regrets in these words… just realization…
My family is done expanding, now the focus is on maturing
Found via circle of moms!