Girlie Stuff

**NOTE** PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT MY PERSONAL FEMALE "STUFF". THANK YOU! **END NOTE**

So, I got my first post-partum period yesterday. A few things about it now...

1) I knew it was coming, because I was SUCH A GROUCH the last few days. I even though to myself "man, I must be pre-menstrual, because I'm being such a b*tch". Now, I've had reasons to be grouchy--my hubby lost his wedding ring (which I found) and also lost the keys to the house (which have not been found) all in the same day. I still have to call the locksmith...

2) I don't have a migraine!!! No headache at all. It's really a miracle, and I think my sister should get pregnant just to get rid of the migraines...it's so worth it. :-)

3) It's actually a normal period...like heavy. I haven't had a heavy period in years...not since pre-birth control (aka my teenage years). I'm hoping this means my body has figured out that it is female and should be having normal, regular periods and might even get pregnant on its own eventually (like in 2010).

4) My hubby was shocked. He was like "it's so sudden"! And I'm like "uhhh...I stopped breastfeeding and thought my body might be trying to ovulate about 2 weeks ago, so it's not "all of a sudden".

5) On that train of thought, I don't think my body actually ovulated, because when I thought my body was gearing up for it, the OPKs all were clearly negative (I mean not even a light test line...) even though I had copious amounts of EWCM.

**IF YOU'RE STILL READING THIS AND YOU'RE RELATED TO ME, YOU MIGHT WANT TO SKIP THE NEXT BULLET**

6) Because I don't know if I ovulated, I don't know if my progesterone was up during my "TWW" (I don't know what else to call it...). The reason I'm curious is because I actually actually was producing my own lubrication, and I wasn't in horrible pain during s-e-x. That is a change. A biiiiig change. And a good one! :-) If I don't have to have painful, natural lube-free intercourse any more, I'm going to rejoice by having s-e-x every day. lol

**OK IT'S SAFE NOW**

7) I also have to figure out birth control now. I refuse to go on any hormonal birth control, because I do not want my body forgetting to be female...again. So, it's onto other methods. Condoms are not allowed for Jews, so that's no good. (And it's not a particularly happy form of birth control for married people anyway.) I'm thinking of just using a spermicide of some type. Yes, I know it's only 70% (or so) protection, but really. I didn't get pregnant in 2 years of TTC except for a miscarriage after an IUI and a healthy pregnancy after IVF. HOWEVER, if my body has figured itself out, I might actually turn out to be fertile now. Who knows. I won't know until I start trying again. And if by some strange miracle I get pregnant while using spermicide, it's not a huge deal. At least it's 100% reversible with no side effects and won't freak out my body. I even found some suppositories which look much easier to use (and are less expensive) than foam or film...and I'm used to suppositories from taking progesterone.

That's all for now...I'll keep you posted on how my body is working.

Losing Weight

is really, really hard! I seriously haven't lost any weight since right after I lost all the water following delivery. I'm so hungry, and I can't stop snacking! And I'm even choosing healthy snacks like nuts and celery. I'm trying a new thing called "Isagenix," which I found out about from a fellow blogger. So far I'm not so good at keeping to the plan, because I'm so ravenously hungry all the time. What I wouldn't give to be back on Metformin when I could barely bring myself to eat once a day, let alone all the time. *sigh* I hate this.

Breastfeeding

I'm done. The last few weeks were really tough with the breastfeeding, and I slowly weaned them down. I was nursing like 2-3 times a day and pumping once, then I was nursing like once a day and pumping once, and then a few days ago I just stopped everything. I think I pumped once when my left side started getting a bit hard, but after that everything's been soft and pain-free. No sign of mastitis or anything. Now, why did I decide to stop? Well, it was becoming just too much of a hassle with the twins. My right side had basically stopped producing, so Chana Brocha wasn't getting anything when she nursed. I would latch her on and then she'd pull off...over and over and over again. Dovid would also do this even though he was definitely getting milk. It was just so frustrating trying to keep them latched on when they really didn't want to. I do miss it a bit, just because it was nice to know that I was providing some of their food, but I also love just being able to plop a bottle in their mouth no matter where I am and not having to worry about getting up early to breastfeed when my mother-in-law can just as easily make them a bottle. :-) I made it 3 months breastfeeding the twins part-time, and I think that's a heck of a good job!

P.S. Big happy birthday to my hubby last Tuesday!!! He turned the big 4-0. Eep! I'll have to post a recent photo of him without his ugly beard, so you can see how much of a babyface he has.

P.P.S. Happy birthday today to my best friend, Melanie! She's the big 2-5. :-) Now she can rent a car without being charged extra for insurance!! hehe

My-Start-Page.com

I just found the coolest browser start page on the Internet! You enter your name or blog website or whatever you want to be the name of your start page. You know, where it normally says "Google?" Mine now says, "Elana." It's super cute! They're also having a neat contest for bloggers. Go check it out!

Sooooo Excited!

When I worked for Camp Ramah back in 2006, I was miserable most of the time. The camp director didn't *love* me, but he assistant director was AMAZING and I adored (and still adore) her--we even are still in touch. The business manager and I got along, but the assistant business manager was practically my arch-nemesis. She just did not like me for whatever reason and therefore made my life difficult just because. The development coordinator and I got along just fine, and I didn't have much to do with the program director. Anyways, the only thing that got me through the summer was the person who worked as the receptionist. Not only was I working in the office very closely with the assistant business manager, but it was SOOOO HOT in the office. I don't do well in extreme heat, and I was constantly getting headaches. It took several weeks before the business manager got me an air conditioner, and even then it didn't work very well. Anyways, the receptionist kept me sane through all of this. We got along VERY well, and she was also closer to me in age than anyone else (3 yrs younger I think). Unfortunately we lost touch (even though we're facebook friends) because she was going to school on the north shore and lived in central MA during vacations. I drove through central MA this past week and thought of her, so I sent her a facebook message and come to find out that not only is she no longer in central MA, but she's going to grad school IN MY TOWN! Tonight I gave her a call to see where she'll be living next year in grad school, and she tells me she has an apartment WALKING DISTANCE FROM MY HOUSE. We're talking half a mile here. Not only that, but it's on the same street as several people who go to my shul including one person who actually lives IN THE SAME BUILDING! I'm so excited, can you tell? WOOOOO RACHAEL'S MOVING TO TOWN!!!!! YEEEEE!

Family Building Act

Exciting news via RESOLVE this morning: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) will be introducing the Family Building Act to the Senate! This bill mirrors the House version of the bill (H.R. 697) and aims at making ART more affordable by requiring insurance companies to cover what is essentially a legitimate (and to some extent, curable) medical problem.

More info about the Senate version of the bill is here at Senator Gillibrand's blog, and here is the full text of S. 1258 Senate bill.

What you can do:

Send a letter/email thanking Senator Gillibrand for her initiative.

Contact your Senator to either co-sponsor or support this bill.

HR 697 has been assigned to committees. Contact the House Committee members directly to show their support. (The 3 assigned committees are linked in the middle of the page.)

If you haven't already, contact your Representative to support HR 697 as well.

Please feel free to post on your blogs, message boards, and FB pages!

Here is an example of what I wrote my senators. Feel free to copy this and edit it for your own!

Please support the Family Building Act (S. 1258). Even though Massachusetts is the only state that requires insurance companies to cover infertility, every state needs to follow our example. And even Massachusetts isn't perfect. Insurance companies put severe caps on the dollar amounts and number of cycles they will cover for procedures. That needs to be stopped. If someone is having trouble getting pregnant, the last thing they want to think about is how they only get $10K or 3 cycles to make it work. And if that fails, they're on their own. What if they want to have a second child or a third? Will they be turned down because they've already used up their $10K? We need insurance companies to realize that infertility is like any other disease and deserves FULL coverage. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Elana Kahn

Nothing Doing

Sorry for the lack of posting, but there really hasn't been anything going on here. The twins had their 3 month weigh-in at the doctor, and they're both 10lbs 12oz!

The investment guy at my workplace wants me to come and be his administrative assistant, but I'm not sure if they're going to pay me enough to make it worthwhile. I'm still waiting to hear back from HR about that. In the mean time, I don't even have a babysitter if I do decide to go back! (Except my mother-in-law, but she's only here until July.)

That's really all for now. The twins are doing well, and we're soooo happy to have my mother-in-law helping out for a few weeks. She is a saint!!!

Babysitter

I finally cracked and left the twins with a babysitter for an hour yesterday. I had some errands to do, and I know this girl pretty well, so I wasn't nervous about leaving them. Dovid basically slept the whole time, and Chana was doing her squeaky groaning. My babysitter got to study for her finals, and I got to do errands without worrying about getting babies in and out of the car and all over the place. She said she'll probably come over to my house to study when it gets loud at her house, which also means I have an extra set of hands in a pinch. WOOOOO! :-) Hopefully next year Bais Yaakov (that would be the Orthodox Jewish girl's high school) will have girls coming in from out of town who need a place to live so we can rent out the rooms on the top floor and have extra hands when they get home from school! But that would also require me learning how to cook dinner and make lunches. Heh Elana the homemaker....who woulda thunk it. My father made my lunch for me through high school. And then in college I ate in the cafeteria. I'm soooo spoiled!

In other news, my mother-in-law is coming!!!! She'll arrive tomorrow evening, and I can't wait. That'll be another set of hands...and one that knows how to cook and enjoys it! YIPPEE!

I did it!

There you have it folks. I have now watched every single M*A*S*H episode there ever was...and I'm working my way through the extra disks that have the 30th reuinion, random interviews, etc. I think the coolest thing about the extras is hearing David Ogden Stiers (that's Major Winchester) talk. He doesn't actually have a Boston accent in real life, but he does it so well that it sounds weird hearing him talk normally. I was really taken aback. And it's also pretty strange to see everyone so much older. Watching the episodes you forget that it was filmed over 25 years ago and that the actors are now much older. For example (and this is more for my reference than anyone elses, so feel free to skip this next part):

Alan Alda (Capt. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce) was born in Jan 1936, making him 36 when the show started Sept 1972 and 47 when the show ended in Feb 1983. He is now 73.

Wayne Rogers (Capt. John Francis Xavier "Trapper" McIntyre) was born in April 1933--he was 39 when the show began, he was 41 when he left the show in March 1975, and he is now 76.

McLean Stevenson (Lt. Col. Henry Braymore Blake) was born in Nov 1927--he was 44 when the show began, he was 47 when he left the show in March 1975, and he died in Feb 1996 at the age of 68.

Loretta Swit (Maj. Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan) was born in Nov 1937--she was 34 when the show started, 45 when the show ended, and is now 71.

Larry Linville (Maj. Frank Marion "Ferret Face" Burns) was born in Sept 1939--he was 32 when the show began, he was 37 when he left the show in March 1977, and he died in April 2000 at the age of 60.

Gary Burghoff (Cpl. Walter Eugene "Radar" O'Reilly) was born in May 1940--he was 32 when the show began, he was 39 when he left the show in Oct 1979, and he is now 69.

Jamie Farr (Cpl./Sgt. Maxwell Q. Klinger) was born in July 1934--he was 38 when the show started, 48 when it ended, and is now 74.

William Christopher (Lt./Capt. Father Francis John Patrick Mulcahy) was born in October 1932--he was 39 when the show started, 50 when it ended, and is now 76.

Harry Morgan (Col. Sherman T. Potter) was born in April 1915--he was 60 when he joined the show in Sept 1975 (although he was actually in an episode the prior year called "The General Flipped at Dawn" where he played a really crazy general), he was 67 when the show ended, and he is now 94!!!

Mike Farrell (Capt. B.J. Hunnicutt) was born in Feb 1939--he was 36 when he joined the show in Sept 1975, he was 44 when the show ended, and he is now 70.

David Ogden Stiers (Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester III) was born in Oct 1942--he was 34 when he joined the show in Sept 1977, he was 40 when the show ended, and he is now 67.

I find it highly amusing that in real life David Ogden Stiers is the youngest and not Gary Burghoff, because the character of Radar was supposed to be like 20 yrs old! And to put it in perspective, every one of these actors is older than my mom, only McLean Stevenson and Harry Morgan were older than my dad and my father-in-law, and my mother-in-law is nearly the exact same age as William Christopher. How bizarre!

I'm a Mom

First off, sorry for not posting in such a long time, but life around here is crazy 24/7. Anyways, you already knew I was a mom...and I already knew it...but yesterday confirmed it. My son is much more "hands on" than my daughter. Chana is pretty content just sitting in her vibrating seat, sucking on her pacifier. She doesn't need to be rocked or coddled. As long as she's not hungry or sitting in an icky diaper, she's content. My son, on the other hand, is cranky. Sometimes the vibrating seat is enough, but other times he wants to be held and rocked--and NOTHING else will do! In order to get things done, yesterday I discovered that if I put him in a sling carrier and walk around, he quiets down. If I sit down (with him still in the carrier) and swivel back and forth in my chair, it will work for a while...but when he notices I'm not up and moving around, he'll freak out. So yesterday evening I walked with him...then I stood in one place and swung him...then I'd sit down and swivel until he figured out that I was cheating...and I'd get back up and do the whole thing all over. This went on for at least an hour. I think this experience now puts me in the "mom" category. :-)