If we are intimate at night, I almost always wear pantyliners afterwards and all the next day. I buy a jumbo box for about $5 for 160 (Kotex brand at Walmart; sometimes I find a coupon in the paper) so if we did it every day (which we don’t) they would last almost six months. I think that the expense is totally worth the hassle of changing underwear and maybe pants too.

You are not the only one. Panty liners are not that expensive ($1.25 for 30 at Wal-Mart) and I use them around/during my “peak” time, too. Honestly, I think 1 week out of the month is when I am not using them. lol

Same for me—pantyliners for 24 / 48 hrs afterwards.  Have heard that using the bathroom right afterwards can reduce the extent of discharge the next day, but I don’t have the opportunity to do that regularly (depends on sleeping babies and how much noise I feel like I can safely make without waking them up by flushing the toilet / running the sink!)  Hope that helps & know you’re not alone!

The Creighton Model teaches an exercise called the “sr” instruction which is basically kegel - bear down - kegel - repeat about 5x (on toilet!) & wipe til residue is gone.  Since I started doing these, no liners nor underwear changes are necessary.

Yes, most women experience some type of discharge up to 72 hours after intercourse. That stuff has to go some where! CrMS teachs SFI (seminal fluid instructions) to help women get rid of the SF after Intercourse and to prevent other confusion of additional mucus b/c it can look the same as other CM.

As for the cloth liners, I have liked mine. We cloth diaper and I have a few cloth pads for home only. I don’t like to take them out. Easy to care for and I can wash them with my diapers.

I second StephC’s comment. The seminal fluid instruction has changed my life! <g> Seriously though, I remember wondering why no one had told me about that before. Totally eliminates what I always called being “leaky.” I bear down/Kegel about 8 times or so. Works wonders!

Prayers!  It’s frustrating when we don’t “fit the book” perfectly and feel we have to make out best judgement… which turns out to be wrong!  My ds is here because of that… and incidentally is the easiest baby anyone could possibly have!!  Praying that if you get a little + or = in two weeks, your little one turns out to be the laid back type, too… though we all know we love our little surprises no matter what!

“I had just hoped to give my others a bit more of me before going down that path. Some of our children are still adjusting to the arrival of their brother”

I understand your concerns.  My brother and I are Irish twins and it would have been good for us to be able to have more of our mom’s time and attention.  It was very difficult for her to have 4 kids in 5 years.

NFP is very difficult and unreliable with breastfeeding and it requires a great deal of abstinance.  If you are serious about avoiding a pregnancy then I would continue with the LH strips or a monitor.  Some couple feel stretched but seem to be able to manage multiple surprises. Other couples get stretched beyond what they can handle so it really depends on what you and your husband’s abilities are.  Take it one day and at a time.  If you are pregnant now try to get all the help you can to make things easier and to provide the time and energy you want to give your other 4 kids.

Thanks for that info…

Hooray!  I am going to cancel my upcoming pap appointment NOW!

Prayers going up for your husband!  That is such a hard place to be!  I can relate to all those angry, resentful, frustrated feelings… and the hopeful ones, too.  It is like an emotional rollercoaster every month.  I hope you can get off soon or that (if your husband isn’t ready) you come to FEEL the unready-ness with him!!

Maybe you and your husband could pray together as you seek wisdom for planning your family.  Maybe he has a good reason to want to postpone?  I think it is so important for spouses to be understanding when one spouse feels they are not ready.  I know my heart has wanted to conceive at times when my husband’s wisdom was right on for postponing.  So my prayer would be that God would join your hearts and together help you to understand each other rather than God have things go the way you want them to.  I mean that in a gentle way.

No real advice other than I would really recommend seeing a lactation consultant. They would definitely be able to help you with both situations.

Congrats!

1)My kids have never needed the surgery - but it sounds like you are talking about a tight frenulum (tongue tied).  I’ve heard it’s a pretty easy snip in the ped office.  A couple of mine had tight frenulums and the pain went away (could be that they weren’t super tight - no one ended up with speech issues or anything)  - sorry can’t remember how long it took but I can’t imagine it was much longer than 3-4 weeks.

2)  I also had the shooting pains on letdown with #7 and never felt that before - how odd.  I never even felt a letdown before that.  I remember the pain diminishing but if I remember correctly I did actually feel the pain free letdown for many months, maybe a year, can’t remember exactly.  But I do know it became “not painful”.

Baby #8 will be born tomorrow.  I love breastfeeding but I’m not looking forward to the first few weeks of it, I’ve become a whimp ...and the cramping :(

I would give the lactation consultant a call.  Sounds like you may have a case of thrush.  My daughter and I had a nasty case of thrush following a dose of antibiotics during her delivery.  The pain with latch and during let down is a tell tale sign.

My son was tongue tied and it did hurt a lot at first to nurse, but the pain did go away as he got older. I’ve heard for many people it leads to nursing problems and eventual speech problems, but for us we didn’t have any problems other than the pain to me and he is now two and talking normally for his age. For us, in the absence of any problems from it, we decided it was not worth undergoing a painful (although I hear quite brief) medical procedure on an infant. If it causes speech problems later in life, we’ll get it snipped, and by then he’ll be old enough to understand that it will hurt and to be brave and that he’ll get ice cream afterwards etc!
But if it’s causing issues other than painful latching for you, I’d definitely investigate snipping it now to make sure he can thrive and grow without it holding him back. Good luck!

I had painful letdown with all three of my children.  In my case—- and I’m pretty sure most cases—- it is because of high milk production.  It did definitely get less painful as time went on and my supply adjusted to meet the demand.

I had both those issues with all three children from about week 3 to week 7.  After that, no problem unless I was particularly engorged.

Yep, painful letdown for weeks with all three of my kids, but especially my last two. And sore nipples, too, but maybe not hurting as fiercely as your describing—or maybe I’m just trying to block it out!

I have very painful letdown for the first couple months. Feels like I’m being stung by bees. I’ve nursed 9 babies and this has always been the case. There is nothing wrong with me, it is my normal. It does pass eventually.

I am 6 months pregnant. Driving home from school today, I suddenly thought, “what if I die and the little ones don’t remember me?” I was sobbing as I drove. It’s definitely pregnant hormones (and that lack of sleep/need for bathroom). You aren’t the only one!

I’ve thought this, too.  Mine are 2 and newborrn… they really wouldn’t remember me if I died!  And my husband is a man of few words… likely he would not say much.  SO, I started writing my kids e-mails.  I send them to my own inbox and have a little file for them.  Hubs knows the password to my account and if I die he can go in, print them, and save them till the kids are older.  If I don’t die when the kids are small, *I* will enjoy reading my little descriptions of our fun time, little notes about how much I love them, etc.  So that keeps it from being morbid—I’m creating memories either way!  And when IU’m caught in awful traffic and suddenly think, “Sheesh!  If I get in a wreck here my kids won’t ever know how much their mom lovedthem!” I remember my e-mails and I feel better—they’ll know!

Oh my goodness, Susie!  Whatever you do, steer your radio dial clear of those dang country music stations - or at least, keep the kleenex handy if you don’t! 
My friend and I joke that that’s how we know we’re pregnant: when a corny country song gets us bawling!  I also seem to remember taking “basement breaks” a lot toward the end of my last pregnancy.  I’d head down under the pretense of “doing laundry” and just sit & sob, sob, sob…it felt great & I didn’t alarm anyone!

As a side note, my trick for trying to fool my pregnancy mini-bladder was to cut off liquids sometime after dinner, then chew gum all night to quench mild thirst, and then 1st thing in the morning, guzzle the water & get hydrated.