(no subject)

[annissamazing]

Birth control for breastfeeding mothers is tricky. Many women don't ovulate or even get their periods while they breastfeed. Unfortunately for me, I bled for six weeks after the delivery then started my period the day after that stopped. You basically have two options, the minipill or an IUD. Regular birth control messes with milk production. Breast feeding is important to me not because I find it to be some wondrous bonding experience (I don't), but because it's excellent for Dominic's health, burns over 1,000 calories a day so I'm losing weight better than I have in my entire life (30 pounds so far), and is 100% free. Have you priced formula? That stuff is outrageous. On top of all that, Dominic gets horribly gassy if he eats formula. Farts that sound like that shouldn't come out of so small a creature. So I got my prescription for the minipill. With insurance, the pills cost me $10 per month. That's $10 less than the Ortho Tri-Cyclen I was on before I got pregnant. I read the risks and it turns out that if you don't take the pill at the same time every day your chances to get pregnant raise dramatically. I'm horrible at taking the pill. That's how I got into this mess in the first place. So I looked into the IUD some more. It costs $800 for the appliance and the procedure to have it inserted. It didn't take me long to realize that since I'd met my deductible for the year, the IUD would only cost me $80 so long as I got it before the end of the year. That's $80 for up to five years of birth control. I called the office and it turns out that they put in IUDs only while you're on your period. I was just finishing mine. So this post is basically props to my ob/gyn office for pre-qualifying me and getting me an appointment in one day's time. They installed the IUD yesterday in an in-office procedure that hurt less than a pap. In 5 years, I'll consider having another child. Right now it's out of the question. The memory of pregnancy and childbirth is still too fresh.

Comments

Re: breastfeeding

[annissamazing]

Breastfeeding is definitely more convenient. I take the first nighttime feeding and Justin takes the second (if Dominic wakes up). The difference between me getting up, changing Dom's diaper, then feeding him and Justin getting up, changing Dom's diaper, warming the water, then waiting to while the bottle warms is something like 15 minutes. And, of course, Dominic wakes up and is furious by the time he actually gets to eat. So Justin gets back to sleep in about 90 minutes, I get back to sleep in 30.

I think a lot of people can't afford baby formula. That's why it's the most stolen legal item anyone sells.

I didn't know that there is a lower percentage of breast cancer among mothers who breastfed their babies. I did hear (and felt) that your body heals much faster. The action of the baby suckling causes your uterus to contract which gets it back into shape much faster than it would otherwise. I was wearing my pre-pregnancy clothes two weeks after I gave birth. Unfortunately, the cramps it causes are excruciating.

The immunities are mostly passed through the colostrum, but breastfed babies are less likely to become ill and when they do become ill they get better faster than bottle-fed babies. The correlation between bottle-fed babies and ear infections is all in how the baby is held while he's being fed. When they're flat on their backs, the formula has a tendency to run into the inner ear and cause an infection. If the baby is held more like a breast-fed baby is held, he shouldn't be as prone to get an infection (I read about this in Dr. Spock's book).