Gross Stuff

This is nasty, all of it. So don't read it. It's mostly just for me.

My son got over the upchucking part of being sick after six times. That was his entree into illness of that type; he never spits up and had never thrown up (although he'd gagged up post-nasal drip stuff before) until Monday morning.

However... his body was very leery of food yesterday, which I understand and appreciate. What that means, though, is that he's back to primarily breastfeeding. This results in the "breastmilk poop" diapers... and those things are a freaking mess. He went through three pair of shorts yesterday, and at about 3:30 this morning managed to need a complete body wipe-down. I just threw the onesie he was wearing as pajamas away. There was a bit of stain from his first sick bit... he'd coincidentally eaten one of his last "puree pouches" Sunday morning and it had beets in it. So, very stained and I just couldn't make myself wash it again.

Fortunately, as a precaution in case he was ill again, I'd left one of the blankets spread out on top of our fitted sheet, so all we had to do was roll that up and put another one down (more insurance) and we were able to go back to sleep. But he was boobing the whole rest of the night.

Now for the next gross thing... I've been doing *so* much laundry due to the barfing and then the diaper-splosions... Well, now to add into that mix, I'm on my period. I'm in a FB group (more on that in a bit) and lots of people who are breastfeeding haven't had periods for like two years! They're worried because they want to conceive. Meanwhile, I got my period back when Mal was about four or five months old. Woo hoo. And it's not because he cut back on his eating; he did not. He has not. What happened was that my period has always loved to make me miserable and it couldn't wait to return.

Since this second full-term pregnancy, my periods have gotten worse than ever. Previously, there was seven good days of bleeding, along with some pretty severe PMS symptoms such as moodiness and cramps. Well, my cramps are not as bad as they were in high school, but the actual bleeding? WORSE. Now I'm looking at ten full days of bleeding per cycle, and there is a LOT of blood. Today, I happened to check. I have a Diva Cup, so if I'm really interested, I can look. In one hour, I expelled 7.5 ml of blood. So you can forget getting through the night without tending to it. Ugh. I'm just ready to menopause and be done with it.

In other disgusting news, I used to have a mole under my right arm. In fact, when Mal was a baby and I was worried about my supply, I'd sometimes press on it with my left hand when he was nursing. I mentally assigned it the title "Milk button" and imagined that when I pressed it, it would turn on the milk machine. I know, it's stupid. But if you've never willed yourself to produce enough milk, then good for you.

Anyway, my son's arms got long enough that he "found" the mole and would mess with it when he was nursing. It really hurt, and I might have been a bit of a baby complaining about it. One morning, though, James looked when I was getting dressed and said, "It's really red and inflamed!"

Long story slightly less long, he managed to crack it open, and it scabbed up, and now that it's healing... it's gone. When the scab goes, there will just be normal skin there (and maybe a little pinpoint scar?). No more mole. Who needs a dermatologist?

So, that's the icky stuff.

Here's an interesting (to me) thing, but you might also not love it. I recently joined a FB group called "Breastfeeding Older Babies and Beyond." I love it! It's a bunch of ladies who are nursing kids at least one year old. I needed somewhere to talk, even when I'm tired and overwhelmed, where the input wouldn't include tips about how it's time to force wean Mal. I'm not set on a date or anything; I want to try to take his lead when it comes to weaning. And the group has been great so far not only in making me feel "normal," but in changing my attitude about breastfeeding a bit. I'm getting a little more excited about it, rather than it being an inconvenience I'm willing to bear because I think it's the right thing for us to do. I even ordered a subway token necklace to commemorate one year of breastfeeding. Can't wait to wear it.

So that's all of the super fun stuff I wanted to remember. Don't ask me why. It's not all just about griping and funny stories, I guess.